FACULTIES OF THE MIND. 239 



in such cases, theologians apply the term Conscience, and 

 others, the Moral Sense. 



The question, then, What is Duty ? in reference to its 

 rules or standard, is one of very difficult solution, or ra- 

 ther, is one which unassisted reason cannot resolve. If we 

 take the question in detail, and ask, What will be accept- 

 able to the Supreme ? the Hindoo devotee will say, to fall 

 under the wheels of the moving temple of the god Jug- 

 gernauth, and be crushed to death, or to dro"wn himself in 

 the Jumnah at its junction with the Ganges. What is the 

 duty of children to their aged parents ? Some will say, to 

 nourish and comfort them, others to expose them to hunger 

 and death. What treatment ought the mother to bestow 

 on her new born babe ? The wives of Madagascar will say, 

 those that are born in the months of March and April, in 

 the last week of every month, and on all the Wednesdays 

 and Fridays of every week, ought to be exposed to perish 

 with hunger, or cold, or be devoured by the wild beasts. 

 We could easily swell the proofs of the variableness of the 

 human standards of duty, and although all are convinced 

 that there is, or ought to be a standard, they differ with 

 respect to its character. This display of a moral deficiency 

 or want in our nature, is the strongest proof that can be 

 urged for the necessity of a revelation- The Christian 

 religion supplies this moral want, and furnishes a stand- 

 ard which, if observed, would make all men in every con- 

 dition happy, exalted and wise. 



The divine original of Christianity may be almost de- 

 monstrated, from the circumstance of its containing an ac- 

 count of our own imperfections, whose existence human 

 partiality would never have discovered, nor human pride 

 acknowledged. What is it but this partiality whi chin- 

 duces many to believe in the existence of an active power, 

 termed a Moral Sense, the origin of moral obligation ?- 



