PACIFIC EDUCATION OF THE PEOPLE.

Education is the most efficient and lasting means for revolutionizing society. This can make the peaceful warlike, and the warlike peaceful; the ignorant intelligent, and the civilized barbarous; the enlightened superstitious, and the superstitious enlightened; the cruel compassionate, and the meek ferocious; the freeman a slave, and the slave a freeman; the pagan a Christian, and the Christian an idolater. The great object of education ought then to be, to stamp on every such state of society, the peaceful character. EDUCATE FOR PEACE, NOT FOR WAR. Give the religion of peace if it be not already there; and let all the institutions of education, breathe its spirit, and bear its divine image. Christianity teaches, that war is the enemy, peace the friend, of God and man. Education then must be imbued with this spirit. If not, it is the enemy of our religion; and its influences are perpetually at work to undermine the precepts, and destroy the examples of Christ and his Apostles. With the RELIGION of peace, the people must have the EDUCATION of peace, if their best interests are consulted. The principles and operations of war, the character, achievements and glory of the warrior, have no sympathies with the education of peace, as they have none with the religion of peace. THE WHOLE SCHEME OF EDUCATION must be in its elements, practice and influence, decidedly, unchangeably PEACEFUL.

But impious and ruinous as is the union between pagan and Christian influences in education, it is precisely that which exists in Christian countries. Let the course of study in the schools, even in our own land, be examined, and not one will be found constructed on the basis of Christian influences, of peace and love, -of humility, long suffering and forgiveness. He will find the paramount influences every where to be heathen. The history of wars, and the biographies of warriors, are almost the only food of that kind vouchsafed to the youthful mind. The Acts of the Apostles are taught scarcely any where; the commentaries of Cæsar, and the life of Agricola, robbers and murderers in the sight of God, every where; while the lives of Howard and Martyn, of Johnson and Dwight, of Penn and Jones, Spencer and Burke, men of whom even the Christian world is unworthy, are studied no where. The gospels are seldom text-books of instruction; the Eneid and Iliad always. Can this be right?

And who are the guilty? If the voices of the just made perfect, of angels and archangels, could reply, that fearful answer to every Christian, especially to every Christian minister, would be, “thou art the man!" The virtues of Jesus Christ are the very reverse of what are called the heroic virtues of classic antiquity. We know that he never would have acted like the great men of Greece and Rome; that the object of his system was utterly to abolish theirs; that his or theirs must eventually rule the world, and one or the other perish. Now which ever conquers, can conquer only through the power of education. Give to the religion of peace the

education of peace, and its victory is sure. Give to it the education of war and violence, the influence of heathen heroism and glory; and while these prevail, it never can conquer. The lion and the lamb do indeed lie down together; but the lamb is the slave or the victim of the lion. Hitherto, such has been the lot of Christianity; the slave of heathen influences, the victim of war and the warrior. And why? Because its professors, and above all, its holy ministry, have not vindicated its authority, cost what it might, against war and the warrior in every form. Is it not absolutely astonishing, that those who have bound on their souls the vow of humility, love, forgiveness, forbearance, are yet constantly employed, by their schemes of education, in impairing and even destroying those peaceful, holy influences? With a deep feeling of awe and respect, with profound emotions of gratitude to the clergy for what they have done, and with a strong faith in their entire regeneration in futute years, I speak what I believe a solemn truth. Their compromise with war and the warrior has produced incalculable mischiefs to religion, liberty, education and peace. They have tolerated, when they ought to have condemned, war and the warrior in every form. They acknowledge their master to be the Prince of Peace. They know that he never would have raised or commanded an army, nor ever employed war in any shape, or under any emergency. They must acknowledge, that if he were the ruler of a nation, he would command them to return good for evil, blessing for cursing, love for hatred, entreaties for insult, peace for war. They cannot deny, that a nation governed in conformity to his laws, would have neither army nor navy; that an arsenal, or a cannon foundry would be unknown among them; that sword and helmet, banner and lance, could not be found there; that a fortress would be as little tolerated as a temple of idols, and the glory of the warrior would be as earnestly condemned, and as carefully banished, as the leprosy or the plague

