Do you not understand me? Then I will give you an example. Suppose the
case of a man hurting his health by self-indulgence of any kind. Then
his adversaries are the laws of health. Let him agree with them quickly,
while he has the power of conquering his bad habits, by recovering his
health, lest the time come when his own sins deliver him up to God his
judge; and God to His terrible officers of punishment, the laws of
Disease; and they cast him into a prison of shame and misery from which
there is no escape--shame and misery, most common perhaps among the lower
classes: but not altogether confined to them--the weakened body, the
bleared eye, the stupified brain, the premature death, the children
unhealthy from their parents' sins, despising their parents, and perhaps
copying their vices at the same time. Many a man have I seen in that
prison, fast bound with misery though not with iron, and how he was to
pay his debt and escape out of it I know not, though I hope that God does
know.
Are any of you, again, in the habit of cheating your neighbours, or
dealing unfairly by them? Your adversary is the everlasting law of
justice, which says, Do as you would be done by, for with what measure
you mete to others, it shall be measured to you again.
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