His belief and his endeavor to plant what shall not pass away, and
the concept in which he comprehends his own life as an eternal life,
constitute the bond which most intimately associates with himself,
first, his own nation and, through that, the entire human race--which
brings the needs of them all, to the end of time, into his broadened
heart. This is his love for his nation, and through it, first, he
respects, trusts, rejoices in it, and takes pride in his descent from
it; the Divine has appeared in it, and has deigned to make it his
covering and his means of direct communication with the world; the
Divine, therefore, will continue to break forth from it. Therefore
man is, secondly, active, efficacious, and self-sacrificing for his
nation. Life, simply as life, as a continuance of changing existence,
has certainly never possessed value for him apart from this--he has
desired it merely as the source of the permanent. This permanence,
however, alone promises him the independent continuance of the
existence of his nation; and to save this he must even be willing to
die that it may live, and that in it he may live the only life that
has ever been possible to him.
Thus it is. Love, to be really love, and not merely a transitory
desire, never clings to the perishable, but is awakened and kindled
by, and based upon, the eternal only. Man is not even able to love
himself unless he consider himself as eternal; moreover, he cannot
even esteem and approve himself.
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