A hard and rocky soil necessitated industry, thrift, and severe punishment on those who stole the fruits of labor, even as miners in the Rocky Mountains sacredly abstain from appropriating the gold of their fellow-laborers.  Self-interest and self-preservation dictated many laws which secured the welfare of society.  The natural sacredness of home guarded the virtue of wives and children; the natural sense of justice raised indignation against cheating and tricks in trade.  Men and women cannot live together in peace and safety without observing certain conditions, which may be ranked with virtues even among savages and barbarians,—­much more so in cultivated and refined communities.

The graces and amenities of life can exist without reference to future rewards and punishments.  The ultimate law of self-preservation will protect men in ordinary times against murder and violence, and will lead to public and social enactments which bad men fear to violate.  A traveller ordinarily feels as safe in a highly-civilized pagan community as in a Christian city.  The “heathen Chinee” fears the officers of the law as much as does a citizen of London.

The great difference between a Pagan and a Christian people is in the power of conscience, in the sense of a moral accountability to a spiritual Deity, in the hopes or fears of a future state,—­motives which have a powerful influence on the elevation of individual character and the development of higher types of social organization.  But whatever laws are necessary for the maintenance of order, the repression of violence, of crimes against person and the State and the general material welfare of society, are found in Pagan as well as in Christian States; and the natural affections,—­of paternal and filial love, friendship, patriotism, generosity, etc.,—­while strengthened by Christianity, are also an inalienable part of the God-given heritage of all mankind.  We see many heroic traits, many manly virtues, many domestic amenities, and many exalted sentiments in pagan Greece, even if these were not taught by priests or sages.  Every man instinctively clings to life, to property, to home, to parents, to wife and children; and hence these are guarded in every community, and the violation of these rights is ever punished with greater or less severity for the sake of general security and public welfare, even if there be no belief in God.  Religion, loftily considered, has but little to do with the temporal interests of men.  Governments and laws take these under their protection, and it is men who make governments and laws.  They are made from the instinct of self-preservation, from patriotic aspirations, from the necessities of civilization.  Religion, from the Christian standpoint, is unworldly, having reference to the life which is to come, to the enlightenment of the conscience, to restraint from sins not punishable by the laws, and to the inspiration of virtues which have no worldly reward.