 Chapter 6, Part 2, of Christian Non-Resistance. Chapter 6, Part 2, of Christian Non-Resistance, in all its important bearings, illustrated and defended, by Aidan Baloo. Chapter 3, More Difficulty in Small Than Large Matters. The practice of non-resistance is more difficult in small than large matters. It is not an abstaining from war and battle, or an enduring great and notorious injuries with forbearance that non-resistance imposes the heaviest burdens. Men gather strength in such cases from the consciousness of public admiration and sympathy, and even from the magnitude of the conflict and the consequent glory of a triumph. The events and occasions inspire an extraordinary enthusiasm, power, and firmness of purpose. But in everyday life, where people pass through a thousand trials, consuming to the vital spirits of their being unnoticed, unsympathized with, unpityed, and uncared for, it is by no means so easy to endure the mean, vexatious aggressions, wrongs and insults of petty injures. But your doctrine obliges the abused wife of a brutal husband, and the insulted and smitten victim of an insolent scoundrelism, to refrain from defensive violence, and even from prosecutions at law, at least under the existing type of human government. It does not appear that you would allow even a mob to be repelled with military force, or so much as a demand to be made on the government for the protection of one's property, family, or life. It is this extreme and intolerable nicety of your doctrine to which I object, as much as to anything about it. Answer There is truth in the assertion that a practical exemplification of non-resistance in the small matters of everyday life is more difficult than in great matters on extraordinary occasions. And is not this true of all the great virtues enjoined in law or gospel? It may be easier to eschew idolatry, adultery, fornication, murder, robbery, theft, falsehood, covetousness, etc., in the open gaze of public scrutiny and public opinion, even under the mightiest temptation, than in private, unobserved life. It may be easier to suffer the martyrdom of death before a gaping and amazed, perhaps admiring, multitude than the petty martyrdom of a taunt, a kick, a cuff, or a rung nose, of which the multitude know nothing, and for which they might care as little. Be it so. Is this change principle or abrogate duty? What is right? What ought we all to do in small as well as large matters? These are the questions to settle. Not what may chance to be the most convenient or easy or comfortable or self-indulgent under momentary temptations. We have already settled them so far as respects the duty never to resist injury with injury. Is indulgence asked for the commission of daily violations of this duty or occasional violations of it in what are called small matters? Go demand indulgence to commit violations of the Ten Commandments in small matters. Bleed how difficult it is in everyday life not to lie a little, deceive a little, defraud a little, extort a little, hate your neighbor a little, steal a little, be murderous a little, idolatrous a little, and lascivious a little. Get your indulgence from heaven for all this, and then doubtless an indulgence will not be withheld to resist injury with injury a little, and to render evil for evil a little in ordinary matters. Till then the law and standard of righteousness must not be relaxed to suit human convenience. Duty must be insisted on without abatement, and whoever exhibits weakness, imperfection, frailty, sin, must bear the shame and condemnation. It is in these small matters that every virtue suffers its greatest betrayals. A continual dropping wears the hardest stone. A continual unscrupulousness in little things undermines all moral principle. The ocean is made up of drops. Righteousness is an aggregate of the littles of life. He that is faithless habitually in small matters is not to be depended on in great matters. He may or may not do right. A principal reason why public institutions, laws, and measures are so repugnant to justice and humanity is that the individual consciences of the people in the small matters of ordinary life are habitually unscrupulous. If then, non-resistance is to be insisted on at all, as a duty, it is to be insisted on in small matters as well as large, and after all that may be said of the difficulty of practicing it, we know that it has been and can be practiced. Nothing is wanting but the will to try. I will add to the numerous illustrations already given, a few others relating chiefly to individual affairs and the so-called small matters of life. The profane-swearer, reproved and subdued. Mr. Deering, a Puritan minister, being once at a public dinner, a gallant young man sat on the opposite side of the table, who, besides other vain discourse, broke out into profane-swearing, for which Mr. Deering gravely and sharply reproved him. The young man, taking this as an affront, immediately threw a glass of beer in his face. Mr. Deering took no notice of the insult, but wiped his face and continued eating as before. The young gentleman presently renewed his profane conversation, and Mr. Deering reproved him as before, upon which, but with more rage and violence, he flung another glass of beer in his face. Mr. Deering continued unmoved, still showing his zeal for the glory of God by bearing the insult with Christian meekness and humble silence. This so astonished the young gentleman that he rose from the table, fell on his knees, and asked Mr. Deering's pardon, and declared that if any of the company offered him similar insults, he would stab them with the sword. Here was practically verified the New Testament maxim, Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good. CHAPTER XII. THE CHRISTIAN SLAVE AND HIS ENEMY The following was first published in the London Christian Observer. A slave in the West Indies, who had originally come from Africa, having been brought under the influence of religious instruction, became singularly valuable to his owner, on account of his integrity and general good conduct. After some time his master raised him to a situation of some consequence in the management of his estate, and on one occasion, wishing to purchase twenty additional slaves, employed him to make the selection, giving him instruction to choose those who were strong, and likely to make good workmen. The man went to the slave market and commenced his scrutiny. He had not surveyed the multitude offered for sale before he fixed his eye upon an old decrepit slave, and told his master that he must be one. The poor fellow begged that he might be indulged, when the dealer remarked that if they were about to buy twenty, he would give them that man into the bargain. The purchase was accordingly made, and the slaves were conducted to the plantation of their master, but upon none did the selector show half the attention and care that he did upon the poor old decrepit African. He took him to his own habitation, and laid him upon his own bed. He fed him at his own table, and gave him drink out of his own cup. When he was cold he carried him into the sunshine, and when he was hot he placed him under the shade of the coconut tree. Astonished at the attention this confidential slave bestowed upon a fellow slave, his master interrogated him upon the subject. He said, you could not take so much interest in the old man, but for some special reason. He is a relation of yours, perhaps your father? No, Massa, answered the poor fellow, he know my father. He is then an elder brother? No, Massa, he know my brother. Then he is an uncle, or some other relation? No, Massa, he know be my kindred at all, nor even my friend. Then asked the master, on what account does he excite