Page 530 - the-brothers-karamazov
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sures as now, in gluttony, fornication, ostentation, boasting
       and envious rivalry of one with the other? I firmly believe
       that it is not and that the time is at hand. People laugh and
       ask: ‘When will that time come and does it look like com-
       ing?’ I believe that with Christ’s help we shall accomplish
       this great thing. And how many ideas there have been on
       earth  in  the  history  of  man  which  were  unthinkable  ten
       years before they appeared! Yet when their destined hour
       had come, they came forth and spread over the whole earth.
       So it will be with us, and our people will shine forth in the
       world, and all men will say: ‘The stone which the builders
       rejected has become the cornerstone of the building.’
         And we may ask the scornful themselves: If our hope
       is a dream, when will you build up your edifice and order
       things justly by your intellect alone, without Christ? If they
       declare that it is they who are advancing towards unity, only
       the most simple-hearted among them believe it, so that one
       may positively marvel at such simplicity. Of a truth, they
       have more fantastic dreams than we. They aim at justice,
       but,  denying  Christ,  they  will  end  by  flooding  the  earth
       with blood, for blood cries out for blood, and he that ta-
       keth up the sword shall perish by the sword. And if it were
       not for Christ’s covenant, they would slaughter one another
       down to the last two men on earth. And those two last men
       would not be able to restrain each other in their pride, and
       the one would slay the other and then himself. And that
       would come to pass, were it not for the promise of Christ
       that for the sake of the humble and meek the days shall be
       shortened.
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