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 many a  mother,  wife,  daughter,  or  sister,  your  hearts full of  desolation;  bending,  like  the  widow,  in  speechless sorrow  over  the  spiritual  corpse  of  son  or  husband, father  or  brother — dead  to  God  by  their neglect of  the  sacred  duties  of  religion. And you come here,  as  to  the  Christ,  seeking  to  again  move Him to  pity;  begging  Him  to  repeat  to  you  the  consoling words:  "  Daughter,  weep  not,"  or  to  your unfortunate relative:  "Young  man,  I  say  to  thee, arise." May Christ  comfort  your  afflicted  hearts  as He  did  that  of  the  widow  of  Nairn!

Brethren, by  religion  I  mean  the  sum  of  the  relationship between  man  and  God — God  creating preserving, sanctifying,  and  saving  man;  and man's consequent  duties  of  knowing,  loving,  and serving God  in  this  life,  with  the  hope  of  eternal  happiness in  the  next. No one,  except  possibly  the fool, will  dare  say  in  his  heart,  there  is  no  God. On the other  hand,  the  soul's  consciousness  of  her  own intellectual nature  and  inherent  longing  for  everlasting happiness,  loudly  proclaim  her  to  be  spiritual and immortal. Now between  those  two  beings, God and  man,  the  connecting  link — the  bond  of union — is  religion. Whether we  will  or  no,  whether we recognize  it  or  not,  such  a  bond  surely  exists. For, though  man  at  his  creation  becomes  a  distinct individual, still,  not  even  God  Himself  could  make  a single  creature  independent  of  his  Creator. But alas! what God  refuses  to  do — what  God  is  unable to do — man,  foolish  and  ungrateful,  is  not  slow  to attempt. For the  man  without  religion — the  man