The Kingdom of God Is Within You | Page 5

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 non-resistance 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 non-resistance 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 this declaration a Society for Nonresistance was
founded by Garrison, and a journal called the NON-RESISTANT, in
which the doctrine of non-resistance was advocated in its full
significance and in all its consequences, as it had been expounded in
the declaration. Further information as to the ultimate destiny of the
society and the journal I gained from the excellent biography of W. L.
Garrison, the work of his son.
The society and the journal did not exist for long. The greater number
of Garrison's fellow-workers in the movement for the liberation of the
slaves, fearing that the too radical programme of the journal, the
NON-RESISTANT, might keep people away from the practical work
of negro-emancipation, gave up the profession of the principle of

non-resistance as it had been expressed in the declaration, and both
society and journal ceased to exist.
This declaration of Garrison's gave so powerful and eloquent an
expression of a