Military commanders have a saying
I dare not act as host but only as a guest; rather than advance an inch I would retire a foot.
This is marching without moving; bearing the invisible arm; regarding the enemy as if he were not; grasping the sword that is not.
There is no calamity greater than making light of the enemy; to make light of the enemy is to endanger my retention of the treasures. Hence once the opposing forces have met it is the pitiful who conquer.
"Jesus, therefore, perceiving that they were about to come and take him by force, to make him a king, withdrew again into the mountain himself alone," and was thereby endowed with a more powerful scepter than if he had accepted a visible crown. Refusing to play the part of a host or master, he gained the kingdom and became its lord.
Missionaries, and all who disturb the natural development of national moral culture, tearing down and destroying where they should only build and conserve, are acting as hosts in lands where they are uninvited guests. The chapter is a warning that it is only those who feel the pity of physical and moral FORCE; who understand the DANGER that is inseparable from all attempts to present truth to the hostile, who ultimately win in the contest.
