Our duty to God is to do what we know is right because it is right and for no other reason.
Some people, who don't like to do what they know is right, make a great fuss about the difficulty of knowing what is right and what isn't. But this is only because they really don't want to do what is right so much as to do what they like, and so deceive themselves into thinking that they don't know.
It is also true that we lose the power to see clearly and to distinguish easily between right and wrong by getting into the habit of doing wrong and so getting accustomed to it. Things that we do continually, even when they are very wrong, begin to seem all right after awhile, especially if we see other people doing them too. So we often hear the remark: "Oh! that's all right! Everybody does that!" As if everybody's doing it could make it right. Now this is just where our duty to God comes in. Our duty to God is not doing right because other people do it, or because we are going to get something out of it for ourselves, even in the form of praise or reputation; it is doing right because it is right and for no other reason.
If we inquire further and ask what makes it right, the answer leads us straight back to our duty to God. It is right because God wants it to be so, and that is reason enough. When we pray "Thy Will be done" in the Lord's Prayer, we are praying that right may prevail and be victorious everywhere, -- both in our own lives and everywhere else.
There is a lot of talk about right and wrong, and also there are many customs in business and in social life which are good as far as they go, but which do not go far enough to be reliable as working principles under all circumstances.
We all know that it is right to obey the law of the land, or what we call the civil law; but he would be a very mean and dishonorable business man who would regard no other law but this, and would do any mean act for his own advantage so long as he did not break the civil law and so keep out of jail. There are men in business who are low enough to see just how far they can go without being locked up.
The great majority of business men, however, do not think of avoiding punishment so much as of obeying Rules of the Game, and so help to keep up the business standard. Such men, especially when successful, build up a reputation for business integrity which adds to their credit and success, and so gives them power and influence in the community. But, if we think carefully about the matter, we shall remember that there are many things in life which depend on something more than business integrity or ability. Many a man has grown up to be successful an influential in business, and at the same time, apart from business, has neglected his duties to people whom he might have been able to help. We have a responsibility, -- in different degrees, of course, -- for every human being with whom we come into contact. Some are members of our family at home, some are chums at school or in play, some are people whom we meet in business, some are children, some are people of our own age, and some are old men and women. The laws of business, and even the social laws of behavior among people who consider themselves most "correct", are no more able to guide us in our relations to all these different kinds of people, in the many different circumstances of life, than is the civil law or the law of the land. The only principle that will surely guide us, wherever we are and under all circumstances, is that which tells us "to do right because it is right, and for no other reason." Another name which is often used for this law is the "moral law", but this is not a truly correct name, for, at least by derivation, it means the law of good custom rather than the law of the will of God.
It is also sometimes called the "spiritual law", because God is a spirit, and that part of us which lasts forever is also called our spirit or soul. And the peculiarity of the law of doing right because it is right and for no other reason is that it always takes into account that we are immortal souls, with a direct relation to God, and that our experience in this life is either building up for us strength and character which will last forever, or it is sapping our strength and making it less and less possible for us to exist without the support of material things and selfish enjoyments.
The word "religion" has been very much abused and is associated in many people's minds with ideas that are weak and sentimental, but what is really meant by the word is the habit of our will that binds us to God; that is, the habit of choosing to the best of our ability to do God's will rather than our own.
This is the essential principle of all sincere religion and it defines our relation to God and our duty to Him.
Many people include in religion a great many beliefs and customs in addition to this one principle; but we may rightly consider all such additional beliefs as matters which must vary according to differences in the human mind, and as forming a sort of shell for the inner kernel, which is the love of doing God's will. All men in whose hearts the kernel is alive can work together in spite of differences of opinion in minor matters; but those whose devotion to their less important beliefs keeps them separate from men of different ideas are in danger of losing the life of the kernel. If we feel that we do not know anything about God's will and so cannot love to do it, we can all learn to do so by obeying Him and earnestly asking His help. We should regularly go to some church and worship God wherever we get most spiritual help; we should say our prayers and examine ourselves every day; and we should respect the churches and religious opinions of other people when they differ from our own.
Of course our duty to God includes every duty to God and man because God requires us to do our duty to all men. We can easily distinguish between our real duties and those which are merely matters of worldly custom by asking ourselves in each case: "Is this a duty to God?" and "Am I doing this because it is right, and for no other reason?"
In a similar way, we may distinguish between a right and wrong action by asking ourselves: "Is this a sin against God?" or, "Does not my conscience say that this is wrong?" If a very little boy is afraid of going up-stairs in the dark and asks himself "Isn't it a sin to be a coward and to be afraid, when I know that God is taking care of me?" he will at once assert his faith in God by going up-stairs.
And so in all temptations of boys and men, the same principle holds good. If we understand that all yielding to fear for our personal safety and to every other form of cowardice is sin against God, all we need is to pray hard and immediately obey Him. It is sometimes difficult to realize that all the strength we need comes from doing our duty to God, and to keep the fact alive within us, because we see so much successful and unpunished evil in the world around us; but, as we live longer, we realize that there is no real happiness connected with success of this kind, and we become convinced that all power, except that which rests upon God's will, is sure to crumble and disappear in time.
Although the Boy Scout Brotherhood welcomes into its ranks boys of all religious beliefs, its principles and code of honor are distinctly based upon those of Christian Knighthood, and it is therefore necessary to put the greatest emphasis upon the old knightly law that "Right makes Might" in the long run, and that no might, -- either in the shape of money, or muscle, or armies, or vast populations, or intellect, or reputation -- can stand up in the end before the least and most childlike expression of God's will.
There are few men in history who had such a deep and abiding sense of their duty to God and of
God's over-ruling wisdom as Abraham Lincoln. In the head and fatigue of the contest between the
North and the South in the Civil War, during which he bore the burden of the greatest individual
responsibility, he never lost himself or his sense of proportion by forgetting that the will of God was
over all. He said that it was a strange thing that two great opposing hosts of men should be fighting
with one another, each claiming that God was on its side, although it was impossible to think of God
as on both sides, whereas it was possible to think that perhaps the Devine intention through the war
was different from that of either side. Much of Lincoln's greatness lay in the fact that his heart and
mind were large enough and humble enough to submit unreservedly to God's will, -- whatever it
might be. He was not so much concerned as to whether God was fighting on his side, as he was
interested in the question whether he was fighting on God's side.