That this is true may be very easily seen.

Deny any one of these propositions; say that the moral end consists in something outward and alienable, not in something inward and inalienable; that its importance is small, and second to many other things; that its standard is not absolute, but varies according to individual taste; and morality becomes at once impossible to preach, and not worth preaching.
Now for all these characteristics of the end of life, the theism that modern thought is rejecting could offer a strictly logical basis.

And first, as to its importance.

Here it may be said, certainly, that theism cuts the knot, and does not untie it.

But at all events it gets rid of it; and in the following way.