Second, the suppression of evil by force is only a temporary relief, a protection for the moment.  It does not touch the root of the matter.  You send the murderer out of the world by a regulated flash of lightning.  But you do not send murder out of the world.  To do that you must reach and change the heart of Cain.  You put the thief in prison, but when he comes out he will be ready to steal again, unless you can purify his conscience and control his will.  You assault and overthrow some system of misgovernment, and “turn the rascals out.”  But unless you have something better to substitute, all you have done is to make room for a new set of rascals,—­a new swarm of mosquitoes with fresh appetites and larger capacities.

Third, the method of fighting evil with force on its own ground often has a bad effect on those who follow it.  Wrestle with a chimney-sweep and you will need a bath.  Throw back the mud that is thrown at you, and you will have dirty hands.  Answer Shimei when he curses you and you will echo his profanity.  Many a man has entered a crusade against intemperance and proved himself as intemperate in his language as other men are in their potations.  Many a man has attacked a bad cause with righteous indignation and ended in a personal squabble with most unrighteous anger.

No, my brother-men, the best way to fight against evil is not to meet it on its own ground with its own weapons.  There is a nobler method of warfare, a divine plan of campaign given to us in the religion of Christ.  Overcome evil with good.  This is the secret of the battle of life.

Evil is potent not so much because it has command of money and the “big battalions,” but because it has control of the hearts of men.  It spreads because human hearts are lying fallow and ready to welcome the seeds of all kinds of weeds.  It persists because too much of what we call virtue is negative, and selfish, and frost-bound,—­cold storage virtue,—­the poor piety which terminates in a trembling anxiety to save our own souls.

The way to counteract and conquer evil in the world is to give our own hearts to the dominion of good, and work the works of God while it is day.  The strongest of all obstacles to the advance of evil is a clean and generous man, doing his duty from day to day, and winning others, by his cheerful fidelity, to serve the same Master.  Diseases are not the only things that are contagious.  Courage is contagious.  Kindness is contagious.  Manly integrity is contagious.  All the positive virtues, with red blood in their veins, are contagious.  The heaviest blow that you can strike at the kingdom of evil is just to follow the advice which the dying Sir Walter Scott gave to his son-in-law, Lockhart:  “Be a good man.”  And if you want to know how, there is but one perfect and supreme example,—­the life of Him who not only did no evil but went about doing good.

Now take that thought of fighting evil with good and apply it to our world and to ourselves.