War inconsistent with the religion of Jesus Christ

I WAR INCONSISTENT

WITH THE

LO

I RELIGION OF JESUS CHRIST

DODGE

College

FROM THE LIBRARY OF

L. E. HORNING, B.A., Ph.D.

(1858-1925)

PROFESSOR OF TEUTONIC
PHILOLOGY

VICTORIA COLLEGE

DAVID Low DODGE

WAR INCONSISTENT

WITH THE

RELIGION OF JESUS CHRIST

BY

DAVID LOW DODGE

WITH AN INTRODUCTION

BY
EDWIN D. MEAD

PUBLISHED FOR THE INTERNATIONAL UNION

GINN & COMPANY, BOSTON

1905

BR

DCCA

COPYRIGHT, 1905, BY
THE INTERNATIONAL UNION

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
55-8

66653

CONTENTS

PAGE

INTRODUCTION vii

WAR INCONSISTENT WITH THE RELIGION OF JESUS CHRIST i

WAR is INHUMAN :

I. Because it hardens the heart and blunts the tender

feelings of mankind 2

II. War is inhuman, as in its nature and tendency it

abuses God's animal creation 6

III. War is inhuman, as it oppresses the poor .... 8

IV. War is inhuman, as it spreads terror and distress

among mankind 12

V. War is inhuman, as it involves men in fatigue, famine,

and all the pains of mutilated bodies 14

VI. War is inhuman, as it destroys the youth and cuts

off the hope of gray hairs 16

VII. War is inhuman, as it multiplies widows and orphans,

and clothes the land in mourning 18

WAR is UNWISE :

I. Because, instead of preventing, it provokes insult

and mischief 23

II. War is unwise, for instead of diminishing, it increases

difficulties 26

III. War is unwise, because it destroys property ... 28

IV. War is unwise, as it is dangerous to the liberties of

men 30

V. War is unwise, as it diminishes the happiness of

mankind 34

VI. War is unwise, as it does not mend, but injures, the

morals of society 36

v

vi CONTENTS

PAGE

VII. War is unwise, as it is hazarding eternal things for

only the chance of defending temporal things . 42
VIII. War is unwise, as it does not answer the professed

end for which it is intended 44

WAR is CRIMINAL :

I. Going to war is not keeping from the appearance

of evil, but is running into temptation .... 47
II. War is criminal, as it naturally inflames the pride

of man 49

III. War necessarily infringes on the consciences of

men, and therefore is criminal 52

IV. War is criminal, as it is opposed to patient suffering

under unjust and cruel treatment 56

V. War is criminal, as it is not doing to others as we

should wish them to do to us 60

VI. War is inconsistent with mercy, and is therefore

criminal 61

VII. War is criminal, as the practice of it is inconsistent
with forgiving trespasses as we wish to be forgiven

by the final judge 63

VIII. Engaging in war is not manifesting love to enemies

or returning good for evil 64

IX. War is criminal, because it is actually rendering

evil for evil 67

X. War is criminal, as it is actually doing evil that good
may come ; and this is the best apology that can

be made for it 71

XI. War is opposed to the example of the Son of God,

and is therefore criminal 72

OBJECTIONS ANSWERED 77

HYMN 121

THE MEDIATOR'S KINGDOM NOT OF THIS WORLD : BUT

SPIRITUAL 123

INTRODUCTION

To David Low Dodge of New York belongs the high
honor of having written the first pamphlets published in
America directed expressly against the war system of
nations, and of having founded the first peace society
ever organized in America or in the world. His first
pamphlet, The Mediator s Kingdom not of this World,
was published in 1809. His second and more important
pamphlet, War Inconsistent with the Religion of Jesus
Christ, was prepared for the press in 1812. This was
two years before the publication of Noah Worcester's
Solemn Review of the Custom of War, which was issued
in Boston on Christmas Day, 1814. Early in 1812 Mr.
Dodge and his friends in New York deliberated on the
expediency of forming a peace society ; but on account of
the excitement attending the war with Great Britain this
was postponed until 1815. In August of that year the
New York Peace Society, the first in the world, was organ
ized, with Mr. Dodge as its president. This was four
months before the organization of the Massachusetts
Peace Society (December 26, 1815) under the leader
ship of Noah Worcester, and nearly a year before the
English Peace Society, the first in Europe, was formed
(June 14, 1816) in London.

The preeminent historical interest attaching to Mr.
Dodge's pioneering work in the peace cause in this coun
try would alone justify and indeed seem to command

viii INTRODUCTION

the republication of his pamphlets at this time, when
the great ideas for which he so courageously and pro
phetically stood are at last winning the general recog
nition of humane and thoughtful men. But it is not
merely historical interest which warrants a revival of
attention to these almost forgotten papers. Their intrin
sic power and worth are such as make their reading,
especially that of the second essay, War Inconsistent
with the Religion of Jesus Christ, which stands first
in the present volume, edifying and inspiring to-day.
Marked by few literary graces and cast in a theological
mold which the critical thought of the present has in
large measure outgrown, there is a force of thought, a
moral earnestness, a persevering logic, a common sense,
a hatred of inhumanity, a passion for justice, a penetra
tion and a virtue in them, which commends them to the
abiding and reverent regard of all who work for the
peace and order of the world. Among such workers
to-day are men of various political philosophies, and
perhaps only a small minority are nonresistants of the
extreme type of David L. Dodge ; but to that minority,
we cannot fail to remark, belongs the greatest and most
influential of all the peace prophets of this time, Leo
Tolstoi. None can read these old essays without being
impressed by the fact that their arguments are essen
tially the same as those of the great Russian. There is
little indeed of the Tolstoian thunder and lightning, the
pathos, wrath, and rhetoric, the poetry and prophecy, in
these old-fashioned pages ; but the doctrine is the same
as that of Bethink Yourselves! and Patriotism versus
Christianity. In his central thought and purpose, in his

INTRODUCTION ix

religious trust and reliance upon the Christian principle,
the New York merchant was a Tolstoi a hundred years
before his time.

David Low Dodge was born June 14, 1774, in that
part of Pomfret, Connecticut, now called Brooklyn.
This was the home of Israel Putnam ; and David Dodge's
father, a farmer and carpenter, was Putnam's neighbor
and friend, — may well have been near him when in
April, 1775, upon hearing of the battle of Lexington,
he left his plow in the furrow and started to join the
forces gathering at Cambridge. David Dodge's father,
grandfather, and great-grandfather each bore the name
of David Dodge. The great-grandfather was a Congre
gational minister, who was understood to have come
from Wales, — a learned and wealthy man, who was for a
while settled in the vicinity of Cape Ann in Massachu
setts. The grandfather, who also received a liberal edu
cation, probably in England, came into the possession of
his father's estate, for that day a large one, and we are
not informed whether he followed any profession or reg
ular business. He was a man fully six feet tall, of great
muscular power, and a lover of good horses, on which
he spent much time and money. He married Ann Low,
from a wealthy Massachusetts family, and settled in
Beverly, where their sons David and Samuel were born,
and where the family fortunes became much embar
rassed. About 1757 the family removed to Pomfret,
Connecticut, and the boys, whose education at the hands
of their mother had been but slight, were apprenticed,
David to a carpenter and Samuel to a shoemaker. Their
father, obtaining at this time a commission in the army

x INTRODUCTION

invading Canada, met his death in a bateau which
attempted to descend the falls of the Oswego and was
dashed to pieces on the rocks with the loss of every
soul on board.

David Low Dodge's mother, when a girl, was Mary
Stuart, and when she married his father, in 1768, was a
widow bearing the name of Earl. The young husband
hired a small farm, the wife by her industry and econ
omy had furniture sufficient to begin housekeeping, and
the little home was founded in which David Low Dodge's
only sister Mary was born in 1770. Three years later
the father hired a more expensive place in the same
town, where the boy was born in 1774. " During that
year," he writes in his autobiography, " my father became
serious, and commenced family prayer. He was educated
in the old semi-Arminian views of his mother and the
halfway covenant. My mother was a rigid Calvinist of
the Whitefield school. Neither of them ever made a
public profession of religion, but they were careful to
observe external ordinances, catechize their children, and
give religious instruction. They were honest, industri
ous, temperate, kind-hearted people, universally respected
and esteemed by all who were acquainted with them."

Such was the atmosphere in which the boy grew up.
" The American Revolution at this period was convulsing
the whole country, drafting and enlisting soldiers. Wag
ons were needed for the army, and by the advice of the
Putnams, the old general and his son Israel, who was
about two years younger than my father, he was induced
to engage in the manufacture of continental wagons. He
hired a convenient place for carpenters and blacksmiths,

INTRODUCTION xi

took several journeymen into the family, and embarked
all his earnings in the business." The boy's half-brothers,
William and Jesse Earl, entered the army at the tender
a"-es of fourteen and sixteen, endured battles, sickness,

o •

and every privation, and both died towards the close of
the war, the event almost wrecking the nervous system
of the mother, a woman of acute sensibility. Thus early
were the horrors of war brought personally home to the
boy. He remembered hearing the distant cannonading
when New London was burned by the British, and the
exclamation of the man beside him, "Blood is flowing
to-day." "News came the next morning that the forts
were stormed, the garrisons put to the sword, New Lon
don burnt, and the British were marching upon Norwich,
and would proceed up into the country. My mother
wrung her hands, and asked my father if we had not
better pack up some things to secrete them."

The boy's education was slight and fragmentary.
The summer he was six years old he attended the
school of a venerable Irish maiden lady about sixty years
of age, learning Watts' Divine Songs, texts of Scripture,
and the SJiorter Catechism. From the age of seven to
fourteen — the family now living on a farm in the neigh
boring town of Hampton — he attended the district
school for two terms each winter, having no access to
any other books than the primer, spelling book, arith
metic, and Bible. " I used often, when not at work in
the shop evenings, to retire to the old kitchen fireplace,
put my lamp into the oven, and, sitting with my back
against it, take my arithmetic, slate, and pencil, and try
to cipher a little. I often think how I should have been

xii INTRODUCTION

delighted to have had one fifth part of the advantages
enjoyed by most of my descendants." Confined to the
house for seven weeks a little later as the result of
accidents, he turned hungrily to such books as he could
secure — Dilworth's Arithmetic, Webster's Abridged
Grammar, and Salmon's Universal English Geography.
" This opened a new and astonishing field to me for
contemplation. I now obtained the first glimpse of the
boundaries of land and water, of the lofty mountains,
and of the mighty rivers which had cut their channels
through the earth. I read and surveyed the maps and
meditated upon them until I began to lecture to my
young companions, and was considered quite learned in
geography. Having an object in view, I began to thirst
for knowledge, and succeeded in borrowing in succession
The Travels of Cyrus, Xerxes' Expedition into Greece,
The History of Alexander the Great, and Hannibal's
Invasion of Rome'' He proposed and brought about the
formation of a society of young men in the town, for the
improvement of minds and manners. There were four
teen young men, with an equal number of young women
presently added, each furnishing a useful book as the
beginning of a library. " We obtained some of the
British classics, such as the Spectator, Guardian, etc.,
with a few histories ; the subjects formed a foundation
for conversation when we met together."

Now the young man's ambition turned from farming
to school-teaching. He began with district schools,
becoming a successful teacher from the start, prose
cuting his own studies assiduously in every leisure hour,
fired with a desire to improve the schools, which were

INTRODUCTION xiii

everywhere as wretched as can well be imagined. For
some months in 1795 he left teaching to join other young
men in building a bridge at Tiverton, Rhode Island. Then
he attended the academy at North Canterbury, Connecti
cut, under the charge of the eminent teacher, John Adams.
" This was the only opportunity I ever enjoyed of attend
ing a good school, and this was abridged to fulfill my engage
ment to teach the town school in Mansfield." In 1796
he opened a private school in Norwich, adding the next
year a morning school for young ladies and an evening
school for apprentices and clerks, all of which flourished.
During this time he was profoundly interested in reli
gious matters, attending many revivals and becoming
more and more concerned with moral and social problems.
Now, too, he married, his wife being a daughter of
Aaron Cleveland of Norwich, a strong character, after
wards a clergyman, " whose name you will find enrolled
among the poets of Connecticut," and who as early as
1775 published a poem on slavery, which, condemning
slavery as wholly antichristian, attracted a good deal of
notice. He was the first man in Connecticut to arraign
slavery publicly. Elected to the General Assembly from
Norwich on that issue, he introduced a bill in behalf of
emancipation.

With health somewhat impaired and with family
cares increasing, David Dodge now turned from teach
ing to trade. First it was as a clerk in Norwich, then
as a partner in a general store, then as head of various
dry goods establishments in Hartford and other Con
necticut towns, always and everywhere successful. In
1805 Messrs. S. and H. Higginson of Boston, cousins

xiv INTRODUCTION

of his wife, a firm of high standing and large capital,
made him a proposition to enter into a copartnership
with a view to establishing an extensive importing and
jobbing store in the city of New York ; and he accepted
the proposition, going to New York the next year to
take charge of the concern in that city. He took a store
in Pearl Street, and the year afterwards the family took
possession of the house connected with the store, still
reserving the house in Hartford as a retreat in case of
yellow fever in New York. From this time until his
death, April 23, 1852, New York was, with occasional
interruptions, his home and the center of his varied
and ever enlarging activities. Just before the outbreak
of the war with England his partners became bankrupt
through losses in extensive shipping of American produce
to Europe. " Bonaparte sprung his trap upon more than
a million dollars of their property." Mr. Dodge now
established cotton factories in Connecticut, and later com
menced anew the dry goods business in New York, his
home for years alternating between New York and the
Norwich neighborhood ; and for the nine years following
1835 ne occupied a large farm in Plainfield, New Jersey.
Active as was his business life, and faithful his devo
tion to his large business affairs, — and he came to rank
with the most prominent mercantile men of his day, —
his mind was always intent upon social and religious
subjects. " During the years of 1808 to 1811 our busi
ness became extensive and demanded much thought and
attention ; yet I think my affections were on the subject
of religion." Revivals of religion, the interests of his
church in Norwich or New York, the improvement of

INTRODUCTION xv

the lives of his factory operatives, the organization in
New York of the Christian Friendly Society for the
Promotion of Morals and Religion, — such were the
objects which commanded him. Throughout his long
residence in New York he was a prominent worker in
the Presbyterian church, for many years an elder in the
church. He took a leading part in organizing the New
York Bible Society and the New York Tract Society,
was much engaged in the early missionary movements
in New York, and in promoting the education of young
men for the ministry. He was a lover of knowledge, a
great reader, and one who thought and wrote as he read.
Deeply interested in history, ancient and modern, his
chief interest was in theological discussion. He was
familiar with the chief theological controversies of the
day, and upon many of them committed his views to
writing. His knowledge of the Bible was remarkable ;
jie read it through critically in course forty-two times.
He held firmly the Calvinistic system of doctrine, and
he addressed to his children a scries of letters, character
ized by great ability and logical force, in defense of the
faith, and constituting together a compendious system
of theology.

Several of these letters are included in the memorial
volume published for the family in 1854 under the
editorial supervision of Rev. Matson M. Smith. This
volume contains, besides the two essays on war here
reprinted, and various verses and letters, the interesting
autobiography which he prepared, at the request of his
children, a few years before his death, and a supple
mentary biographical sketch by his pastor, Rev. Asa D.

xvi INTRODUCTION

Smith. In the mass of manuscripts which he left behind
was an essay upon " The Relation of the Church to the
World," and one upon " Retributive Judgment and Capi
tal Punishment," — to which he was sharply opposed. He
was opposed indeed to so much in human governments
as now constituted, — " whose ultimate reliance," he said,
" is the sword," and whose laws he felt to be so often
contrary to the laws of Christ to which he gave his sole
allegiance, — that he would neither vote nor hold office.
Strict and inflexible as he was in his views of political
and religious duty, he was one of the most genial and
delightful of men, a Christian in whom there was no
guile, fond of the young, affectionate, courteous, " given
to hospitality," " careful habitually to make even the con
ventionalities of life a fitting accompaniment and expres
sion of the inward principle of kindness." A face as
strong as it is gentle, and as gentle as it is strong, is
that which looks at us in the beautiful portrait preserved
in the family treasures, and a copy of which forms the
frontispiece of the present volume.

The character and influence of the family which he
founded in New York, during the three generations
which have followed, constitute an impressive witness to
David Dodge's force and worth, his religious consecra
tion, and high public spirit. At the junction of Broad
way and Sixth Avenue stands the statue of his son,
William Earl Dodge, whose life of almost fourscore years
ended in 1883. For long years the head of the great
house of Phelps, Dodge & Co., the manager of immense
railway, lumber, and mining interests, the president of
the New York Chamber of Commerce, a representative

INTRODUCTION xvii

of New York in Congress, a leader in large work for
temperance, for the freedmen, for the Indians, for theo
logical education, for a score of high patriotic and phil
anthropic interests, New York had in his time no more
representative, more useful, or more honored citizen.
And what is said of him may be said in almost the same
words of William Earl Dodge, his son, who died but
yesterday, and who combined broad business and phil
anthropic activities in the same strong and influential way
as his father and grandfather before him. President of
many religious and benevolent associations, he was pre
eminently a patriot and an international man. The logic
of his life and of his heritage placed him naturally at
the head of the National Arbitration Committee, which
was appointed at the great conference on international
arbitration held at Washington in the spring of 1896, fol
lowing the anxiety attendant upon President Cleveland's
Venezuelan message, — a committee which, under his
chairmanship, and since his death that of Hon. John
W. Foster, has during the decade rendered such great
service to the peace and arbitration cause in this coun
try. It is to be noted also that the names of his son and
daughter, Cleveland H. Dodge and Grace H. Dodge,
names so conspicuously associated to-day with char
itable, religious, and educational efforts in New York,
are associated, too, like his with the commanding cause
of the world's peace and better organization ; both names
stand upon the American Committee of the Thirteenth
International Peace Congress, which met in Boston in
1904. Thus have the generations which have followed
him well learned and strongly emphasized the lesson

xviii INTRODUCTION

taught by David Dodge almost a century ago, that war
is " inhuman, unwise, and criminal," and " inconsistent
with the religion of Jesus Christ."

It was in 1805 that a startling personal experience
prompted the train of thought which soon and forever
made David L. Dodge the advocate of the thorough
going peace principles with which his name is chiefly
identified, and led him to condemn all violence, even in
self-defense, in dealings between men, as between nations.
Accustomed to carry pistols when traveling with large
sums of money, he was almost led to shoot his landlord
in a tavern at Providence, Rhode Island, who by some
blunder had come into his room at night and suddenly
waked him. The thought of what his situation and
feelings would have been had he taken the man's life
shocked him into most searching thinking. For two or
three years his mind dwelt on the question. He turned
to the teaching and example of Christ, and became per
suaded that these were inconsistent with violence and
the carrying of deadly weapons, and with war. The com
mon churchman sanctioned such things, but not the
early Christians ; and he found strong words condemn
ing war in Luther and Erasmus, the Moravians and
Quakers. Discussing the matter with many pious and
Christian men, he found them generally avoiding the
gospel standard. He was shocked by the "general want
of faith in the promises " ; but he himself laid aside at
once his pistols and the fear of robbers. He became
absolutely convinced that fighting and warfare were
"unlawful for the followers of Christ " ; and from now on
he began to bear public testimony against the war spirit.

