That means that eternal vigilance is the price, not only of liberty, but
of a great many other things. It is the price of everything that is
good. It is the price of one's own soul. It is the price of the souls of
the people you love; and when it comes down to the final reckoning you
have a standard that is immutable. What shall a man give in exchange for
his own soul? Will he sell that? Will he consent to see another man sell
his soul? Will he consent to see the conditions of his community such
that men's souls are debauched and trodden underfoot in the mire? What
shall he give in exchange for his own soul, or any other man's soul? And
since the world, the world of affairs, the world of society, is nothing
less and nothing more than all of us put together, it is a great
enterprise for the salvation of the soul in this world as well as in the
next. There is a text in Scripture that has always interested me
profoundly. It says godliness is profitable in this life as well as in
the life that is to come; and if you do not start it in this life, it
will not reach the life that is to come. Your measurements, your
directions, your whole momentum, have to be established before you reach
the next world.
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