It is, moreover, efficient in proportion to the purity of
the moral principle of a people. We hence perceive the elements of
superiority which, by the constitution of our nature, have been bestowed
upon virtue.
Another illustration of the power of the moral principle, is seen in
the sentiments with which we contemplate the character of confessors,
martyrs, and men of every age, who have sacrificed every thing else
for the sake of adherence to righteousness. The highest glory of human
nature is to love right better than life, and to obey the dictates of
conscience at every conceivable hazard. Even falsehood, when sealed with
blood, acquires not unfrequently, for a time, an irrepressible power.
Truth, when uttered from the stake, or on the scaffold, becomes
absolutely irresistible. We admire Plato, surrounded by listening
princes, and vieing with them in oriental magnificence; but we venerate
Socrates in his dungeon, patiently suffering death for holding forth the
truth; and the dictates of our own bosoms spontaneously assign to him
the highest place among the uninspired teachers of wisdom. Or, to turn
to more awful examples, the foundations of the Christian religion were
laid in blood. The Captain of our salvation "was obedient unto death,
the death of the cross.
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