INTRODUCTION xix

Early in the spring of 1809 he published his essay,
The Mediator s Kingdom not of this World, which
attracted so much attention that in two weeks nearly
a thousand copies were sold. Three literary men joined
in preparing a spirited and sarcastic criticism of it ; and
he immediately published a rejoinder. Tlie Mediator s
Kingdom was republishcd in Philadelphia and in Provi
dence, and Mr. Dodge writes truly : " These publica
tions gave the first impulse in America, if we except the
uniform influence of the Friends, to inquiry into the law
fulness of war by Christians. Some who were favorable
to the doctrines of peace judged that, with a bold hand,
I had carried the subject too far ; and doubtless, as it
was new and had not been much discussed, I wrote too
unguardedly, not sufficiently defining my terms. The
Rev. Dr. Noah Worcester was one who so judged, and
a few years after he published his very spirited and
able essay, The Solemn Review of War." This famous
essay of Worcester's represents the platform of the great
body of American peace workers for a century, the posi
tion of men like Channing and Ladd and Jay and
Sumner ; but to a nonresistant and opponent even of
self-defense, like David Dodge, these seemed the expo
nents of a halfway covenant.

Mr. Dodge entered into private correspondence on the
lawfulness of war with Rev. Lyman Beecher, Rev. Aaron
Cleveland, his father-in-law, Rev. John B. Romeyn,
and Rev. Walter King. He preserved among his manu
scripts letters of twenty-five pages from Dr. Romeyn and
Mr. Cleveland, and copies of his reply to Dr. Romeyn
(one hundred and thirty-two pages) and to Dr. Beecher

xx INTRODUCTION

(forty-four pages). Important letters from Dr. Beecher
and Governor Jay he had lost. All these took the posi
tion of Dr. Worcester, sanctioning strictly defensive war
in extreme cases, — all except Mr. Cleveland, who finally
came into complete accord with Mr. Dodge, and pub
lished two able sermons on " The Life of Man Inviolable
by the Laws of Christ."

Early in 1812 the friends of peace whom Mr. Dodge
had gathered about him in New York conferred upon
the forming of a peace society, "wholly confined to
decided evangelical Christians, with a view to diffusing
peace principles in the churches, avoiding all party
questions." There being at this juncture, however,
intense political feeling over the threatened war with
Great Britain, they feared their motives would be mis
apprehended, and decided for the moment simply to act
individually in diffusing information. Mr. Dodge was
appointed to prepare an essay on the subject of war,
stating and answering objections ; and, removing at this
time to Norwich, he there, in a period of great business
perplexity, completed his remarkable paper on "War
Inconsistent with the Christian Religion," which was
published in the very midst of the war with England.

Upon his return to New York, the friends of peace
there had two or three meetings relative to the organiza
tion of a society ; and in August, 1815, they formed the
New York Peace Society, of between thirty and forty
members, their strict articles of association condemning
all war, offensive and defensive, as wholly opposed to the
example and spirit and precepts of Christ. The peace
societies formed immediately afterwards in Massachusetts,

INTRODUCTION xxi

Ohio, Rhode Island, and London were organized, accord
ing to Mr. Dodge, without any knowledge of each other,
the movements being the simultaneous separate results
of a common impulse. Of the New York society Mr.
Dodge was unanimously elected president. Monthly
meetings were arranged, and at the first of these Mr.
Dodge read an address upon "The Kingdom of Peace
under the Benign Reign of Messiah," of which a thou
sand copies were at once printed and circulated. Within
two years the society had increased to sixty members,
men active not only against war — which the society
regarded as "the greatest temporal evil, as almost every
immorality is generated in its prosecution, and poverty,
distress, famine, and pestilence follow in its train"- -but
in all the benevolent enterprises of that day. " Several
respectable clergymen united with the society, — Rev.
Drs. E. D. Griffin and M. L. Parvine, Rev. E. W. Bald
win (to whose pen we were much indebted), Rev. Samuel
Whelpley, and his son, Rev. Melancthon Whelpley, Rev.
H. G. Ufford, and Rev. S. H. Cox. Dr. Cox, however,
afterwards entertained different views on the subject."
The New York Peace Society had friendly corre
spondence with all the other peace societies, and for sev
eral years took two hundred copies of Dr. Worcester's
Friend of Peace. This seems finally to have contrib
uted to divide the society, some relinquishing the non-
resistant views of Mr. Dodge and adopting Worcester's
less extreme position. But our brave Tolstoian was a
"thorough," and never wavered. "If it was morally
wrong for individuals to quarrel and fight, instead of
returning good for evil," —these are his last words on

xxii INTRODUCTION

the subject in his autobiography, — "it was much more
criminal for communities and nations to return evil for
evil, and not strive to overcome evil with good. In fact,
the great barrier to our progress was the example of our
fathers in the American Revolution. That they were
generally true patriots, in the political sense of the term,
and many hopefully pious, I would not call in question,
while I consider them as ill directed by education as
St. Paul was when on his way to Damascus."

The New York Peace Society maintained its existence
and work for many years. In 1828 it united with other
societies in the creation of the American Peace Society,
which was organized in New York on May 8 of that year
on the initiative of William Ladd. After this the New
York society seems to have done little separate work,
and finally its independent existence ceased. Mr. Dodge
assisted in the organization of the new national society,
and presided at its first annual meeting, May 13, 1829.
He was chosen a member of its board of directors, and
later became a life director, maintaining his connection
with the society until his death in 1852, faithful to
the end to the radical views by which he had become so
powerfully possessed almost half a century before.

For two generations New York has been without a
local peace society. The services of eminent individual
citizens of the city and state of New York for the peace
cause during that period, however, have been signal.
Judge William Jay of New York was for a decade presi
dent of the American Peace Society, — the important
decade covering the great peace congresses in Europe at
the middle of the last century ; and it was his proposal

INTRODUCTION xxiii

that an arbitration clause should be attached to all
future commercial treaties which furnished the basis for
the most constructive debates of the first congress, that
at London in 1843. The three really important mem
bers of the American delegation at The Hague Con
ference were citizens of New York, — Andrew D. White,
Seth Low, and Frederick W. Holls. A remarkable plan
adopted by the New York State Bar Association sug
gested important features of The Hague Court as fin
ally constituted. It is a citizen of New York, Andrew
Carnegie, who has given $1,500,000 for a worthy build
ing for the court at The Hague, — a temple of peace.
Mr. Carnegie, whose influence in behalf of international
fraternity is perhaps second to that of no other to-day,
has also given $5,000,000 to establish a pension fund
for "heroes of peace," whose heroism, too long com
paratively neglected, he rightly sees to be not less than
the heroism of the soldier. The most important series of
arbitration conferences in recent times have been those
at Lake Mohonk, in the state of New York, arranged
by Albert K. Smiley, — conferences of growing size
and importance, commanding world-wide attention, and
performing for this country almost the same service
performed for France and England by their national
peace congresses. Finally, it must not be forgotten that
Theodore Roosevelt, the President of the United States,
through whose initiative the second Hague Conference
will presently meet, is also a citizen of New York.

At this very time a promising movement is gaining
head to organize once more in David Dodge's city a New
York Peace Society. At one of the recent Mohonk

xxiv INTRODUCTION

conferences a large committee of New York men, under
the chairmanship of Mr. Warner Van Norden, was
formed for conference with this end in view. Upon the
American committee of the International Peace Congress
which met in Boston in 1904 were no less than sixteen
residents of the city of New York, — Andrew Carnegie,
Hon. Oscar S. Straus, Hon. George F. Seward, Walter
S. Logan, Felix Adler, William D. Howells, Mrs. Charles
Russell Lowell, Mrs. Anna Garlin Spencer, Miss Grace
H. Dodge, Rev. Josiah Strong, Rev. Charles E. Jeffer
son, Cleveland H. Dodge, George Foster Peabody, Pro
fessor John B. Clark, Leander T. Chamberlain, and J. G.
Phelps Stokes. In the week following the Boston con
gress a series of great peace meetings was held in New
York, at the Cooper Union and elsewhere, arranged by
members of this committee ; and out of all this a new
impulse has come to plans for local organization in New
York. As one result a strong society was formed by the
Germans of the city, and a large Women's Peace Circle
has since been organized and begun important educa
tional work. The larger New York Peace Society is
now certainly a thing of the near future. To the men
and women who will constitute that society, the noble
body of those now working in their various ways in the
great city for the cause of peace, is dedicated especially
this republication of the old essays of David Dodge, the
founder of the first peace society in the world, who by
his pioneering and prophetic service gave to New York
a place so significant in the history of what is to-day
the world's most commanding cause.

SEPTEMBER, 1905 EDWIN D. MEAD

WAR INCONSISTENT WITH THE
RELIGION OF JESUS CHRIST

Humanity, wisdom, and goodness at once combine
all that can be great and lovely in man. Inhumanity,
folly, and wickedness reverse the picture, and at once
represent all that can be odious and hateful. The
former is the spirit of Heaven, and the latter the off
spring of hell. The spirit of the gospel not only
breathes " glory to God in the highest, but on earth
peace, and good will to men." The wisdom from
above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy to be
entreated ; but the wisdom from beneath is earthly,
sensual, and devilish.

It is exceedingly strange that any one under the light
of the gospel, professing to be guided by its blessed
precepts, with the Bible in his hand, while the whole
creation around him is so often groaning under the
weight and terrors of war, should have doubts whether
any kind of wars under the gospel dispensation, except
spiritual warfare, can be the dictate of any kind of wis
dom except that from beneath ; and much more so, to
believe that they are the fruit of the Divine Spirit,
which is love, joy, and peace.

An inspired apostle has informed us from whence
come wars and fightings. They come from the lusts

2 WAR INCONSISTENT WITH

of men that war in their members. Ever since the fall,
mankind have had naturally within them a spirit of pride,
avarice, and revenge. The gospel is directly opposed
to this spirit. It teaches humility, it inculcates love,
it breathes pity and forgiveness even to enemies, and
forbids rendering evil for evil to any man.

Believing as I do, after much reflection and, as I
trust, prayerful investigation of the subject, that all
kinds of carnal warfare are unlawful upon gospel prin
ciples, I shall now endeavor to prove that WAR is
INHUMAN, UNWISE, and CRIMINAL, and then make some
general remarks, and state and answer several objec
tions. In attempting to do this I shall not always con
fine myself strictly to this order of the subject, but
shall occasionally make such remarks as may occur,
directly or indirectly, to show that the whole genius of
war is contrary to the spirit and precepts of the gospel.

WAR IS INHUMAN

I. BECAUSE IT HARDENS THE HEART AND BLUNTS
THE TENDER FEELINGS OF MANKIND

That it is the duty of mankind to be tender-hearted,
reeling for the distress of others, and to do all in their
power to prevent and alleviate their misery, is evident
not only from the example of the Son of God but the
precepts of the gospel.

When the Saviour of sinners visited this dark and
cruel world he became a man of sorrow and was

THE RELIGION OF JESUS CHRIST 3

acquainted with grief, so that he was touched with the
feeling of our infirmities. He went about continually
healing the sick, opening the eyes of the blind, unstop
ping the ears of the deaf, raising the dead, as well as
preaching the gospel of peace to the poor. He visited
the houses of affliction and poured the balm of consola
tion into the wounded heart. He mourned with those
who mourned, and wept with those that wept. Love
to God and man flowed from his soul pure as the river
of life, refreshing the thirsty desert around him. He
was not only affectionate to his friends but kind to his
enemies. He returned love for their hatred, and bless
ing for their cursing. When he was surrounded by all
the powers of darkness and resigned himself into the
hands of sinners to expiate their guilt, and they smote
him on the cheek and plucked off the hair, he " was
dumb and opened not his mouth." While suffering all
the contempt and torture which men and devils could
invent, instead of returning evil for evil he prayed for
his murderers and apologized for his persecutors, say
ing, " Father, forgive them, for they know not what
they do."

The apostle exhorts Christians, saying, "Be ye kind
and tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God
for Christ's sake hath forgiven you."

Authority in abundance might be quoted to show
that the spirit of the gospel absolutely requires the
exercise of love, pity, and forgiveness, even to enemies.

But who will undertake to prove that soldiers are
usually kind and tender-hearted, and that their em
ployment has a natural tendency to promote active

4 WAR INCONSISTENT WITH

benevolence, while it requires all their study of mind
and strength of body to injure their enemies to the
greatest extent ?

Though we often hear of the generosity and atten
tion of soldiers to prisoners, and notwithstanding I am
willing to allow that feelings of humanity are not alto
gether obliterated from every soldier, yet much of this
apparent kindness may flow from a desire of better
treatment themselves should circumstances be reversed,
or from a hope of the applause of mankind. My object,
however, is not to prove that all soldiers are destitute
of humanity, but that their occupation has a natural
tendency and actually does weaken their kind and
tender feelings, and harden their hearts.

Is it not a fact that those who are engaged in the
spirit of war, either in the council or in the field, are
not usually so meek, lowly, kind, and tender-hearted as
other men ? Does the soldier usually become kind and
tender-hearted while trained to the art of killing his
fellow-man, or more so when engaged in the heat of
the battle, stepping forward over the wounded and
hearing the groans of the expiring? Does he actually
put on bowels of tenderness, mercy, and forgiveness,
while he bathes his sword in the blood of his brother?
Do these scenes generally change the lion into the
lamb? On the contrary, do not the history of ages and
the voice of millions bear testimony that the whole trade
of war has a natural tendency to blunt the tender edge
of mercy and chill all the sympathizing feelings of the
human heart ? Who that is a parent, having an uncom
monly hard-hearted and unfeeling son, would send him

THE RELIGION OF JESUS CHRIST 5

into the camp to subdue his inhumanity and to stamp
upon him kind and tender feelings? If war has not a
natural tendency to harden the heart, permit me to
inquire why mankind do not usually feel as much at the
distress occasioned by war as by other calamities?

It would be truly astonishing, were it not so common,
to see with what composure the generality of mankind
hear the account of barbarous and destructive battles.
They may have some little excitement when they hear of
savages — whose religion teaches them revenge — using
the tomahawk and scalping knife ; but when thousands
are torn to pieces with shot and shells and butchered
with polished steels, then it becomes a very polite and
civil business, and those who perish are contemplated
as only reclining on a bed of honor. If an individual
in common life breaks a bone or fractures a limb, all
around him not only sympathize but are ready to aid in
alleviating his distress ; but when thousands are slain
and ten thousand wounded in the field of battle, the
shock is but trifling, and the feelings are soon lost in
admiring the gallantry of this hero and the prowess of
that veteran. And why all this sensibility at the pains
of an individual, and all this indifference at the suffer
ings of thousands, if war has not a natural tendency to
harden the heart and destroy the tender feelings of
mankind ?

It is a fact, however, so notorious that the spirit and
practice of war do actually harden the heart and chill
the kind and tender feelings of mankind, that I think
few will be found to deny it, and none who have ever
known or felt the spirit of Christ.

6 WAR INCONSISTENT WITH

The spirit of war must be very unlike the spirit of
the gospel, for the gospel enforces no duty the practice
of which has a natural tendency to harden men's hearts,
but in proportion as they are influenced by its spirit
and actuated by its principles they will be humane ;
therefore, if war hardens men's hearts it is not a
Christian duty, and of course it cannot be right for
Christians to engage in it.

II. WAR IS INHUMAN, AS IN ITS NATURE AND
TENDENCY IT ABUSES GOD'S ANIMAL CREATION

When God at first created man, he gave him author
ity over the beasts of the field, the fowls of the air, and
the fishes of the deep. After he had swept away the
old ungodly world of mankind for their violence with
all the animal creation, except those in the ark, he was
pleased to renew to Noah the same privilege of being
lord over the animal world.

It may not perhaps be improper here to digress a
little and remark that this appears to have been the
original bounds of man's authority, — that of having
dominion only over the animal world and not over his
fellow-man. It appears that God reserved to himself
the government of man, whom he originally created in
his own image; from which it may be inferred that
man has no lawful authority for governing his fellow-
man except as the special executor of divine command,
and that no government can be morally right except
that which acknowledges and looks up to God as the
supreme head and governor.

THE RELIGION OF JESUS CHRIST 7

But to return : although the animal world is put
under the dominion of man for his use, yet he has no
authority to exercise cruelty towards it. " For the
merciful man regardeth the life of his beast." God is
very merciful to his creatures ; he not only hears the
young ravens when they cry but he opens his hand
and supplies the wants of the cattle upon a thousand
hills.

Though God has decorated the earth with beauty
and richly clothed it with food for man and beast, yet
where an all-devouring army passes, notwithstanding
the earth before them is like the garden of Eden, it
is behind them a desolate wilderness ; the lowing ox
and bleating sheep may cry for food, but, alas ! the
destroyer hath destroyed it.

The noble horse, which God has made for the use
and pleasure of man, shares largely in this desolating
evil. He is often taken, without his customary food,
to run with an express, until, exhausted by fatigue, he
falls lifeless beneath his rider. Multitudes of them are
chained to the harness with scanty food, and goaded
forward to drag the baggage of an army and the thun
dering engines of death, until their strength has failed,
their breath exhausted, and the kindness they then
receive is the lash of the whip or the point of a spear.
In such scenes the comfort of beasts is not thought of,
except by a selfish owner who fears the loss of his
property.

But all this is trifling compared with what these
noble animals, who tamely bow to the yoke of man,
suffer in the charge of the battle ; the horse rushes

8 WAR INCONSISTENT WITH

into the combat not knowing that torture and death
are before him. His sides are often perforated with
the spur of his rider, notwithstanding he exerts all his
strength to rush into the heat of the battle, while the
strokes of the sabers and the wounds of the bullets
lacerate his body, and instead of having God's pure air
to breathe to alleviate his pains, he can only snuff up
the dust of his feet and the sulphurous smoke of the
cannon, emblem of the infernal abode. Thus he has
no ease for his pains unless God commissions the
bayonet or the bullet to take away his life.

But if such is the cruelty to beasts in prosecuting
war, what is the cruelty to man, born for immortality ?

No wonder that those who feel so little for their
fellow-men should feel less for beasts.

If war is an inhuman and cruel employment, it must
be wrong for Christians to engage in it.

III. WAR IS INHUMAN, AS IT OPPRESSES '
THE POOR

To oppress the poor is everywhere in the Scriptures
considered as a great sin : "For the oppression of the
poor, for the sighing of the needy, now will I arise,
saith the Lord " ; " Whoso stoppeth his ears at the
cry of the poor, he also shall cry himself and not be
heard"; "What mean ye that ye beat my people to
pieces, and grind the faces of the poor? saith the Lord
God of hosts."

The threatenings against those who oppress the poor,
and the blessings pronounced upon those who plead

THE RELIGION OF JESUS CHRIST 9

their cause, are very numerous in the Scriptures. The
threatenings are so tremendous and awful that all men
ought to consider well -before they are active in any
step which has a natural tendency to oppress the poor
and needy.