your interest? He my enemy, Massa, replied the slave. He sold me to the slave dealer, and my Bible tell me, when my enemy hunger feed him, and when he thirst give him drink. How to overcome evil? I once had a neighbor who, though a clever man, came to me one heyday and said, Esquire White, I want you to come and get your geese away. Why, said I, what are my geese doing? They pick on my pig's ears when they are eating, and drive them away, and I will not have it. What can I do, said I? You must yoke them. That I have not time to do now, said I. I do not see, but they must run. If you do not take care of them, I shall, said the clever shoemaker in anger. What do you say, Esquire White? I cannot take care of them now, but I will pay you for all damages. Well, said he, you will find that a hard thing, I guess. So off he went, and I heard a terrible squalling among the geese. The next news of the geese was that three of them were missing. My children went and found them terribly mangled and dead, and thrown into the bushes. Now, said I, all keep still, and let me punish him. In a few days the shoemaker's hogs broke into my corn. I saw them, but let them remain a long time. At last I drove them out, and picked up the corn which they had torn down, and fed them with it in the road. By this time the shoemaker came in great haste after them. Have you seen anything of my hogs, said he? Yes, sir, you will find them yonder, eating some corn which they tore down in my field. In your field? Yes, sir, said I. Hogs love corn, you know. They were made to eat. How much mischief have they done? Oh, not much, said I. Well off he went to look, and estimated the damage to be equal to a bushel and a half of corn. Oh, no, said I. It can't be. Yes, said the shoemaker, and I will pay you every cent of the damage. No replied I, you shall pay me nothing. My geese have been a great trouble to you. The shoemaker blushed, and went home. The next winter, when we came to settle, the shoemaker determined to pay me for my corn. No, said I, I shall take nothing. After some talk we parted, but in a day or two I met him in the road, and fell into conversation in the most friendly manner. But when I started on, he seemed low to move, and I paused. For a moment both of us were silent. At last he said, I have something laboring on my mind. Well, what is it? Those geese, I killed three of your geese, and shall never rest until you know how I feel. I am sorry. And the tears came in his eyes. Oh, well, said I, never mind. I suppose my geese were provoking. I never took anything of him for it, but whenever my cattle broke into his field after this, he seemed glad, because he could show how patient he could be. Now, said the narrator, conquer yourself, and you can conquer with kindness where you can conquer in no other way. Anonymous. Henry C. Wright and his assailant. The following incident in the life of Henry C. Wright shows his admirable consistency and the salutary influence of non-resistance on the offender. He was in a hotel in Philadelphia, and there engaged in a conversation on non-resistance. An officer present became enraged and struck him. Mr. Wright took no notice of the assault, but proceeded with his remarks. In a few moments the officer struck him again. Friend Wright still preserved his equanimity and continued the conversation. His assailant struck him a third time, and nearly knocked him down. He recovered himself, and though much injured by the blows of his opponent, took him by the hand and said, I feel no unkindness towards you, and hope soon to see you at my house. He then left the company and returned home. Mr. Wright saw his assailant much sooner than he expected, for he was called up at dawn next morning by the very man who had struck him the previous evening. He exclaimed as he entered the house, Can you forgive me? I have been in agony all night. I thought you would strike again, or I never should have struck you. He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city. He that, unshrinking and without a groan, bears the first wound, may finish all the war with more courageous silence, and come off conqueror. Watts McCree The Victorious Little Boy I had the following anecdote from a gentleman of veracity. A little boy in Connecticut, of remarkably serious mind and habits, was ordinarily employed about a mechanics shop, where nearly all the hands were addicted to the common use of intoxicating liquors. The lad had imbibed temperance principles, and though often invited, could never be induced to partake with any of the shop's crew. At length, his teacher in the Sunday School, in conversation on certain non-resistant texts of Scripture, had awakened his mind to that subject, and he very conscientiously avowed his determination to try to live in accordance with this great Christian doctrine. Three or four of the harder drinkers in the shop, somewhat peaked at such precocious piety and scrupulousness of conscience, resolved to humble the lad, or at least put his new notions to the test. They resolved to force a dram of rum down his throat, by some means. Seizing an opportunity when he was left alone in the shop with themselves, they invited him to drink. He refused. They then told him they should compel him. He remained calm and unmoved. They threatened him with violence. Still, he neither seemed angry nor attempted to escape, nor evinced the least disposition to yield, but insisted that it was wicked, and he could not do it. They then laid hold of him, a man at each arm, while the third held the bottle ready to force it into his mouth. Still their victim remained meek and firm, declaring that he had never injured them, and never should, but the God would be his friend and protector, however they might abuse him. The man who held the fatal bottle up to that moment resolute in his evil purpose was so struck by the non-resisting dignity and innocence of the lad, that, as he afterwards confessed almost with tears, he actually felt unable to raise his hand. Twice he assayed to lift the bottle as he placed the nose of it in the child's mouth, but his arm refused to serve him. Not the least resistance was made in this stage of the proceeding otherwise than by a meek, protesting look, yet the ringleader himself was overcome in his feelings, and gave over the attempt, declaring that he could not, and would not, injure such an innocent, conscientious, good-hearted boy. Such is moral power, such is the strength by which evil may, sometimes at least, be overcome with good. Colony of Practical Christians The following is another extract from the writings of Lydia M. Child. It needs no commendation. It will speak to the better feelings of the soul, and leave its sweet odor there. The highest gifts my soul has received during its world pilgrimage have often been bestowed by those who were poor, both in money and intellectual cultivation. Among these donors, I particularly remember a hard-working uneducated mechanic from Indiana or Illinois. He told me he was one of 30 or 40 New Englanders who, 12 years before, had gone out to settle in the Western wilderness. They were mostly neighbors, and had been drawn to unite together in emigration from a general unity of opinion on various subjects. For some years previous, they had been in the habit of meeting occasionally at each other's houses, to talk over their duties to God and man in all simplicity of heart. Their library was the gospel, their priesthood, the unword light. There were then no anti-slavery societies, but thus taught, and reverently willing to learn, they had no need of such agency to discover their duties to the enslaved. The efforts of peace societies had reached the secluded band only in broken echoes, and non-resistance