There is in truth a sort of general conviction in men, that if religion merely taught them what they had to fear, and did not combine with that the knowledge of what they have to hope; if it awakened us to a sense of our responsibility, without shewing how the claims of that responsibility had been met, it would have been a gift of very questionable value; for in that case it would have darkened all the present scene of trial, without shewing an horizon on which a better light was falling. It thus happens, that though the effect of first impressions may be to awaken fear; the effect which follows, when these impressions are retained and improved, is to relieve or remove fear; and every subsequent advance in knowledge, has a direct tendency to cast out fear, to substitute love as the principle of action, and to make hope the character of the mind, until hope rises to the very level of assurance. Those therefore, who think that religion is likely to unnerve the man, and to unfit him for the hour of danger, by making him aware of the reason there is for fearing death: betray their ignorance of the subject; and shew how little they are acquainted with the principle they are traducing. All men know enough to make them afraid of death. Independent of any sufferings which the body may undergo, there is a shrinking from extinction, which belongs to our very nature; and is found acting with almost equal influence in every member of the human race; except in the few and rare cases where man has sunk himself to the level of the brute; and thus it is evident that man needs not the light which religion gives, in order to fly from that which human nature dreads. But this feeling, the fear of death, which religion does not create, she can regulate, control, and conquer; and while all men in their hearts feel the fear of death, and are obliged to close their eyes against their own convictions, or to harden their hearts by habitual submission to other principles, while pretending to despise it; the Christian alone is capable of looking forward to death with calmness, and of exercising a deliberate and rational contempt of it. So long then as the present state of things exists; so long as the blessings of peace are to be preserved by war; and the security and the comforts of the many are to be purchased by the exposure of the few; there must be professions where the call of duty may imply the risk of life, and where courage must be the character of the men who belong to them. Courage will then become a duty; and men must be found by whom death shall be braved without hesitation, whenever the interests of the service require it.