Religion is one of the most important of the concerns of man. It comes from the deepest and most powerful of all our spiritual faculties. More than any one element of consciousness it helps mould the character of the individual and the nation. The ideas we form of God, of man, of the relation between them, of the mode of learning our religious duty, and of our final condition in the future world—these affect all the concerns of the nation. For they found institutions which shape the politics, the business, and the literature of the people, so ultimately determining their condition for weal and woe. The theology of Spain is one of the prime causes of her ruin; American slavery not only has one of its roots in the selfishness of the planter and the politician, but also another under the meeting-house, where it is watered by the eaves-droppings of the popular theology. At the opening of a new place for religious meetings, which is already consecrated thereunto by your presence and the prayer of your heart, I ask your attention to some thoughts on the relation between the
- ↑ Some of the thoughts of this discourse may be found elaborated more fully in a volume of "Sermons of Theism, Atheism, and the Popular Theology. Boston, 1863, voL i, 12mo.
