The Vermont transcript. [volume] (St. Albans, Vt.) 1864-1870, 1868-04-17
Importance OF Religious Ef1c0tioh
ia the TOUag.

The universe, grand, glorious, and
beautiful as il is, can be truly enjoyed
only through the worship as well as the
knowledge of the great being that crea-
ted it. Among people where there is
no true knowledge of God, the errors
superstitions, and sufferings of q false
religion always rush in to fill the vacuum
There is not faculty nor a suscepta-
bility in the nature Of man, from the
lightening-like intuitiOns that make
him akin to the cherubim, or the fire
and fervOr of affection that assimilate
him to seraphic beings, down to the
seraphic beings, down to the lowest APP
petites and desires by which he holds
brotherhood with beast and reptile and
wOrm-there is not one of them all that
Will ever be governed by its proper law,
or enjoy full measure of the gratifica-
ton it was adapted to feel, without
sense of acting in harmony with his
will, and without spontaneous illusions
of gratitude for his goodness. COnvic-
tiOns and sentiments such as these can
alone supply the vacuity in the soul of
man, and fill with significance and love
illness what would otherwise be blank
and hOllcw universe.
How limited and meagre, too, would
be the knowledge which should know
all things else, but still be ignorant of
the self-eXistent Author of all What
is the exquisite beauty of flowers, of To-
liage, or of plumage, if we know nothing
of the great Limner who has painted
them, and blended their colors with such
marvellous skill? So the profundity of
all science is shallOwness. if we know
nothing of the eternal Mind that pro-
iected all sciences, and made their laws
so exact and harmonious, that all the
objects in an immensely can move on
ward throughout an etarnity without
deviation or error. In the acquisition
of whatever art, or in the pursuit of
whatever science, there is painful
sense of incompleteness and imperfee-
ton while we remain untaught in any
great department known to belong to il.
And so, in the development and cul-
ture of the human soul, we are conscious
not merely of the want of symmetry.
but of gross Disagreement and mutila-
ton, when the nOblest and most endur-
ing part of inappropriate development
and culture is wanting. In merely an
artistical point of view, to be presented
with the torso of Hercules, or with the
truncated body of Minerva, when we
were expecting TO behold the fullness of
their majestic proportions, would be less
painful and shocking than system of
human culture from which religious
culture should be omitted.
SO, too, If the subject be viewed in re-
latiOn to all the pure and loftier affec-
lions and suseeptibilities of the human
soul, the results are the same. If, i'm
surveying the highest states Of perfee-
ton which the character of man has ever
yet reached upon earth, we select from
among the whole circle of our personal
or historical acquaintance those who
are adorned with the purest quality and
the greatest number of exeellences a.
the objects Of our most joyful admira-
ton and love, why should not the soul
be lifted into sublimer ecstacies, and in
TO raptures proportionately more exalt-
ed and enduring, if it could be raised
to the contemplation of Him whose
name alone is excellent :? If we de-
light in exhibitions of power, why
should we pass heedlessly by the All
powerful? If human hearts are touch
ed with deeds of mercy, there is One
whose tender mercies are over all his
works. If we reverence wisdom, there
is such perfect wisdom on high, that
that of angels becomes holy" in it,
presence. If we love the sentiment of
love, has not the apostle told us that
God is love? There are many endear-
ing objects upon earth from which the
heart of man may be sundered but he
only is bereaved of all things who il be-
reaved of his Father in heaven. Hor-
ace Mann's report for 1913.