number of people who do not comply with the requirements of government will grow more and more.
On the other hand, if the government continues its cruelty as at present, then this very cruelty, to men whose only fault is that they lead a more moral and righteous life than others do, and seek to apply practically the law of righteousness which is professed by all, this very cruelty will more and more repel men's sympathy from government, and finally there will be no men ready to support it by force. The half-savage Cossacks who beat the Dukhobors by order of the officers, "very soon began to be tired of it," as they said when they were quartered in the villages of the Dukhobors. That means, conscience began to agitate them; and the authorities, fearing the influence of the Dukhobors upon them, hastened to withdraw them.
Never was a persecution of innocent people which has not ended in the persecutors receiving the principles of the persecuted; as it was with the warrior Simeon, who exterminated the Paulicians and then adopted their creed. The more indulgent the government, the quicker the numbers of true Christians will grow. The more cruel the government, the quicker the numbers of those that yield to the requirements of government diminishes. Thus, whether indulgent or cruel toward men who by their lives proclaim Christianity, government is forwarding its own destruction. "Now is the judgment of this world; now shall the prince of this world be cast out."[1] And this judgment was pronounced eighteen hundred years ago—that is, at the time when, in place of the principle of external justice, the principle of love was asserted.
However much wood one throws on the burning pile of sticks, thinking thus to put out the fire, the inextinguishable flame, the flame of truth, will only be temporarily smothered, and will burn up still more strongly, consuming everything heaped upon it. Even though it happen (as it always happens) that some of the contenders for truth become weak in the strife, and yield to the govern-
- ↑ John xii. 31.
