The other meek, yielding, complying, forgiving; not prompt to act, but
willing to suffer; silent and gentle under rudeness and insult, suing
for reconciliation where others would demand satisfaction, giving way to
the pushes of impudence, conceding and indulgent to the prejudices, the
wrong-headedness, the intractability of those with whom it has to deal.
The former of these characters is, and ever hath been, the favourite of
the world. It is the character of great men. There is a dignity in it
which universally commands respect.
The latter is poor-spirited, tame, and abject. Yet so it hath happened,
that with the Founder of Christianity this latter is the subject of his
commendation, his precepts, his example; and that the former is so in no
part of its composition. This, and nothing else, is the character
designed in the following remarkable passages: "Resist not evil: but
whosoever shall smite thee on the right cheek, turn to him the other
also; and if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat,
let him have thy cloak also: and whosoever shall compel thee to go a
mile, go with him twain: love your enemies, bless them that curse you,
do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use
you and persecute you.
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