MARCH 1, 1916 



213 



NON-BESISTANCE ; AND DID JESUS MEAN TO SAY 



THAT WE SHOULD NOT PROTECT OURSELVES AS 



A PEOPLE AND AS A NATION ? 



A. I. Root: — Properly speaking, Jesus did not 

 say, " Resist not evil." The Greek word which is 

 translated "resist" in Matt. 5:39 is translated else- 

 where in onr English Bible either "resist" or "with- 

 stand." It is used in fourteen places in the Bible — 

 Matt. 5:39; Luke 21:15; Acts 6:10, 13:8; Rom. 

 9:19, 13:2 twice; Gal. 2:11; Eph. 6:13; 2 Tim. 

 3:8 twice; 4:15; James 4:7; 1 Peter 5:9. An in- 

 spection of these places will show that the word 

 cannot be supposed to carry in itself any particular 

 reference to the xisc of physical force. A fuller 

 study of this Greek word (which is just as open- 

 faced a compound as the English " overthrow" or 

 "outrun") shows that it does not express the idea 

 of any activity at all, but simply of taking an atti- 

 tude or staying in an attitude, while "resist" 

 necessarily expresses the idea of an activity directed 

 against the antagonistic person or thing. Tn this 

 respect " oppose" would be a more exact transla- 

 tion, though "oppose" would not be very perfect 

 either. 



Since the word does not express anjthing so par- 

 ticular as the use of physical force, we have to judge 

 of its force m this passage from the connection. The 

 connection is along such lines as these: Do not 

 make a point of seeing to it that every misdeed is 

 paid off. but bear petty outrages without setting 

 yourself in opposition. It is very important to note 

 that all Jesus' instances are of petty outrages. Now, 

 a man chooses his instances so as to be appropriate 

 to his meaning. It would be perfectly ridiculous if 

 a man meaning to say that we should not resist an 

 attempt at murder or the robbery of a lifetime's sav- ' 

 ings were to express this by saying, "Do not resist a 

 slap on the cheek or an extortion of half an hour's 

 work." Now, even among those who are (as An- 

 acharsis Clootz -said of himself) "personal enemies 

 of Jesus Christ," nobody denies that Jesus knew 

 how to express himstif tellingly. If Jesus knew 



how to eN press himself as intelligibly as ordinary 

 men, then by those words about a blow on the cheek, 

 etc., he did not mean the most serious outrages. 



My understanding of the meaning is like this. A 

 Christian is concerned in this world with things he 

 is to recognize as much more important than stand- 

 ing up for his rights; properly, standing up for liis 

 rights is no object at all to him ; and if he is to 

 stand up for his rights whenever they are violated 

 he will have no time left for his Christian duties; 

 besides, the fact that standing up for his rights will 

 sometimes work against the objects that he as a 

 Christian is pursuing. So ho should not make it 

 a rule to stand up for his rights. But if the things 

 that are being dom? to him are such as to interfere 

 with his doing the things that it is his Christian 

 business to do, then it is a part of his Christian busi- 

 ness to put out of the way whoever and whatever 

 interferes, provided that it does not cost more in 

 time, nerve-force, and arousing of hostility, than it 

 is worth. 



At present a mighty attempt is being made in the 

 world to give war the right of way; to insist that, 

 when war is started, interests of peace must give 

 way to interests of war. If this attempt should be 

 successful, it would set back the cause of peace at 

 least a century. Anything that we can honestly and 

 lawfully do to defeat this attempt, whether by sell- 

 ing arms or otherwise, is well done. A great deal 

 of the talk about the exportation of arms leaves out 

 of account tlie fact that the actual exportation of 

 arms is simply helping honest and peace-loving peo- 

 ple to defeat violent crime. It is as if I saw .John 

 Doe jump up and begin shooting at Richard Roe 

 because Doe had heard Crazy Joe say that Roe 

 meant to steal Doc's chickens, and I should hand 

 Roe a gun, since the circumstances were such that 

 Roe must fight or go under, and the people should 

 tell me I was doing — well, very unchristianly by 

 helping to arm a fight. 



Steven T. Byington. 



Ballard Vale, Mass., June 25. 



POULTRY DEPARTMENT 



HOW TO MAKE HENS STOP' LAYING? 



" Whew ! " says some one. " Why should 

 anybody want to make hens stop laying? " 

 Well, it's somethinfr like tlie boy who wrote 

 a composition on pins. He said pins liad 

 been the means of saving many lives. When 

 the teacher asked him to explain in what 

 way pins saved lives, he replied, " By not 

 swallowing of 'em." Again, don't you know 

 that, when our great doctors \v:int to get 

 control of an epidemic, they first proceed to 

 cultivate the bacteria, and when they can 

 get it to growing in their " pure culture? " 

 (I think they call it) they can then formu- 

 late an antidote. Xow to business. 



When T first got here, as usual our 60 

 hens began to increase in laying; but after 

 thej- got up to about 18 eggs a day, to my 

 surprise (and disgust) they dwindled back 

 to only five or six a day. T told neighbor 

 Abbott about it, and when he found I was 

 giving them a mash of shorts and boiJ[e(^ 



sweet potatoes he said at once that sweet 

 potatoes, either raw or cooked, would "stop 

 hens laying." He added further, " You can 

 give them to your growing stock, sitting 

 hens, or hens with chickens, or to a pen of 

 roosters, but never to laying hens." 



I stopped the sweet potatoes, and soon T 

 had toward two dozen eggs a day. Let me 

 explain further. 



A year ago we .set out sweet potatoes in 

 December and January, and I didn't get 

 back here to dig them for almost a year. 

 They were not only very large, but very 

 poor. We used the best for the table, and 

 boiled the rest for mash, as explained; in 

 fact, some of them were partly decayed ; 

 but as the fowls ate them greedily I thought 

 it would do no harm. Now, is it only had 

 sweet potatoes that stops laying? Mr. Ab- 

 bott thinks not. A neighbor's hens got into 

 the sweet potatoes, dug them up, and ale 

 them raw, and vei-y ^ox\ )ie did not get an 



