thing, but THE beautiful thing--by far the most beautiful thing in
the world; and that badness is not merely AN ugly thing, but the
ugliest thing in the world?--So that nothing is to be compared for
value with goodness; that riches, honour, power, pleasure, learning,
the whole world and all in it, are not worth having, in comparison
with being good; and the utterly best thing for a man is to be good,
even though he were never to be rewarded for it: and the utterly
worst thing for a man is to be bad, even though he were never to be
punished for it; and, in a word, goodness is the only thing worth
loving, and badness the only thing worth hating.

Did you ever feel this, my friends? Happy are those among you who
have felt it; for of you the Lord says, Blessed are they that hunger
and thirst after righteousness; for they shall be filled. Ay, happy
are you who have felt it; for it is the sign, the very and true sign,
that the Holy Spirit of God, who is the Spirit of goodness, is
working in your hearts with power, revealing to you the exceeding
beauty of holiness, and the exceeding sinfulness of sin.

But did it never strike you besides, that goodness was one, and
everlasting? Let me explain what I mean.

Did you never see, that all good men show their goodness in the same
way, by doing the same kind of good actions? Let them be English or
French, black or white, if they be good, there is the same honesty,
the same truthfulness, the same love, the same mercy in all; and what
is right and good for you and me, now and here, is right and good for
every man, everywhere, and at all times for ever. Surely, surely,
what is noble, and loveable, and admirable now, was so five thousand
years ago, and will be five thousand years hence. What is honourable