Both the good and the bad principles
generate their like in others. Force begets force; anger excites
a corresponding anger; but kindness awakens the slumbering emotions
even of an evil heart. Love may not always be answered by an equal
love, but it has never yet created hatred. The testimony which
Friends bear against war, he said, is but a general assertion,
which has no value except in so far as they manifest the principle
of peace in their daily lives--in the exercise of pity, of charity,
of forbearance, and Christian love.
The words of the speaker sank deeply into the hearts of his
hearers. There was an intense hush, as if in truth the Spirit had
moved him to speak, and every sentence was armed with a sacred
authority. Asenath Mitchenor looked at him, over the low partition
which divided her and her sisters from the men's side, absorbed in
his rapt earnestness and truth. She forgot that other hearers
were present: he spake to her alone. A strange spell seemed to
seize upon her faculties and chain them at his feet: had he
beckoned to her, she would have arisen and walked to his side.
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