Adin Ballou

“ Your Father loves his enemies, blesses those that curse him, and does good to them that hate him. Else the sun would not shine as it does on the evil, nor the rain distil on the unjust, nor salvation descend from heaven for the lost. Imbibe the spirit of your Father. Imitate his goodness to the unthankful and evil. ”

“ But if, while we sue for mercy, we exercise none towards the guilty; if while we pray for forgiveness, we meditate vengeance against our offenders; if while we ask to be treated infinitely better than we deserve, we hold those who have trespassed against us punishable at our hands according to their deserts, we at once betray our own insincerity, offer mockery to God, and present an impassable bar of hardheartedness to his love and mercy. He is essentially a forgiving Father, but he will not, indeed cannot communicate his forgiveness to us. Our spirit is in opposition to his spirit ”

“ What professed Christian can erect the gibbet, or light the faggot, or draw out the rack, or contrive any injurious punishment, or gird on any weapon of war, or give his sanction to any cruelty, by individuals or society, and yet plead that he is in the spirit and practice of this his Lord's commandment? Does that man love his enemies, bless those who curse him, do good to those that hate him and pray for his injurers, who hangs, or shoots, or tortures, or stones them, or holds himself sworn to inflict any such evils? But let us hear the Savior urge his own precepts. ”

“ The defense of our persons and property they knew not how to reconcile with the patient doctrine, that enjoined an unlimited forgiveness of past injuries, and commanded them to invite fresh insults. Their simplicity was offended by the use of oaths, by the pomp of magistracy, and by the active contention of public life; nor could their humane ignorance be convinced that it was lawful, on any occasion, to shed the blood of their fellow creatures, either by the sword of justice or that of war, even though their criminal and hostile attempts should threaten the whole community ... ”

“ That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? ”

“ The truly Christian individual could not devise, execute, or abet any injury against an offending fellow man. What then would a truly Christian family, neighborhood, community, state or nation do? Could they act any other than the non-resistant part toward their foes and injurers? If they loved, blessed, benefited, and prayed for the worst of aggressors and offenders, what a spectacle would be presented! What a conquest would be achieved over all evil-doers! ”

“ Should anyone affirm that Jesus prohibits all kinds and degrees of resistance to evil, he could sustain his affirmation only by insisting on the literal expression, and would make the Savior contradict himself, his own example, and the common sense of mankind. Should anyone affirm, on the other hand, that Jesus did not intend to abrogate and prohibit all the personal and judicial inflictions of evil on offenders, authorized by the fore-cited sayings of Moses, he would find himself in an equally perplexing dilemma. ”

“ No such spirit might be indulged. Because the Son of man came not to destroy men's lives, but to save them. Therefore non-resistance of evil with evil must be the invariable rule of action for his disciples forever. They must never destroy men's lives, but endeavor to save them. Even the holy one, at his betrayal into the hands of a mob, might not be defended with the sword by a Peter, because all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword. "The wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God." Evil cannot be overcome with evil. ”

“ Recompense to no man evil for evil ... Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord. Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good. ”

“ Life ought to be taken for life, and various evils inflicted on evil-doers, as a just punishment; and self-defense ought to be maintained, even to the infliction of death in extreme cases; but all should be done without revenge, without unnecessary cruelty, and in pure love to the offender, as well as with a sacred reverence for the law." In this way Jesus is smoothly construed to have really said nothing at all - practically nothing that Moses and the ancients had not said. ”

“ One says, "It is not lawful for a Christian to bear arms." Another: "Because I am a Christian, I have abandoned my profession of a soldier." A third: "I am a Christian, and therefore I cannot fight." A fourth, Maximilian: "I cannot fight, if I die; I am not a soldier of this world, but a soldier of God." ”

“ Why do ye not rather take wrong? why do ye not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded? [1 Cor. 6:1,7]
For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds; casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. ”

“ Because Jesus himself had before declared in the same discourse:
Think not that I am come to destroy the law and the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. ”

“ Jesus has brought it as a live coal from off the altar of God, and laid it on our consciences. Can the utmost ingenuity of man avoid the conclusion which these precepts of Christ, respecting forgiveness, are thus shown to warrant? I think not. Yet millions of professing Christians authorize, aid, and abet war, capital punishment, and the whole catalogue of penal injuries. Still they daily pray God to forgive their trespasses as they forgive! ”

“ Resist not injury with injury. Inflict not evil in opposing evil. It hath been so commanded in time past, as a means of suppressing and preventing evil among men; "but I say unto you, that ye resist not evil-doing with inflictions of evil."
Nothing can be plainer, than that, so far as Moses and his expounders enjoined the infliction of penal personal injuries in resistance of injuries, and for the suppression of evil doing, Jesus Christ prohibits the same. He enjoins his disciples never to resist evil with such inflictions. ”

