They needed it before they fell; they needed it still more,
and their children likewise, after they fell: and if they needed
it, we may trust God that he afforded it to them.
But again. Whence came this strange notion, which man alone has of
all the living things which we see, of RELIGION? What put into the
mind of man that strange imagination of beings greater than himself,
whom he could not always see, but who might appear to him? What put
into his mind the strange imagination that these unseen beings were
more or less his masters? That they had made laws for him which he
must obey? That he must honour and worship them, and do them
service, in order that they might be favourable to him, and help,
and bless, and teach him? All nations except a very few savages
(and we do not know but that their forefathers had it like the rest
of mankind) have had some such notion as this; some idea of
religion, and of a moral law of right and wrong.
Where did they get it?
Where, I ask again, did they get it?
My friends, after much thought I answer, there is no explanation of
that question so simple, so rational, so probable, as the one which
the text gives.
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