The Kingdom of God Is Within You by Leo Nikoleyevich Tolstoy (reading diary .txt) 📖

sect, which for more than

two hundred years has actually professed the teaching of Christ on

nonresistance to evil by force, and does not make use of weapons

in self-defense. The Quakers sent me books, from which I learnt

how they had, years ago, established beyond doubt the duty for a

Christian of fulfilling the command of nonresistance to evil by

force, and had exposed the error of the Church’s teaching in

allowing war and capital punishment.

 

In a whole series of arguments and texts showing that war—that

is, the wounding and killing of men—is inconsistent with a

religion founded on peace and good will toward men, the Quakers

maintain and prove that nothing has contributed so much to the

obscuring of Christian truth in the eyes of the heathen, and has

hindered so much the diffusion of Christianity through the world,

as the disregard of this command by men calling themselves

Christians, and the permission of war and violence to Christians.

 

“Christ’s teaching, which came to be known to men, not by means of

violence and the sword,” they say, “but by means of nonresistance

to evil, gentleness, meekness, and peaceableness, can only be

diffused through the world by the example of peace, harmony, and

love among its followers.”

 

“A Christian, according to the teaching of God himself, can act

only peaceably toward all men, and therefore there can be no

authority able to force the Christian to act in opposition to the

teaching of God and to the principal virtue of the Christian in

his relation with his neighbors.”

 

“The law of state necessity,” they say, “can force only those to

change the law of God who, for the sake of earthly gains, try to

reconcile the irreconcilable; but for a Christian who sincerely

believes that following Christ’s teaching will give him salvation,

such considerations of state can have no force.”

 

Further acquaintance with the labors of the Quakers and their

works—with Fox, Penn, and especially the work of Dymond

(published in 1827)—showed me not only that the impossibility of

reconciling Christianity with force and war had been recognized

long, long ago, but that this irreconcilability had been long ago

proved so clearly and so indubitably that one could only wonder

how this impossible reconciliation of Christian teaching with the

use of force, which has been, and is still, preached in the

churches, could have been maintained in spite of it.

 

In addition to what I learned from the Quakers I received about

the same time, also from America, some information on the subject

from a source perfectly distinct and previously unknown to me.

 

The son of William Lloyd Garrison, the famous champion of the

emancipation of the negroes, wrote to me that he had read my book,

in which he found ideas similar to those expressed by his father

in the year 1838, and that, thinking it would be interesting to me

to know this, he sent me a declaration or proclamation of “nonresistance” drawn up by his father nearly fifty years ago.

 

This declaration came about under the following circumstances:

William Lloyd Garrison took part in a discussion on the means of

suppressing war in the Society for the Establishment of Peace

among Men, which existed in 1838 in America. He came to the

conclusion that the establishment of universal peace can only be

founded on the open profession of the doctrine of nonresistance

to evil by violence (Matt. v. 39), in its full significance, as

understood by the Quakers, with whom Garrison happened to be on

friendly relations. Having come to this conclusion, Garrison

thereupon composed and laid before the society a declaration,

which was signed at the time—in 1838—by many members.

 

“DECLARATION OF SENTIMENTS ADOPTED BY PEACE CONVENTION.

“Boston, 1838.

 

“We the undersigned, regard it as due to ourselves, to the

cause which we love, to the country in which we live, to

publish a declaration expressive of the purposes we aim to

accomplish and the measures we shall adopt to carry forward the

work of peaceful universal reformation.

 

“We do not acknowledge allegiance to any human government. We

recognize but one King and Lawgiver, one Judge and Ruler of

mankind. Our country is the world, our countrymen are all

mankind. We love the land of our nativity only as we love all

other lands. The interests and rights of American citizens are

not dearer to us than those of the whole human race. Hence we

can allow no appeal to patriotism to revenge any national

insult or injury…

 

“We conceive that a nation has no right to defend itself

against foreign enemies or to punish its invaders, and no

individual possesses that right in his own case, and the unit

cannot be of greater importance than the aggregate. If

soldiers thronging from abroad with intent to commit rapine and

destroy life may not be resisted by the people or the

magistracy, then ought no resistance to be offered to domestic

troublers of the public peace or of private security.

 

“The dogma that all the governments of the world are

approvingly ordained of God, and that the powers that be in the

United States, in Russia, in Turkey, are in accordance with his

will, is no less absurd than impious. It makes the impartial

Author of our existence unequal and tyrannical. It cannot be

affirmed that the powers that be in any nation are actuated by

the spirit or guided by the example of Christ in the treatment

of enemies; therefore they cannot be agreeable to the will of

God, and therefore their overthrow by a spiritual regeneration

of their subjects is inevitable.

 

“We regard as unchristian and unlawful not only all wars,

whether offensive or defensive, but all preparations for war;

every naval ship, every arsenal, every fortification, we regard

as unchristian and unlawful; the existence of any kind of

standing army, all military chieftains, all monuments

commemorative of victory over a fallen foe, all trophies won in

battle, all celebrations in honor of military exploits, all

appropriations for defense by arms; we regard as unchristian

and unlawful every edict of government requiring of its

subjects military service.

