rejected the former law of force: eye for eye, tooth ior tooth, and thereby rejected the entire world order based on that law, that he substituted a new law of love of all people without distinction, instituting thereby a new order of the world, based not upon force, but upon the law of love for all men without distinction. And some men having grasped the true significance of this teaching, foreseeing that an application of this teaching of life would destroy all the benefits and advantages enjoyed by them, crucified Christ, and still are crucifying His disciples. Other men, however, likewise having grasped the true meaning of His teaching, were content in times past and are content to this day to mount the Cross, thereby hastening the time when the world will be ruled by the law of love,
2. The teaching of not opposing force to evil is not some new law, but merely points people to an unjustifiable transgression of the law of love, merely demonstrates to people that the admission of any act of violence against one's neighbor, either for the purpose of retribution, or to save oneself or one's neighbor from evil is incompatible with love.
3. Nothing so hinders the improvement in the life of people as the desire to improve it by acts of force. And force used by one set of men upon others more than anything else turns the people from the one thing that could improve their life, namely, the desire to become better.
4. Only those men who find it profitable to order the life of others can believe that force can improve the life of others. But people who have fallen into this delusion ought to see clearly that human life can change for the better only as the result of an inner spiritual change, and never as the result of force employed upon them by others.
5. The less a man is satisfied with himself or with his
inner life, the more he manifests himself in the external, in the public life.
In order not to fall into tliis error, man should understand and remember that he has as little call or right to order the life of others, as others have to order his, and that he and all people are called only to strive after their inner perfection, all men have the right to this one thing and qnly by this alone can they influence the life of others.
6. Frequently men lead an evil life merely because they attend to ordering the life of others instead of their own. They seem to think that their life is only an individual one, and therefore, less important than the life of many, of all. But they forget that while they Have the power of ordering their own life, they cannot order the life of others.
7. If the time and energy spent by people now upon ordering the life of others were spent upon combating their own sins, that which they strive for, namely, the attainment of the best possible order of life, would come about very speedily.
8. Man has power only over himself. He can order only his own life as he finds good and proper. And yet almost everybody is busy ordering the life of others, and because of that very anxiety to order the life of others, they in turn submit to lite as ordered for them by others.
9. Ordering the common life of men by means of acts supported by force, without regard to their inner perfecting, is like reconstructing a fallen building with rough hewn stones and without the use of cement. No matter how you pile them up, you achieve nothing, and the structure must fall.
10. When Socrates, the philosopher, was asked where he was born, he replied: "On earth." When he was asked what country he came from, he replied: "The Universe."
We must remember that before God we are all the residents of one and the same earth, and that we are all under the supreme law of God.
The law of God is always the same for all people.
11. No man can be either an instrument or a purpose. Therein is his worth. And as he cannot dispose of himself at any price (which would be against his dignity), neither has he the right to dispose of the life of others; in other words, he is bound to acknowledge the dignity of the human calling in every man, and therefore must express his respect to every man. Kant,
12. For what have men reason, if you cannot influence them, excepting by the use of force ?
13. Men are rational beings, and therefore can live by the guidance of reason and eventually are bound to substitute free agreement for the use of force. But each act of force postpones this time.
14. How strange. Man is embittered by evil proceeding from without, from others, evil which he cannot prevent, yet does not fight against the evil within himself, although this is subject to his power. Marcus Aurelius.
15. Men can be taught by the exposition of truth and by good example, but not by being forced to do that which they do not wish to do.
16. If men only sought to save themselves, instead of saving the world; to free themselves instead of freeing humanity; how much could they accomplish for the salvation of the world and for the freedom of humanity.
Hert2en.
17. By fulfilling his inner purpose and by living for his soul, man unconsciously and most effectively works for the betterment of public life.
18. In their youth men believe that it is the calling of mankind to strive constantly after perfection, and that it is possible, even easy, to correct all mankind, to destroy all vices and misery. These dreams are not ridiculous, on the contrary, they contain more truth than the ideas of old men, who are steeped in error, when these men, after living a life contrary to man's nature, undertake to advise others to wish for nothing, to strive for nothing, and to live like animals.
The mistake of these youthful dreams is only in the proneness at youth to relegate the striving after perfection of self and soul to others.
Attend to your business in life, perfecting and improving your soul, and be convinced that only thus will you most fruitfully assist the improvement in the common life.
19. If you see that the social order is evil, and you desire to correct it, remember that there is only one way: that is for all people to become better; but to make all people better you have only one means: become better yourself,
20. In every case where force is used, apply reasonable suasion, and you will seldom suffer loss in the worldly sense, and will be far ahead spiritually.
21. Our life would be beautiful if we only could see that which violates our happiness. But our happiness is mostly violated by the superstition that force can give happiness.
22. The security and the happiness of the society is assured only by the morality of its members. But morality has for its foundation love, which excludes force.
23. The imminent change of the order of life tor the people living in our Christian world consists in the substitution of the law of love for that of force, and in the rwogni-
tion of the fact that the blessedness of life based not upon force and the fear of it, but upon love, is possible and can be easily attained, and such change can never come by force. 24. One can live according to Christ, and one can live according to 'Satan. Living according to Christ is living like human beings, loving people, doing good and repaying good for evil. Living according to Satan is living like beasts, loving self alone, and repaying evil with evil. The more we try to live according to Christ, the more love and happiness will reign among men. The more we live according to Satan, the more miserable will be our life.
The commandment of love shows two paths: on the one hand, the path of truth, the path of Christ, which is the path of life and good,—and on the other, the path of delusion, the path of hypocrisy, the path of death; and though it may appear terrible to relinquish the use of force in self-defence, we know that in this yielding is the way of salvation.