The kingdom of God belongs not to the most enlightened but to
the best; and the best man is the most unselfish man. Humble, constant,
voluntary self-sacrifice--this is what constitutes the true dignity of
man. And therefore is it written, "The last shall be first." Society
rests upon conscience and not upon science. Civilization is first and
foremost a moral thing. Without honesty, without respect for law,
without the worship of duty, without the love of one's neighbor--in a
word, without virtue--the whole is menaced and falls into decay, and
neither letters nor art, neither luxury nor industry, nor rhetoric, nor
the policeman, nor the custom-house officer, can maintain erect and
whole an edifice of which the foundations are unsound.
A state founded upon interest alone and cemented by fear is an ignoble
and unsafe construction. The ultimate ground upon which every
civilization rests is the average morality of the masses, and a
sufficient amount of practical righteousness. Duty is what upholds all.
So that those who humbly and unobtrusively fulfill it, and set a good
example thereby, are the salvation and the sustenance of this brilliant
world, which knows nothing about them. Ten righteous men would have
saved Sodom, but thousands and thousands of good homely folk are needed
to preserve a people from corruption and decay.
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