254 THE WHENCE AND THE WHITHER OF MAN 



include these, but it is vastly more and higher. It is 

 neither ecstasy nor remorse. The most resolutely im- 

 penitent sinner can shout " Hallelujah," and " Woe 

 is me," as loudly as any saint. Now feeling is of vast 

 importance. It stands close to the will and stimu- 

 lates it, but it is not conformity. The will must be 

 aroused to a robust life. 



3. Christianity is these and a great deal more. Mere 

 belief would make religion a mere theology. Mere 

 emotion would make it mere excitement. The true 

 divine idea of it is a life ; doing his will, not indolent- 

 ly sighing to do it, and then lamenting that we do it 

 not ; but the thing itself in actual achievement, from 

 day to day, from month to month, from year to year. 

 Thus religion rises on us in its own imperial majesty. 

 It is no mere delight of the understanding in the doc- 

 trines of our faith ; no mere excitement of the sensibil- 

 ities, now harrowed by fear, and now jubilant in hope ; 

 but a warfare and a work, a warfare against sin, and a 

 work with God. Keligion is not an entertainment, 

 but a service. We are to set before us the perfect 

 standard, and then struggle to shape our lives to it. 

 Personal sanctity must be made a business of.* 



A little more than thirty years ago a regiment was 

 sent home from the Army of the Potomac to enforce 

 the draft after the riots in this city. Some of you may 

 picture to yourselves a thousand men with silk banners 

 and gold lace and bright uniforms, resplendent in the 

 sunshine. You could not make a worse mistake. 



First in that gray early morning came two old flags, 

 so torn by shot and shell that there was hardly enough 



f This page is mainly a series of quotations from Dr. R. D. Hitchcock's 

 sermon on " Religion, the Doing of God's Will." 



