and susceptible of the slightest injury. There is nothing observable in his limbs adapted to fighting or violence. Unable either to speak, or walk, or help himself to food, he can implore relief only by tears and wailing; so that from this circumstance alone might be collected, that man is an animal born for that friendship which is formed and cemented by the mutual interchange of benevolent offices.

"Moreover, nature evidently intended that man should consider himself indebted for the boon of life, not so much to himself, as to the kindness of his fellow-man, and thus might perceive himself designed for social affections, and the attachment of friendship and love. Then she gave him a countenance not frightful and forbidding, but mild and placid, imitating by external signs the benignity of his disposition. She gave him eyes full of affectionate expression, the indices of a mind delighting in social sympathy. She gave him arms to embrace. his fellow-creatures. She gave him lips to express a union of heart and soul. To him alone she gave the power of laughing, a mark of the joy of which he is susceptible. She gave him tears, the symbol of clemency and compassion. She gave him, for the utterance of his thoughts and feelings, not a menacing and frightful yell, but a voice bland, soothing and friendly. Not satisfied with all these marks of her peculiar favor, she bestowed on man alone the use of speech and reason; a gift which tends, more than any other, to conciliate and cherish benevolence, and a desire of rendering mutual services. She implanted in him a hatred of solitude, and a love of company. She sowed in his heart the seeds of every benevolent affection, and thus rendered what is most salutary at the same time most agreeable. Lastly, to man is given that

spark of the divine mind which stimulates him, of his own free will, to do good to all.

"In contrast with all this, view in imagination savage troops of men, horrible in their very visages and voices; men clad in steel, drawn up in battle array, and armed with weapons that are frightful in their crash and very glitter; mark the horrid murmur of the confused multitude, their threatening eyeballs, the harsh, jarring din of drums and clarions, the terrific sound of the trumpet, the thunder of the cannon; a mad shout like the shrieks of bedlamites; a furious onset, a cruel butchery of each other! See the slaughtered and the slaughtering, heaps of dead bodies, fields flowing with blood, rivers reddened with human gore! Sometimes a brother falls by the hand of a brother, a kinsman upon his nearest kindred, a friend upon his friend, both actuated by the same fit of insanity, and each plunging his sword into the heart of one who never offended him even by a word!"

Such is war. And is this bantling of blood one of nature's legitimate offspring? Does it spring from any of her unperverted laws or instincts? Does she require, or prompt, or sanction such a custom? Is it a fulfilment of her wise and merciful provisions for the common happiness of her children? Is there the slightest proof, that mankind were made for such mutual hatred and butchery? Did the Almighty create this fair and smiling earth to be the slaughter-yard of beings formed in his own image for immortality and heaven? The very thought is a libel on nature and nature's God. 12*

CHAPTER V.

WAR VIEWED IN THE LIGHT OF REVELATION.

SECTION I.

GENERAL CONTRARIETY OF WAR TO REVEALED RELIGION.

WE may safely presume warriors to understand the nature and principles of their own profession. Napoleon, in a temporary fit of candor, denounced war as "the trade of barbarians," and he excluded priests from his armies, because he held the maxim, the worse the man, the better the soldier. Wellington himself once declared in the House of Lords, that men who have nice notions about religion, have no business to be soldiers. Two British officers were once cashiered for refusing, on a foreign station, to join in what they conscientiously deemed idolatrous worship; and the king, in confirming that sentence, said, "If religious principles were allowed to be urged by individual officers as a plea for disobedience of orders, the discipline of the army would sustain au injury which might be dangerous to the state."

say,

Well, then, does the venerable missionary Ward "Either our religion is a fable, or there are unanswerable arguments against war, and the profession of arms.' With equal truth does Jeremy Taylor aver, "If men would obey Christ's doctrine, they would never war one against another; for, as contrary as cruelty is to mercy, tyranny to charity, so is war and bloodshed to the meekness and gentleness of the Christian religion.”

66

War," says Robert Hall, "is the fruitful parent

of crimes. It reverses all the rules of morality. It is nothing less than A TEMPORARY REPEAL OF THE PRINCIPLES OF VIRTUE. It is a system out of which almost all the virtues are excluded, and in which nearly all the vices are included. Whatever renders human nature amiable or respectable, whatever engages love or confidence, is sacrificed at its shrine. It removes, so far as an enemy is concerned, the basis of all society, of all civilization and virtue; for the basis of these is the good-will due to every individual of the species, as being a part of ourselves. The sword, and that alone, cuts asunder the bond of consanguinity which unites man to man. Hence the mo

rality of peaceful times is directly opposite to the maxims of war. The fundamental rule of the first is to do good; of the latter, to inflict injuries. The former teaches men to love their enemies; the latter, to make themselves terrible even to strangers. The rules of morality will not suffer us to promote the dearest interests by falsehood; the maxims of war applaud it when employed in the destruction of others."

Let us put war and Christianity side by side, and see how far they agree. Christianity saves men; war destroys them. Christianity elevates men; war debases and degrades them. Christianity purifies men; war corrupts and defiles them. Christianity blesses men; war curses them. God says, thou shalt not kill; war says, thou shalt kill.

God

says, blessed are the peace-makers; war says, blessed are the war-makers. God says, love your enemies; war says, hate them. God says, forgive men their trespasses; war says, forgive them not. God enjoins forgiveness, and forbids revenge; while war scorns the former, and commands the latter. God says,

resist not evil; war says, you may and must resist evil. God says, if any man smite thee on one cheek,

turn to him the other also; war says, turn not the other cheek, but knock the smiter down. God says, bless those who curse you; bless, and curse not: war says, curse those who curse you; curse, and bless not. God says, pray for those who despitefully use you; war says, pray against them, and seek their destruction. God says, see that none render evil for evil unto any man; war says, be sure to render evil for evil unto all that injure you. God says, overcome evil with good; war says, overcome evil with evil. God says, if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: war says, if you do supply your enemies with food and clothing, you shall be shot as a traitor. God says, do good unto all men; war says, do as much evil as you can to your enemies. God says to all men, love one another; war says, hate and kill one another. God says, they that take the sword, shall perish by the sword; war says, they that take the sword, shall be saved by the sword. God says, blessed is he that trusteth in the Lord; war says, cursed is such a man, and blessed is he who trusteth in swords and guns. God says, beat your swords into ploughshares, your spears into pruning-hooks, and learn war no more; war says, make swords and spears still, and continue to learn war.

SECTION II.

WAR AND THE OLD TESTAMENT.

The Old Testament has been supposed to countenance war. It does of course justify those which God expressly commanded; but it lends no encouragement or sanction to the custom itself.

The