will only surrender this right to another for a very large sum of money. Yet it can Scarcely be said that he created the statue, since the form of it alone is the work of his hands, and not the marble out of which he fashioned it.
Now, dear reader, look once more at the marvelous work of the universe, and all that it contains; look especially at man and tell me whether He who not only made all this, but created it out of nothing, whether God Almighty has not an absolute, unlimited, and immutable right of possession over it all? Must not, therefore, the whole of creation , and especially man, who is endowed with reason, serve and obey this God as the supreme Lord and Master of all, and do His will in all things?
And it is this relation of dependence and subservience in which man stands to God. which is termed religion.
2. Religion (from religare, "to bind back, to bind fast") expresses the bond of piety by means of which God has drawn man to Himself, in order that we may serve Him as our master, and obey Him as our father. Man must, indeed, serve God; that is, he must both do and suffer His will. But since man is endowed with free will, can he not do whatever he likes? Most assuredly not! For his free will comes not from himself, but is the gift of God. And it is impossible that God can have endowed man with free will in
