An Appeal to the Patriot

William Brownlee wrote this treatise to explain how a good and just society cannot exist on the basis of laws alone but only by the fear of God in the hearts of its people. Court judges and juries, the armed forces and the free press all need to have virtue and morality to work properly and benefit society. "But this cannot be done, unless men in public employment be rendered honorable, just, and pure. And such virtues cannot exist, in the solidity of a persevering principle, without strict virtue and the fear of God in the heart." "The human system of morality, drawn up by the wise and the learned, can never communicate the principle of spiritual life; and from the days of Socrates to our times, it never has done it." "God only can quicken us, who are dead."