And if, on due and honest thought over these things, it seems that the kind of existence to which men
are now summoned by every plea of pity and claim of right, may, for some time at least, not be a luxurious
one; — consider whether, even supposing it guiltless, luxury would be desired by any of us, if we saw
clearly at our sides the suffering which accompanies it in the world. Luxury is indeed possible in the future
— innocent and exquisite; luxury for all, and by the help of all; but luxury at present can only be enjoyed
by the ignorant; the cruelest man living could not sit at his feast, unless he sat blindfold. Raise the veil
boldly; face the light; and if, as yet, the light of the eye can only be through tears, and the light of the body
through sackcloth, go thou forth weeping, bearing precious seed, until the time come, and the kingdom,
when Christ’s gift of bread, and bequest of peace, shall be “Unto this last as unto thee”; and when, for
earth’s severed multitudes of the wicked and the weary, there shall be holier reconciliation than that of the
narrow home, and calm economy, where the Wicked cease — not from trouble, but from troubling — and
the Weary are at rest !!!