Those who call themselves philosophers, and fancy
that men's self-interest, if they can only feel it strong enough,
would make all men just and merciful to each other, know as little of
human nature as they do of God or the devil.
What WILL make a man to do his duty? Will the hope of heaven? That
depends very much upon what you mean by heaven. But what people
commonly mean by going to heaven, is--not going to hell. They
believe that they must go to either one place or the other. They
would much sooner of course stay on earth for ever, because their
treasure is here, and their heart too. But that cannot be, and as
they have no wish to go to hell, they take up with heaven instead, by
way of making the best of a bad matter.
I ask you solemnly, my friends, each one of you, which would you
sooner do--stay here on earth, or go to heaven? You need not answer
ME. I am afraid many of you would not dare answer me as you really
felt, because you would be ashamed of not liking to go to heaven.
But answer God. Answer yourselves in the sight of God. When you
keep yourselves back from doing a wrong thing, because you know it is
wrong, is it for love of heaven, or for mere fear of being punished
in hell? Some of you will answer boldly at once: "For neither one
nor the other; when we keep from wrong, it is because we hate and
despise what is wrong: when we do right it is because it is right
and we ought to do it.
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