Under such conditions, if they are true and
real and not perhaps induced merely by religious fanaticism, temporal
life loses all its independence and becomes simply a fore-court of
the true life and a hard trial to be borne only by obedience and
submission to the will of God; in this view it becomes true that,
as has been claimed by many, immortal souls have been plunged into
earthly bodies, as into prisons, simply as a punishment. In the
regular order of things, however, earthly life should itself truly be
life in which we may rejoice and which we may thankfully enjoy, even
though in expectation of a higher life; and although it is true that
religion is also the comfort of the slave illegally oppressed, yet,
above all things, the essence of religion is to oppose slavery and to
prevent, so far as possible, its deterioration to a mere consolation
of the captive. It is doubtless to the interest of the tyrant to
preach religious resignation and to refer to heaven those to whom he
will not grant a tiny place on earth; we must, however, be less hasty
to adopt the view of religion recommended by the tyrant, for, if
we can, we must forestall the making of earth into hell in order to
arouse a still greater longing for heaven.
The natural impulse of man, to be surrendered only in case of real
necessity, is to find heaven already on this earth and to amalgamate
into his earthly work day by day that which lasts forever; to plant
and to cultivate the imperishable in the temporal itself--not merely
in an unconceivable way, connected with the eternal solely by the gulf
which mortal eyes may not pass, but in a manner which is visible to
the mortal eye itself.
Pages:
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113