Apples of Gold in Settings of Silver

I have a research paper that has been consuming my time lately, and while buried in a book, I found a remarkable quote. The foci of my study are Karl Marx and Adam Smith, but the quote was used in reference to Marx, who inasmuch as I have seen, was far keener than Smith -and Smith was no slouch. Anyway, I was pondering the weight of the quotation, how it could apply to a number of people: Jesus, Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, Marcus Garvey, Kwame Nkrumah, the list goes on and on. It makes me nod in agreement to the wisdom of King Solomon in the book of Ecclesiastes -everything indeed is futile. Here goes:

He that has a Gospel
To loose upon Mankind
Though he serve it utterly-
Body, soul and mind-
Though he go to Calvary
Daily for its gain-
It is his Disciple
Shall make his labour vain.

--Kipling