That kind of comparison between Religion and Morality is most
misleading, for such 'Religion' is not Religion at all. It may be
hypocrisy, it may be superstition, it may be self-deception:
Christianity it is not, and never can be. The contrast is not really
between Morality and Religion, but between Morality and Immorality,
Falsehood, Fraud, and Wilful Imposition. Whatever else the Kingdom of
God may be, it is at least {39} Righteousness: where there is no
Righteousness, there can be no Kingdom of God. Whatever else Christian
doctrine may be, it is at least a doctrine according to godliness, a
teaching in accordance with the eternal laws of righteousness. For
purposes of analysis and convenience, we may distinguish between
Religion and Morality, and show them working in different spheres, but
it is utterly erroneous to suppose that they can be actually divorced.
In every right and rational representation of the Christian Religion,
Morality is included and imbedded, otherwise it is only a maimed and
mutilated Religion which is held out for acceptance. On the other
hand, in all true Morality, especially in its highest and purest
manifestations, Religion is present. It is possible to decry Morality.
'Mere Morality,' in the current acceptation of the phrase, may lack a
good deal, may be a phase of self-righteousness, self-interest, cold
calculation, {40} a keeping up of appearances before the world, but
Morality itself is of a higher strain: it is the fulfilment of every
duty to one's self and to one's neighbour: it implies that each duty is
done from the right motive: the purer and loftier it becomes the more
it encroaches on the religious domain: it is crowned and glorified with
a religious sanction: it is, visible or hidden, conscious or
unconscious, a doing of the will of God. Morality, to hold its own,
must be 'touched by emotion,' and Morality touched by emotion is
identical with Religion. To admit moral obligation in all its length
and breadth, and depth and height, is to admit God.[1]