societies had no existence. But with the volume of the Prince of Peace and hearts open to his influence, what need had they of preambles and resolutions? Each in God culture, this little band started for the far west. Their inward homes were blooming gardens. They made their outward in a wilderness. They were industrious and frugal, and all things prospered under their hands. But soon wolves came near the fold, in the shape of reckless unprincipled adventurers, believers in force and cunning, who acted according to their creed. The colony of practical Christians spoke of their depredations in terms of gentlest remonstrance, and repaid them with unvarying kindness. They went farther, they openly announced, you may do us what evil you choose. We will return nothing but good. Lawyers came into the neighborhood and offered their services to settle disputes. They answered, we have no need of you. As neighbors, we receive you in the most friendly spirit, but for us your occupation has ceased to exist. What will you do if rascals burn your barns and steal your harvests? We will return good for evil. We believe this is the highest truth, and therefore the best expediency. When the rascals heard this, they considered it a marvelous good joke, and said and did many provoking things, which to them seemed witty. Bars were taken down in the night, and cows led into the cornfields. The Christians repaired the damage as well they could, put the cows in the barn, and a twilight drove them gently home, saying, neighbor, your cows have been in my field. I have fed them well during the day, but I could not keep them all night, lest the children should suffer for their milk. If this was fun, those who planned the joke found no heart to laugh at it. By degrees, a visible change came over those troublesome neighbors. They ceased to cut off horses' tails and break the legs of poultry. Rude boys would say to a younger mother, don't throw that stone, Bill. When I killed the chicken last week, didn't they send it to mother because they thought chicken broth would be good for poor Mary? I should think you'd be ashamed to throw stones at their chickens. Thus was evil overcome with good, till not one was found to do them willful injury. Years passed on, and saw them thriving in worldly substance beyond their neighbors, yet beloved by all. From them the lawyer and the constable obtained no fees. The sheriff stammered and apologized when he took their hard-earned goods in payment for the war tax. They mildly replied, "'Tis a bad trade, friend. Examine it in the light of conscience, and see if it be not so.' But while they refused to pay such fees and taxes, they were liberal to a proverb in their contributions for all useful and benevolent purposes. At the end of ten years, the public lands, which they had chosen for their farms, were advertised for sale at auction. According to custom, those who had settled and cultivated the soil were considered to have a right to bid it in at the government price, which at that time was a dollar and a quarter per acre. But the fever of land speculation then chanced to run unusually high. Adventurers from all parts of the country were flocking to the auction, and capitalists in Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, and Boston were sending agents to buy up western lands. No one supposed that customer equity would be regarded. The first day's sale showed that speculation ran to the verge of insanity. Land was eagerly bought in at seventeen, twenty-five, and forty dollars an acre. The Christian colony had small hope of retaining their farms. As first settlers they had chosen the best land, and persevering industry had brought it into the highest cultivation. Its market value was much greater than the acres already sold at exorbitant prices. In view of these facts, they had prepared their minds for another remove into the wilderness, perhaps to be again ejected by a similar process. But the morning their lot was offered for sale, they observed with grateful surprise that their neighbors were everywhere busy among the crowd, begging and expostulating. Don't bid on these lands. These men have been working hard on them for ten years. During all that time they never did harm to man or brute. They are always ready to do good for evil. They are a blessing to any neighborhood. It would be a sin and a shame to bid on their land. Let them go at the government price. The sale came on, the cultivators of the soil offered a dollar and a quarter, intending to bid higher if necessary. But among all that crowd of selfish reckless speculators, not one bid over them. Without one opposing voice, the fair acres returned to them. I do not know a more remarkable instance of evil overcome with good. The wisest political economy lies folded up in the maxims of Christ. The avenger stayed. I will add one more impressive illustration and close. I copy from the Advocate of Peace for April 1845, which appears to have quoted from the history of Danish missions. The history of the Danish missions in Greenland is well known. Hans Egid, a man of apostolic benevolence and zeal, was the pioneer in those efforts to Christianize the wild and savage wanderer of the frozen north. And among his successors was his grandson, Hans Egid Sabje, from whose interesting diary we select the following tale of vengeance sternly purposed but graciously turned into love by the power of the gospel. The law or custom of Greenland requires every murder, especially that of a father, to be avenged by the nearest of kin. Some 20 years before the arrival of Sabje, a man was murdered under circumstances of great atrocity in the presence of his own son. The boy, only 13 years old, was too young to defend his father, but he did not forget the debt of vengeance due to his murderer. Fleeing for his own safety into a remote part of the country, he there fanned in his bosom the secret flame for 25 years and waited only for an opportunity to let it burst forth in full and fierce revenge. The murderer was a man of so much influence and surrounded with so many adherents ready for his defense that the son feared to attack him. But having persuaded a number of his own relatives to accompany him, he started at length on his long cherished purpose of vengeance and came in quest of his victim near the residence of Sabje. The houses in Greenland are a species of common property. The people quit them during their short summer and on returning the next winter, take possession of anyone they may chance to find unoccupied. Winter was now beginning to stretch his icy arms over the north, but the Avenger found no shelter for himself and his associates in the work of vengeance. Only one was vacant and that belonged to the preacher of peace and forgiveness. But Sabje, though well apprised of his purpose, let him have the house and treated him with his wanted courtesy and kindness. These attentions touched the Avenger's heart and he came to thank Sabje and repeated his visit so often that he apologized at length for their frequency by saying, you are so amiable that I cannot keep away from you. After the lapse of several weeks, he said, I should like to know something of that great Lord of Heaven, about whom you say so much and some of my relations wish to learn too. Sabje granted his request and found 10 or 12 of the company anxious for instruction. He sent a catechist to live with them and was much gratified at their progress, especially that of the Avenger who frequently left his fishing to hear instruction and at length resolved to ask for baptism. In the month of May, Canuck came to Sabje and said, teacher, will you baptize me? You know I'm obedient. I know God and my wife as well as I wish just to become