Start at the Beginning.
(Page 202) I. The sense of religion, or "Religion" said subjectively, is a virtue allied with justice, which renders to God that which is due to Him on account of His supreme excellence. It follows on faith in God as the Truth, and love of Him as Life; and its peculiar operation consists in worshipping Him as Lord and Ruler. There is in man a natural aptitude for this, which asserts itself indomitably in all, even in the most materialistic savages. The merely natural man knows only of the manifestation of God in Nature, and his religion quickly passes into Nature-worship and Pantheism. Man needs a specially infused aptitude in order to worship God as supernaturally manifested, and to accommodate himself to the laws and ordinances of objective revealed religion. Like the prophet he has to say, "A a a, Lord God, behold I cannot speak, for I am a child" (Jer. i. 6); then the Lord touches his lips, and puts the words of the higher worship into his mouth. The infused virtue of Religion directs man in rendering to God the duties that He imposes both spiritual and material, those of the soul, and those that are associated with times, and places, and persons, and offerings, such as feast-days and temples, vows and sacrifices, the consecration of persons and the offering of tithes. Religion regulates the first of human relations, that which man has towards his Creator, it dictates the first of his duties, and thus it holds the first place among the moral virtues. Let God be the beginning of all things with you. Place His service before all other service. Let all your actions rest on Him and seek Him. Unless your life be well grounded on this foundation it will necessarily be a failure.
II. There are two spheres for the exercise of Religion, corresponding to the two departments of our being, the internal and the external, the soul and the body. Our religiousness must first of all be internal and spiritual. "God is a spirit; and they that adore Him must adore Him in spirit (Page 203) and in truth" (John iv. 24). Our worship must be grounded on intelligence and free-choice, for these are the principles that give a moral value to human actions. Without this worship of the soul, our service is no more than the blood of calves and goats which God rejects (Ps. xlix.); it is merely mechanical, and abominable to the Lord. But internal worship is not all. As man is constituted, he must express his sentiments in external forms of word and action ; and these external forms serve to stimulate his inward sentiments, and impress immaterial truths upon his intelligence. Outward forms are specially necessary for collective worship, which is due to God as the homage of our corporate life, in addition to the homage that we owe as individuals. Outward forms have further been appointed by Christ as the symbols and channels of grace in His seven sacraments. Take care that you do not make your religion consist in faith and feeling alone, or in outward observances alone. Each is necessary, neither alone is complete.
III. As the Cardinal Virtues enter as factors into all our virtues, so Religion, as the highest exercise of Justice, must inspire every action so as to give it a supernatural value. Even those duties which regard our neighbours and ourselves in the natural sphere should be fulfilled as duties towards God as well; otherwise they end in the natural order, and are ineffective to please God and receive a reward in the supernatural order. Only in this manner can the service of man be considered as the service of God. Further, the religious sense is the originating cause of most of the virtues and acts of beneficence practised by men, and of every high principle that prevails in the world. Even those who profess to carry out such things on merely natural grounds of philanthropy or expedience without reference to religion, have nevertheless received these ideas as an inheritance from the ages of faith or have copied them from Christianity. Cultivate the sense of religion and duty to God; it will help you to fulfil all natural duties and give them a supernatural value.