That war actually does oppress the poor may be
heard from ten thousand wretched tongues who have
felt its woe. Very few, comparatively, who are insti
gators of war actually take the field of battle, and are
seldom seen in the front of the fire. It is usually those
who are rioting on the labors of the poor that fan up
the flame of war. The great mass of soldiers are gen
erally from the poor of a country. They must gird on
the harness and for a few cents per day endure all the
hardships of a camp and be led forward like sheep to
the slaughter. Though multitudes are fascinated to
enlist by the intoxicating cup, the glitter of arms, the
vainglory of heroes, and the empty sound of patriotism,
yet many more are called away contrary to their wishes
by the iron hand of despotic laws. Perhaps a parent
is enrolled whose daily labor was hardly sufficient to
supply a scanty pittance for a numerous offspring, who
are in his absence crying for bread. And why all this
sorrow in this poor and needy family ? Because the
husband and father is gone, and probably gone forever,
most likely to gratify the wishes of some ambitious men
who care as little as they think of his anxious family.
Perhaps an only son is taken from old, decrepit parents,
the only earthly prop of their declining years ; and with
cold poverty and sorrow their gray hairs are brought
down to the dust.

10 WAR INCONSISTENT WITH

War cannot be prosecuted without enormous ex
penses. The money that has been expended the last
twenty years in war would doubtless have been sufficient
not only to have rendered every poor person on earth
comfortable — so far as money could do it — during
the same period, but, if the residue had been applied
to cultivate the earth, it would have literally turned
the desert into a fruitful field. Only the interest of the
money that has been expended in a few years by the
European nations in prosecuting war would have been
sufficient, under proper direction, to educate every poor
child on earth in the common rudiments of learning,
and to support missionaries in abundance to convey
the gospel of peace to every creature. What a noble
employment if those nations had exerted their powers
for these objects as much as they have for injuring
each other! And what a difference would have ap
peared in the world ! Blessings would have fallen on
millions ready to perish, instead of desolation, terror,
and death.

The vast expenses of war must be met by corre
sponding taxes, whether by duties on merchandise or
direct taxes on real estate ; yet they fall most heavily
on the poor. Whatever duty the merchant pays to the
customhouse, he adds the amount to the price of his
goods, so that the consumer actually pays the tax. If
a tax is levied on real estate, the product of that estate
is raised to meet it, and whoever consumes the product
pays the tax. In times of war the prices of the neces
saries of life are generally very much increased, but the
prices of the labor of the poor do not usually rise in

THE RELIGION OF JESUS CHRIST u

the same proportion, therefore it falls very heavily on
them. When the honest laborers are suddenly called
from the plow to take the sword and leave the tilling
of the ground, either its seed is but sparingly sown or
its fruit but partially gathered, scarcity ensues, high
prices are the consequence, and the difficulty greatly
increased for the poor to obtain the necessaries of life,
especially if they were dependent on the product of a
scanty farm which they are now deprived of cultivat
ing. Many a poor widow, who has been able in times
of peace to support her fatherless children, has been
obliged in times of war in a great measure to depend
on the cold hand of chanty to supply their wants.

The calamities of war necessarily fall more on the
poor than on the rich, because the poor of a country are
generally a large majority of its inhabitants.

These are some of the evils of war at a distance, but
when it comes to their doors, if they are favored per
sonally to escape the ferocity of the soldiers, they fly
from their habitations, leaving their little all to the fire
and pillage, glad to escape with their lives, though des
titute and dependent ; and when they cast round their
eyes for relief, they only meet a fellow-sufferer, who can
sympathize with them but not supply their wants. Thus
does war not only oppress the poor but adds multitudes
to their number who before were comfortable.

If war actually does oppress the poor, then we may
infer that in its nature and tendency it is very unlike
the genius of the gospel, and not right for Christians
to engage in it.

12 WAR INCONSISTENT WITH

IV. WAR IS INHUMAN, AS IT SPREADS TERROR
AND DISTRESS AMONG MANKIND

In the benign reign of Messiah the earth will be
filled with the abundance of peace ; there will be nothing
to hurt or destroy ; every one will sit quietly under his
own vine and fig tree, having nothing to molest or
make him afraid. But in times of war, mankind are
usually full of anxiety, their hearts failing them for
fear, looking for those things which are coming upon
our wicked world.

One of the most delightful scenes on earth is a happy
family where all the members dwell together in love,
being influenced by the blessed precepts of the gospel
of peace. But how soon does the sound of war disturb
and distress the happy circle ! If it is only the distant
thunder of the cannon that salutes the ear, the mother
starts from her repose, and all the children gather round
her with looks full of anxiety to know the cause. Few
women can so command their feelings as to hide the
cause ; and let it be said to the honor of the female sex
that they have generally tender feelings, which cannot
easily be disguised at the distress of their fellow-beings.
Perhaps a mother's heart is now wrung with anguish
in the prospect that either the partner of her life or the
sons of her care and sorrow, or both, are about to be
called into the bloody field of battle. Perhaps the de
crepit parent views his darling son leaving his peaceful
abode to enter the ensanguined field, never more to
return. How soon are these joyful little circles turned
into mourning and sorrow !

THE RELIGION OF JESUS CHRIST 13

Who can describe the distress of a happy village
suddenly encompassed by two contending armies -
perhaps so early and suddenly that its inhabitants are
aroused from their peaceful slumbers by the confused
noise of the warriors more ferocious than the beasts
that prowl in the forest ? Were it not for the tumult of
the battle, shrieks of distress from innocent women
and children might be heard from almost every abode.
Children run to the arms of their distracted mothers,
who are as unable to find a refuge for themselves as
for their offspring. If they fly to the streets they are
in the midst of death : hundreds of cannon are vomit
ing destruction in every quarter ; the hoofs of horses
trampling down everything in their way ; bullets, stones,
bricks, and splinters flying in every direction ; houses
pierced with cannon shot and shells which carry deso
lation in their course ; without, multitudes of men
rushing with deadly weapons upon each other with all
the rage of tigers, plunging each other into eternity,
until the streets are literally drenched with the blood
of men. To increase the distress, the village is taken
and retaken several times at the point of the bayonet.
If the inhabitants fly to their cellars to escape the fury
of the storm, their buildings may soon be wrapt in
flames over their heads.

And for what, it may be asked, is all this inhuman
sacrifice made ? Probably to gain the empty bubble
called honor, — a standard of right and wrong without
form or dimensions. Let no one say that the writer's
imagination is heated while it is not in the power of
his feeble pen to half describe the horror and distress

I4 WAR INCONSISTENT WITH

of the scenes which are by no means uncommon in a
state of war.

If such are some of the effects of war, then it must
be a very inhuman employment, and wrong for Chris
tians to engage in it.

V. WAR IS INHUMAN, AS IT INVOLVES MEN IN
FATIGUE, FAMINE, AND ALL THE TAINS OF
MUTILATED BODIES

To describe the fatigues and hardships of a soldier's
life would require the experience of a soldier, so that
only some of their common sufferings can be touched
upon by a person who is a stranger to the miseries of
a camp.

A great majority of those who enter the ranks of an
army are persons unaccustomed to great privations and
severe fatigues ; hence the great proportion of mortality
among fresh recruits. Their habits and strength are
unable to endure the hard fare, rapid and constant
marches generally imposed upon them in active service.

The young soldier commonly exchanges a wholesome
table, a comfortable dwelling, an easy bed, for bad food,
the field for his house, the cold earth for his bed, and
the heavens over him for his covering. He must stand
at his post day and night, summer and winter; face the
scorching sun, the chilling tempest, and be exposed to
all the storms of the season, without any comfortable
repose ; perhaps during most of the time with a scanty
allowance of the coarsest food, and often destitute of
any, except the miserable supply he may have chance

THE KKLKiJON OF JKSUS CHRIST 15

to plunder, — not enough to satisfy but only to keep
alive the craving demands of nature ; often compelled
to march and countermarch several days and nights in
succession, without a moment to prepare his provisions
to nourish him and glad to get a little raw to sustain
his life. Frequently this hardship is endured in the
cold and inclement season, while his tattered clothing is
only the remains of his summer dress. Barefooted and
half naked, fatigued and chilled, he becomes a prey to
disease, and is often left to perish without a human
being to administer to him the least comfort. If he is
carried to a hospital, he is there surrounded by the pes
tilential breath of hundreds of his poor fellow-sufferers,
where the best comforts that can be afforded are but
scanty and dismal.

But all this is comparatively trifling to the sufferings
of the wounded on the field of battle. There thousands
of mangled bodies lie on the cold ground hours, and
sometimes days, without a friendly hand to bind up a
wound ; not a voice is heard except the dying groans of
their fellow-sufferers around them. No one can describe
the horrors of the scene : here lies one with a fractured
skull, there another with a severed limb, and a third
with a lacerated body ; some fainting with the loss of
blood, others distracted, and others again crying for help.

If such are some of the faint outlines of the fatigues
and sufferings of soldiers, then their occupation must be
an inhuman employment, for they are instrumental in
bringing the same calamities on others which they suffer
themselves ; and of course it is unfriendly to the spirit
of the gospel, and wrong for Christians to engage in it.

16 WAR INCONSISTENT WITH

VI. WAR IS INHUMAN, AS IT DESTROYS THE
YOUTH AND CUTS OFF THE HOPE OF GRAY
HAIRS

Mankind are speedily hastening into eternity, and it
might be supposed sufficiently fast without the aid of
all the ingenuity and strength of man to hurry them
forward ; yet it is a melancholy truth that a great pro
portion of the wealth, talents, and labors of men are
actually employed in inventing and using means for the
premature destruction of their fellow-beings.

One generation passes away, and another follows in
quick succession. The young are always the stay and
hope of the aged ; parents labor and toil for their chil
dren to supply their wants and to educate them to be
happy, respectable, and useful, and then depend upon
them to be their stay and comfort in their declining
years. Alas, how many expectations of fond parents
are blasted ! Their sons are taken away from them
and hurried into the field of slaughter.

In times of war the youth — the flower, strength, and
beauty of the country — are called from their sober, hon
est, and useful employments, to the field of battle ; and
if they do not lose their lives or limbs, they generally
lose their habits of morality and industry. Alas ! few
ever return again to the bosom of their friends. Though
from their mistaken and fascinating views of a soldier's
life and honor they may be delighted in enlisting, and
merry in their departure from their peaceful homes, yet
their joy is soon turned into pain and sorrow. Un
thinking youth, like the horse, rushes thoughtlessly

THE RELIGION OF JESUS CHRIST 17

into the battle. Repentance is then too late ; to shrink
back is death, and to go forward is only a faint hope of
life. Here on the dreadful field are thousands and hun
dreds of thousands driven together to slaughter each
other by a few ambitious men, perhaps none of whom
are present. A large proportion are probably the youth
of their country, the delight and comfort of their
parents. All these opposing numbers are most likely
persons who never knew or heard of each other, having
no personal ill-will, most of whom would in any other
circumstances not only not injure each other but be
ready to aid in any kind office ; yet by the act of war
they are ranged against each other in all the hellish
rage of revenge and slaughter.

No pen, much less that of the writer's, can describe
the inhumanity and horrors of a battle. All is confu
sion and dismay, dust and smoke arising, horses running,
trumpets blasting, cannon roaring, bullets whistling,
and the shrieks of the wounded and dying vibrating
from every quarter. Column after column of men charge
upon each other in furious onset, with the awful crash
of bayonets and sabers, with eyes flashing and visages
frightfully distorted with rage, rushing upon each other
with the violence of brutish monsters ; and when these
are literally cut to pieces others march in quick suc
cession, only to share the same cruel and bloody tragedy.
Hundreds are parrying the blows; hundreds more are
thrusting their bayonets into the bowels of their fellow-
mortals, and many, while extricating them, have their
own heads cleft asunder by swords and sabers ; and all
are hurried together before the tribunal of their Judge,

18 WAR INCONSISTENT WITH

with hearts full of rage and hands dyed in the blood of
their brethren.

0 horrid and debasing scene ! my heart melts at the
contemplation, and I forbear to dwell upon the inhuman
employment.

VII. WAR IS INHUMAN, AS IT MULTIPLIES WID
OWS AND ORPHANS, AND CLOTHES THE
LAND IN MOURNING

The widow and fatherless are special objects of
divine compassion, and Christianity binds men under
the strongest obligation to be kind and merciful towards
them, as their situation is peculiarly tender and afflicting.

"A father of the fatherless, and a judge of the
widow, is God in his holy habitation." "Pure religion
and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to
visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction."

To be active in any measure which has a natural
tendency to wantonly multiply widows and orphans in
a land is the height of inhumanity as well as daring
impiety.

1 will venture to say that no one circumstance in our
world has so greatly multiplied widows and fatherless
children as that of war. What has humanity ever gained
by war to counterbalance simply the afflictions of the
widow and fatherless ? I verily believe nothing com
paratively. I am well aware that a very popular plea
for war is to defend, as it is styled, " our firesides, our
wives and children " ; but this generally is only a
specious address to the feelings, to rouse up a martial

THE RELIGION OF JESUS CHRIST 19

spirit which makes thousands of women and children
wretched where one is made happy. I am sensible that
those will sneer at my opinion who regard more the
honor that comes from men than they do the consolation
of the widow and the fatherless.

In times of war thousands of virtuous women are
deprived of their husbands and ten thousands of help
less children of their fathers. The little tender chil
dren may now gather round their disconsolate mothers,
anxiously inquiring about their fathers, remembering
their kind visages, recollecting how they used fondly to
dandle them on their knees and affectionately instruct
them ; but now they are torn from their embraces by
the cruelty of war, and they have no fathers left them
but their Father in heaven.

It is probably no exaggeration to suppose that in
Europe there are now two hundred thousand widows
and a million fatherless children occasioned by war.
What a mass of affliction ! humanity bleeds at the
thought ! These children must now roam about with
out a father to provide for, protect, or instruct them.
They now become an easy prey to all kinds of vice ;
many probably will be trained up for ignominious death,
and most of them fit only for a soldier's life, to slaughter
and to be slaughtered, unless some humane hand kindly
takes them under its protection.

And here I cannot help admiring the spirit of Chris
tianity. It is owing to the blessed spirit and temper of
the gospel of peace that many of the evils of war are
so much ameliorated at the present day as well as trie
inhuman slavery of men.

20 WAR INCONSISTENT WITH

The numerous asylums that now exist for the relief
of the needy, the widow, and the fatherless are some of
the precious fruits of Christianity ; and if this spirit
were universal the bow would soon be broken to pieces,
the spear cut asunder, and the chariots of war burnt with
fire, and wars would cease to the ends of the earth.

And is it not the duty of all who name the name
of Christ to do all in their power to counteract this
destroying evil ?

War not only multiplies widows and orphans but
clothes the land in mourning. In times of war multi
tudes of people are clothed with ensigns of mourning.
Here are gray-headed parents shrouded in blackness,
weeping for the loss of darling sons ; there are widows
covered with veils mourning the loss of husbands, and
refusing to be comforted ; children crying because their
fathers are no more. Cities and villages are covered
in darkness and desolation ; weeping and mourning
arise from almost every abode.

And it may be asked, What inhuman hand is the
cause of all this sorrow ? Perhaps some rash man, in
the impetuosity of his spirit, has taken some unjust,
high ground, and is too proud to retrace a step, and had
rather see millions wretched than to nobly confess that
he had been in the wrong.

Surely .Christians cannot be active in such measures
without incurring the displeasure of God, who styles
himself the father of the fatherless and the judge and
avenger of the widow.

Thus I have shown that war is inhuman and therefore
wholly inconsistent with Christianity, by proving that

THE RELIGION OF JESUS CHRIST 21

it tends to destroy humane dispositions ; that it hardens
the hearts and blunts the tender feelings of men ; that
it involves the abuse of God's animal creation ; that it
oppresses the poor ; that it spreads terror and distress
among mankind ; that it subjects soldiers to cruel priva
tions and sufferings ; that it destroys the youth and cuts
off the hope of the aged ; and that it multiplies widows
and orphans and occasions mourning and sorrow.

The fact that war is inhuman is indeed one of those
obvious truths which it is difficult to render more plain
by argument ; those who know in what war consists
cannot help knowing that it is inhuman.

What Mr. Windham said with reference to the in
humanity of slavery may be said of the inhumanity
of war. In one of his speeches in the House of Com
mons against the slave trade he stated his difficulty in
arguing against such a trade to be of that kind which is
felt in arguing in favor of a self-evident proposition.
" If it were denied that two and two made four, it would
not be a very easy task," he said, "to find arguments
to support the affirmative side of the question. Pre
cisely similar was his embarrassment in having to prove
that the slave trade was unjust and inhuman."

Whoever admits that the slave trade is inhuman must
admit that war is inhuman in a greater variety of ways
and on a much larger scale.

The inhumanity of the slave trade was the great and,
finally, triumphant argument by which it was proved to
be inconsistent with Christianity.

The advocates of slavery, like the advocates of war,
resorted to the Old Testament for support ; but it

22 WAR INCONSISTENT WITH

appeared that slavery, as it appears that war, was per
mitted and approved of for reasons and on principles
peculiar to the ancient economy. This is apparent as
well from the difference between the general design of
the old and new dispensations as from the whole genius
and spirit of the gospel. Hence those who opposed the
slave trade argued from the general nature and spirit of
Christianity as the strongest ground which could be
taken. If slavery was inconsistent with this, it ought
not to be tolerated ; but slavery is inhuman and is there
fore inconsistent with Christianity. Exactly the same
is true of war, nor can anything short of an express
revelation from God, commanding war or slavery, ren
der either of them justifiable.

It deserves to be distinctly considered that the gospel
contains little or nothing directly by way of precept
against slavery ; but slavery is inconsistent with its
general requirements and inculcations and is therefore
wrong. But war, besides being inconsistent with the
genius and spirit of the gospel, is prohibited by those
precepts which forbid retaliation and revenge and those
which require forgiveness and good will.

It is plain, then, that he who does not advocate and
defend the slave trade, to be consistent, must grant
that war is incompatible with Christianity, and that it
is a violation of the gospel to countenance it.

THE RELIGION OF JESUS CHRIST 23

WAR IS UNWISE

That the principles and practice of war are unwise
I argue :

I. BECAUSE, INSTEAD OF PREVENTING, THEY
PROVOKE INSULT AND MISCHIEF

The maxim, that in order to preserve peace, man
kind must be prepared for war, has become so com
mon, and sanctioned by such high authority, that few
question its wisdom or policy ; but if stripped of its
specious garb, it may appear to proceed not from that
wisdom which came down from above, which is " first
pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full
of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and with
out hypocrisy"; and if it is not the wisdom from
above, then it must be the wisdom from beneath.

Are not pride, avarice, and revenge the seeds of all
kinds of carnal warfare ? From these grow all the
quarreling among children, the discord among families,
the bickerings, law suits, and broils among neighbors,
the boxing among bullies, the dueling among modern
gentlemen, and wars among nations. They all originate
from one and the same spirit.

Now, is the mild, meek, and peaceable man, un
armed, more liable to inspire jealousy in others that
he is about to insult and abuse them than the hiirh-

o

toned duelist who constantly carries with him deathly
weapons ? Does he, in fact, so often get Into dif
ficulty, quarreling and fighting ? The respectable

24 WAR INCONSISTENT WITH

Society of Friends stands a living monument to answer
the question.

