citizen; while he who does not respect the Statute Book as the palladium
of his country, is not a citizen worthy the name of Christian. While
striving to remain unbiased by the clamor of party, or the violence
of individuals, we should with equal care avoid the opposite error
of looking with approval, or even with indifference, upon usages or
institutions whose only claim to our forbearance lies in laws or popular
opinions whose deformity should be discovered, and whose power should
melt away beneath the light and warmth of a Christian sun.

True religious life consists in doing the will of God every moment of
our lives. His will must bear upon us everywhere and at all times. Where
the mind is absorbed in some one object of reform, this constant
devotion to duty is almost, if not quite, impossible. The mind becomes
so warped in one direction that it loses the habit, and almost loses the
power, of turning in any other. Hence we rarely hear the word _duty_
from the lips of the reformer. He constantly descants upon rights or
wrongs, while duties seem forgotten. Thus we hear perpetually of the
rights or of the wrongs of man or of woman, of the citizen, or of the
criminal, and of the slave; but the duties of these classes seem to have
passed out of sight. Now it is only when all shall fulfil their several
duties that the rights of all can be respected; and if peace on earth,
and good-will towards men are ever to reign, it must be when piety and
charity shall go hand in hand,--when the human race shall unite as one
to fulfil its duties towards God and towards each other.

Violence of every kind springs from a desire to do one's own will.
Egotism is the sure accompaniment of wrath. The love of God never
constrained any man to villify his brother. He who is bent on the
performance of duty,--who desires simply to do the will of God, is firm
as a rock, but never violent. He prays, with the poet,--