n of truth. Not all of those who have really desired to do
good have employed the Christian method--not all Christians even. In the
history of the human race but two methods have been used. The first is
the forcible method, and it has been employed most frequently. A man has
an idea which he thinks is good; he tells his neighbors about it and
they do not like it. This makes him angry; he thinks it would be so
much better for them if they would like it, and, seizing a club, he
attempts to make them like it. But one trouble about this rule is that
it works both ways; when a man starts out to compel his neighbors to
think as he does, he generally finds them willing to accept the
challenge and they spend so much time in trying to coerce each other
that they have no time left to do each other good.

The other is the Bible plan--"Be not overcome of evil but overcome evil
with good." And there is no other way of overcoming evil. I am not much
of a farmer--I get more credit for my farming than I deserve, and my
little farm receives more advertising than it is entitled to. But I am
farmer enough to know that if I cut down weeds they will spring up
again; and farmer enough to know that if I plant something there which
has more vitality than the weeds I shall not only get rid of the
constant cutting, but have the benefit of the crop besides.

In order that there might be no mistake in His plan of propagating the
truth, Christ went into detail and laid emphasis upon the value of
example--"So live that others seeing your good works may be constrained
to glorify your Father which is in Heaven." There is no human influence
so potent for good as that which goes out from an upright life. A sermon
may be answered; the arguments presented in a speech may be disputed,
but no one can answer a Christian life--it is the unanswerable argument
in favor of our religion.

It may be a slow process--this conversion of the world by the silent
influence of a noble example--but it is the only sure one, and the
doctrine applies to nations as well as to individuals. The Gospel of the
Prince of Peace gives us the only hope that the world has--and it is an
increasing hope--of the substitution of reason for the arbitrament of
force in the settlement of international disputes. And our nation ought
not to wait for other nations--it ought to take the lead and prove its
faith in the omnipotence of truth.

But Christ has given us a platform so fundamental th