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345. Fear of punishment, thus, instead of being an incentive to good, virtuous living, acts in an exactly opposite manner. So far, then, as moral obligation is made to rest on the laws of society and government, its force is exhausted the moment one can discover some method of defeating detection. It must, therefore, be made to rest on a foundation where detection cannot be prevented, nor punishment avoided; and that foundation is furnished by religion alone. In order to reclaim criminals, it is necessary for the state to arrange for their religious education, so that they may begin to understand the nature of their true Self and realize the consequences which arise from a disregard of Spiritual Laws. Society is expected to help the state in this task by example rather than precept, and since the élite of society is always constituted by the persons in power, the rest of the public merely mimic them-the duty cast on the higher officials is to see that the noblest and the best of the traditions of high morality and virtue are maintained by them in their daily life as members of society.
THE KINGDOM OF GOD.
Without spiritual help one may for ever go on trying to remove the existing evil by newer and newer methods, but we shall discover that each newly invented remedy, while partially suppressing the old existing evil, brings two other forms of it into existence. In all departments of life we see this unfortunate result following human endeavour for the removal of evil; we try to suppress some existing evil by legislation, but are then called upon to remove the harmful results of the new enactment itself. This is because divine inspiration is not always. our guide in the selection of remedies for the removal
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