a believer. Yes, replied the preacher, you know something of God. You know he is good. You see how he loves you and desires to make you happy. But he desires also to have you obey him. I do love him, earnestly rejoined the Avenger. I will obey him. But, answered Sabje, if you wish to obey him, you must kill nobody. You have often heard this command, thou shalt not kill. Canuck shook his head in great emotion and only said, have to himself, hard doctrine, hard doctrine. Hear me, good Canuck, continued the man of God. I know you have come to avenge the murder of your father. This you must not do if you wish to become a believer. But retorted the Avenger with a flash of indignation gleaming from his eye. He murdered my father, my own father. I saw it but could not help him and now I must punish the murderer. You grieve me, said the man of peace. How, asked the Avenger, because you seem resolved to murder. Only him who deserves to die. But the great Lord of heaven says, thou shalt not kill. I will not, only him. But you must not kill even him. Have you forgotten how often during the winter you heard this command, avenge not thyself but rather give place unto wrath? For vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord. But, asked the Avenger, shall the wicked murder with impunity? No, he shall not. God will punish him. When? Perhaps in this world, but certainly at the day of judgment when he will reward everyone according to his deeds. That is so long, replied Kanak. My countrymen and relations will blame me if I do not myself avenge my father now. If you did not know the will of God, I should say nothing but now I must not be silent. This is hard, said the Avenger. What shall I do? You must not kill him. You must even forgive him. Forgive him, exclaimed the Avenger. Your doctrine is very strange and difficult. The doctrine rejoined the preacher is not mine but Christ's. Kanak sighed deeply but made no reply and Sabye continued. Perhaps your father was not innocent. He too may have killed somebody. As to that, replied Kanak, I do not know. I only know that this man deserves to die. Well, answered Sabye, turning to leave the Avenger. I have done. Kill him, if you will, but remain an unbeliever and expect his children one day to kill you in turn. You are amiable no longer, retorted the man of blood. You speak hard words. No, Kanak, replied the man of peace. I love you still and therefore wish you not to sin against God who will do justice both to you and your adversary. Sabye turned to go but Kanak cried after him. Stay, teacher, I will speak to my relations. His relations urged Kanak day after day to revenge and threatened him with the curses of his kindred and the scorn of his countrymen if he shrunk from avenging his murdered father. The bosom of the son seemed a theater of conflicting emotions. The preacher in his visits to him perceived the struggle and without taking any notice of the particular subject read such portions of scripture and such hymns as led to peaceful and forgiving thoughts. Some days after Kanak returned to the preacher. His countenance, his manner, everything about him indicated a violent struggle. I will, said he, I will not. I hear and I do not hear. I never felt so before. What will you, asked the preacher, and what will you not? I will forgive him and I will not forgive him. I have no ears and yet I have ears. When you will not forgive, answered Sabye, then your unconverted heart speaks and would dissuade you. And when you will forgive, then your better heart speaks. Which will you obey? I was so moved, said the Avenger when you spoke yesterday that my heart wished to obey. See then ought you not, said Sabye, to feel that it is the voice of your heavenly father speaking in your heart? He bids you be like him and he giveth sunshine and showers to his foes as well as his friends. Think of your savior too and strive to resemble him. Did he ever hate his enemies or return their curses on their own heads? When smitten, did he smite back? When persecuted from city to city, did he return evil upon his prosecutors? Did he return evil upon his persecutors? When led to the cross like a lamb to the slaughter, did he open his mouth? Yes, but it was to pray for his murderers. Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. This appeal touched the Avenger's heart. A tear stood in his eye and earnestly he replied, yes, yes, that was praiseworthy, but he was better than we. Yes, infinitely better, rejoined Sabye. But if we have a good will, God will give us strength. Hear how a man like you and me can pray for his murderers. The preacher then read the martyrdom of Stephen and Canuck, drying his eyes, said, wicked men, but he is happy. He is certainly with God in heaven. My heart is so moved, but give me a little time and when I have brought my other heart to silence, I will come again. Soon Canuck returned with an altered continence that spoke the peace and joy of his heart. Now, said he, I am happy, I hate no more, I have forgiven, my wicked heart shall be silent. Did you not see how moved I was when you read about him on the cross, praying for his murderers? Then I vowed in my heart, I will forgive, I have forgiven. Now I hope I and my wife, who has never hated, may be baptized. His request was granted, and when the day arrived for the ceremony, he gave a simple and touching account of his faith. Tears streamed from his eyes, and he knelt for baptism. And at the close of the service, he said, receive me now as a believer, I will hate no more, we will love each other and all men. To the murderer of his father, he soon after sent a message, saying, I am now a believer, you have nothing to fear. He even invited the murderer to his house and received him in a most friendly manner. Being invited to return the visit, he went alone. But to show the heathen murderer in contrast with the Christian, Kanuck found on his way back, a hole cut in his kayak, or boat, for the purpose of drowning him. He soon stopped out the water and said with a smile, ah, he is still afraid, but I'll never harm him. Vengeance is no longer mine, I leave him to God, and pray that he may see his sins as I have seen my own. Conclusion. Who can contemplate such practical exemplifications of Christian nonresistence as these and not be ravished with the excellence and loveliness of the sublime doctrine? Can we turn around and gaze on the battlefield, the hospital of mangled mortality, the gaudy military parade, the pomp of bloodstained chieftains, or into the mere ordinary affairs of life, on the scuffles, retaliations, resentments, duels, litigations, and endless quarrels of a world infatuated with resisting violence? Can we look on these things without heart sickness and disgust? How base, despicable, and aberrant are they all, compared with the spiritual heroism, the moral bravery, the glorious self-sacrifice, the life-preserving, heart-reforming, soul-redeeming works of genuine Christianity? Oh, my soul, come not thou into their secret, unto their assembly, mine honor, be not thou united. And shall those who ought to be the light of the world and the salt of the earth dishonor their high calling and defile their garments by engaging in the conflicts of human ambition, violence, and revenge, shall they lust after the dainties of cannibalism, admire the splendors of martial idolatry, and delight themselves in the acts of mortal cruelty? If risen with Christ, ought they not to seek the things of Christ, inhale the perfumes of his spirit, follow in his footsteps, and make it their supreme satisfaction to do the will of the Father? Is it for them to fly from the dangers of Gethsemane, to look with despair from afar on the non-resistant cross, and to make themselves