"Witness.—'I have no doubt whatever it is one of the main causes of our present embarrassments.'
"696.—'That, I suppose, is a comparatively new phenomenon?'
"'Yes; it dates from the last great modification in the system pursued in the Honors School of literæ humaniores. It is mainly the one-sided system, as I should venture to call it, of modern philosophical writers.'
"697.—'Is there any special defect in the management which produces this state of things, or is it essential to the nature of the school?'
"'I fear it is to a great extent essential to the nature of the school, as its subjects are at present distributed.'
"Again, in answer to Question 706, the same witness says:
"'I ought to have stated to the noble Chairman just now that cases have come within my own experience of men who have come up from school as Christians, and have been earnest Christians up to the time of beginning to read philosophy for the Final School, but who, during the year and a half or two years employed in this study, have surrendered first their Christianity, and next their belief in God, and have left the University not believing in a Supreme Being.'"
Now what kind of a being is the infidel, or the man without religion? To have no religion is a crime, and to boast of having none is the height of folly. He that has no religion must necessarily lose the esteem and confidence of his friends. What confidence, I ask, can be placed in a man who has no religion, and, consequently, no knowledge of his duties? What confidence can you place in a man who never feels himself bound by any obligation of conscience, who has no higher motive to direct him than his self-love, his own interests? The pagan Roman, though enlightened only by reason, had yet virtue enough to say: "I live not for myself, but for the Republic"; but the infidel's motto is: "I live only for myself; I care for no one but myself." Oh, what a monster would such a man be in society were he really to think as he speaks, and to act as he thinks!
A man who has no religion, must first prove that he is honest before we can believe him to be so. It is said of kings and rulers, they must prove that they have a heart, and it may also be said of the man who has no religion, that he must prove that he has a conscience. And I fear he would not find it so easy a task.