Even with the certain conviction that all our activity on this earth
will not leave the least trace behind it and will not produce the
slightest results, and even with the belief that the divine may
actually be perverse and may be used as a tool of evil and of still
deeper moral corruption, it is, nevertheless, possible to continue
in this activity simply in order to maintain the divine life that
has come forth within us and that stands in relation to a higher
governance of things in a future world where nothing perishes that
has been done in God. Thus, for instance, the apostles and the first
Christians generally, even while living, were wholly transported
above the earth because of their belief in heaven; and affairs
terrestrial--state, fatherland, and nation--were so entirely renounced
that they no longer deemed such trivial concerns worthy even of their
consideration. However possible this may be, however easy, moreover,
for faith, and however joyfully we may resign ourselves to the
conviction, since it is unalterably the will of God, that we have
no more an earthly country but are exiles and slaves here
below--nevertheless, this is not the natural condition and the rule
governing the course of the world, but is a rare exception. Moreover,
it is a very perverse use of religion (and, among others, Christianity
has frequently been guilty of it) when, as a question of principle and
without regard to the existent circumstances, it proceeds to commend
this withdrawal from the affairs of the state and of the nation as a
truly religious sentiment.
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