On the principles of self-defense, as they are styled,
if one man suspects an injury from another, unless he
is naturally a more powerful man, he must take a cane,
as the principles of self-defense require a superior power
in your own hand, either by art or muscular strength.
When the other learns the suspicions and sees the prepa
ration, he in his turn must take a bludgeon to preserve
the balance of power and proclaim a threatening to awe
his antagonist, who must now take a sword and return
a threatening in order to maintain his dignity ; for it
will not do for men of honor to retract, however much
they may be in the wrong. The other, again, must take
a deathly weapon for his defense, and nothing is now
wanting but an unhappy meeting to set each other's
blood a flowing.

Much in the same way do nations often get into
desperate warfare. One nation is busily increasing its
military strength on the plausible maxim of preserving
peace and maintaining its rights. Another nation views
the preparations with a jealous eye, and also goes to
work on the same principle to make formidable prepara
tions. All the nations around take the alarm, and on the
same principle begin active preparations, all vying with
each other to become the most formidable. If one sends
an ambassador to inquire the cause of the great prep
arations, the answer always is, let the motive be what
it may, For their own defense. Then the other makes
new exertions and begins to fortify towns on the confines
of his neighbor, who must not only do the same but

THE RELIGION OK JESUS CHRIST 25

march a large army for the defense of his frontier ; and
the other must do likewise. By this time, if no old quar
rel remained unsettled, perhaps one charges the other
with encroachment on territory ; the other denies the
charge, and contends sharply for his pretended rights.
Ministers may be interchanged, and while negotiations
are pending a high tone must be taken by both parties,
for this is an essential principle in the doctrine of self-
defense ; the contrary would betray weakness and fear.
Newspapers must be ushered forth with flaming pieces
to rouse, as it is called, the spirit of the countries, so
as to impress upon the populace the idea that the ap
proaching war is just and necessary, for all wars must
be just and necessary on both sides. In the meantime
envoys extraordinary may be sent to other powers by
each party to enlist their aid, — most of whom are
already prepared for war, — and each one selects his side
according to his interests and feelings. At length the
ultimatum is given and refused, and the dreadful con
flict commences. Few wars, however, begin in this slow
and progressive mode ; a trifling aggression is sufficient
to blow up the flame with nations already prepared.

Thus, we see, nations resemble bulldogs who happen
to meet. They will first raise their hairs, show their
teeth, then growl, and then seize upon each other with
all their strength and fury ; and bulldogs have some
thing of the same kind of honor, for they scorn to
retreat.

Hence we see that the acknowledged principles of
defensive war are the vital springs of most of the wars
that agitate and desolate our world. The pretended

26 WAR INCONSISTENT WITH

distinction between offensive and defensive war is but
a name. All parties engaged in war proclaim to the
world that they only are fighting in defense of their
rights, and that their enemies are the aggressors ; while
it may be impossible for man to decide which are most
in the wrong.

The popular maxim of being prepared for war in order
to be at peace may be seen to be erroneous in fact, for
the history of nations abundantly shows that few nations
ever made great preparations for war and remained long
in peace. When nations prepare for war they actually
go to war, and tell the world that their preparations
were not a mere show.

Thus we may see that the principles and preparations
of war actually engender war instead of promoting peace ;
and of course they are unwise, and, if unwise, then it
is folly for Christians to engage in them.

II. WAR IS UNWISE, FOR INSTEAD OF DIMINISH
ING, IT INCREASES DIFFICULTIES

As the principles and preparations of war have a
natural tendency to generate war and are actually the
cause of a great proportion of the wars which do exist,
so actual hostilities have a natural tendency to increase
difficulties and to spreatl abroad the destroying evil.

It is almost impossible for any two nations to be long
engaged in war without interfering with the rights and
privileges of other nations, which generally awakes their
jealousy and resentment, so that most of the surround
ing nations are drawn into the destructive vortex, which

THE RELIGION OF JESUS CHRIST 27

is the more easily clone, as war inflames the martial spirit
in other nations not engaged, and rouses up the desperate
passions of men. Besides, the belligerent nations are
not content with suffering themselves, but use every
art and persuasion to get the neighboring nations to
join them ; and they are generally too successful, for it
seldom happens that two nations engage in war for a
length of time and conclude a peace before they have
involved other nations in their difficulties and distresses,
and often a great proportion of the world is in arms. .

Moreover, the nations who first engage in the contest
always widen the breach between themselves by war.

It is much easier settling difficulties between individ
uals or nations before actual hostilities commence than
afterwards. Mankind are not apt to be any more mild
and accommodating in a state of actual warfare. Besides,
new difficulties constantly arise. The passions become
inflamed, and charges are often made of violating the
established laws of civilized warfare, which laws, how
ever, are generally bounded only by the strength of
power. If one party makes an incursion into the other's
territory and storms a fortified place and burns the
town, the other party must then make a desperate effort
to retaliate the same kind of destruction, to a double
degree, on the towns of their enemy. Retaliation, or
" rendering evil for evil," is not only allowed by Mahom
etans and pagans, but is an open and avowed principle
in the doctrine of self-defense among professed Chris
tian nations ; not only is it sanctioned by the laity, but
too often by the priests who minister in the name of
Jesus Christ.

28 WAR INCONSISTENT WITH

Both of the contending parties generally seize on each
other's possessions wherever they can get hold of them,
whether on the seas or on the land. The barbarous
spoliations on each other stir up the passions of the
great mass of their inhabitants, until they esteem it a
virtue to view each other as natural and perpetual
enemies, and then their rulers can prosecute the war
with what they call vigor.

Can the wound now be so easily healed as it could
have been before it became thus lacerated and inflamed?
Facts speak to the contrary, and nations seldom attempt
negotiations for peace under such circumstances. They
generally prosecute the war with all their power until
one party or the other is overcome, or until both have ex
hausted their strength, and then they may mutually agree
to a temporary peace to gain a little respite, when perhaps
the original matter of dispute has become comparatively
so trifling that it is almost left out of the account.

With a small spirit of forbearance and accommoda
tion how easily might the difficulties have been settled
before such an immense loss of blood and treasure !

If war does actually increase, instead of diminishing,
difficulties, then it must be very unwise to engage in it.

III. WAR IS UNWISE, BECAUSE IT DESTROYS
PROPERTY

Property is what a great proportion of mankind are
struggling to obtain, and many at the hazard of their
lives. Though in some instances they may misuse it,
yet it is the gift of God, and when made subservient to

THE RELIGION OF JESUS CHRIST 29

more important things, it may be a blessing to indi
viduals and communities. It has in it, therefore, a
real value, and ought not to be wantonly destroyed
while it may be used as an instrument for benefiting
mankind.

It is a notorious fact that war docs make a great
destruction of property. Thousands of individuals on
sea and on land lose their all, for the acquisition of
which they may have spent the prime of their lives.
Ships on the high seas are taken, often burnt or
scuttled, and valuable cargoes sent to the bottom of the
deep, some possibly laden with the necessaries of life
and bound to ports where the innocent inhabitants
were in a state of famine. Whole countries are laid
waste by only the passing of an immense army : houses
are defaced, furniture broken to pieces, the stores of
families eaten up, cornfields trodden down, fences torn
away and used for fuel, and everything swept in its
train as with the besom of destruction more terrible to
the inhabitants than the storms of heaven when sent
in judgment. Beautiful towns arc often literally torn
to pieces with shot and shells. Venerable cities, the
labor and pride of ages, are buried in ashes amid devour
ing flames, while in melancholy grandeur the fire and
smoke rise to heaven and seem to cry for vengeance
on the destroyers.

Notwithstanding an avaricious individual or nation
may occasionally in war acquire by plunder from their
brethren a little wealth, yet they usually lose on the
whole more than they gain. On the general scale the
loss is incalculable. It is not my object to examine

30 WAR INCONSISTENT WITH

the subject in relation to any particular nation or
war, but upon the general scale in application to all
warlike nations and all wars under the light of the
gospel.

If war does destroy property, reduce individuals to
beggary, and impoverish nations, then it is unwise to
engage in it.

IV. WAR IS UNWISE, AS IT IS DANGEROUS TO
THE LIBERTIES OF MEN

Liberty is the gift of God, and ought to be dear to
every man ; not, however, that licentious liberty which
is not in subordination to his commands. Men are not
independent of God. He is their creator, preserver, and
benefactor. In his hand their breath is, and he has a
right to do what he will with his own ; and the Judge
of all the earth will do right. As man is not the
creator and proprietor of man, he has no right to
infringe on his liberty or life without his express divine
command ; and then he acts only as the executor of God.
Man, therefore, bears a very different relation to God
from what he does to his fellow-man.

The whole system of war is tyrannical and subversive
of the fundamental principles of liberty. It often brings
the great mass of community under the severe bondage
of military despotism, so that their lives and fortunes
are at the sport of a tyrant. Where martial law is pro
claimed, liberty is cast down, and despotism raises her
horrid ensign in its place and fills the dungeons and
scaffolds with her victims.

THE KKL1GION OK JKSUS CHRIST 31

Soldiers in actual service are reduced to the most
abject slavery, not able to command their time for a
moment, and are constantly driven about like beasts
by petty tyrants. In them is exhibited the ridiculous
absurdity of men rushing into bondage and destruction
to preserve or acquire their liberty and save their lives.

When the inhabitants of a country are cruelly
oppressed by a despotic government, and they rise in
mass to throw off the yoke, they are as often as other
wise crushed beneath the weight of the power under
which they groaned, and then their sufferings are
greatly increased ; and if they gain their object after
a long and sanguinary struggle, they actually suffer
more on the whole than they would have suffered had
they remained in peace. It is generally the providence
of God, too, to make a people who have thrown off the
yoke of their oppressor smart more severely under the
government of their own choice than they did under
the government which they destroyed. This fact ought
well to be considered by every one of a revolutionary
spirit.

War actually generates a spirit of anarchy and rebel
lion which is destructive to liberty. When the inhabit
ants of a country are engaged in the peaceable employ
ments of agriculture, manufactures, and commerce,
anarchy and rebellion seldom happen. When these use
ful employments flourish, abundance flows in on every
side, gentleness and humanity cast a smile over the
land, and pleasure beams in almost every countenance.
To turn the attention of a nation from these honest
employments to that of ivar is an evil of unspeakable

32 WAR INCONSISTENT WITH

magnitude. The great object in times of war is to
rouse up what is styled the spirit of the country, -
which, in fact, is nothing but inflaming the most de
structive passions against its own peace and safety.
If you infuse into a nation the spirit of war for the
sake of fighting a foreign enemy, you do that which is
often most dangerous to its own liberties ; for if you
make peace with the common enemy, you do not
destroy the spirit of war among your own inhabitants ;
pride, discontent, and revenge will generally agitate the
whole body, so that anarchy and confusion will fill the
land, and nothing but a despotic power can restrain it ;
and often absolute despotism is too feeble to withstand
it, and the only remedy is again to seek a common
enemy. Nations have sometimes waged war against
other nations because there was such a spirit of war
among their own inhabitants that they could not be
restrained from fighting, and if they had not a common
foe they would fight one another. So when a nation
once unsheathes the sword, it cannot easily return the
sword again to the scabbard, but must keep it crimsoned
with the blood of man until " they who take the sword
shall perish with the sword," agreeably to the denuncia
tion of Heaven.

To inflame a mild republic with the spirit of war is
putting all its liberties to the utmost hazard, and is an
evil that few appear to understand or appreciate. No
person can calculate the greatness of the evil to trans
form the citizens of a peaceful, industrious republic
into a band of furious soldiers ; and yet the unhappy
policy of nations is to cultivate a martial spirit that

THE RELIGION OF JESUS CHRIST 33

they may appear grand, powerful, and terrific, when in
fact they are kindling flames that will eventually burn
them up root and branch.

In confirmation of what has been said, if we examine
the history of nations we shall find that they have gen
erally lost their liberties in consequence of the spirit
and practice of war. Thus have republics who have
boasted of their freedom lost their liberty one after
another, and that this has resulted from the very
nature of war and its inseparable evils is evident from
the fact that so violent and deadly is this current of
ruin, republics have generally sunk down to the lowest
abyss of tyranny and despotism, or have been annihi
lated and their inhabitants scattered to the four winds
of heaven. Indeed, what nation that has become extinct
did not first lose its liberty by war, and then hasten to
its end under the dominion of those passions which war
inflames ?

Do nations ever enjoy so much liberty as when
most free from the spirit of war ? Are their liberties
ever so little endangered as when this spirit is allayed
and all its foreign excitements removed? Do not nations
that have partially lost their civil liberties gradually
regain them in proportion as they continue long with
out war? Is it not a common sentiment that the liber
ties of a people are in danger when war engrosses their
attention ? On the whole, is it not undeniable that
peace is favorable to liberty, and that war is its enemy
and its ruin ? If so, what can be more unwise, what
more opposite to every dictate of sound wisdom and
policy, than the spirit and practice of war ?

34 WAR INCONSISTENT WITH

V. WAR IS UNWISE, AS IT DIMINISHES THE
HAPPINESS OF MANKIND

Happiness is the professed object which most men
are striving to obtain. Alas ! few, comparatively, seek
it where it is alone to be found. But that happiness
which flows from the benevolent spirit of the gospel is
to be prized far above rubies ; it is a treasure infinitely
surpassing anything that can be found merely in riches,
honors, and pleasures.

But war always diminishes the aggregate of happi
ness in the world. When nations wage war upon each
other, all classes of their inhabitants are more or less
oppressed. They are subjected to various privations;
prosperity declines ; external sources of happiness are
mostly dried up ; anxiety for friends, loss of relations,
loss of property, the fear of pillage, severe services,
great privations, and the dread of conquest keep them
constantly distressed. They are like the troubled sea
that cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt.

Those actually engaged in war generally suffer priva
tions and hardships of the severest kind. Even the sage
counselors who declare wars are often in so great anxiety
and pain as to the result of their enterprises as to be
unable quietly to refresh themselves with food or sleep.

All the rejoicings occasioned by military success are
fully counterbalanced by the pain and mortification of
the vanquished ; and, in short, all the interest and
happiness resulting from war to individuals and nations
are dearly bought, and are at the expense of other
individuals and nations.

THE RELIGION OF JESUS CHRIST 35

It is because war has no tendency to increase, but
does in fact greatly diminish, happiness that it is so
universally regarded and lamented as the greatest evil
that visits our world. Hence fasting has generally been
practiced by warlike Christian nations to deplore the
calamity, to humble themselves before God, and to
supplicate his mercy in turning away the judgment.

Though fasting and deep humility before God is
highly suitable for sinners, with a hearty turning away
from their sins and humble supplication for God's mercy
through the mediation of Christ, yet those fasts of
nations who have voluntarily engaged in war and are
determined to prosecute it until their lusts and passions
are gratified do not appear to be such fasts as God
requires.

Does it not appear absurd for nations voluntarily to
engage in war, and then to proclaim a fast to humble
themselves before God for its evils, while they have no
desire to turn away from them, but, on the contrary,
make it an express object to seek the divine aid in
assisting them successfully to perpetuate it ?

We often see contending nations, all of whom cannot
be right, on any principle, proclaiming fasts, and chant
ing forth their solemn Tc Dcums as each may occasion
ally be victorious. Though such clashing hymns cannot
mingle in the golden censer, yet few Christians seem to
question the propriety of quarreling and fighting nations
each in their turn supplicating aid in their unhallowed
undertakings and returning thanks in case of success.
Doubtless many would consider it as solemn mockery
to see two duelists before their meeting supplicating

36 WAR INCONSISTENT WITH

God's blessing and protection in the hour of conflict,
and then to see the victor returning thanks for his
success in shedding the blood of his brother ; and yet,
when nations carry on the business by wholesale (if I
may be allowed the expression) it is considered a very
pious employment. The Lord has said, " And when
ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from
you : yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear ;
your hands are full of blood."

Penitent Christians may weep and mourn with pro
priety for their own sins and the sins of the nations,
with a hearty desire not only to forsake their own iniqui
ties, but that the nations may be brought to confess
and forsake their sins and turn from them to the living
God. It is true that war is a judgment in God's provi
dence. It is also a sin of the highest magnitude and
ought to be repented of. It is a crime so provoking to
Heaven that other calamities generally attend it. The
famine, fire, and pestilence often attend its horrors and
spread distress through a land. War with its attending
evils unquestionably diminishes the aggregate of happi
ness in the world, and is therefore unwise.

VI. WAR IS UNWISE, AS IT DOES NOT MEND,
BUT INJURES, THE MORALS OF SOCIETY

The strength, defense, and glory of a country con
sists primarily in the good moral character of its inhab
itants. The virtuous and the good are the salt that
preserve it from ruin. Says the Rev. Dr. Miller in his
sermon on the death of Dr. Rogers (pages 366 and 388

THE RELIGION OF JESUS CHRIST 37

of the Memoirs), " It is manifest from the whole tenor
of his word that God is slow to inflict heavy judgments
upon a nation in which many of his people dwell ; that
he often spares it, spreads over it the protection of his
providence, and finally delivers it for their sake ; and, of
course, that the presence of his beloved children, speak
ing after the manner of men, is a better defense than
chariots and horsemen, a better defense than all the
plans of mere politicians, than all the skill, courage, and
activity of mere warriors." Again, " I have no doubt
that it is as great and precious a truth at this day as
it ever was, that a praying people are, under God, the
greatest security of a nation."

When the inhabitants of a country become gener
ally profane and dissolute in their manners, slaves to
dissipation and vice, it is usually God's providence soon
to visit them in his wrath and let loose the instruments
of his destroying vengeance ; how important, therefore,
in a temporal point of view, is the preservation of good
morals to a nation. But no event has so powerful a
tendency to destroy the morals of a people as that of
actual war. It draws the attention of the inhabitants
from useful employments ; it generates curiosity, dissi
pation, and idleness, and awakes all the furious passions
of men.

War occasions a great profanation of the Sabbath.
Under God's providence the Sabbath has always been
a great barrier against vice, and tl\e observance of it
is indispensable to good morals.

In time of war the Sabbath among soldiers is often
a day of parade. In the streets of the best-regulated

38 WAR INCONSISTENT WITH

cities may be seen soldiers marching, flags flying, drums
and fifes playing, and a rabble of children following in
the train. Now all this is not only calculated to dissi
pate all reverential respect for the solemnities of the
day among the soldiers, but is calculated to destroy the
respect and observance of the day with which the chil
dren and youth have been inspired. Add to this, flags
are suspended from the windows of taverns and grog
shops to entice in the youth by the intoxicating cup.
In the camp the Sabbath is almost forgotten and ren
dered a common day. Armies from professing Chris
tian nations as often begin offensive operations on the
Sabbath as on any other day ; and professing Christians
not only tolerate all this but approve of it as a work
of necessity and mercy.