one with a mutually defiant and destructive world? Shall they see lions in the way, and fear to go forth? Shall they stand shivering like the sluggard, because it is cold and so neglect to plow? Does it become them to complain that the duties of love are hard, that non-resistance is impracticable, impossible, or extremely difficult, when its principle is so God-like, its spirit so heavenly, its exemplification so beautiful, its fruits so refreshing, and its achievements so glorious? What if it demand a strict discipline? What if it require some severe exertions? What if it impose some manly endurance? What if it offer an opportunity to perform some exploits of moral heroism? Shall it therefore be unattractive to great souls? Nay, rather let it seem the more worthy of a holy and generous enthusiasm. Let its calls for volunteers appeal more thrillingly to a noble ambition, an ambition to be and do something worthy of our divine parentage, worthy of the love that has purchased our redemption with the tears and groans and blood of the cross, worthy of immortality, worthy of living and dying for. To save one life, to recover one lost brother, to make one heart holy and happy, or even to qualify ourselves by self-denial from the indwelling spirit of the highest is infinitely more worthy of a whole life's cares and vigils than all the wealth, pomp, and splendor which the world's favorite destroyers ever acquired by the sword. God forbid that we should glory in anything save the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. How hardly man this lesson learns to smile and bless the hand that spurns, to see the blow to feel the pain, but render only love again. This spirit not to earth is given. One had it, he came from heaven. Reviled, rejected, and betrayed, no curse he breathed, no plaint he made. But whom in death's deep paying he sighed, prayed for his murderers, and died. Edmiston. End of chapter six, part two. Chapter seven, part one of Christian non-resistance. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Chapter seven, part one of Christian non-resistance in all its important bearings, illustrated and defended by Aidan Balu. Chapter seven, non-resistance in relation to government. Is non-resistance for or against human government? I propose to occupy the present chapter in treating on the relation of non-resistance to human government. Is non-resistance as defined and expounded in this work for or against human government per se? This depends on what sense is given to the adjective human when joined to the noun government. If human government be understood to imply or presuppose an inherent, original, absolute power in man to make laws and exercise discretionary control over man, non-resistance is against it. It denies any such inherent, original, absolute power in man and refers it to God only. In this sense, all rightful government is essentially divine, man being over a subject, not a governor. And whenever he assumes to require anything repugnant to the divine law, he is a rebel against God and a usurper over his equal fellow man. Man cannot rightfully legislate or govern insubordinately to his creator. He can only govern under and with the divine sanction. If this position needs any defense, non-resistance are prepared to maintain it against the world. None, however, but atheists and would-be deicides, God killers, the genuine no-governmentists can be reckless enough to controvert it. But if human government be understood to imply only divine government clothed in human forms and administered by human organizations with merely incidental human imperfections, non-resistance is for it, per se. It has no necessary opposition to it whatever. It recognizes man as, by nature, a social being. It sees the ties and dependencies of husband and wife, parent and child, friend and neighbor, smaller and larger community, and is essentially friendly to all social organizations founded on love to God and man. Human government, in this case, would be an organization of society constitutionally deferential to the highest known law of God. It would disclaim and denounce all assumption of power to set up and enforce any law, regulation or usage in violation of the natural equality and brotherhood of mankind. It would inscribe on its main pillars no resistance of injury with injury, no rendering of evil for evil. Evil can be overcome only with good. It would pledge its entire religious, intellectual, moral, physical, industrial and pecuniary resources to the maintenance of the right education, good conduct, comfortable subsistence, and general welfare of all its population. It would declare and treat all its officers as servants of their brethren, entitled to no other remuneration than an equal subsistence and dividend of general profits with the massive unofficials. It would know no such thing as government craft and have no separate interests of its functionaries to be fattened at the expense of their constituents. It would disclaim all authority of its own and rest all its legislation, its judicial decrees, and its executive proceedings on their intrinsic rectitude and fitness to promote the public good. It would put off all external display, pomp, parade and childish insignia and be a plain simple business concern provided with all things decent and convenient for its necessary use and nothing more. It would incur no expense for distinction's sake for show and dazzle. Man would make no wicked and foolish attempt to appear a God to his fellow worms. The most exalted servant of the people would need to dwell in no better house, eat no better food, drink no costly or liquors, wear no richer livery, ride in no better carriage, under a wise and righteous government, then would be proper for every common citizen. He would be ashamed to wish anything better. He that will be chief among you shall be as he that doth serve. This is the pattern for the head of a Christian Republic. Such a government would verify the prophetic prediction. I will also make thy officers peace and thine ex-actors righteousness. Violence shall no more be heard in thy land, wasting nor destruction within thy borders. Such a government there will yet be throughout the earth. It is coming in the dim distant future. Christian non-resistance is its forerunner and will hail its arrival amid the welcome shouts of an enlightened world. Men will then look back on our present semi-barbarous governments, much as a philosopher now does on the picture of an Indian sachum, smeared with paint, ornamented with feathers and wampum, and resting on his war club or tomahawk. Understanding then by human government only divine government humanized in its forms, applications and details, non-resistance is decidedly for it, per se. How to reform government? Existing governments have their merits. They might be worse than they are. They are as good as the great mass of the people demand or are capable of appreciating. If full-grown Christian constitutions were proffered to them, they would vote them down with contempt. If we could cheat them into the reception of one, they would not know how to live under it. Governments are correct exponents of the aggregate religious light, moral sentiment, and intellectual development of the people living under them. People with a false and low religion, a false and low morality, a low and undeveloped intellect will have a corresponding false and low organization of society, false and low government. An Eskimo, hot and taut, or New Hollander would devise and administer an Eskimo, hot and taut, or New Holland government. The reason why we have not a Christian government is that our people are not in the aggregate, a Christian people. The aggregate religion is far below