St. Bernard says, "to serve God is to reign." By a contradictory
assertion, we can safely say, to serve the world is to be a slave;
and of all servitudes there is none so hard nor so humiliating as
that which the world imposes upon those who yield to its empire. If
God were so exacting as the world, so inflexible in the laws that He
imposes upon us, so severe in the chastisements by which
delinquencies are punished, piety would be an insupportable burden
through the weakness of the greater part of men; and God would find
very few worshipers who would be willing to submit to such an ordeal.
What is most remarkable and worthy of compassion is the fact that,
very often, those who groan the most under this slavery are at the
same time those who support it with the greatest resignation.
To suffer for a genuine duty, for a generous sentiment, for a noble
or grand idea, is something which the human heart can, not only
accept, but even love and choose with a certain pride; but to suffer
for the sake of worldly etiquette, for the sake of fashion, for
things and parsons despised for their tyranny, is a deplorable
humiliation for those who do it.
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