War occasions dishonesty. In countries where armies
are raised by voluntary enlistment all kinds of decep
tion and art are practiced by recruiting officers, and
connived at by their governments, to induce the heed
less youth to enlist. The honor and glory of the employ
ment is held up to view in false colors ; the importance
of their bounty and wages are magnified ; the light
ness of the duty and opportunities for amusements and
recreation are held out ; and probably one half have
the assurances of being noncommissioned officers, with
a flattering prospect of a speedy advancement ; and
prospects of plunder are also held out to their cupidity.
These deceptive motives are daily urged under the stimu
lating power of ardent spirits and the fascinating charms
of martial music and military finery. Many a young man
who has entered the rendezvous from curiosity or for

THK RELIGION OF JESUS CHRIST 39

the sake of a dram, without the least idea of joining the
army, has been entrapped into intoxication, and his
hand then grasped the pen to seal his fate.

Recruits after joining the army find from experience
that most of the allurements held out to them to enlist
were but a deception, and from lust and want they often
become petty thieves and plunderers to repay them for
their great privations, fatigues, and sufferings.

War occasions drunkenness, — one of the greatest
evils and most destructive to morality, as a multitude
of other vices necessarily follow in its train. Many a
young man has entered the military ranks temperate, and
has returned from them a sot. All the enticements of
liquor are exhibited in the most inviting forms to youth
in the streets by the recruiting officer, to tempt them
to enlist ; and while those who have enrolled them
selves remain at the rendezvous, they are probably
every day intoxicated with the inebriating poison, soul
and body, and soon the habit becomes confirmed. While
in actual service their fatigues are so great that they
greedily lay hold on the destroying liquor wherever they
can find it to exhilarate their languid frames, even if
they had not before acquired an insatiable thirst ; and
soon this detestable evil will become so enchanting that
they will not only barter away their wages for it but
their necessary clothing. If they survive the campaign
and return to their homes, they are often the visitors
of grogshops and taverns, and by their marvelous
stories attract the populace around them, who must
join them in circulating the cup ; and thus they spread
this destroying evil all around.

40 WAR INCONSISTENT WITH

War occasions profaneness. Profaneness is an abomi
nation in the sight of God : "For the Lord will not hold
him guiltless who taketh his name in vain." Profane-
ness draws down the judgments of heaven, " for because
of swearing the land mourneth."

That soldiers are generally considered more profane
than other men is evident, because it has become a
proverb that "such a person is as profane as a soldier,
or a man-of-war's man." Young men who have been
taught to revere the name of the God of their fathers
may shudder at the awful profanations that fill their
ears when they first enter an army ; but if destitute of
grace in the heart, the sound will soon cease to offend,
and they will eagerly inhale the blasphemous breath
and become champions in impiety. For want of habit
they may not swear with so easy a grace as the older
soldiers ; they will for that reason make great exer
tions and invent new oaths, which will stimulate their
fellows again to exceed in daring impiety. Seldom
does a soldier return from the camp without the foul
mouth of profanity. Astonishing to think that those
who are most exposed to death should be most daring
in wickedness !

War occasions gambling. A great proportion of the
amusements of the camp are petty plays at chance, and
the stake usually a drink of grog. The play is fasci
nating. Multitudes of soldiers become established gam
blers to the extent of their ability, and often, if they
return to society, spread the evil among their neighbors.

War begets a spirit of quarreling, boxing, and duel-
' ing ; and no wonder that it should, for the whole business

THE RELIGION OF JESUS CHRIST 41

of war is nothing else but quarreling and fighting.
The soldier's ambition is to be a bully, a hero, and to
be careless of his own life and the lives of others. He
is therefore impatient in contradiction, receives an
insult where none was intended, and is ready to redress
the supposed injury with the valor of his own arms;
for it will not do for soldiers to shrink from the contest
and be cowards.

War destroys the habits of industry and produces
idleness. Industry is necessary to good morals as well as
to the wealth and happiness of a country, and every wise
government will take all laudable means to encourage
it ; but a large proportion of common soldiers who may
return from the armies have lost the relish and habits
of manual labor and are often found loitering about in
public places, and if they engage in any kinds of labor,
it is with a heavy hand and generally to little purpose.
They therefore make bad husbands, unhappy neigh
bors, and are worse than a dead weight in society.
Their children are badly educated and provided for, and
trained up to demoralizing habits, which are handed
down from generation to generation.

These immoralities, and many more that might be
named, are not confined to soldiers in time of war, but
they are diffused more or less through the whole mass
of community ; and war produces a general corruption
in a nation, and is therefore unwise, even in a temporal
point of view. Hut when we consider the natural effects
of these immoralities on the souls of men, all temporal
advantages are in comparison annihilated. In this
school of vice millions are ripening for eternal woe.

42 WAR INCONSISTENT WITH

The destroying influence will spread and diffuse itself
through the whole mass of society unless the spirit of
the Lord lifts up a standard against it.

The state of morals, so much depressed by the Ameri
can Revolution, was only raised by the blessed effusions
of God's holy spirit.

If war does actually demoralize a people, then no
wise person can consistently engage in it.

VII. WAR IS UNWISE, AS IT IS HAZARDING ETER
NAL THINGS FOR ONLY THE CHANCE OF
DEFENDING TEMPORAL THINGS

Says our blessed Saviour : " For what is a man prof
ited, if he should gain the whole world, and lose his
own soul ? "

The loss of a soul infinitely exceeds all finite calcu
lations. It is not only deprived forever and ever of all
good but is plunged into misery inexpressible and
everlasting. All temporal things dwindle to nothing
when placed in comparison with eternal realities. The
rights, liberties, and wealth of nations are of little value
compared with one immortal soul. But astonishing to
think that millions and millions have been put at ever
lasting hazard only for the chance of defending temporal
things !

The habits and manners of a soldier's life are calcu
lated, as we have already seen, to demoralize them, to
obliterate all early serious impressions, to introduce and
confirm them in the most daring wickedness and fit
them for everlasting destruction. And notwithstanding

THE RELIGION OF JESUS CHRIST 43

God may have occasionally, to display his sovereign
power, snatched some soldiers from the ranks of rebel
lion and made them the heirs of his grace, yet no sober
Christian will say that the army is a likely place to
promote their salvation; but, on the contrary, must
acknowledge that it is a dangerous place for the souls
of men. It may be assumed as an undeniable fact that
the great mass of soldiers arc notoriously depraved and
wicked. With but few exceptions their impiety grows
more daring the longer they practice war ; and when it
is considered that thousands and thousands of such are
hurried by war prematurely into eternity, with all their
sins unpardoned, what an amazing sacrifice appears
only for some supposed temporal good. But when it is
remembered that this infinite sacrifice is made merely
for the chance of obtaining some temporal advantage,
the folly of war appears in more glaring colors, as the
battle is not always to the strong. Those who are con
tending for their rights, and are least in the wron<;, are
about as often unsuccessful as otherwise, and then they
very much increase their evils in a temporal point of
view. A wise man would not engage in a lawsuit to
recover a cent, admitting that it was his just due, if the
trial put to the hazard his whole estate. But this bears
no comparison with one soul in competition with all
temporal things; and yet men, professing to be wise,
not only put one soul at hazard but millions, not for
the cJiancc of defending all temporal good, but often for
a mere bubble, the hollow sound of honor ; and many
of those who are watching for souls, and must give an
account, instead of sounding the alarm, approve of it.

44 WAR INCONSISTENT WITH

All who engage in war, either in the field or otherwise,
practically regard time more than eternity, and temporal
more than eternal things.

If souls are of more value than temporal things, and
eternity of more consequence than time, it must be
unwise to engage in a war and put souls to immediate
hazard of everlasting ruin, and totally wrong for
Christians to engage in it.

VIII. WAR IS UNWISE, AS IT DOES NOT ANSWER
THE PROFESSED END FOR WHICH IT IS
INTENDED

The professed object of war generally is to preserve
liberty and produce a lasting peace ; but war never did
and never will preserve liberty and produce a lasting
peace, for it is a divine decree that all nations who take
the sword shall perish with the sword. War is no more
adapted to preserve liberty and produce a lasting peace
than midnight darkness is to produce noonday light.

The principles of war and the principles of the gospel
are as unlike as heaven and hell. The principles of war
are terror and force, but the principles of the gospel
are mildness and persuasion. Overcome a man by the
former and you subdue only his natural power, but not
his spirit ; overcome a man by the latter, and you con
quer his spirit and render his natural power harmless.
Evil can never be subdued by evil. It is returning
g?od for evil that overcomes evil effectually. It is,
therefore, alone the spirit of the gospel that can pre
serve liberty and produce a lasting peace. Wars can

THE RELIGION OF JESUS CHRIST 45

never cease until the principles and spirit of war are
abolished.

Mankind have been making the experiment with war
for ages to secure liberty and a lasting peace ; or, rather,
they have ostensibly held out these objects as a cover
to their lusts and passions. And what has been the
result? Generally the loss of liberty, the overturning
of empires, the destruction of human happiness, and
the drenching of the earth with the blood of man.

In most other pursuits mankind generally gain wis
dom by experience ; but the experiment of war has not
been undertaken to acquire wisdom. It has, in fact,
been undertaken and perpetuated for ages to gratify
the corrupt desires of men. The worst of men have
delighted in the honors of military fame and it is what
they have a strong propensity for; and how can a
Christian take pleasure in that employment which is
the highest ambition of ungodly men ? The things that
are highly esteemed among men are an abomination in
the sight of God. Is it not, therefore, important that
every one naming the name of Christ should bear open
testimony against the spirit and practice of war and
exhibit the spirit and temper of the gospel before the
world that lieth in wickedness, and let their lights
shine before men ?

But what can the men of the world think of such
Christians as are daily praying that wars may cease to
the ends of the earth, while they have done nothing
and are doing nothing to counteract its destructive tend
ency ? Alas ! too many are doing much by their lives
and conversation to support its spirit and principles.

46 WAR INCONSISTENT WITH

Can unbelievers rationally suppose such prayers to
be sincere ? Will they not rather conclude that they
are perfect mockery ? What would be thought of a
man daily praying that the means used for his sick
child might be blessed for his recovery, when he was
constantly administering to him known poison ? With
the same propriety do those Christians pray that war
may come to a final end, while they are supporting its
vital principles.

It is contrary to fact that war is calculated to pre
serve liberty and secure a lasting peace ; for it has done
little else but destroy liberty and peace and make the
earth groan under the weight of its terror and distress,

It is contrary to the word of God that war is calcu
lated to promote peace on earth and good will toward
men. The law that is to produce this happy effect will
not be emitted from the council of war or the smoke
of a camp ; but the law shall go forth out of Zion, and
the Lord shall rebuke the strong nations and they shall
beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into
pruning hooks ; then nations shall no more lift up
sword against nation, neither shall they learn the art
of war any more ; then shall the earth be filled with
the abundance of peace and there shall be nothing to
hurt or destroy. It is reserved alone for the triumph
of the gospel to produce peace on earth and good will
to men.

If war does actually provoke insult and mischief ; if
it increases difficulties, destroys property and liberty ;
if it diminishes happiness, injures the morals of soci
ety, hazards eternal for only the chance of defending

THE RELIGION OF JESUS CHRIST 47

temporal things, and, finally, does not answer the end
for which it was intended, then it must be very unwise
to engage in it, and it must be wrong for Christians to
do anything to promote it, and right to do all in their
power to prevent it.

WAR IS CRIMINAL

I am now to show that war, when judged of on the
principles of the gospel, is highly criminal.

I. GOING TO WAR IS NOT KEEPING FROM THE
APPEARANCE OF EVIL, BUT IS RUNNING
INTO TEMPTATION

... I would have it understood that I consider
every act of mankind which is palpably contrary to the
spirit and precepts of the gospel criminal.

It is an express precept of the gospel to abstain from all
appearance of evil. " Watch and pray that ye enter not
into temptation" is also an express command of Christ.

A person desiring not only to abstain from evil, but
from the very appearance of it, will surfer wrong rather
than hazard that conduct which may involve doing
wrong. He will be so guarded that if he errs at all he
will be likely to give up his right when he might retain
it without injuring others.

No person, it is believed, will attempt to maintain
that there is no appearance of evil in carnal warfare, or
that it is not a scene of great temptation.

48 WAR INCONSISTENT WITH

One great object of the gospel is to produce good
morals, to subdue the irascible passions of men and
bring them into sweet subjection to the gospel of
peace.

But war cannot be prosecuted without rousing the
corrupt passions of mankind. In fact, it is altogether
the effect of lust and passion. In times of war almost
every measure is taken for the express purpose of
inflaming the passions of men, because they are the
vital springs of war, and it would not exist without
them. Those who are engaged in war, both in the
council and in the field, have a feverish passion, which
varies as circumstances may happen to change. Those
who are actually engaged in the heat of battle are
usually intoxicated with rage. Should this be denied
by any one, I would appeal to the general approbation
bestowed on the artist who displays most skill in paint
ing scenes of this kind. He who can represent the
muscular powers most strongly exerted, the passions
most inflamed, and the visage most distorted with
rage, will gain the highest applause. The truth of
the assertion is, therefore, generally admitted. Some
men, perhaps, may be so much under the influence of
pride as to have the appearance of stoical indiffer
ence when their antagonists are at some distance, but
let them meet sword in hand and the scene is at once
changed.

The temptations for those who constitute, or those
who encourage and support, armies to commit or to
connive at immorality are too various and too multiplied
to be distinctly mentioned.

THE RELIGION OF JESUS CHRIST 49

Who can deny that war is altogether a business of
strife ? But, says an inspired apostle, " where envying
and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work."

Now, if war is a scene of confusion and strife and
every evil work, it is impossible for any one to engage
in it and avoid the appearance of evil or be out of the
way of temptation ; those who are armed with deathly
weapons and thirsting for the blood of their fellow-
mortals surely cannot be said to exhibit no appearance
of evil. But if engaging in wars is putting on the
appearance of evil and running into temptation, then it
is highly criminal to engage in it.

II. WAR IS CRIMINAL, AS IT NATURALLY IN
FLAMES THE PRIDE OF MAN

One of the abominable things which proceed out of
the corrupt heart of man, as represented by our Saviour,
is pride. "God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace
to the humble." "The Lord hates a proud look."
" Every one that is proud in heart is an abomination to
the Lord." That pride is criminal and that humility is
commendable will doubtless be admitted by all who
believe the Scriptures.

Pride, however, is one of the chief sources of war.
It is pride that makes men glory in their strength and
prowess ; it is pride that hinders them from confessing
their faults and repairing the injury done to others.

Although pride is commonly condemned in the
abstract, yet it is generally commended in soldiers and
fanned by every species of art and adulation, not only

50 WAR INCONSISTENT WITH

by men of the world but too often by those who bear
the Christian name. And why is it necessary to inflame
the pride of soldiers ? Because it is well understood
that soldiers without pride are not fit for their business.

If war is a Christian duty, why should not the exam
ple and precepts of Christ, instead of the example of
the heroes of this world, be exhibited to those who
fight to stimulate them? Is not Christ as worthy of
imitation as the Caesars and Alexanders of this world?
He was a triumphant conqueror ; he vanquished death
and hell, and purchased eternal redemption for his
people ; but he conquered by resignation and triumphed
by his death. Here is an example worthy of the highest
emulation. And why not animate soldiers by it ? Only
because it would unnerve their arms for war and render
them harmless to their foes.

It is so common to compliment the pride of soldiers
that, instead of considering it that abominable thing
which the Lord hates, they consider it a virtue. We
frequently hear " gentlemen of the sword," as they are
styled, in reply to the flattery bestowed upon them,
frankly declare that it is their highest ambition to obtain
the praise of their fellow-citizens ; and, of course, they
confess that they are seeking the praise of men more
than the praise of God. These gentlemen, however,
are far less criminal than those who lavish flattery on
them ; for doubtless most of them are sincere and think
themselves in the way of their duty, while their pro
fession often leads them, necessarily, from the means
of knowing correctly what is duty. While professing
Christians have been tausrht from their cradles that the

THE RELIGION OF JESUS CHRIST 51

profession of arms is not merely an allowable but a
noble employment, it is easy for them to slide into the
current and go with the multitude to celebrate victories
and to eulogize heroes, without once reflecting whether
they are imitating their Lord and Master. But is it not
time for Christians to examine and ascertain if war is
tolerated in the gospel of peace before they join in fes
tivities to celebrate its bloody feats? How would a pagan
be astonished if he had been taught the meek, lowly,
and forgiving spirit and principles of the gospel, without
knowing the practice of Christians, to see a host of men,
professing to be influenced by these blessed principles,
marshaled in all the pomp of military parade, threatening
destruction to their fellow-mortals ! Would he not con
clude that either he or they had mistaken the genius of
the gospel, or that they believed it to be but a fable?

It is a notorious fact, which requires no confirmation,
that military men, decorated with finery and clad in the
glitter of arms, instead of being meek and lowly in their
temper and deportment, are generally flushed with pride
and haughtiness ; and, indeed, what purpose do their
decorations and pageantry answer but that of swelling
their vanity ? Their employment is not soft and delicate.
Other men who follow rough employments wear rough
clothing ; but the soldier's occupation is not less rough
than the butcher's, though, in the world's opinion, it is
more honorable to kill men than to kill cattle.

But if war has a natural tendency to inflame, and does
inflame and increase the pride of men, it is criminal ;
it does that which the Lord hates, and it must be highly
criminal to engage in it.

52 WAR INCONSISTENT WITH

III. WAR NECESSARILY INFRINGES ON THE CON
SCIENCES OF MEN, AND THEREFORE IS
CRIMINAL

Liberty of conscience is a sacred right delegated to
man by his Creator, who has given no authority to man
to infringe in the least on the conscience of his fellow-
man. Though a man, by following the dictates of his
conscience, may be injured by men, yet they have no
authority to deprive him of the rights of conscience.
To control the conscience is alone the prerogative of
God. That man has no right to violate the conscience
of his fellow-man is a truth which few, under the light
of the gospel, since the days of ignorance and supersti
tion, have ventured to call in question.

But military governments, from their very nature,
necessarily infringe on the consciences of men. Though
the word of God requires implicit obedience to rulers
in all things not contrary to the Scriptures, it utterly
forbids compliance with such commands as are incon
sistent with the gospel. We must obey God rather than
man, and fear God as well as honor the king. But gov
ernments, whether monarchial or republican, make laws
as they please, and compel obedience at the point of
the sword. They declare wars, and call upon all their
subjects to support them.

Offensive war, by all professing Christians, is con
sidered a violation of the laws of Heaven ; but offen
sive war is openly prosecuted by professing Christians
under the specious name of self-defense. France in
vaded Spain, Germany, and Russia ; England invaded

THE RELIGION OF JESUS CHRIST 53

Holland and Denmark ; and the United States invaded
Canada, under the pretense of defensive war. The fact
is, however, that no man can, on gospel principles, draw
a line of distinction between offensive and defensive
war so as to make the former a crime and the latter
a duty, simply because the gospel has made no such
distinction. But while many Christians profess to
make the distinction, and to consider offensive war
criminal, they ought to have the liberty to judge, when
war is waged, whether it is offensive or defensive,
and to give or withhold their aid accordingly ; other
wise they are not permitted the free exercise of their
consciences.