the Christian standard. The aggregate conscience and moral sentiment of the people is semi-barbarous and their aggregate intellect is not yet sufficiently improved by knowledge and discipline to see how low their religion and morality is. They are therefore not even ashamed of war and slavery. They do not see that these gross abominations are their disgrace and curse. We have got to enlighten them, expand their intellects, purify their moral sentiment, quicken their consciences, and reform their religious ideas. This is not to be done by voting at the polls, by seeking influential offices in the government, and binding ourselves to anti-Christian political compacts. It is to be done by pure Christian precepts, faithfully inculcated and pure Christian examples on the part of those who have been favored to receive and embrace the highest truths. They must hold up the true standard, let their light shine, and patiently persevere in the great work of creating a new heart and a new spirit in the people. They must do nothing to disparage or hinder whatever is good in the existing order of society and government. Still less must they do anything to hinder their own pure testimony, either by seditious opposition to the government or by voluntary participation in its sins. They must not falsify their principles by going with the government to do evil, nor in going against its wrongs by anti-Christian means, nor by condemning anything in it which is right and good per se. This is the straight and narrow way of Christ. When a considerable portion of the people have been enlightened and won over to Christian non-resistance, the tide of public sentiment will begin to set with such force against war and the whole injury-inflicting system that the less enlightened and less conscientious portion will insensibly yield to the current and the relics of barbarism one after another be cast to the moles and bats. Thus, ultimately, government will be Christianized and the most scrupulous disciples of the non-resistant Savior feel at liberty to perform any service in it which the public good may require. What a work is to be performed. It has commenced and will progress much faster than either faint-hearted friends or unbelieving scoffers anticipate, though doubtless its consummation is at a great distance. In this view of the case, how supremely silly would it appear for a handful of non-resistance to run a tilt of politics and harness themselves to the car of juggernaut in hope of influencing the besotted multitude to renounce their idolatry. It would be treason to their cause and ridiculous infatuation for them to play such antics. Their mission is to have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness but rather reprove them, to teach, not number the people, to show forth a model of what ought to be, not conform to what is, to testify against spiritual wickedness in high places and to cause popular abominations of the land to be properly appreciated and utterly loathed, to scatter light and call the people to repentance, to reform our 30,000 religious teachers so that instead of patronizing, inculcating, apologizing for, consenting to, and pronouncing benedictions on military power and display, they may view and speak of it with the same aberrance they now do idol worship. To convert our hundreds of thousands of church members to that primitive Christianity, which nerved up the ancient disciples to say, in the face of threatened death, I am a Christian and cannot fight. When we have done all this, we will begin to think about voting and accepting office in the government. We believe we shall then no longer be obliged to subscribe constitutions which make our governors and presidents, commanders and chief of the army, or which invest Congress with discretionary power to declare war, grant letters of mark, and reprisal, those flagrant crimes against God and humanity. If we should, why then, we would still ply our acts to the root of the tree and non-participate till a better day had dawned on the world. Such is the method by which true Christianity teaches its disciples to reform government. True, it is not according to the wisdom of this world which is foolishness with God, but it is according to the wisdom that cometh down from above, which is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. James 3, verse 17. Injurious force not essential to government. I shall now be told by the opposer that I am a utopian, a dreamer, a chimerist to imagine any such thing as a government without a war power in the last resort, without the power of deadly compulsion to suppress individual crime and mobocratic violence. That such a government would be a body without a soul, a house without a foundation, a powerless, non-resistant abstraction, a something which can never have existence on earth, at least so long as human imperfection remain. I know that this is the common opinion respecting government, but it is false, the spawn of ignorance, a sheer delusion. A little reflection will show how utterly groundless it is. It derives all its plausibility from the exhibitions of past and remaining barbarism. Because men have been barbarous, and their laws and penalties barbarous, it is taken for granted that they cannot be otherwise. Just as the African in the center of the Torrid Zone assumed that there could be no such thing as ice because he had never seen any. And just as all your ignorant people assumed that nothing can exist unlike what has come under their own observation. Suppose one should confidently assert that there could be no such thing as a man, actually living and transacting business among mankind, without a military shampoo on his head, a sword dangling by his side, or a musket over his shoulder, or at least pistols or bowie knife about his person. That no man could live in the world without either actually fighting or threatening to fight, or at least being armed for a fight. Who would not see the absurdity of the assertion? The man and the man's means of preserving his life do not necessarily belong together. The Christian non-resistant is as much of a man as your sword and dagger character, and much less a brute. And the former stands a much better chance of long life, civil treatment, and substantial happiness in the world than the latter. Suppose someone should assert that there could be no such thing as family, or good family government, without guns and dogs to defend them against marauders, and plenty of switchsticks to wear up over the children's backs. Would it show anything more than the ignorance and low moral development of the asserter? Suppose that another should affirm that there can be no such thing as a church of Christ without the inquisition and autotofé. Men of intelligence, reflection, and Christianized moral feeling know the contrary. End of Chapter 7, Part 1. Chapter 7, Part 2 of Christian Non-Resistance. This is LibriVox Recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Chapter 7, Part 2 of Christian Non-Resistance in all its important bearings, illustrated and defended by Aidan Balu. Under what circumstances the country might have a non-resistant government? Let us have two-thirds of the people of the United States, including that portion who are or would be thought Christians, philanthropists, people of intelligence, and orderly citizens, once firmly committed to non-resistance, as explained and illustrated in this work, with even a large share of imperfections still lingering about them, and the government might triumphantly dispense with its army, navy, militia, capital punishment, and all manner of injurious inflections. Under the light necessary to effect so general a change of public sentiment, a considerable portion