All this the Christian ministry know. They condemn duelling in every form between individuals; but they excuse and even justify it between nations. If a friend should call out the treacherous confidant who had slandered and betrayed him; if a parent should avenge in a duel the injuries to his son; if the son should challenge the man who had insulted his father; if the brother should summon to mortal combat the seducer of his sister; yea, even if the husband, in obedience to the law of honor, should slay the wretch who had blasted his hopes, degraded his children, and polluted his home, Christian ministers would not dare to justify, or even to excuse him. To the friend, the parent, the son, the husband, they would say, Jesus would have forgiven, and have prayed for such enemies; he would have saved both body and soul, not have destroyed them. He demands this sacrifice as a proof that you are his disciples. Go and do likewise. Now, a nation can sustain no injury comparable to those of the insulted and dishonored friend and brother, parent, son and husband. Nor can they put it on the ground that nations have no arbiter, whilst individuals may

appeal to the laws of the country; for the most aggravated and cruel private injuries are the very ones which the laws of society do not redress.

It becomes, then, the Christian ministry, and I ask it of them as a dutiful son, as a faithful friend, as an affectionate, respectful counsellor, to consider solemnly and prayerfully, whether they are acting the part which becomes the messengers of the Prince of Peace. They have been the decided enemies of private war, and of the duellist, ever since the delirium of the age of chivalry had passed away; but have they not been more or less the vindicators and apologists of public war and the warrior? They forbid the private man to do what they know the Savior never would have done; yet they sanction the public man, and private men under his control, in punishing insult or avenging injury, when they know that Christ never would. And on what principle is it, that the Christian minister can approach the throne of God in the name of the meek and lowly Jesus, the Prince of Peace, and ask a blessing on the warrior's arms, even of his own country, or return thanks to Heaven for his succsss in battle? Would not similar supplications or thanksgivings on behalf of the avenger of private insults or injuries, be mockery and blasphemy? Now, what difference is there between the prayer, that an injured and insulted father or husband might disable or slay his adversary, and the prayer that an army of a wronged and dishonored people might scatter and destroy its enemies? Can the Christian minister return thanks to God, that the father and the husband have mangled or slain in a duel the seducer of his daughter and his wife? How then can he offer the prayer of thanksgiving to God, that fleets and armies have avenged, by the slaughter of thousands, wrongs and insults vastly inferior? How can the Christian intercede or return thanks for the success of those who, instead of requiting evil with good, and cursing with blessing, go forth to inflict evil for evil, and curse for curse, by destroying thousands of lives, and turning the sweet fountains of ten thousand innocent homes into the bitter waters of poverty and affliction? Have they not thus drawn a distinction which Christ and his Apostles never drew? Let me beseech the clergy and all Christians, to think well of these things! O that they would bear with me while I expostulate with them in no spirit of disrespect or uncharitableness! O that, instead of being offended at my freedom of speech, they would bring their sentiments and conduct to the test of the gospel!

The clergy in Christian countries have always exercised a great and extensive influence over education; but their influence has never been exerted deeply, comprehensively, decidedly, in favor of peace. Not only have they tolerated war among nations, but they have made the warrior, in all the attractive forms of eloquence and poetry, of history and biography, the daily companion of youth. Not only by the books which they have selected, but by the enthusiasm with which they have explained and commended them as master-works, the clergy have taught practically, that

Christian virtues are mean and worthless in comparison of heroic virtues. And yet, if a Christian minister have in him the spirit of the meek and lowly Jesus, and make the sermon on the mount, and the gospel of John his text-book of morals, can he believe that the disciple whom Jesus loved, would have chosen war and the warrior as the companion of youth? Can such a clergyman believe the spirit and example of Cæsar and Agricola, of Roman kings and consuls, of the heroes in Virgil and Homer, not unfriendly to Christian morals? Can he believe an Apostle would ever have written such books for the instruction of youth, or adopted them into his scheme of education?

