The preceding quotations relate to the single point of fighting. But contending nations and armies violate every precept of the gospel. Rehearse all the catalogue of graces, and mark how we are enjoined to be meek, lowly, peaceable, easy to be entreated, gentle, thinking no evil, merciful, slow to anger, given to quietness, knowledge, patience, temperance, prayer. War sets them all at nought!

Of the sermon on the mount, five benedictions are upon the poor in spirit, the meek, the merciful, and the peacemakers. Two others are upon the persecuted and reviled. These include all but two of the entire list, and the others regard those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, and the pure in heart. The professed warrior, therefore, shuts himself out from all these benedictions! The discourse then declares that not only killing, but anger, is murder. It expressly revokes the law of retaliation, and, exploding the traditionary rule of loving our neighbor, and hating our enemy, requires us to love our enemies, and do good to them which despitefully use us. Afterwards, in presenting

a form of prayer, it not only teaches us to say, “forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those that trespass against us," but, "if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your heavenly Father forgive you." What a peace sermon is here! What modern peace society goes farther than this? The irresponsible feelings of a regular soldier are necessarily wrong. He makes war a trade, and is ready to fight any nation, or any part of his own nation, as he is sent. He must have no mind of his own. He is to wheel, march, load, fire, advance or flee, just as he is bidden, and because he is bidden. In the language of Thomas Jefferson, "the breaking of men to military discipline, is breaking their spirits to passive obedience." The nearer a soldier comes

to a mere machine, the better soldier he makes. Is this right for a Christian? Is it compatible with his duty to 66 examine all things, and hold fast that which is good?"

The contempt of life, which is necessary to a brave soldier, is sin. Life is our probation,-our period of preliminary service to the great God. No man should despise it. He who masters the fear of death, must do it either by religious influence, or by rejecting the fear of God, and all concern for the future state of his soul. That there are religious soldiers, is true; but they are far too few to give character to an army. They are mere exceptions to the general military character. The contempt of life, which

distinguishes the veteran, is itself a great sin, and is induced by the preceding great sin of casting off the fear of God, and concern for the soul.

What gospel precept is there, which he who makes war a profession, is not at times compelled to violate? What Christian grace is there, which would not depreciate him for his trade of death?

Some graces, it is confessed, are convenient in camp; as when a soldier acts as a servant or a laborer. If he have charge of a horse, or a wardrobe, it is desired that he possess honesty, meekness, and faithfulness. But these qualities spoil him for the field. He must then cast away meekness, and fight. He must cast away honesty, and forage. He must cast away forgiveness, and revenge his country. He must not return good for evil, but blow for blow, wound for wound. Thus, when we take the common soldier individually, we find him compelled to violate every precept of his religion.

The whole structure of an army is in violation of New Testament precepts. What absolute despotism! What division of rank by nice gradations! Condescending to men of low estate" would spoil discipline. Esteeming others better than ourselves" would degrade the officers. Instead of humility, must be gay trappings. Instead of Christ's law of love, must be man's rule of honor. Instead of examining all things, the soldier must be like a trained blood-hound, ready to be let loose against any foe. Instead of returning good for evil, the army is organized expressly to return injuries with interest.

Survey an army prepared for battle. See the cannons, musquets, mortars, swords, drums, trumpets and flags. Do these men look like Christians? Do they talk like followers of the meek and lowly Son of God? Are they prepared to act like the friends of the human race, and like followers of God, as dear children seeking to bring all men to the knowledge of him? Are their feelings toward the opposite host like those which are produced by "fervent love" out of "a pure heart?"

Observe an army in the hour of battle. See attacks and retreats, battalions annihilated, commanders falling, shouts of onset, groans of death, horses trampling the fallen, limbs flying in the air, suffocating smoke, thundering artillery, thousands smarting in the agony of death, and none to administer a cup of water. Do the precepts of Christianity

authorize such a scene?

Would such an exhibition ever

The harvest tram

grow out of its legitimate effects?

Inspect the field when all is over. pled and destroyed, houses smoking in ruin, the mangled and slain strewed among dead horses, and broken gun-carriages! Prowlers stripping booty even from the warm bodies of the dying! Jackals lurking around, and birds of prey wheeling above! Here and there a wretched widow, or an anxious wife, seeking her loved one among the dead and dying! Does all this look as if Christians had there been serving their Master, the God of mercy!

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Let us turn our eyes to the ocean. A huge ship, bristling with implements of death, glides quietly along. Presently a sail!" is echoed from sentinel to sentinel. All on board catch the sound, and gaze at the faint outline. At length, she is discerned to be a ship of war, and all strive to discern her flag. On that hangs the important issue! For no feud, no jealousy, no enmity exists between the crews. At last the signal is discerned to be that of a foe. Immediately what a scene! Decks cleared and sanded, ports opened, tompions out, guns arranged, matches lighted, and every preparation made for a work of death. While waiting the moment to engage, every word is indication of pride, or revenge, or daring, or wrath, or ambition.