But suppose this principle adopted by governments.
Could they prosecute war while they left every indi
vidual in the free exercise of his conscience to judge
whether such war was offensive or defensive and to
regulate his conduct accordingly? Would it be possible
for governments to carry on war if they depended for
support on the uncertain opinion of every individual?
No ; such a procedurewould extinguish the vital strength
of war and lay the sword in the dust. The fact is well
known, and monarchs declare war and force their sub
jects to support it. The majority in republican govern
ments declare war and demand and enforce obedience
from the minority.

Though the constitutions of governments may, in
the most solemn manner, guarantee to citizens the free
exercise of their consciences, yet governments find it
necessary practically to make an exception in relation
to war, and a man may plead conscientious motives in

54

WAR INCONSISTENT WITH

vain to free himself from contributing to the support
of war.

I think it proper here to notice what has appeared
to me a gross absurdity among some Christians in this
land. They have openly declared that in their opinion
the late war was offensive ; that it was contrary to the
laws of God, and that they were opposed to it ; but
though they wished not to support it because it was
criminal, yet they said, if they were called on in a con
stitutional way, they would support it. Thus did they
publicly declare that they would, under certain circum
stances, obey man rather than God.

But soldiers actually resign up their consciences
to their commanders, without reserving any right to
obey only in such cases as they may judge not contrary
to the laws of God. Were they at liberty to judge
whether commands were morally right or not, before
they yielded obedience, it would be totally impracticable
for nations to prosecute war. Ask a general if his sol
diers have the privilege of determining whether his
commands are right or not, and he will tell you it is
their duty only to obey.

Suppose that a general and his army are shut up in
a city in their own country, and that provisions are
failing ; that an army is advancing for their relief, but
cannot reach the place until all means of sustenance
will be consumed; that the inhabitants cannot be let
out without admitting the besiegers ; and that in this
extremity, to preserve his army for the defense of his
country, the commander orders his men to slay the
inhabitants, doing this evil that good may come. But

THE RELIGION OF JESUS CHRIST 55

some conscientious soldiers refuse to obey a command
to put the innocent to the sword for any supposed
good. What must be the consequence? Their lives
must answer for their disobedience. Nor is this con
trary to the usages of war. And Christians satisfy
their consciences upon the false principle that soldiers
are not accountable for their conduct, be it ever so
criminal, if they obey their commanders ; all the blame
must fall on the officers, which involves the absurdity
of obeying man rather than God. Thus soldiers must
be metamorphosed into something besides moral and
accountable beings in order to prosecute war; and, in
fact, they are treated generally not as moral agents
but as a sort of machinery to execute the worst of
purposes.

The only plausible method of which I can conceive
to avoid the above consequences requires that soldiers
should not practically resign their consciences, but, when
commands which are morally wrong are given, that they
should refuse obedience and die as martyrs. But to
enter an army with such views would be to belie the
very oath of obedience which they take. Besides, who
could execute the martyrs and be innocent ? In this
way all might become martyrs, and the army be
annihilated.

But if war does not admit the free exercise of
conscience on Christian principles, then it is criminal
for Christians to become soldiers, and the principles
of war must be inconsistent with the principles of
Christianity.

56 WAR INCONSISTENT WITH

IV. WAR IS CRIMINAL, AS IT IS OPPOSED TO
PATIENT SUFFERING UNDER UNJUST AND
CRUEL TREATMENT

That patient suffering under unjust and cruel treat
ment from mankind is everywhere in the gospel held
up to view as the highest Christian virtue probably few
professing Christians will deny.

But notwithstanding this truth is generally admitted,
there is very commonly introduced a carnal, sophis
tical mode of reasoning to limit, or explain away, this
precious doctrine, which is peculiar to the gospel and
which distinguishes it from all other kinds of morality
and religion on earth. It has relation, it is said, only
to matters of religion and religious persecution, — as if
the gospel required mankind actually to regard a little
wealth and a few temporal things more than all religious
privileges and life itself ; for, by this human maxim,
men may fight to defend the former, but not the latter.
And this maxim is built on the supposition that Chris
tians are not bound strictly by gospel precepts in rela
tion to temporal things, but only in relation to spiritual
things. Hence it is said that the martyrs conducted
nobly in refusing to fight for the privilege of worship
ing the true God, but if Christians now refuse to fight
to defend their money and their political freedom they
act in a dastardly manner and violate the first principles
of nature. Thus are temporal regarded more than
spiritual and everlasting things.

The precepts of the gospel, however, unequivocally
forbid returning evil for evil, and enjoin patient

THE RELIGION OF JESUS CHRIST 57

sufferings under injurious and cruel treatment. A few
instances shall be quoted : " Now we exhort you, breth
ren, warn them that are unruly, comfort the feeble
minded, support the weak, be patient towards all men.
See that none render evil for evil to any man; but ever
follow that which is good, both among yourselves, and
unto all men." " If, when ye do well, and suffer for it,
ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God." The
apostle James, in his solemn denunciation against op
pressors, says, " Ye have condemned and killed the just,
and he doth not resist you"; he then immediately
exhorts the Christians, saying, " Be patient therefore,
brethren, unto the coming of the Lord." " Finally, be
ye all of one mind, having compassion one for another,
love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous, not render
ing evil for evil, railing for railing; but contrariwise
blessings, knowing that ye are thereunto called, that ye
should inherit a blessing." " For the eyes of the Lord
are over the righteous, and his ears are open to their
prayers ; but the face of the Lord is against them that
do evil. And who is he that will harm you, if ye be
followers of that which is good?"

A patient, forbearing, suffering disposition is pecul
iar to the lamblike temper of the gospel, and is wholly
opposed to the bold, contending, daring spirit of
the world which leads mankind into quarreling and
fighting.

It is generally admitted, I believe, that it is the duty
of Christians patiently to suffer the loss of all temporal
things, and even life itself, rather than willfully violate
any of God's commands. If, then, it is the duty of a

58 WAR INCONSISTENT WITH

Christian patiently to suffer death rather than bear
false witness against his neighbor, be he friend or foe,
is it not equally his duty patiently to suffer death rather
than kill his neighbor, whether friend or foe ? Not
merely taking away the life of our neighbor is forbidden,
but every exercise of heart and hand which may have a
natural tendency to injure him. But which is the great
est evil, — telling a lie, or killing a man ? By human
maxims you may do the latter to save your life, but not
the former ; though the former might injure no one
but yourself, while the latter, besides injuring yourself,
might send your neighbor to eternal destruction.

The spirit of martyrdom is the true spirit of Chris
tianity. Christ himself meekly and submissively died
by the hands of his enemies, and instead of resistance,
even by words, he prayed, " Father, forgive them, for
they know not what they do." Stephen, when expiring
under a shower of stones from his infuriate murderers,
prayed, " Lord, lay not this sin to their charge." St.
Paul testified that he was not only ready to be bound but
to die for the Lord Jesus. The early martyrs resigned
up their lives with patient submission as witnesses for
Jesus, — and this at a time, when, Sir Henry Moncrief
Wellwood in his Sermons, page 335, says, "Tertullian
has told us that Christians were sufficiently numerous
to have defended themselves against the persecutions
excited against them by the heathen, if their religion
had permitted them to have recourse to the sword."

The spirit of martyrdom is the crowning test of
Christianity. The martyr takes joyfully the spoiling
of his goods, and counts not his life dear to himself.

THE RELIGION OF JESUS CHRIST 59

But how opposite is the spirit of war to the spirit of
martyrdom ! The former is bold and vindictive, ready to
defend property and honor at the hazard of life, ready
to shed the blood of an enemy. The latter is meek and
submissive, ready to resign property and life rather
than injure even an enemy. Surely patient submission
under cruel and unjust treatment is not only the high
est Christian virtue but the most extreme contrast to
the spirit of war.

Now if it is a duty required by the gospel not to
return evil for evil, but to overcome evil with good ;
to suffer injustice and to receive injury with a mild,
patient, and forgiving disposition, — not only in words
but in actions, — then all kinds of carnal contention
and warfare are criminal and totally repugnant to
the gospel, whether engaged in by individuals or by
communities.

Can it be right for Christians to attempt to defend
with hostile weapons the things which they profess but
little to regard ? They profess to have their treasure
not in this world but in heaven above, which is beyond
the reach of earthly invaders, so that it is not in the
power of earth or hell to take away their dearest
interests. There may be a propriety in the men
of the world exclaiming that their dearest rights are
invaded when their property and political interests
are infringed upon ; but it is a shame for Chris
tians to make this exclamation, while they profess to
believe that their dearest interest is in the hand of
Omnipotence, and that the Lord God of hosts is
their defense.

60 WAR INCONSISTENT WITH

Whoever, without divine command, dares to lift his
hand with a deathly weapon against the life of his fel
low-man for any supposed injury denies the Christian
character in the very act, and relies on his own arm
instead of relying on God for defense.

V. WAR IS CRIMINAL, AS IT IS NOT DOING TO
OTHERS AS WE SHOULD WISH THEM TO DO
TO US

Says our blessed Saviour, "All things whatsoever
ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to
them; for this is the law and the prophets." Now if
we wish men to be kind and forbearing to us, we must
be kind and forbearing to them ; if we wish them to
return love for hatred and good for evil, then we must
return love for hatred and good for evil ; if we wish not
to be injured by men, then we must not injure them ;
if we wish not to be killed, then we must not kill.

But what is the practical language of war ? Does the
man who is fighting his fellow-man and exerting all his
strength to overcome him really wish to be overcome
himself and to be treated as he is striving to treat his
enemy ? Can it be believed that England, in the late
war, wished France to do to her what she endeavored
to do to France ; or that the latter really desired in
return what she endeavored to inflict on England ? If
not, both violated this express precept of Christ.

None can say, consistently with the principles of the
gospel, that they wish to be killed by their enemies;
therefore none can, consistently with those principles,

THE RELIGION OF JESUS CHRIST 6l

kill their enemies. But professing Christians do kill
their enemies, and, notwithstanding all they may say
to the contrary, their actions speak louder than their
words. It is folly for a man to say he does not wish
to do a thing while he is voluntarily exerting all his
powers to accomplish it.

But if the act of war does violate this express pre
cept of Christ, then it must be exceedingly criminal to
engage in it.

VI. WAR IS INCONSISTENT WITH MERCY, AND IS
THEREFORE CRIMINAL

Mercy is the grand characteristic of the gospel, and
the practice of mercy is the indispensable duty of man.
" Be ye merciful, as your Father also is merciful " ; " For
he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good,
and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust";
" Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy " ;
"For he shall have judgment without mercy, that hath
showed no mercy."

Mercy is that disposition which inclines us to relieve
distress, to forgive injuries, and to promote the best
good of those who are ill deserving. Mercy in us
towards our enemies implies seeking and pursuing their
best good for time and eternity. It is sinful to exercise
any affection towards enemies short of that benevolence
or mercy which involves the advancement of their best
good, and Christians may not suspend this disposition,
or do evil that any supposed good may come ; for no law
can be of higher authority than the express precept of

62 WAR INCONSISTENT WITH

Christ which requires this disposition towards enemies,
and of course no other consideration can be paramount
to this, for nations are as much bound as individuals.

It is surely too grossly absurd for any to pretend
that destroying the property and lives of enemies is
treating them mercifully, or pursuing their best good
for time and eternity. Nor can any so impose upon
their imaginations as to think that injuring mankind
is treating them with benevolence or mercy.

But the direct object of war is injury to enemies;
and the conduct of soldiers generally speaks a language
not easily to be misunderstood. Though soldiers are
not always as bad as they might be, their tender mer
cies are often but cruelty. When they storm a fortified
place and do not put all the captives to the sword, they
are complimented for exercising mercy, merely because
they were not so cruel as they might have been. But
shall a highway robber be called an honest man because
he takes but half the money of him whom he robs ? Is it
an act of mercy, when a man encroaches on your prop
erty, to take away his life ? Do nations exercise mercy
towards each other when they enter into bloody wars
in consequence of a dispute which shall govern a small
portion of territory ? or does a nation show mercy to
another that has actually invaded its rights by fall
ing upon the aggressor and doing all the injury in its
power? This surely is not forgiving injuries. And
when two contending armies come in contact and rush
on each other with all the frightful engines of death
and cut each other to pieces they do not appear to me
as merciful, kind, and tender-hearted, forgiving one

THE RELIGION OF JESUS CHRIST 63

another in love, even as God for Christ's sake forgives
his children. Yet this is the rule by which they should
act and by which they will at last be judged.

But the whole system of war is opposed to mercy, and
is therefore altogether unlike the spirit of the gospel,
and must be criminal.

VII. WAR IS CRIMINAL, AS THE PRACTICE OF IT IS
INCONSISTENT WITH FORGIVING TRESPASSES
AS WE WISH TO BE FORGIVEN BY THE FINAL
JUDGE

Our Saviour says : " If ye forgive men their trespasses,
your heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if ye
forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your heav
enly Father forgive your trespasses" ; " Forgive, and ye
shall be forgiven."

Here it is evident that the everlasting salvation of
men depends on their exercising forgiveness towards
their enemies ; for if they forgive not, they will not be
forgiven of God, and with what measure they mete to
others, it will be measured to them again.

To forgive is to pass by an offense, treating the
offender not according to his desert, but as though he
had done nothing amiss.

But do the principles of war lead individuals or na
tions to pass by offenses and to treat offenders as if
they were innocent ? Do they not, on the contrary,
require justice and exact the very last mite? Has it
the aspect of forgiveness for us, when an enemy tres
passes on our rights, to arm with weapons of slaughter

64 WAR INCONSISTENT WITH

and meet him on the field of battle? Who, while pier
cing the heart of his enemy with a sword, can consist
ently utter this prayer: " Father, forgive my trespasses,
as I have forgiven the trespasses of this my enemy " ?
But this, in reference to this subject, is the only prayer
the gospel warrants him to make. And professing
Christian nations, while at war arid bathing their swords
in each other's blood to redress mutual trespasses, are
daily in their public litanies offering this prayer ; but
is it not obvious that either their prayers are perfect
mockery, or they desire not to be forgiven but to be
punished to the extent of their deserts ?

If individuals or nations desire that God would for
give their trespasses, then they must not only pray for
it, but actually exercise forgiveness towards those who
trespass against them ; and then they may beat their
useless swords into plowshares and their spears into
pruning hooks and learn war no more.

But it must be very criminal to engage in war, or to
tolerate it in any way, if it is inconsistent with the for
giveness of injuries as we hope to be forgiven, and in
this respect violates the precepts of the gospel.

VIII. ENGAGING IN WAR IS NOT MANIFESTING
LOVE TO ENEMIES OR RETURNING GOOD
FOR EVIL

Returning good for evil and manifesting benevolence
to enemies is, perhaps, the most elevated and noble part
of Christian practice, — the inculcation of which in the
gospel exalts Christianity far above any other form of

THE RELIGION OF JESUS CHRIST 65

religion and proves it to be not only divine but effica
cious to subdue the turbulent and corrupt passions of
men; and for these reasons this part of duty ought to
be zealously advocated and diligently performed by every
one who bears the Christian name.

The ablest writers who have defended the divine
origin of the Scriptures against infidels have urged this
topic as constituting conclusive evidence in their favor ;
and unbelievers, instead of attempting to meet the argu
ment fairly, have urged the inconsistency of Christians
in acting contrary to so conspicuous a rule of duty ; and
such is and ever has been the most powerful weapon
that infidels can wield against Christianity. But it is
the will of God that by welldoing we should put to
silence the ignorance of foolish men. Let Christians
act in strict conformity to this part of Christian prac
tice, and they will wrest from the infidel's hand his
strongest weapon.

That exercising benevolence towards enemies and
returning good for evil is inculcated as one of the most
important doctrines of the gospel is evident as well
from the whole tenor of the New Testament as from
the express commands of the Son of God : " I say unto
you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do
good to them that hate you, and pray for them that
despitefully use you and persecute you, that ye may be
the children of your Father in heaven"; "If thine
enemy hunger, feed him ; if he thirst, give him drink;
for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his
head"; "Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil
with good."

66 WAR INCONSISTENT WITH

Such are some of the divine precepts on this subject.
So different, however, are the laws of war among Chris
tian nations, that rendering comfort or relief to enemies
is considered high treason, and they punish with death
the performance of the very duty which God commands
as a condition of eternal life !

The common sense of every man revolts from the
idea that resisting an enemy by war is returning good
for evil. Who would receive the thrust of a sword as
an act of kindness? Was it ever considered that killing
a man was doing good to him? Has not death always
been considered the greatest evil which could be re
turned for capital crimes? But the principles of war
not only allow enemies to return evil for evil by killing
one another, but secure the highest praise to him who
kills the most. It is often said of those who distinguish
themselves in butchering their fellow-men, that "they
cover themselves with glory !"

Nations, when they go to war, do not so much as
pretend to be actuated by love to their enemies ; they do
not hesitate to declare in the face of Heaven that their
object is to avenge their wrongs. But, says an inspired
apostle, " Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but
give place unto wrath : for it is written, Vengeance is
mine; I will repay, saith the Lord." Retributive judg
ment, the execution of strict justice, or vengeance, God
declares often, belongs to him. He has reserved it in
his own hand as his sovereign prerogative.

It is not very surprising that savage pagans should
glory in revenge, but that those should do so who have
the Bible in their hands, and profess to take it as the

THE RELIGION OF JESUS CHRIST 67

rule of their faith and practice, is truly astonishing.
Still more astonishing is it that some ministers of the
gospel not only connive at but approve of the spirit
and practice of revenge by war.

But though the whole tenor of the gospel absolutely
enjoins returning good for evil and blessing for cursing ;
yet the open and avowed principles of war are to return
evil for evil, violence for violence.

Now if the principles of war are so directly opposed
to the principles of the gospel, if the practice of war is
so perfectly contrary to Christian practice, then it must
be very criminal for Christians not to bear open testi
mony against war, and much more criminal to do
anything to promote it.

IX. WAR IS CRIMINAL, BECAUSE IT IS ACTUALLY
RENDERING EVIL FOR EVIL

It is a fact which can neither be disguised nor con
troverted that the whole trade of war is returning evil
for evil. This is a fundamental principle in the system
of self-defense. Therefore every exertion in the power
of contending nations is made to inflict mutual injury,
not merely upon persons in public employment and upon
public property, but indiscriminately upon all persons
and property. Hence it is an established rule of what is
styled "civilized warfare" that if one party takes a person
suspected of being a spy, they put him to death ; which
act is retaliated by the other the first opportunity. If
one party storms a fortified place and puts the garrison
or the inhabitants to the sword, the other, in their

68 WAR INCONSISTENT WITH

defense, must retaliate the same thing, and, if possible,
to a greater degree. If one side executes a number of
captives for some alleged extraordinary act, the other,
on the principles of self-defense, may execute double
the number ; the first may then, on the same principles,
double this number ; and so they may proceed to return
evil for evil, till one or the other yields.

The principles of self-defense require not merely an
eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, but for one eye
two eyes, for one tooth two teeth. They require the
retaliation of an injury to a double degree, — otherwise,
there would be no balance in favor of the defensive
side ; but as both parties must always be on the de
fense, both must, of course, retaliate to a double degree.
Thus war is aggravated and inflamed, and its criminality
raised to the highest pitch.