There was a time when for ages the clergy were absolute masters of all education. Oh! that they had then been faithful to the great trust committed to them! Had they constructed all their schemes on the principles of peace, and devoted the immense revenues of the church to the general education of the people in the spirit of peace, they would indeed have been the most signal and illustrious of benefactors. But they saw not, or disregarded, the dangerous influences of war in education, and the truth, beauty and power of peace principles. Ages rolled away; the clergy acquired a new and higher power than that of priestly authority, the power of knowledge and talents, of virtue and piety, acting on free and enlightened consciences. Yet still the clergy appeared insensible of their high and solemn duty to exclude the influences of war from schemes of education, and to substitute the principles and influences of peace. Three hundred years have glided away; and still Christians and the clergy are nominally on the side of peace, practically on the side of war, in all their systems of education. And yet the cause of peace can never triumph, until the Christian clergy shall condemn war and the warrior in every form, as they have condemned private violence and the duellist. Nor can the spirit of peace ever be the leading characteristic and vital principle of education, until Christians and the clergy shall in like manner substitute Christian for heathen education, and the Christian excellences for the heathen virtues inseparable from the classic poets and historians. Peace can never triumph, till education in all its departments shall teach youth, that those which are called heroic virtues, are expressly prohibited by Christ, both in precept and example; that the only warrior, if I may venture the term, whom Christ acknowledges, is the MARTYR, laying down property, liberty and life in his cause, but resolute not to bear arms in defence of them, or in vindication of his master's rights. Peace can never triumph, until children shall be universally taught, that a peasant, with a Christian spirit, is a nobler and a lovelier object to angels, than Cæsar, Alexander or Napoleon. How hard is it to convince Christians of these things, and bring them to act on the broad, simple, uncompromising precepts of the gospel! War has sworn on the altar of human victims, eternal enmity to the love and humility of the gospel; yet Christians and the holy ministry of peace, love, and humility, not only justify war and the warrior, but scatter their

influence with a prodigal hand, and perpetuate them with emulous enthusiasm, in all the forms of education.

How insensible have Christians, and above all, the Christian clergy, appeared to this sublime, remarkable truth, that in the mysterious providence of God, the law of violence and retaliation was universally tolerated and often directly employed by God himself in his moral government of the world, until the advent of the Prince of Peace; BUT FROM THAT MOMENT THE LAW OF INDIVIDUAL AND SOCIAL MORALS, WAS ABSOLUTELY AND FOREVER CHANGED.

Nor is this contrast surprising, when we compare the Jewish and Christian dispensations. The Mosaic institutes were a vast and complex scheme of national morals and social duties, of civil and political administration, of religious rites and ecclesiastical arrangements, of sacrifices and ceremonies. It was the system of a nation and a government with a rich and splendid national church. But Christianity was a scheme the very opposite of all this; for its influence was altogether individual and social; its worship was simple and spiritual; its founders and rulers, the poor and humble. Its character as a church, was universal; its prominent virtues were humility and self-sacrifice, forgiveness of enemies, and love to all mankind. Hence the law of violence and retaliation was forever abolished; and the law of peace and love, of humility, forbearance and forgiveness, irrevocably ordained in its stead. Yet the general tenor of the precepts of Christians, and the general spirit of their schemes of government and education, have utterly denied that the law of violence and retaliation is forever abolished, as the great law for individuals, communities and governments. The Jews rejected the meek and humble Jesus, expecting a conquering Messiah; and they were animated and sustained in the ruinous war against Vespasian and Titus, by their misconstruction of the prophecies respecting the Messiah. And have not Christians, whilst acknowledging the meek and humble Jesus as their Messiah, practically rejected him by denying the authority of his precepts, and disregarding the beauty of his example? Have not Christians actually governed themselves and their communities, as though the god of war, or the martial prophet of Mecca, not the Prince of Peace, was their Messiah? Have they not, as individuals, as subjects, and as rulers, acted as though they did not doubt that the Christian bore the character of the Jewish Messiah; and that they had a right in his name, to suspend the law of peace, humility and love, and to re-establish the law of retaliation and violence? The history of Christian countries on the great subject of peace and war, is undeniably the history of heathen communities. With some few exceptions in the mode of warfare, and the treatment of prisoners, the wars of Christian nations are not distinguishable from those of the Pagan in their origin, conduct and termination. The reason is manifest; war in any shape, from any motive, and carried on in any mode, is utterly indefensible on Christian principles, and utterly irreconcilable with a Christian spirit. When will the disciples, and above all, the ministers of the Prince of Peace, acknowledge in theory and practice, this great and solemn truth? When will they