“Dearly beloved brethren, we were placed by Almighty God in this world for no other purpose than that we might love and serve Him with our whole hearts, and with our whole souls. This is the duty of every human being, no matter in what age he may exist, no matter for what greatness or lowliness, for what riches or poverty he may be distinguished.’Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, with all thy mind, and with all thy strength, and thy neighbor as thyself.’ This is the great commandment addressed by God alike to all men. Any man, therefore, and much more, any Christian, who through fear or shame of his fellow-man, neglects, when occasion requires, to manifest his love for God, or for his neighbor, offers a deliberate insult to the majesty of his Creator; he prefers the esteem of his fellow-man to the esteem of God; he apprehends the sneer or the contempt of some imbecile fellow-creature, and dreads not the anger of the Almighty; he abides by the judgment of the world in preference to the judgment of the great and living God. All created things united together bear no comparison to God, and yet the victim of human respect prefers the opinion of one miserable fraction of humanity to the opinion of the mighty Lord of Heaven, by whose breath all created things sprang into existence. What greater insult than this could be offered to God? [emphasis added]

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