The doctrine of retaliation is not only openly avowed
and practiced by professing Christian nations, but is
sometimes defended before national councils by profess
ing Christians of high standing in churches. " O ! tell
it not in Gath ! publish it not in the streets of Askelon !
lest the daughters of the uncircumcised triumph !"

That the retaliation of injury, of whatever kind it
may be and to whomsoever it may be offered, is most
absolutely and unequivocally forbidden by the whole
spirit of the gospel dispensation, as well as by its posi
tive precepts, surely can never be fairly controverted.

Says the great Author and finisher of our faith, " Ye
have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye,
and a tooth for a tooth : but I say unto you that ye
resist not evil ; but whosoever shall smite thee on the

THE RELIGION OF JESUS CHRIST 69

right cheek, turn to him the other also." Whether the
literal import of these words be contended for or not,
they cannot fairly be construed as teaching anything
short of a positive and unconditional prohibition of the
retaliation of injury. Had our Lord added to these
words the maxim of the world, " If any man assaults
you with deathly weapons, you may repel him with
deathly weapons," it would have directly contradicted
the spirit of this command and made his sayings like
a house divided against itself.

The apostles largely insist upon this doctrine of their
divine Master, thus : " Recompense to no man evil for
evil"; "Be ye all of one mind, not rendering evil for
evil, or railing for railing"; "See that none render evil
for evil to any man." These comprehensive passages
make no conditions or limitations, and are, therefore,
applicable to all men and binding upon all in all situa
tions and circumstances under the light of the gospel ;
but had they added, " If any man injures you, you may
return him an injury and repel violence with violence,"
it would have been most palpably absurd, and the pre
cepts of the gospel would have been truly what infidels
have asserted they are, — a series of gross contradictions.

But I repeat that the open and avowed principles of
war, even among Christian nations, are those of return
ing evil for evil. Surely, nations neither aim nor pre
tend to aim at the best good of their enemies; but, on
the contrary, their real and professed object in the
sight of God and man is to do them, while at war, all
the injury in their power. What means that language
which conveys instructions to those who command

70 WAR INCONSISTENT WITH

ships of war, to sink, burn, and destroy^ if it does not
mean evil to enemies? Why do nations encourage the
cupidity of men by licensing and letting loose swarms
of picaroons on their enemies, if it is not to inflict evil
on them? But all this is sanctioned under the notion
of self-defense, and, as though it were a light thing for
men thus publicly to trample on the laws of the gospel,
they lift up their daring hands to heaven and supplicate
God's help to assist them in violating his own com
mands ! No apology can be made for such proceedings
until it is shown that war is not returning evil for evil.

But what is it to return evil for evil?

When one man is injured by another and returns
injury, he returns evil for evil and violates those pre
cepts of the gospel which have been quoted. When one
association of men is injured by another association
and the injured returns an injury, evil is returned for
evil and those precepts are violated. When one nation
infringes on the rights of another and they in return
infringe on the aggressor's rights, they return evil for
evil and violate those precepts. When one nation
declares war against another and is repelled by war,
evil is returned for evil and those precepts are vio
lated. But these things are constantly practiced, with
out a blush or a question as to their propriety ; and
God is supplicated to aid in the business.

To what a state has sin reduced our world? Is not
the church covered with darkness and the people with
gross darkness? A man may now engage in war with
his fellow-man and openly return evil for evil, and still
remain in respectable standing in most of the churches,

THE RELIGION OF JESUS CHRIST 71

being at the same time highly applauded and caressed
by the world lying in wickedness !

But if we are here to be directed and at last to be
judged by the gospel, no man can return evil for evil,
in war or otherwise, without aggravated guilt.

X. WAR IS CRIMINAL, AS IT IS ACTUALLY DOING
EVIL THAT GOOD MAY COME; AND THIS
IS THE BEST APOLOGY THAT CAN IJE MADE
EOR IT

That it is an evil to spread distress, desolation, and
misery through a land and to stain it with the blood
of men probably none will deny. War, with its attend
ing horrors, is considered by all, even those who advo
cate and prosecute it, to be the greatest evil that ever
befalls this wicked, bleeding, suffering world.

Though men go to war primarily to gratify their cor
rupt passions, — for they can never propose the attain
ment of any good by war which shall be commensurate
with the natural and moral evils that will be occasioned
by the acquisition, — yet the prospect of attaining some
supposed good must be held out as a lure to the multi
tude and a means of self-justification.

Usually the object of war is pompously represented
to be to preserve liberty, to produce honorable and
lasting peace, and promote the happiness of mankind ;
to accomplish which, liberty, property, and honor — that
honor which comes from men — must be defended, though
war is the very thing that generally destroys liberty,
property, and happiness, and prevents lasting peace.

72 WAR INCONSISTENT WITH

Such is the good proposed to be attained by the certain
and overwhelming evil of war.

But no maxim is more corrupt, more false in its nature,
or more ruinous in its results than that which tolerates
doing evil that good may come. Nor can any defend
this maxim without taking the part of infidels and athe
ists, to whom it appropriately belongs, and with whose
principles and practice alone it is consistent.

The apostle Paul reprobates this maxim in the
severest terms, and he considered it the greatest scandal
of Christian character to be accused of approving it :
"As we be slanderously reported," says he, "and as
some affirm that we say, Let us do evil that good may
come; whose damnation is just."

Now if war is in fact an evil, and it is prosecuted
with a view to attain some good, then going to war is
doing evil that good may come. It is therefore doing
that which scandalizes Christian character ; that which
is wholly irreconcilable with the principles of the gos
pel, and which it is highly criminal for any man or
nation to do.

XI. WAR IS OPPOSED TO THE EXAMPLE OF THE
SON OF GOD, AND IS THEREFORE CRIMINAL

The example of the Son of God is the only perfect
model of moral excellence, and his moral conduct, so
far as he acted as man, remains a perfect example fcx
Christians.

But did he appear in this world as a great mili
tary character, wearing a sword of steel, clothed with

THE RELIGION OF JESUS CHRIST 73

military finery, and surrounded by glittering soldiers,
marching in the pomp and parade of a warrior ? No ; he
was the meek and lowly Jesus, despised and rejected of
men. Me was King of kings and Lord of lords, but his
kingdom was not of this world. Had his kingdom been
of this world, then would he have appeared as an earthly
conqueror, and his servants would have been warriors.

Though a prince, he was the Prince of Peace. At
his advent the angels sang, " Glory to God in the high
est, on earth peace, good will to men." " He came not
to destroy men's lives, but to save them." He was the
Lamb of God, meek and lowly. He followed peace with
all men ; he returned good for evil and blessing for
cursing, and " when he was reviled he reviled not again."
Finally, he was "brought as a lamb to the slaughter,
and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opened
not his mouth." That he did this as a necessary part
of his mediatorial work need not be denied ; but that
he intended it also as an example to his followers is
fully confirmed by an inspired apostle, who says, " If,
when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently,
this is acceptable with God. For hereunto were ye
called : because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us
an example, that ye should follow his steps: who did
no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth: who,
when he was reviled, reviled not again ; when he suf
fered, threatened not ; but committed himself to him
who judgeth righteously."

Christ taught his disciples the doctrines of peace,
and commanded them to take vup the cross and follow
him ; to live in peace and to follow peace with all men.

74

WAR INCONSISTENT WITH

His last gift to them was peace. He said to them, when
about to send them into the world, " Behold I send you
forth as lambs among wolves " ; thus teaching them
what treatment they might expect and what character
they must maintain among wicked men. The nature
of lambs and wolves is too well known for any one to mis
take this figurative representation. Wolves are fierce,
bloody, and ravenous beasts ; but lambs are mild, in
offensive, and unresisting, having no means of relief
but by flight. Now if a host of professing Christian
warriors, marshaled under the ensign of a preying eagle
or a prowling lion, clothed in all the splendor of deathly
armor, and rushing forward to destroy their fellow-crea
tures, are in figurative language but lambs, I confess I
am at a loss where to look for the wolves ! Do these
warlike Christians appear mild as lambs and harmless
as doves, kind and tender-hearted, doing good to all,
to friends and foes, as they have opportunity? Can
fighting be living peaceably with all men? Is it return
ing good for evil, and overcoming evil with good? If
not, it is not imitating the example of Christ.

If Christians were like Christ, their warfare would
not be carnal, but spiritual, corresponding with the
armor which he has provided. They would conquer by
faith and overcome by the blood of the Lamb, not
counting their lives dear to themselves.

On the whole, if to engage in war is not avoiding the
appearance of evil, but is running into temptation ; if
it inflates the pride of men ; if it infringes on the rights
of conscience ; if it is not forgiving trespasses as we
wish to be forgiven ; if it is not patient suffering under

THE RELIGION OF JESUS CHRIST 75

unjust and cruel treatment ; if it is not doing to others
as we would have them do to us ; if it is not manifest
ing love to enemies and returning good for evil; if it
is rendering evil for evil ; if it is doing evil that good
may come ; and if it is inconsistent with the example
of Christ, then it is altogether contrary to the spirit
and precepts of the gospel and is highly criminal. Then
Christians cannot engage in war or approve of it with
out incurring the displeasure of Heaven.

In view of the subject, if what has been said is in
substance correct, and of this I desire the reader con
scientiously to judge; then the criminality of war and
its inconsistency with the gospel are undeniable.

It is admitted by all that war cannot exist without
criminality somewhere, and generally where quarrel
ing and strife are, there is blame on both sides. And
how it is that many Christians who manifest a laudable
zeal to expose and counteract vice and wickedness in
various other forms are silent on the subject of war,
silent as to those parts or practices of war which are
manifestly and undisputably criminal, is to me mysteri
ous. There has been a noble and persevering opposi
tion against the inhuman and cruel practice of the slave
trade; and by the blessing of God the efforts against
it have been successful, probably, for the time, beyond
the most sanguine expectations. When the lawfulness
of this practice was first called in question, it was vio
lently defended as well by professing Christians as by
others. Comparatively few Christians fifty years ago
doubted the propriety of buying and holding slaves;

76 WAR INCONSISTENT WITH

but now a man advocating the slave trade could hardly
hold in this vicinity a charitable standing in any of the
churches. But whence has arisen so great a revolution
in the minds of the mass of professing Christians on
this subject? It has happened not because the spirit
or precepts of the gospel have changed, but because
they are better understood.

Christians who have been early educated to believe
that a doctrine is correct, and who cherish a respect for
the instructions of their parents and teachers, seldom
inquire for themselves, after arriving at years of matu
rity, unless something special calls up their attention ;
and then they are too apt to defend the doctrine they
have imbibed before they examine it, and to exert them
selves only to find evidence in its favor. Thus error is
perpetuated from generation to generation until God,
in his providence, raises up some to bear open testi
mony against it; and as it becomes a subject of con
troversy, one after another gains light, and truth is at
length disclosed and established. Hence it is the solemn
duty of every one, however feeble his powers, to bear
open testimony against whatever error prevails, for God
is able from small means to produce great effects.

There is at present in many of our churches a noble
standard lifted up against the abominable sin of intem
perance, the greatest evil, perhaps, war excepted, in
the land, and this destructive vice has already received
a check from which it will never recover unless Chris
tians relax their exertions. But if war is a greater evil
than drunkenness, how can Christians remain silent
respecting it and be innocent?

THE RELIGION OF JESUS CHRIST 77

Public teachers consider it to be their duty boldly
and openly to oppose vice. From the press and from
the pulpit they denounce theft, profaneness, Sabbath
breaking, and intemperance ; but war is a greater evil
than all these, for these and many other evils follow in
its train.

Most Christians believe that in the millennial day
all weapons of war will be converted into harmless
utensils of use, that wars will cease to the ends of the
earth, and that the benign spirit of peace will cover the
earth as the waters do the seas. But there will be then
no new gospel, no new doctrines of peace ; the same
blessed gospel which we enjoy will produce "peace on
earth and good will to men." And is it not the duty of
every Christian now to exhibit the same spirit and
temper which will be then manifested? If so, let every
one "follow the things that make for peace," and the
God of peace shall bless him.

OBJECTIONS ANSWERED

As was proposed, a number of objections to the
general sentiments that have been advocated shall be
stated and answered.

Objection first. Shall we stand still and suffer an
assassin to enter our houses without resistance and
let him murder ourselves and families ?

Answer, I begin with this because it is generally the
first objection that is made to the doctrine of peace
by all persons, high and low, learned and unlearned ;

78 WAR INCONSISTENT WITH

notwithstanding it is an objection derived from a fear
of consequences and not from a conviction of duty, and
might with the same propriety have been made to the
martyrs who, for conscience' sake, refused to repel their
murderers with carnal weapons, as to Christians who,
for conscience' sake, refuse at this day to resist evil.
No Christian will pretend that defense with carnal
weapons is not criminal, if the gospel really forbids it,
let the consequences of nonresistance be what they
may. For the requisitions of the gospel are the rule
of duty. But I presume the objection above stated
arises altogether from an apprehension of consequences
rather than from regard to duty.

Every candid person must admit that this objection
is of no force, until the question whether the gospel
does or does not prohibit resistance with deathly
weapons is first settled. It might; therefore, justly be
dismissed without further remark; but as mankind are
often more influenced by supposed consequences than
by considerations of duty, and as the objection is very
popular, it may deserve a more particular reply.

In the first place, I would observe that the supposi
tion of the objector relates to a very extreme case, a
case which has very rarely, if ever, occurred to Chris
tians holding to nonresistance with deathly weapons,
and it bears little or no resemblance to the general
principles or practices of war which are openly advo
cated and promoted by professing Christians. Should
an event like that supposed in the objection take place,
it would be a moment of surprise and agitation in
which few could act collectedly from principle. What

THE RELIGION OF JESUS CHRIST 79

was done would probably be done in perturbation of
mind. But war between nations is a business of calcu
lation and debate, affording so much time for reflection
that men need not act from sudden and violent impulse,
but may act from fixed principle. In this respect, there
fore, war is a very different thing from what is involved
in the objection which does not in the least affect the
principles or practice of systematic warfare. It is not
uncommon to hear persons who are hopefully pious,
when pressed by the example and the precepts of
Christ against war, acknowledge that most of the wars
which have existed since the gospel dispensation can
not be justified on Christian principles ; yet these very
persons are never heard to disapprove of the common
principles of war, or to counteract them by their lives
and conversation before a wicked world; but, on the
contrary, they will often eulogize heroes, join in the
celebration of victories, and take as deep an interest in
the result of battles as the warriors of this world ; and
if their conduct is called in question, they will attempt
to justify it by pleading the necessity of self-defense,
and immediately introduce the above objection which
is by no means parallel with the general principles and
practices of all wars.

The truth is, war is a very popular thing among man
kind, because it is so congenial to their natural disposi
tions ; and, however gravely some men may, at times,
profess to deplore its calamity and wickedness, it is too
evident that they take a secret pleasure in the approba
tion of the multitude and in the fascinating glory of
arms ; and we have reason to believe that this objection

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is often made merely to ward off the arrows of conviction
which would otherwise pierce their consciences.

The objection, however, wholly overlooks the provi
dence and promise of God. Assassins do not stroll out
of the circle of God's providence. Not only is their
breath in his hand, but the weapons they hold are under
his control. Besides, God's children are dear to him,
and he shields them by his protecting care, not suffer
ing any event to befall them except such as shall be for
his glory and their good. Whoever touches them
touches the apple of his eye. He has promised to be a
very present help to them in every time of need, and to
deliver them that trust in him out of all their trouble.
He will make even their enemies to be at peace with
them. For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous
and his ears are open to their prayers, but the face of
the Lord is against them that do evil ; and who is he
that will harm you if ye be followers of that which is
good ? But if ye suffer for righteousness' sake, happy
are ye, and be not afraid of their terror, neither be
troubled. If God be thus for his children, who can be
against them ? Is not the arm of the Lord powerful
to save, and a better defense to all who trust in him
than swords and guns ? Whoever found him unfaithful
to his promises or feeble to save ? Are not the hosts
of heaven at his command ? Are not his angels swift
to do his will? " Are they not all ministering spirits
sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of
salvation ? " " The angel of the Lord encampeth round
about them that fear him, and delivereth them." If
the Lord is on their side, Christians have no cause to

THE RELIGION OF JESUS CHRIST 8l

fear what man can do unto them. Says the blessed
Saviour, " Whosoever will save his life shall lose it,
and whosoever shall lose his life for my sake shall
find it."

If consequences are rightly examined, they may
prove to be of more importance than at first supposed.
If the gospel docs forbid resistance with deathly
weapons, then he who saves his temporal life by killing
his enemy may lose his eternal life ; while he who loses
his life for Christ's sake is sure of everlasting life.
Thus the Christian, if he is killed, goes to heaven; but
the assassin, if he is killed, goes to hell, and the soul of
the slayer is in danger of following. Whoever kills
another to prevent being killed himself, does it on pre
sumption ; for, whatever may be the appearances, God
only can know whether one man will assassinate another,
before the event has taken place. Men, however, seem to
think little of killing or being killed by fighting, whether
in single combat or on the field of general battle, though
they shudder at the idea of being put to death by an
assassin, unless they can inflict or attempt to inflict on
him the same evil.

But the objection is usually made on the supposition
that the doctrine in question requires Christians to
stand still and rather court the dagger than otherwise.
This is an unfair statement, for it would be presumption
to stand still when there was a chance of escape.
Besides, the Christian must act on the defensive, not
with carnal, but with spiritual weapons, which are
more powerful when exercised in faith than swords
or spears.

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Probably no instance can be found of robbers mur
dering such as conscientiously held to nonresistance.
It is resistance that provokes violence ; forbearance
and good will repress it. But if instances of this kind
may be found, it is no evidence against the doctrine in
question any more than against the principles of the
Martyrs. God may, for wise reasons, call away some
of his children by the hands of murderers ; if so,
instead of losing, they save their lives.

Objection second. Self-defense, and, if necessary, with
deathly weapons, is the first law of nature. All the
animal creation are armed with means of defense, and
the principles of the gospel are not contrary to the
principles of nature ; therefore self-defense is not
inconsistent with Christianity.

Answer. It is admitted that the laws of the gospel
are not contrary to the primitive laws of nature ; but
it is by no means granted that they are consistent with
the laws of corrupt nature. In consequence of the revolt
of man the earth was cursed for his sake. It appears
probable that before the fall of man animals were harm
less and docile ; and it is not improbable that when the
curse shall be removed, when the earth shall be filled
with righteousness and peace, the lion and the lamb may
literally lie down together. At present, indeed, the
dove, the lamb, and some other animals have no means
of defense, unless flight be considered such. And while
warriors are figuratively represented by ferocious beasts,
real Christians are represented by lambs and doves. So
far as nature is made to speak fairly on the subject, it
speaks in favor of the doctrine which has been advocated.

THE RELIGION OF JESUS CHRIST 83

But corrupt nature strongly dictates many things
quite contrary to the precepts of the gospel ; and no
doctrine will be given up more reluctantly by corrupt
nature than that of the lawfulness of war, because no
doctrine is more congenial with the depraved feelings
and propensities of unsanctified men, for their "feet
are swift to shed blood ; destruction and misery are in
their ways, and the way of peace have they not known ;
there is no fear of God before their eyes."

