Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1869-09-03

we'll we know that atheism, when driven
to extremities, has recourcea to this dis
gracefal denial The sophist, in a
| paroXysm of the govt, exclaimed, " 0
pain never will L acknowledge that thou
art an evil ~ Were it even true that thele
exists men SO unfortunate as to be capable
of sitting the voice of conscience, what
then ? We must not Judge of him who
possesses the perfect use of his limbs by
the paralystic who is deprived of his
physical strength. Guilt, in its highest
degree, is q malady which sears the soul.
By overthrowing religion we destroy the
only remedy capable of restoring sensi-
bility in the morbid regions of the heart.
This astonishing religion of Christ is
sort of supplement to the deficiency of the
human mind. Do we sin BIZ escess, by too
great prosperity, by violence of temper !?
She is at hand to warn us of the fickleness
of fortune and the danger of angry excite
ment. Are we exposed, on the contrary,
to sin by defect, by Indulgence, by indiffer-
ence of soul ? She teaches us to despise
! riches, at the same time warns our frigid
hearts, and, as it were, kindles in us the
fire of the passions. Toward the criminal,
n particular her charity is inexhaustible );
no man is so depraved but she admits him
to repentance, no leper SO disgusting but
she cures him with her pure hands. For
the past she requires only remorse, for the
future only virtue: "Where sin abound
ed," she says, "grace did much more
abound" Ever ready to warn the sinner,
Jesus Christ established his religion as
second conscience for the hardened Gull
prit who should be so unfortunate as to
have lost the natural one-an evangelical
which the Son of God has given the power
to pardon, which is not possessed by the
conscience of man. Having spoken of the
remorse which follows guilt, it would be
! unnecessary to say anything of the salts
faction attendant on virtue. The inward
delight which we feel in doing good &C.
ton is no more combination of matter
than the accusation of conscience, when
we commit O bad one, is fear of the laws.
Ii sophists maintain that virtue and
pity are but self-love in disguise, ask them
not if they ever felt any secret satisfaction
; after relieving distressed object, or if 1t
is the fear OF returning to the state of
childhood that affects them when contem
plating the innocence of the newborn in
faut. Virtue and tears arc for men the
source of hope and the ground work of
faith how, then, should he believe in God
who believes neither in the reality OF vir
tue nor in the truth of tears ?
1t would be an insult to the understand d.
ing of our readers, did we attempt to show
how the Immortality of the soul and the
existence of God are proved by that in
ward voice called conscience ''There is
in man, says Cicero, g power which in
chnes him to that which is good and de-
ters him from evil !; which was not only
prior to the origin Of nations and cities,
but as ancient as that God by whom Heav-
en- and earth snbsists and are governed ;
for reason is an essential attribute Of the
divine intelligence and that reason which
exists in God necessarily determines what
is vice and what is virtue"
CHATEAU BRIAND.