Slavery -- United States; United States -- Politics and government -- 1849-1853
3. But there is a third class of Young Men who are true to the sacred
instincts of virtue, and devoutly reverent of duty. They seek, not for
the time-hallowed, but for the truth-hallowed. They have learnt that,
in the divine classification, there are but two great objects in the
universe,--God and Mankind. These are the only existences recognized in
those two supreme laws, which, by divine prerogative, hold all other
laws in their embrace. Hence the two resulting and all-comprehending
duties,--love to God and love to Man. The convictions and sentiments
which belong to the Brotherhood of the one, stand upon the same basis
of authority as those which belong to the Fatherhood of the other.
Hence all other entities and possibilities,--opulence, power, fame,
genius, things present, or things to come,--are, and forever must be,
secondary and subordinate to these primary and everlasting laws. No
names so lofty, no multitude so large, that they can abolish these
truths, or abstract one jot or tittle from their binding force, in
this life, or in any life. They are coëternal with their Author;
unchangeable as He, and moral life and moral death wait upon their
award.
When the Young Man of this class looks within himself, he finds the
constitution of his own moral nature to be such, that annihilation with
truth is better than the most favored existence with error. And when he
looks without himself, he sees there is a God enthroned above, mightier
than every “god of this world,” and that there is a divine law higher
than any laws of fallible men. Hence he knows that Right and Truth
will assuredly triumph, and that all who oppose them will be scattered
as the whirlwind scatters the chaff. The patriarchs sold Joseph into
Egypt; yet God was with him, and raised him to honor, and at last put
the lives of his treacherous brethren into his hands.
Whatever may be the peculiar madness of the hour, in whatever direction
the gauds of wealth may beckon, or the prizes of ambition call, let the
Young Man remember, _that_ only can be honorable which is just, that
only can be safe which is right. Hence, though the perfumed breezes
of flattery may entice him on one side, and a storm of maledictions
beat fiercely against him on the other, let him consecrate himself
to Justice and Truth, and be inspired with the faith that, though
the earth should quake or the heavens fall, an omniscient eye will
over-watch, and an omniscient arm will protect him.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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