I

the sentiment of hatred, the root of all evil. To offend another, because he offended us, for the specious reason of removing an evil, means to repeat an evil deed, both against him and against ourselves⁠—to beget, or at least to free, to encourage, the very demon whom we claim we wish to expel. Satan cannot be driven out by Satan, untruth cannot be cleansed by untruth, and evil cannot be vanquished by evil. True nonresistance is the one true resistance to evil. It kills and finally destroys the evil sentiment. Q. But, if the idea of the doctrine is right, is it practicable? A. It is as practicable as any good prescribed by the Law of God. The good cannot under all circumstances be executed without self-renunciation, privation, suffering, and, in extreme cases, without the loss of life itself. But he who values life more than the fulfilment of God’s will is already dead to the one true life. Such a man, in trying to save his life, shall lose it. Besides, in general, where nonresistance costs the sacrifice of one life, or the sacrifice of some essential good of life, resistance costs thousands of such sacrifices. Nonresistance preserves, resistance destroys. It is incomparably safer to act justly than unjustly; to bear an insult than to resist it with violence⁠—it is safer even in relation to the present life. If all men did not resist evil with evil, the world would be blessed. Q. But if only a few shall act thus, what will become of them? A. If only one man acted thus, and all the others agreed to crucify him, would it not be more glorious for him to die in the triumph of non-resisting love, praying for his enemies, than to live wearing the crown of Caesar, bespattered with the blood of the slain? But one or thousands who have firmly determined not to resist evil with evil, whether among the enlightened