Martin Luther King has raised justice through non-violence “from a tactic to a high form of authentic Christian love,” Archbishop Paul J. Hallinan declared here.

The archbishop was one of twelve hundred and fifty Atlanta citizens who attended a “sellout” hometown banquet to honor the civil rights leader recently awarded the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize. Major sponsors of the dinner besides Archbishop Hallinan were Ralph McGill, publisher of the Atlanta Constitution; Rabbi Jacob Rothschild, and Dr. Benjamin Mayes, President of Morehouse College. Some one hundred other religious and civic leaders joined as co-sponsors.

Archbishop Hallinan said that through the banquet the city of Atlanta confirmed what the nation and world had already affirmed -- that Dr. King “is a pioneer in a new dynamic of peace.” He added: “On the national level and world scene, he appears as a creative leader in racial justice, as a man of our generation who has raised justice through nonviolence from a tactic to a high form of authentic Christian love.” Yet my words tonight are not a sermon, nor a speech. Only incidentally are they a tribute and eulogy. Rather I would speak to Dr. King tonight as one minister of the Word to another -- calling to mind that mighty formula of faith upon which we all feed, of whatever religion, of whatever race. It is a truth -- enshrined in love, yet vibrant with power.”

“This formula bears a Judaic witness because it was first heard in a psalm of David. It is boldly affirmed in the Christian profession of the Catholic, the Orthodox and the Protestant. In its biblical expression, it lies at the heart of the American vision, making greatness possible for this country. It is the very motif of our own city’s teaming life, rising above towers and transportation and even ourselves, as our hope and challenge.”

“The formula itself is simple; yet it is as explosive as it is majestic. It is from the 118th Psalm, and is familiar to us all:

‘I will walk in liberty, O Lord, because I seek Thy precepts.’

“Man’s liberty - God’s law. Without the one, we cannot have the other, but together they cannot fail. Einstein said of Mahatma Gandhi, ‘He confronted brutality with the dignity of a single being.’ When this human being wills to walk in liberty and enable millions of others to do the same, his first steps are clear -- he must seek the precepts of the Lord.”

“Out of his own Eastern theology and his search for the God of truth, Gandhi fashioned the powerful instrument of justice through non-violence. By word and deed, he moved a whole generation to accept non-violence resistance to oppression as both a sublime form of live, and a potent weapon against evil. In he end, he liberated the sub-continent of India.”

“In our times, indeed in our own cities, Gandhi’s weapon of love is again becoming the nation’s weapon against an injustice inflamed against color. In our new and open America, Dr. King and his colleagues preach and practice the dynamic of non-violence. As in the formula of our common faith, the goal is to walk in liberty; the means is by seeking God’s precepts. For the most dedicated use of non-violence is meaningless and self-defeating, as Dr. King has emphasized, unless man’s purification comes first. Those who use it, he has said, must: ‘examine and burnish their heart, their conscience, their courage, their sense of justice.’

“Man’s law-God’s liberty. I will walk in one because I obey the other. Dr. King, out of this vibrant biblical truth, you have helped to fashion an American instrument of nonviolence. You have made it a creative force in the long, bitter struggle for racial equality, but you refuse to see it a tactic in one battle, a weapon in one arsenal. A world whose eyesight is blurred and whose step is faltering, walks the bleak corridors of poverty, oppression, war and despair. Its people cry out for a way to live together in peace. And as you have well said:

‘Non-violence, the answer to the Negroes’ need, may become the answer to the most desperate need of all humanity.’

“This, we believe, is what the Committee of the Nobel Peace Prize found in you and your work. This is really the reason for Atlanta’s pride tonight. It is no small feat to make nonviolence a dynamic of peace. It is no mean achievement to make America aware of the great formula of man’s dignity: ‘I will seek Thy precepts.’ Dr. King, you have done both, we are indebted to you. God bless you.”