 

“Hence we deem it unlawful to bear arms, and we cannot hold any

office which imposes on its incumbent the obligation to compel

men to do right on pain of imprisonment or death. We therefore

voluntarily exclude ourselves from every legislative and

judicial body, and repudiate all human politics, worldly

honors, and stations of authority. If we cannot occupy a seat

in the legislature or on the bench, neither can we elect others

to act as our substitutes in any such capacity. It follows

that we cannot sue any man at law to force him to return

anything he may have wrongly taken from us; if he has seized

our coat, we shall surrender him our cloak also rather than

subject him to punishment.

 

“We believe that the penal code of the old covenant—an eye for

an eye, and a tooth for a tooth—has been abrogated by Jesus

Christ, and that under the new covenant the forgiveness instead

of the punishment of enemies has been enjoined on all his

disciples in all cases whatsoever. To extort money from

enemies, cast them into prison, exile or execute them, is

obviously not to forgive but to take retribution.

 

“The history of mankind is crowded with evidences proving that

physical coercion is not adapted to moral regeneration, and

that the sinful dispositions of men can be subdued only by

love; that evil can be exterminated only by good; that it is

not safe to rely upon the strength of an arm to preserve us

from harm; that there is great security in being gentle, long-suffering, and abundant in mercy; that it is only the meek who

shall inherit the earth; for those who take up the sword shall

perish by the sword.

 

“Hence as a measure of sound policy—of safety to property,

life, and liberty—of public quietude and private enjoyment—as

well as on the ground of allegiance to Him who is King of kings

and Lord of lords, we cordially adopt the nonresistance

principle, being confident that it provides for all possible

consequences, is armed with omnipotent power, and must

ultimately triumph over every assailing force.

 

“We advocate no Jacobinical doctrines. The spirit of

Jacobinism is the spirit of retaliation, violence, and murder.

It neither fears God nor regards man. We would be filled with

the spirit of Christ. If we abide evil by our fundamental

principle of not opposing evil by evil we cannot participate in

sedition, treason, or violence. We shall submit to every

ordinance and every requirement of government, except such as

are contrary to the commands of the Gospel, and in no case

resist the operation of law, except by meekly submitting to the

penalty of disobedience.

 

“But while we shall adhere to the doctrine of nonresistance

and passive submission to enemies, we purpose, in a moral and

spiritual sense, to assail iniquity in high places and in low

places, to apply our principles to all existing evil,

political, legal, and ecclesiastical institutions, and to

hasten the time when the kingdoms of this world will have

become the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. It appears to us

a self-evident truth that whatever the Gospel is designed to

destroy at any period of the world, being contrary to it, ought

now to be abandoned. If, then, the time is predicted when

swords shall be beaten into plowshares and spears into pruning

hooks, and men shall not learn the art of war any more, it

follows that all who manufacture, sell, or wield these deadly

weapons do thus array themselves against the peaceful dominion

of the Son of God on earth.

 

“Having thus stated our principles, we proceed to specify the

measures we propose to adopt in carrying our object into

effect.

 

“We expect to prevail through the Foolishness of Preaching. We

shall endeavor to promulgate our views among all persons, to

whatever nation, sect, or grade of society they may belong.

Hence we shall organize public lectures, circulate tracts and

publications, form societies, and petition every governing

body. It will be our leading object to devise ways and means

for effecting a radical change in the views, feelings, and

practices of society respecting the sinfulness of war and the

treatment of enemies.

 

“In entering upon the great work before us, we are not

unmindful that in its prosecution we may be called to test

our sincerity even as in a fiery ordeal. It may subject us to

insult, outrage, suffering, yea, even death itself. We

anticipate no small amount of misconception, misrepresentation,

and calumny. Tumults may arise against us. The proud and

pharisaical, the ambitious and tyrannical, principalities and

powers, may combine to crush us. So they treated the Messiah

whose example we are humbly striving to imitate. We shall not

be afraid of their terror. Our confidence is in the Lord

Almighty and not in man. Having withdrawn from human

protection, what can sustain us but that faith which overcomes

the world? We shall not think it strange concerning the fiery

trial which is to try us, but rejoice inasmuch as we are

partakers of Christ’s sufferings.

 

“Wherefore we commit the keeping of our souls to God. For every

one that forsakes houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father,

or mother, or wife, or children, or lands for Christ’s sake,

shall receive a hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting

life.

 

“Firmly relying upon the certain and universal triumph of the

sentiments contained in this declaration, however formidable

may be the opposition arrayed against them, we hereby affix our

signatures to it; commending it to the reason and conscience of

mankind, and resolving, in the strength of the Lord God, to

calmly and meekly abide the issue.”

 

Immediately after