Do you think that is nothing? As for me--I did
not do this for Christ's sake, or because I loved my enemy; but because,
standing upon the ruins of my life, I felt a vast responsibility.
Mankind must arise, and be better than the blind powers that order its
ways; in the midst of its sorrows it must take heed that the god-like
does not die. The spark of eternity was once more aglow in me, and said:
Let there be light.
And more and more it came home to me that it is man himself that must
create the divine in heaven and on earth--that that is his triumph over
the dead omnipotence of the universe. Therefore I went out and sowed the
corn in my enemy's field, that God might exist.
Ah, if you had known that moment! It was as if the air about me grew
alive with voices. It was as though all the unfortunates I had seen and
known were bearing me company; more and more they came; the dead too
were joined to us, an army from times past and long ago. Sister Louise
was there, she played her hymn, and drew the voices all together into a
choir, the choir of the living and the dead, the choir of all mankind.
See, here are we all, your sisters and brothers. Your fate is ours. We
are flung by the indifferent law of the universe into a life that we
cannot order as we would; we are ravaged by injustice, by sickness and
sorrow, by fire and blood. Even the happiest must die. In his own home
he is but on a visit. He never knows but that he may be gone tomorrow.
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