The fight begins! Death flies with every shot. Blood and carnage cover the decks. The rigging is cut to pieces, and the hull is bored with hot shot. Officers are picked off by sharp-shooters, and scores of common men perish at their posts. At length, one party strikes, and the strife is stayed. Perhaps, ere all the wounded can be removed, the noble and costly ship sinks into the deep. The victorious, herself almost a wreck, commits her slain to the deep, and bears on towards her country the agonized, the crippled and the dying of both ships. What a scene to gratify malignant demons! What distracting tidings does she bear to the bereaved at home! What pain and misery does she carry within her! In all this, there was no personal malice, no private offence given; nothing was known of one another, except from the respective flags. Could enormity be more diabolical and cold blooded?

But no where does war wear such horrors as in a siege. The inhabitants are straitly shut up. Business, pleasure, education and intercourse are checked; and sorrow, poverty, terror and distress are spread abroad. The bombardment

begins. Shells explode in the streets, or penetrate the roofs. Citizens are killed in the streets, and soldiers on the ramparts. Women and children retreat to cellars, and live in all discomfort. Day by day the gloom thickens. All news is of houses burnt, persons killed, prices raised, and scarcity increased. Gladly, perhaps, would the citizens surrender; but the governor is inflexible. At length, famine is threatened. The laborer, out of employment, cannot purchase at such prices, and his family, hitherto accustomed to daily comforts, fall victims to rigorous poverty. Still the siege continues. The middling classes next sink to beggary. Every thing is sold to buy a little food. Anon, breaches are made in the walls. All must work, amid galling fire, to repair them. Mines are sprung, blowing houses and the occupants into the air. No relief comes. Dead animals, offal, skins, the very bodies of the slain, are eaten.

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dreds perish in desperate sorties. All are miserable. The widow, the bereft mother, the disappointed bride, and the tender orphan, mourn continually. Pestilence succeeds to famine. Thousands, who have escaped violence, die of disease. At length, the city is taken by storm; pillage, and perhaps an awful conflagration, succeed; a brutal soldiery raven among the virtuous; and the indescribable scene ends in permanent poverty, lamentation, and dishonor. Is this Christianity?

We will close by a confirmatory picture from the history of the peninsular wars of Napoleon. It is part of a description of the second siege of Zaragossa:

"The French fought their way into the entrance of this ill-fated city by mining and exploding one house after another, while the inhabitants were confined to that quarter of the city still in possession of the Spaniards, who were crowded, men, women and children, into the cellars, to avoid the cannon balls and bombs. Pestilence broke out as a matter of course; and when once begun, it was impossible to check its progress, or confine it to one quarter of the city. It was not long before more than thirty hospitals were established. As soon as one was destroyed by the bombardment, the patients were removed to some other building, which was in a state to afford them temporary shelter, and thus the infection was carried into every part of Zaragossa. average of daily deaths from this cause was, at this time, not less than three hundred and fifty. Men stretched upon straw, in helpless misery, lay breathing their last, and with their dying breath spreading the mortal taint of their own disease, without medicines, food or attendance; for the ministers of charity themselves be

The

came the victims of the disease. The slightest wound produced gangrene and death in bodies so prepared for dissolution by distress of mind, agitation, and want of proper aliment and of sleep; for there was no respite, either by day or night, for this devoted city. By day, it was involved in a red sulphuric atmosphere of smoke and dust, which hid the face of heaven; by night the fire of cannon and mortars, and the flames of burning houses, kept it in a state of horrible illumination. The cemeteries could no longer afford room for the dead. Large pits were dug to receive them in the streets, and in the courts of the public buildings, till hands were wanted for the labor; they were laid before the churches, heaped upon one another, and covered with sheets; and not unfrequently these piles of mortality were struck by a shell, and the shattered bodies scattered in all directions. When the French entered the city, six thousand bodies were lying in the streets and trenches, or piled up in heaps before the churches.

How wonderful that Christians, followers of the Prince of Peace, should concur in the mad idolatry of strife! How inconsistent! Behold a man rising from the Lord's supper, and proceeding to array himself in fantastic robes and plumes, girding on him the instruments of human butchery, and drilling himself in the tactics of death! See him murdering fellow Christians, and unprepared sinners, and even praying to his Redeemer for aid in the endeavor! See priest and people thronging the house of God to celebrate bloody victories, and give thanks for having sent thousands to their last account, with all their sins upon their head!

Reader! is not this stupendous inconsistency? Is it not time you reflected on this subject? Are you in favor of the great schemes of benevolence? Then come, unite in attacking this prolific parent of abominations. Let your voice, wherever you are, be lifted up to spread the principle of "peace on earth." Blessed principle! You cannot err in trying to spread its influence. You cannot err in lending your aid to banish from the earth a monster of pride, corruption, destructiveness, misery and murder. Take your stand as the advocate of peace. Retire from military trainings, and discard the horrid thought of being hired to rob, ravage and destroy. Give no countenance to a system which could not continue a moment, were the spirit and precepts of Christianity to prevail on earth. Let all around you understand that you are as conscientiously peaceful, as you are honest or pure.

AMERICAN PEACE SOCIETY, BOSTON, MASS.