that two and three are not four,
another in proving that nine and six are not four, and so on _ad
infinitum_. How much more sensible to prove that two and two are four,
and so end the thing! How much simpler to show what is the truth than,
laboriously, to expose the claims of a thousand pretenders that are
_not_ it! Here are five hundred John Smiths. They each pretend to be
_our_ John, the man we know and esteem so highly. I could set to work
with infinite labor, and, by having commissions appointed all over the
world to take evidence, and by employing a hundred or so of my friends
the lawyers, I might, after a lifetime of investigation, prove the
negative, that four hundred and ninety-nine of them are not John. But
how much easier to walk out the real John at once, prove the positive,
and let the rest pack! By proving that one truth, you see, I kill four
hundred and ninety-nine lies--a good day's work that.

There is altogether too much of this negative style in all our defences
of truth, too much attempt to destroy what is wrong, and too little to
build what is right. And, after all, the business of the destructive,
though many times very necessary and very useful, is not the highest
style of work. You are never sure of your ground till, on the ruins of
the towers of injustice and wrong, you erect the fortresses of justice
and right.

The wise way is to let truth fight her own battles. She will render a
good account of all her foes. Our humble duty is to stand by her, merely
as seconds in the strife, to help her to her feet should she fall, to
burnish her armor if the rust come to dim its brightness or spoil the
keenness of her weapon's edge, knowing that she, as with the sword of
the cherubim, will scatter, at the last, the evil legions and their dark
array, as the whirlwind scatters the chaff.

I have written of a war that, as far as this world is concerned, is
endless. As long as the world exists lies will exist. Truths will always
be half told, half learned, half understood. The man who girds himself
to do battle with falsehood and wrong should understand that 'there is
no discharge in this war.' It will last his life out. He must accept the
inevitable condition of his place, and must be content to do his best,
hopefully and bravely, in this world-work, though he surely know that it
shall be said of him, as of those faithful ones who saw only in vision
the coming Christ: 'These all died in hope, not having obtai