King composed an outline for a sermon entitled “How a Christian Overcomes Evil.” It was a Ladder Sermon of three ascending steps, each divided into parts. “The first step in overcoming evil is to discover what is worst in us,” he wrote, going on to specify the evil in unorthodox fashion as “that sin to which we are most frequently tempted.” This he followed with a call for honesty with oneself, using language overlaid with so many psychological turns as to render it opaque: “The hidden fault must be called by its right name, otherwise we miss seeing our pride under fear of an inferiority
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