It is in this sense, my friends, that I say to you, "I believe in
God."
But, once having said this word with the universe of beings and of
worlds, and blessed this invisible God for having rendered himself
visible, sensible, evident, palpable, adorable in the mirror of weak
human intelligence, made gradually more and more pure, I reason with
myself on the best worship to be rendered Him in thought and action.
Let me show how, by this reasoning, I am forcibly drawn to the love of
the People.
I say to myself, then, "Who is this God? Is he a vain _notion_, which
has no effect on the thoughts and acts of man, his creature; who
inspires nothing in him; who gives him no commands; who imposes nothing
upon him; who does not reward, and who does not punish?--No! God is
not a mere _notion_, an idea, an evidence;--God is a _law_,--the living
law, the supreme law, the universal law, the eternal law. Because God
is a law on high, he is a duty on the earth; and when man says, 'I
believe in God,' he says, at the same time, 'I believe in my duty
towards God,--I believe in my duty towards man.' God is a government!"