of the people would have reconstructed neighborhood society by voluntary association in such a manner as nearly to do away in temperance, idleness, debauchery, miseducation, poverty, and brutality, and to ensure the requisite inducements means and opportunities for great self-improvement and social usefulness. The consequence would be that very few poor creatures would remain without a strong moral guardianship of wise and true friends to look after their welfare. Wholesome cure would be applied with vast success to the ignorant and vicious, and at the same time powerful preventives beyond estimation applied to the newborn generation. Under such circumstances, suppose a truly Christian government to administer the general affairs of the several states and of the nation. How little would they have to do, how well might they perform that little, and how trifling would be the burdens of it to officers or people. It would hardly require 30 millions of dollars to carry such a government through a single year. They would not expend 80% of all their receipts on ships of war, forts, arsenals, troops, et cetera, et cetera. If they expended half the sum on the reformation of the few remaining vicious, the right education of youth, and the encouragement of virtue among the whole people, their work would be cut short in righteousness. If here and there a disorderly individual broke over the bounds of decency, the whole force of renovated public sentiment would surround and press in upon him, like the waters of the ocean, and slight, un-injurious force would prevent personal outrage in the most extreme cases. And every day the causes of such extreme cases would be undergoing the process of annihilation. Meantime, England and other great nations between whom and ourselves there is such a frequent and increasing familiarity of intercourse, would vie with ours, not which should have the strongest army and navy, and be able to do the most mischief, but which should lead off in the glorious work of reforming, improving, and blessing the human race. Patriotism would then no longer strut its regimentals, recount its ruffian exploits, and provoke quarrels with fellow men for the crime of having been born over sea, or on the other side of a mountain or river. It would glory in superior justice, forbearance, meagerness, forgiveness, charity. Oh glorious era, I see thee coming to smile on my country and the world. Thou art advancing in silent majesty on the remote verge of the blue horizon. Clouds of dust intervene between thee and the uncouth present. They conceal thee from the gaze of the boisterous and bustling multitude. The prophets even can but dimly discern thy beautiful outline. But thou art drawing nearer, angels are thy heralds. The morning stars are singing together in thy train, and the sons of God shout for joy. In due time, the heaven shall kiss the earth in thy presence, and the earth shall be restored to the bliss of heaven. View of present order of things and remedies. But we must turn back from this vision and listen again to the scoffs of skepticism, the growls of frowning bigotry, and the jargon of Babylon the Great. We must hear those who make the sword, the gibbet, and the dungeon their gods, denounce the doctrines of mercy and extol the efficacy of cruelty. The world is full of criminals, they say, horrid criminals, ravening like wolves for the prey, and it is presumption to think of trusting to love, mercy, forbearance, and uninjurious restraints. The wicked must be slain, the unprincipled must be threatened with destruction, the lawless must be held at bay by the terrors of the halter and the cell. Mankind are too depraved to be held and treated as brethren. This is the language of our professively wise and upright men, in what are falsely supposed to be the first ranks of society. But it is the language of men who need to be born again before they can enter into the kingdom of God, Pharisees and Sadducees, haughty religionists and moralists who know not their own hearts nor what manner of spirit they are of. They look not into the causes of crime, they feel not for their fellow-creatures who were born and have lived under the worst possible circumstances. They see not that nine-tenths of the crimes of those whom they glory and bringing to punishment might have been prevented, had good people, so-called, been good enough to care for others beyond the precincts of their own blood relationship. They themselves are great sinners and need great mercy, yet they have little compassion on their fellow sinners of a lower grade. They live in a sort of conventional decency and imagine it to be true morality. They are clothed with the fashionable garments of a superfine selfishness and vainly imagine themselves acceptable to God. They are supremely covetous of this world's goods and revel in the midst of extravagance, yet think only of the guilt and deserved punishment of thieves and robbers. Let them spare their maledictions against the punishable class of their fellow-creatures. Let each one of them seriously ask the following questions. How much better am I by nature than these murderers, robbers, thieves, and wretched culprits whom I so much detest? Had I been born of their parents, been brought up as they were brought up, been neglected by the better classes as they were neglected, been tempted as they have been tempted, and been treated as they have been treated? Should I have been at this moment what I am? Should I not have been one among them, hated and hunted down as a hopeless reprobate? How much attention have I given in my whole life to the consideration of the causes which make one person to differ from another? How much time have I spent in earnest endeavors to prevent my fellow-creatures from falling into these crimes in educating them while children, providing them a good home of industry and comfort in youth, and in inducing them in mature age to lead orderly lives? How much thought, how much affection, how much time, how much of my money have I devoted to such purposes? Have I considered these things? Have I brought up my family to consider them? Have I proposed them to my neighbors? Have I brought them before my religious or literary associates? Have I tried by precept, persuasion and example to unite my friends in preventing pauperism, vice and crime? Or have I thought chiefly of deterring and punching crime? Have I been spending nearly all my attention and efforts on myself and my family to obtain wealth, distinction, fame, self aggrandizement and self-indulgence? Have I not been living all this time to myself and for my own little circle of relations and friends? What has my religion done towards making me a Christian after the pattern of Jesus? What has my morality amounted to but worldly decency? And have I not done some things in secret, in spite of all my religion and morality, which if known to the world would plunge me into the depths of disgrace? What have I to boast of? Why am I so intent on punishing instead of forgiving and reforming my less fortunate fellow sinners? Would not such a self-examination as this essentially humble and chasten many a self-righteous soul? The truth is, if one hundredth part of what the better classes of society now acquire contrary to the law of love and expend on themselves to their positive hurt were faithfully devoted to the prevention and reformation of crime, scarce an offender would remain in society. If no more than what is expended in detecting, trying and punishing criminals were judiciously applied to their work of prevention and reformation, it would accomplish 10 times more for society than it now does. But alas, as undertakers live and flourish by burying the dead, so there are not a few