Can one serve God and one's nation in parliament?

Their more lowly paths have been allotted to them by the hand of God . . . it is their part faithfully to discharge its duties, and contentedly to bear its inconveniences.

The first years in Parliament I did nothing - nothing to any purpose. My own distinction was my darling object.

Of all things, guard against neglecting God in the secret place of prayer.

God Almighty has set before me two great objects, the suppression of the slave trade and the reformation of manners.

Is it not the great end of religion, and, in particular, the glory of Christianity, to extinguish the malignant passions; to curb the violence, to control the appetites, and to smooth the asperities of man; to make us compassionate and kind, and forgiving one to another; to make us good husbands, good fathers, good friends; and to render us active and useful in the discharge of the relative social and civil duties?