The kingdom of heaven
is within us. That which the substance of the religion, its hopes and
consolation, its intermixture with the thoughts by day and by night, the
devotion of the heart, the control of appetite, the steady direction of
will to the commands of God, is necessarily invisible. Yet these depend
the virtue and the happiness of millions. This cause renders the
representations of history, with respect to religion, defect and
fallacious in a greater degree than they are upon any other subject.
Religion operates most upon those of whom history knows the least; upon
fathers and mothers their families, upon men-servants and maid-servants,
upon orderly tradesman, the quiet villager, the manufacturer at his
loom, the husbandman in his fields. Amongst such, its collectively may
be of inestimable value, yet its effects, in mean time, little upon
those who figure upon the stage of world. They may know nothing of it;
they may believe nothing of it; they may be actuated by motives more
impetuous than those which religion is able to excite. It cannot, be
thought strange that this influence should elude the grasp and touch of
public history; for what is public history but register of the successes
and disappointments, the vices, the follies, and the quarrels, of those
who engage in contentions power?
I will add, that much of this influence may be felt in times of public
distress, and little of it in times of public wealth and security.
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