The temporary blindness that causes a parent to abuse his child or a husband to batter his wife or a wife to attack her husband must be dealt with compassionately and firmly. It is self-evident that a loving God does not know violence and that we have God-derived ability to express love. One who truly loves would do no violence, any more than he would steal or commit adultery. Violence does not exist in harmonious consciousness, nor can it develop there.
Harmony is the natural state of reality; discord is delusion. We prove violence powerless by demonstrating God as the only power. A knowledge of spiritual facts discourages violent thoughts, until they entirely disappear from human consciousness. This knowledge restores the indulger to love and usefulness. An application of the spiritual fact that violence is unknown to God also aids the victim in removing fear for his own safety and lifts the concern from relatives and friends, so that each one fulfills his part in the healing.
Can one who has engaged in violence ever be free? The lives of Moses and Paul show that he can. Moses, who had once killed a man in anger, after moral regeneration and tremendous spiritual growth, was to receive from God the commandment "Thou shalt not kill." Ex. 20:13; Paul, who had done much violence to Christians, after spiritual transformation, could implore his readers, "Be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you." Eph. 4:32; Having received the gift of Christ, he shared it with others, as those who achieve even an inkling of spiritual grace must always do.
