Page:The Message and Ministrations of Dewan Bahadur R. Venkata Ratnam, volume 2.djvu/226

 is something incalculably superior to a utilitarian provision for general welfare. Without an intense sense of God and of His holiness, a fall life is unattainable; without the light and the grace of religion, the mind is really unillumined and the heart is truly unhallowed ; and the claim of man to be considered 'the glory of the world' is based upon his being essentially a spirit whose food and drink is righteousness. This true religion makes all the difference between real life and virtual death ; this true religion distinguishes the angel from the animal. And before we learn implicitly to believe that there is, there can be, no rest, no peace, no satisfaction, no happiness unless and until religion enters into every thought and every feeling, unless and until every moment spent without the consciousness of religion is a waste and a sham, unless and until the absence of an abiding sense of religion becomes a pain and a torture more anguishing than hell — it cannot be said of us that we are truly righteous, that we are