The beginning of all religion is the choosing of God’s end as our end—the giving up of our preference of happiness, and the entrance upon a life devoted to God. That happiness is not the ground of moral obligation, is plain from the fact that there is no happiness in seeking happiness. That the holiness of God is the ground of moral obligation, is plain from the fact that the search after holiness is not only successful in itself, but brings happiness also in its train. Archbishop Leighton, Works, 695—“It is a wonderful instance of wisdom and goodness that God has so connected his own glory with our happiness, that we cannot properly intend the one, but that the other must follow as a matter of course, and our own felicity is at last resolved into his eternal glory.” That God will certainly secure the end for which he created, his own glory, and that his end is our end, is the true source of comfort in affliction, of strength in labor, of encouragement in prayer. See _Psalm 25:11_—“_For thy name’s sake.... Pardon mine iniquity, for it is great_”; _115:1_—“_Not unto us, O Jehovah, not unto us, But unto thy name give glory_”; _Mat. 6:33_—“_Seek ye first his kingdom, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you_”; _1 Cor. 10:31_—“_Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God_”; _1 Pet. 2:9_—“_ye are an elect race ... that ye may show forth the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light_”; _4:11_—speaking, ministering, “_that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, whose is the glory and the dominion for ever and ever. Amen._” On the whole subject, see Edwards, Works, 2:193-257; Janet, Final Causes, 443-455; Princeton Theol. Essays, 2:15-32; Murphy, Scientific Bases of Faith, 358-362.