Christ also led the way to peace by giving us a formula for the propagation of truth.  Not all of those who have really desired to do good have employed the Christian method—­not all Christians even.  In the history of the human race but two methods have been used.  The first is the forcible method, and it has been employed most frequently.  A man has an idea which he thinks is good; he tells his neighbors about it and they do not like it.  This makes him angry; he thinks it would be so much better for them if they would like it, and, seizing a club, he attempts to make them like it.  But one trouble about this rule is that it works both ways; when a man starts out to compel his neighbors to think as he does, he generally finds them willing to accept the challenge and they spend so much time in trying to coerce each other that they have no time left to do each other good.

The other is the Bible plan—­“Be not overcome of evil but overcome evil with good.”  And there is no other way of overcoming evil.  I am not much of a farmer—­I get more credit for my farming than I deserve, and my little farm receives more advertising than it is entitled to.  But I am farmer enough to know that if I cut down weeds they will spring up again; and farmer enough to know that if I plant something there which has more vitality than the weeds I shall not only get rid of the constant cutting, but have the benefit of the crop besides.

In order that there might be no mistake in His plan of propagating the truth, Christ went into detail and laid emphasis upon the value of example—­“So live that others seeing your good works may be constrained to glorify your Father which is in Heaven.”  There is no human influence so potent for good as that which goes out from an upright life.  A sermon may be answered; the arguments presented in a speech may be disputed, but no one can answer a Christian life—­it is the unanswerable argument in favor of our religion.

It may be a slow process—­this conversion of the world by the silent influence of a noble example—­but it is the only sure one, and the doctrine applies to nations as well as to individuals.  The Gospel of the Prince of Peace gives us the only hope that the world has—­and it is an increasing hope—­of the substitution of reason for the arbitrament of force in the settlement of international disputes.  And our nation ought not to wait for other nations—­it ought to take the lead and prove its faith in the omnipotence of truth.

But Christ has given us a platform so fundamental that it can be applied successfully to all controversies.  We are interested in platforms; we attend conventions, sometimes traveling long distances; we have wordy wars over the phraseology of various planks, and then we wage earnest campaigns to secure the endorsement of these platforms at the polls.  The platform given to the world by The Prince of Peace is more far-reaching and more comprehensive than any platform ever written