in the present organization of society who live by hunting and punishing criminals. And yet many of the worst offenders luxuriate in perfect impunity, fortified by bulwarks impregnable to the penal laws. At the same time, the ordinary acquisition of property by what are called the better classes, the criers out for punishment punishment, is only a fashionable species of gambling and extortion in which the cunning, the fortunate, and the unscrupulous carry off the stakes amid the perpetual grumblings of the unlucky losers. Besides this, intemperance and licentiousness are permitted to allure millions through their licensed portals to the chambers of hell and slavery shakes her whips and chains over a sixth portion of a professedly free people under the protection of our star-spangled banner. Is it any wonder that such a state of things, such a religion, such a morality, such unbridled acquisitiveness, such selfishness, and such oppression of the governing portion should breed, foster, and perpetuate all manner of vice and crime in the underclasses of society? Not at all. Therefore, Christian non-resistance protests against the wickedness of the punishing as well as the punished classes. It proposes and insists on a radical reform. And when this reform shall have gone forward to a certain point, a government untainted by military power or penal injury will be both practicable and certain. To show that such a government is possible, I will now present a clear, discriminating, irrefutable extract from Mr. Guizot, Prime Minister of France. Extract from Mr. Guizot's lectures. Is it not forming a gross and degrading idea of government to suppose that it resides only to suppose that it resides chiefly in the force which it exercises to make itself obeyed in its coercive element? Let us quit religion for a moment and turn to civil government. Trace with me, I beseech you, the simple march of circumstances. Society exists. Something is to be done, no matter what, in its name and for its interest. A law has to be executed. Some measure to be adopted, a judgment to be pronounced. Now, certainly, there is a proper method of supplying these social wants. There is a proper law to make, a proper measure to adopt, a proper judgment to pronounce. Whatever may be the matter in hand, whatever may be the interest in question, there is, upon every occasion, a truth which must be discovered and which ought to decide the matter and govern the conduct to be adopted. The first business of government is to seek this truth, is to discover what is just reasonable and suitable to society. When this is found, it is proclaimed, the next business is to introduce it to the public mind, to get it approved by the man upon whom it is to act, to persuade them that it is reasonable. In all this, is there anything coercive? Not at all. Suppose now that the truth which ought to decide upon the affair, no matter what, suppose I say that the truth being found and proclaimed, all understanding should be at once convinced, all wills at once determined, that all should acknowledge that the government was right and obey it spontaneously. There is nothing yet of compulsion, no occasion for the employment of force. Does it follow then that a government does not exist? Is there nothing of government in all this? To be sure there is, and it has accomplished its task. Compulsion appears not till the resistance of individuals calls for it, till the idea, the decision which authority has adopted, fails to obtain the approbation or the voluntary submission of all. Then government deploys force to make itself obeyed. This is a necessary consequence of human imperfection, an imperfection which resides as well in power as in society. There is no way of entirely avoiding this. Civil governments will always be obliged to have recourse in a certain degree to compulsion. Still it is evident they are not made up of compulsion because whenever they can, they are glad to do without it, to the great blessing of all. And their highest point of perfection is to be able to discard it and trust to means purely moral to their influence upon the understanding so that in proportion as government can dispense with compulsion and force, the more faithful it is in its true nature and the better it fulfills the purpose for which it is sent. This is not to shrink, this is not to give away as people commonly cry out. It is merely acting in a different manner, in a manner more general and powerful. Those governments which employ the most compulsion perform much less than those which scarcely ever have recourse to it. Government, by addressing itself to the understanding, by engaging the free will of its subjects, by acting by means purely intellectual instead of contracting, expands and elevates itself. It is then that it accomplishes most and attains to the highest objects. On the contrary, it is when a government is obliged to be constantly employing its physical arm that it becomes weak and restrained, that it does little and does that little badly. The essence of government then by no means resides in compulsion in the exercise of brute force. It consists more especially of a system of means and powers conceived for the purpose of discovering upon all occasions what is best to be done for the purpose of discovering the truth which by right ought to govern society for the purpose of persuading all men to acknowledge this truth, to adopt and respect it willingly and freely. Thus I think I have shown that the necessity for and the existence of a government are very conceivable even though there should be no room for compulsion, even though it should be absolutely forbidden. History of Civilization in Europe, lecture five. Conclusion. Is this satisfactory? Is this conclusive? It ought to be so. It is not the language of a non-resistant enthusiast, a utopian dreamer, but of Montsur-Gousseau, the intelligent and accomplished Prime Minister of Louis-Philippe, let the arrogant condemners of the idea of a pure Christian government resolve the matter and consider whether their skepticism arises out of knowledge or ignorance. To a sound mind, the case admits of little doubt. The great prerequisite to the establishment of such a government has already been pointed out. It is religious, moral and intellectual reform among the people, super inducing in them a more Christian faith, a more Christian conscience, a more enlightened intellect and a purer morality. This noble work non-resistance espouses and will unfalteringly prosecute to its blessed consummation. To carry it forward, the faithful will lay aside pecuniary, political, military and all worldly ambition, every weight that encumbers and press forward to the mark for the prize of their high calling in Christ Jesus, enduring the cross and despising the shame till they enter into his glory and partake of the true majesty of his kingdom. He is king of kings and lord of lords and the kingdoms of this world shall at length become his in righteousness and peace. I've thought at gentle and un-gentle hour of many an act and giant shape of power, of bruised rites and flourishing bad men and virtue-wasting heavenwards from a den, brute force and fury and the devilish drowth, of the foul cannon's ever-gaping mouth and the bride-widdling sword and the harsh bray, the sneering trumpet sends across the fray and all which blights the people-thinning star that selfishness invokes the hoarse war, panting along with many a bloody mane. I've thought of all this pride and all this pain and all the insolent plenitudes of power and I declare by this most quiet hour that power itself has not one half the might of gentleness, it is want to all true wealth, the uneasy madman's force of the wise health.