Now there can be no doubt that such notions concerning religion do
harm; that they demoralise thousands,--that is, make them less moral
and good men. For there are thousands, especially in England, who
are persons of good common-sense, uprightness, and truthfulness: but
they have not lively fancies, or quick feelings. They have no
inclination for a life of exclusive devoutness; and if they had, they
have no time for it. They must do their business in the world where
God has put them. And when they are told that God requires of them
certain frames and feelings, and that the Godlike life consists in
them, then they are disheartened, and say, 'There is no use, then, in
my trying to be religious, or moral either. If plain honesty,
justice, sobriety, usefulness in my place will not please God, I
cannot please him at all. Why then should I try, if my way of trying
is of no use? Why should I try to be honest, sober, and useful, if
that is not true religion?--if what God wants of me is not virtue,
but a certain high-flown religiousness which I cannot feel or even
understand?'--and so they grow weary in well-doing, and careless
about the plain duties of morality. They become careless, likewise,
about the plain duties of religion; and so they are demoralised,
because they are told that justice and the holiness of truth are not
the Godlike and eternal life; because they are told that religion has
little or nothing to do with their daily life and business, nothing
to do with those just and truthful instincts of their hearts, which
they feel to be the most sacred things about them; which are their
best, if not their only guide in life.
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