“ My beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath: for the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God ... From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. ”

“ Therefore he enjoins that we forgive our fellow men their trespasses against us, as we beseech God to forgive us the sins we have committed against him. He requires that we do unto others as we would that God should do unto us. He commands us to refrain from punishing our offenders, and still to do them good, as we would that God should continue to forbear with and do us good, notwithstanding our sins. And if we freely forgive while we pray to be forgiven, this will attest our sincerity, and fit our spirits for the reception of the divine forgiveness. ”

“ With equal abhorrence of idolatry, and of all the crimes of those who are holden to be outlaws and doomed enemies under the former Testament, but in striking contrast with the authorized hatred and vengeance exercised towards them, Jesus says, love, bless, do good to, and pray for them, even though they be your bitter foes and persecutors. He includes among enemies, haters and persecutors, all injurers, whether personal, social, religious or national. ”

“ Never do we find them aspiring to places of power; never distinguishing themselves in the army; never wheedling and coaxing the worldly great to shed on them the renown of their official influence; never engaged in rebellions, riots, tumults, or seditions; never trusting in carnal weapons for the security of their persons, not even in the most barbarous and ruffian-like society ”

“ Salute and befriend, not only your own kindred, friends and intimate associates, but all men, however strangers or hostile to you. Aspire continually to be perfectly, independently good to all, as your Father in heaven is. ”

“ Death is death, torture is torture, injury is injury, howsoever gently and politely inflicted. And there is a kind of fitness in having stern-hearted, severe-natured persons to execute such sentences. ”

“ Still another argues that Jesus, though he preached strict non-resistance, as to the duty of his followers in all strictly religious matters, nevertheless left them perfectly free in secular matters, to resist, litigate, and make war at discretion. That is, while attending purely to religious duties, and propagating Christianity by divinely appointed means, they must suffer all manner of personal abuse, insult, outrage, persecution. and violence, without offering the least resistance, either by individual force of arms or prosecutions at law. ”

“ After her accusers had declined executing the penalty, Jesus said, "Neither do I condemn thee" (i.e. to death) "go and sin no more."
These and similar passages are impressive practical comments on the positive doctrinal precepts of the Savior. His Kingdom is not of this world, and therefore excludes all military and warlike defenses. His ministers are sent forth unarmed, like sheep in the midst of wolves. They are therefore to be wise as serpents, and harmless as doves. All things must be conducted on the non-resistant principle. There must be no political strife for the highest place ”

“ When we pretend to prove a doctrine, we ought not only to quote passages which sound well to the ear, but to demonstrate that those passages cannot fairly be construed into any other sense than that in which we take them. ”

“ Be his children. Be not content barely to love them that love you. Love, forbear with, benefit and seek to save even the guilty and undeserving. Else what higher are ye in the moral scale, than the publicans? ”

“ We both hunger and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no certain dwelling place ... Being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we suffer it; being defamed, we entreat: we are made as the filth of the world, the offscouring of all things. ”

“ Ever make use of any deadly weapon? Ever serve in the Army or Navy of any nation, state or chieftain? Ever seek or accept any office, legislative, judicial or executive, under the existing governments of their day? ”

“ Instead of smiting back and giving wound for wound, or going to the magistrate to get thy assailant punished, as the olden sayings authorize, endure to be smitten again and again. If under color of the law thy coat be taken from thee, withhold not thy cloak. Sue not back to recover thy spoiled goods. If men force thee to go whither they will, become their prisoner without turbulence. ”

“ To whom does Jesus refer as having said, "an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth"? To Moses and his expounders.
Read the following passages. Speaking of injury done to a woman in pregnancy:
And if any mischief follow, then, thou shalt give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe. [Ex. 21:23-25]
If a man cause a blemish in his neighbor; as he hath done, so shall it be done to him; breach for breach, eye for eye, tooth for tooth: as he hath caused a blemish in a man, so shall it be done to him. ”

“ It is for him to say whether the wrongs done him are of sufficient moment to justify litigation, retaliation, or personal resistance; and the consequence is, that small offenses, insults and injuries, are rare. Nearly all are too great to be endured. ”

“ It is important to explode them, in order to secure the conviction of an order of minds, at once conscientious and intelligent, but liable to be misled by the confident special pleadings of those from whom they have been accustomed to receive their religious opinions. ”

“ If we forgive not, but persist in punishing them that trespass against us, and yet pray to be forgiven of God as we forgive, we only call on God to be ns severe and punitive towards us, as we are towards our fellow men. ”