Moby Dick, Father Mapple

Jonah did the Almighty’s bidding. And what was that, Shipmates? To preach the truth in the face of falsehood. Now Shipmates, woe to him who seeks to pour oil on the troubled waters when God has brewed them into a gale. Yea, woe to him who, as the Pilot Paul has it, while preaching to others is himself a castaway. But delight is to him who against the proud gods and commodores of this earth stands forth his own inexorable self, who destroys all sin, though he pluck it out from the robes of senators and judges! And Eternal Delight shall be his, who coming to lay him down can say:

O Father, mortal or immortal, here I die.
I have driven to be thine,
more than to be this world’s or mine own,
yet this is nothing
I leave eternity to Thee.

For what is man that he should live out the lifetime of his God?