“A good conscience, which the wise man says is a perpetual feast, sustains a high place amongst the comforts of genuine piety.  It is unquestionably true, that a man’s happiness is in the keeping of his conscience; all the sources of his felicity are under the command of this faculty.  ‘A wounded spirit who can bear?’ A troubled conscience converts a paradise into a hell, for it is the flame of hell kindled on earth; but a quiet conscience would illuminate the horrors of the deepest dungeon with the beams of heavenly day; the former has often rendered men like tormented fiends amidst an elysium of delights, while the latter has taught the songs of cherubim to martyrs in the prison or the flames.

“In addition to this, religion comforts the mind, with the assurance of an all-wise, all-pervading Providence, so minute in its superintendence and control, that not a sparrow falls to the ground without the knowledge of our heavenly Father:  a superintendence which is excluded from no point of space, no moment of time, and overlooks not the meanest creature in existence.  Nor is this all; for the Word of God assures the believer that ’all things work together for good to them that love God, who are the called according to his purpose.’  Nothing that imagination could conceive, is more truly consolatory than this, to be assured that all things, however painful at the time, not excepting the failure of our favorite schemes, the disappointment of our fondest hopes, the loss of our dearest comforts, shall be overruled by infinite wisdom for the promotion of our ultimate good.  This is a spring of comfort whose waters never fail.

“Religion consoles also by making manifest some of the benefits of affliction, even at the time it is endured.  It crucifies the world, mortifies sin, quickens prayer, extracts the balmy sweets of the promises, endears the Saviour; and, to crown all, it directs the mind to that glorious state, where the days of our mourning shall be ended:  that happy country where God shall wipe every tear from our eyes, and there shall be no more sorrow or crying.  Nothing so composes the mind, and helps it to bear the load of trouble which God may lay upon it, as the near prospect of its termination.  Religion shows the weather-beaten mariner the haven of eternal repose, where no storms arise, and the sea is ever calm; it exhibits to the weary traveller the city of habitation, within whose walls he will find a pleasant home, rest from his labors, and friends to welcome his arrival; it discloses to the wounded warrior his native country, where the alarms of war, and the dangers of conflict, will be no more encountered, but undisturbed peace forever reign.  In that one word, HEAVEN, religion provides a balm for every wound, a cordial for every care.

“Here, then, is the pleasure of that wisdom which is from above; it is not only enjoyed in prosperity but continues to refresh us, and most powerfully to refresh us, in adversity; a remark which will not apply to any other kind of pleasure."[12]