Objection third. The precepts of the gospel are con
sistent with the moral law, or the eternal nature of
things, which is forever the standard of right and wrong
to all moral beings in the universe ; and war has been
prosecuted consistently with this rule of right and
wrong; therefore war cannot be contrary to the precepts
of the gospel.

Answer. This is an objection founded on an undefin-
able something aside from divine precept ; yet as
some terms in it have been much used in polemic
divinity by men of eminent talents and piety, whose
praise is in the churches, I think it neither proper nor
modest to dissent from so high authority without offer
ing some reasons. I shall, therefore, make a few general
observations on what is called the moral law, the eternal
rule of right and wrong, or the nature of things ; all
of which phrases, I believe, have been occasionally used
by eminent writers as conveying the same ideas.

I cannot agree with such as suppose that a moral
law or nature of things exists independently of the will
of God and is the common law of God and man. It
appears to me as inconsistent to suppose a law to exist

84 WAR INCONSISTENT WITH

without a lawgiver as to suppose a world to exist with
out a creator. If God is the only eternal and independ
ent Being in the universe, and if all things are the
work of his power and goodness, then the supposition
that an eternal law exists independently of him appears
to me to be absurd, as on this supposition there exists
a law without a lawgiver and an effect without a cause.
If God is not the author of all things, then there must
be more than one eternal cause of things.

To suppose that the reason and fitness of things
independently of the will of God, either in his works,
his providence, or word, can be a rule of man's duty
appears to me as inconsistent as to suppose that men
might institute divine worship from such fitness of
things independently of the existence of God ; for the
will of God to man seems as necessary to lay a founda
tion of moral obligation and to direct man's obedience
as the existence of God is necessary to lay a foundation
of religious worship. Should it be asked whether the
laws of God are not founded on the eternal nature and
fitness of things, I would answer that such a supposi
tion appears to me no more reasonable than to suppose
that his power is founded on the eternal capacity of
things ; for the capacity of things has just as much
reality and eternity in it to found the omnipotence of
God upon, as the reason and nature of things have to
found his infinite wisdom or justice upon.

I therefore dissent from all standard of moral obliga
tion which are supposed to exist aside from, and inde
pendently of, the divine will ; and fully agree with
the Assembly's Shorter Catechism, in the answer to

THE RELIGION OF JESUS CHRIST 85

this question : " What is the duty which God requires
of man? Answer: The duty which God requires of
man is obedience to his revealed will." Should it, how
ever, be said that things do exist aside from the divine
will, that it does not depend on the divine will, but on
the nature of things, that two and two make four, or
that a thing cannot be in motion and at rest at the
same time, it is by no means admitted that this order
or constitution of things exists independently of God ;
but it is believed to be as much the effect of his power
and goodness as anything else. And if God is not the
author of all the laws both in the natural and moral
world, it may reasonably be inquired, who is?

If God is the moral governor of the world, then all
his laws over men, as moral beings, must be moral laws ;
and to make a distinction between the laws designed
to regulate the moral conduct of men, and to call some
of them moral and others by different names, seems to
me not necessary, while I find no such distinction in
the Scriptures. Because some of God's laws were
intended to be temporary, under certain circumstances,
they were no less of a moral nature on that account ;
neither was it any less criminal to violate them.

As created things are in some respects constantly
changing, and as the relations of things are often varied,
so a law may be relatively right at one time and rela
tively wrong at another. But as man is frail and short
sighted, and is incapable of seeing the end from the
beginning, he is totally unable of himself to judge what
is and what is not right, all things considered ; hence the
necessity of a revelation from God to direct his steps.

86 WAR INCONSISTENT WITH

That there is a 'fitness of things and a standard of
moral right and wrong cannot be denied ; but, instead
of being founded in a supposed nature of things inde
pendent of God, it originates in the very nature and per
fections of God himself, and can never be known by
man any farther than the nature and perfections of
God are known. A standard of right and wrong inde
pendent of God, whether by the name of moral law or
nature of things, is what never has been and never can
be intelligibly defined. It is like a form without dimen
sions, like a foundation resting on nothing. It is, there
fore, in my opinion, as extravagant to talk of an eternal
nature of things, without reference to the laws of God,
as it would be to talk of an eternal wisdom or an eternal
omnipotence, independent of the existence of God.

But if the statement of the objector is meant only to
imply a rule of right and wrong emanating from the
nature and perfections of God, and coincident with his
laws, then, admitting the propriety of the terms moral
law, nature of things, etc., the objection, if it proves
anything, may prove quite too much for its advocates ;
for under certain circumstances it has been consistent
with this rule of moral right and wrong utterly to exter
minate nations, to destroy men, women, and children,
and show them no mercy.

Besides, the whole force of the objection rests on the
supposition that no laws which have existed, and which
were not contrary to the moral law, can be abrogated
under the Christian dispensation or be inconsistent
with the precepts of the gospel. It hence follows that
whatever has been morally right and lawful for men to

THE RELIGION OF JESUS CHRIST 87

do must forever remain right and lawful to be done.
This is a necessary result from the premises ; but no
Christian can consistently subscribe to this. The prem
ises must, therefore, be unsound and the objection of
no force.

If literal sacrifices, slavery, and many other practices
which are totally abolished under the Christian dispen
sation were not contrary to the moral law under the
Old Testament economy, why may not the same be
true of war ? Why may not the gospel forbid war as
consistently as it can forbid slavery?

Objection fourth. The nature of religion and morality
under the ancient dispensation was the same as under
the new. Love to God and man was the substance of
the law and the prophets ; and though truth under the
former was inculcated more by types and ceremonies,
yet the essence of religion was the same under that as
under the present dispensation ; and as war was not
inconsistent with the nature and precepts of religion
then, it cannot be inconsistent with the nature and pre
cepts of religion now, under like circumstances.

Answer. It is readily admitted that the essence of
religion is the same under the present as under the
former dispensation, both requiring at all times and in
all actions holy exercises of heart in cordial obedience
to divine command ; yet the laws for external conduct
under the two dispensations differ widely, and the prac
tice of war involves much of the external conduct of
men. It was never right for men to indulge unholy
feelings in the act of war, but the external act was
required as a means of executing the divine vengeance ;

88 WAR INCONSISTENT WITH

the gospel does not command, but seems plainly to
forbid, the external act of war.

But to suppose that saints under the gospel can ever
be placed in circumstances like those of the ancient
church is to suppose that they may be put under the
same typical economy which has vanished away, given
place to the substance, and ceased to be binding even
on the natural Israelites. To be in like circumstances
they must also be made the executors of God's wrath,
to inflict vengeance, by his particular command, on
idolatrous and rebellious nations. The Israelites had
the same high authority to exterminate the Canaanites
and subdue the idolatrous nations about Palestine that
the holy angels had to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah.

It is perfectly plain that if God should positively
command Christians to take the weapons of war and
not only repel invasion but actually exterminate nations,
it would be their duty to obey, and a refusal would be
open rebellion against God. The Old Testament saints
received such commands, but Christians have no such
authority, which makes a material difference in cir
cumstances.

Some general observations relative to the different
dispensations of the church of God may illustrate this
topic more fully.

The Old Testament economy has sometimes, per
haps without reason, been divided into the Adamic,
Patriarchal, and Mosaic dispensations of the church ; but
as the latter was more full and complete, and as the
distinction between the Mosaic and Christian dispen
sations is common, I shall confine my remarks chiefly

THE RELIGION OF JESUS CHRIST 89

to that distinction, though I consider the great dis
tinction to be between the Old and New Testament
economies.

The Old Testament economy, in general, was typical
of the New. Under the former dispensation literal and
temporal things typified spiritual and everlasting things
under the latter. The nation of Israel, chosen and
separated from all other nations, typified the true Israel
of God, who are chosen out of every nation and sancti
fied and set apart as a holy nation and peculiar people,
to offer up spiritual sacrifices to God. The land of
Canaan was a type of the heavenly Canaan. Jerusalem
was a type of the New Jerusalem from above. Mount
Zion and the royal throne of Israel, which were in
Jerusalem, typified the heavenly Zion and the throne
of the true David who now reigns in glory. The sacri
fices were types of spiritual offerings. The Israelites
had enemies within and foes without, literal weapons
of war and literal warfare, typical of spiritual foes,
spiritual armor, and spiritual warfare.1 Their kings were
seated on the throne of the Lord (see i Chron. xxix.
23). At the command of God they judged and made
war and conquered their enemies and thus typified the
Son of God who is now on the throne of his Father

1 Says the Rev. Dr. Scott, in his Essay, p. 422 : " We ought not
therefore to fear our enemies because he will be with us, and if God
be for us, who can be against us ? Or who can doubt but he that is in
us is greater than he that is in the world? This was typically intimated
in the promises made to Israel respecting their wars with the Canaan-
ites and other nations, which were shadows and figures of the good
fight of faith." Bishop Home, in his preface to the Psalms, views the
subject in the same light.

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David, and who in righteousness judges and makes war
and rides forth conquering and to conquer. The ancient
promises and threatenings were mostly temporal, but
typical of spiritual and everlasting promises and threat
enings. Doubtless the gospel was preached by types
and figures under the Old Testament economy, and the
saints of old looked upon those temporal things merely
as shadows representing a more enduring substance.
When they looked upon Canaan, the land of promise,
they viewed it as a type of the heavenly Canaan, and
confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on
earth seeking a better country. When they looked
on the bleeding lamb they beheld, by the eye of
faith, the Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of
the world.

Thus we may see that almost the whole of the Old
Testament economy was typical and temporary, and
not intended to be perfect and everlasting. But under
the gospel dispensation we have a new covenant and
better promises which are intended to be -perfect and
everlasting. It is therefore more proper for those
who live under this new and perfect dispensation to
look at the substance than at the shadow for a rule of
duty. Errors are often and easily propagated by reason
ing from analogy and introducing it as proof of senti
ments instead of illustration. This is frequently done
in relation to the Old Testament economy and common
political government. It is not uncommon to hear min
isters, in their political sermons, reason and infer just
as if there were a perfect parallel between the Jewish
theocracy and political governments, when at the head

THE RELIGION OF JESUS CHRIST 91

of one was the Lord of hosts and at the head of the
others are but men ; when one was the church of the
living God, and the others are but human institutions.
They not unfrequently speak of God's driving out the
heathen before his American Israel and planting them
in a goodly land, as though there were a perfect parallel
between the Americans driving the Indians from their
native soil and taking possession of it themselves, with
out divine commission, and the Israelites going at the
express command of God and taking possession of
Canaan. Thus they endeavor to keep up a parallel
between God's ancient church and civil governments.
The economy of God's ancient covenant people was by
no means a political institution in the popular sense,
but it was a dispensation of the church of God, and in
its rites, ceremonies, and government was typical of
the kingdom of Messiah under his mediatorial reign,
and differed widely in its nature, origin, and design from
mere political governments ; therefore all reasoning
drawn from a supposed analogy between them is spe
cious and false. The Israelites had no authority to
enact laws or to alter God's laws one iota ; trleir duty
was implicitly to obey them.

But if Christians take their authority for going to
war from the practice of the Old Testament saints,
their example will prove too much ; it will not only allow
war, but offensive war in its most dreadful forms.

Objection fifth. Abraham went to war, not like the
Israelites at the command of God, yet he met with the
divine approbation when he returned from the slaughter
of the kings; he, therefore, must have acted on a

92 WAR INCONSISTENT WITH

universal law still in force ; and as Christians are called
the children of Abraham they ought, of course, to imi
tate his example in such things as God approved.

Answer. Abraham, like the Israelites, was under a
typical dispensation and practiced rites and ceremonies
which were a shadow of good things to come. That he
acted without divine command, in the war referred to, is
more than we are warranted to say. He was a prophet
and the friend of God and probably was acquainted with
the divine will on this subject.

Christians are not called the children of Abraham
because they imitate his example in war, but because
they exercise like precious faith with him. If Chris
tians are warranted to imitate the example of Abraham
in all things which were tolerated by God, then they
may sacrifice cattle, practice polygamy, and buy and
hold slaves. But if they object to his example as a rule
of duty in these instances, why not object to his example
as a rule of duty in the case of war?

But to say that he acted from some universal law
still in force is taking for granted the question in dis
pute, and cannot be admitted without evidence.

The war waged by Abraham against the kings was,
I apprehend, offensive rather than defensive ; for Lot,
his brother's son, whom he rescued, did not then belong
to his family or kingdom, but was separated from him
and was also a patriarch, a father of nations, and a
prince or head over his own house or kingdom.

It appears very evident that offensive as well as
defensive war was tolerated under the patriarchal econ
omy, as may be seen from the words of the inspired

THE RELIGION OF JESUS CHRIST 93

Jacob when blessing his sons (Gen. xlviii. 22). That,
as well as the Mosaic dispensation, was typical, and
doubtless war was allowed under both for the same
reasons.

But there can be no doubt that whoever attempts to
justify war by the example of Abraham may equally
justify the slavery of our fellow-men ; and whoever
depends on his example for authority for engaging in
war, to be consistent, must advocate and defend the
doctrine of slavery.

Objection sixth. It appears to be a universal law of
God that " whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall
his blood be shed." If one man, or one nation, attacks
another and sheds his blood, his own must be shed in
return. Hence this precept not only authorizes taking
away the life of a murderer, but authorizes nations to
repel by war nations that wage war against them.

Answer, Whether this was a precept given to man
as a rule of duty or not is very questionable, though it
has generally been so construed, at least since the
dark ages of the church ; and it is still more question
able whether it is a universal and perpetual law.

If we attend to the phraseology of this decree of
God, we shall find it to be very different from that of
the precepts, generally, delivered to Moses. God did
not say to Noah, as he often did to Moses, thou shalt
do this, or that, but he said, " / will require the life of
man" etc. If God had designed to delegate executive
authority to Noah and his descendants to execute retrib
utive judgment on the manslayer, the connection of
the whole language must have been altered, for God

94 WAR INCONSISTENT WITH

declared what he would do himself. It appears, there
fore, to have been God's decree, and the promulgation
of his law by which he would inflict righteous judg
ment on the guilty ; the penalty was intended as a
warning to deter mankind from violence, the sin for
which the old world was swept away. And I see no
reason why this threatening should not be considered
parallel with the decrees of Christ, — that "all they
that take the sword shall perish with the sword ; he
that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity ;
he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the
sword ; here is the faith and the patience of the saints."
Why the former should be considered as a rule of
obedience for man, and these latter passages not so, I
am unable to say. " He that killeth with the sword must
be killed with the sword" is as positive as "whoso
sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed."

It may be observed that the faith and patience of the
saints is here spoken of in such a way as to imply that
they exercised and manifested their faith and patience
when they were put to death by violence or carried into
captivity. And, indeed, how could their faith and
patience appear if they, like the wicked world, returned
evil for evil, carried into captivity, and killed with the
sword ?

The original threatening has been fulfilled by the
providence, and sometimes by the express command, of
God. As Noah was the head of the new world and
the father of nations, it seems to have had reference to
nations rather than to individuals ; and all nations that
have shed blood in war must, in their turn, have their

THE RELIGION OF JESUS CHRIST 95

own blood shed ; so that all they that take the sword
may perish with the sword agreeably to the threatening
made known to Noah, and to those announced by Christ.

But, admitting that the law quoted in the objection
was intended as a rule of duty for man, it does not
appear that it was designed to be universal and per
petual. Before the flood no authority appears in any
sense to have been delegated to man to shed the blood
of man. So far from executing the penalty of death or
causing it to be executed upon Cain, who was of the
wicked one and slew his brother, notwithstanding his
guilty forebodings, God threatened a sevenfold ven
geance on him who should presume to do it.

Under the Mosaic dispensation many crimes were
punishable with death according to positive precept ; but
God, for wise reasons, did not always have the penalty
executed. David was guilty of murder and adultery,
both capital crimes ; yet he was permitted to live.

All kinds of vindictive punishment under the Chris
tian dispensation appear to be absolutely forbidden.
By vindictive I mean that which is intended to vindi
cate the law, as executing strict justice, and prevent
offenses only, as taking away life, but which is not
designed to promote the individual good of the person
punished. That punishment which is designed and
which has a tendency to promote the good of the pun
ished, as well as to deter offenders, I consider to be
strictly disciplinary or corrective, and consistent with
the spirit and precepts of the gospel. Says an apostle,
" Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but give place
unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will

96 WAR INCONSISTENT WITH

repay, saith the Lord." " For the wrath of man worketh
not the righteousness of God." It has been said that
this only forbids a revengeful temper, but this evasion
will not do ; for Christians are here forbidden to do the
very thing which God declares he will do himself, and
he does nothing but what is holy.

" Render to no man evil for evil," is a positive pre
cept without any limitation, and which admits of no
evasion ; and it must plainly rescind the law of shed
ding man's blood because he had shed the blood of man.

But the exclamation is often made, What, not pun
ish a murderer with death ! Little do those who make
this exclamation think that they themselves also are
sinners and that every sin deserves not only temporal
death but God's wrath and curse forever, and that they
are in like condemnation unless redeemed by the blood
of the Lamb. For such, it might be well to inquire if
they know " what manner of spirit they are of."

The most prominent characteristic of Messiah's reign
over men in this world is mercy, since he has secured
the rights and honor of the divine government by the
sacrifice of himself so that the guilty may live. He has
given his life as a ransom and taken the world into his
hands as the ruler, judge, and rewarder, and offers the
chief of sinners mercy; and the merits of his blood are
sufficient to cleanse from all sin as well against man as
against God. And who can help being astonished at
the amazing difference between his laws and his deal
ings with men, and those sanguinary laws of men
according to which under the light of the gospel they
punish with death.

THE RELIGION OF JESUS CHRIST 97

The professed principle and design of these laws is
strict justice; but were men dealt with according to
strict justice by him who rules above, who would be
able to stand? These laws of men accept no atone
ment for capital offenses ; no mercy is offered, for none
is provided for those who incur their penalty ; but the
gospel offers mercy to the chief of sinners while it
condemns those who reject the offers. Capital offend
ers will never be condemned by civil governments for
the rejection of offered mercy, for no mercy is pro
vided for them. How unlike the divine government !
But Christians are commanded to be merciful, as their
Father in heaven is merciful, who showers down bless
ings on the evil and unthankful. Our Master has told
us that with what judgment we judge we shall be judged ;
and with what measure we mete it shall be measured to
us again ; that if we forgive we shall be forgiven ; and if
we forgive not we shall not be forgiven; and that if we
show no mercy we shall have judgment without mercy.

Christians ought to ponder the subject well before
they advocate the consistency and safety of dispensing
justice without mercy. Let them learn what that
meaneth, " I will have mercy and not sacrifice."

Objection seventh. " Every purpose is established by
counsel, and with good advice make war"; "For by
wise counsel thou shalt make war," etc. Here war is
recognized as a duty under certain circumstances, and
the manner in which it is to be undertaken is pointed
out, viz., by wise counsel.

Answer. The inspired Proverbs are maxims of wis
dom illustrated, for the most part, by some familiar

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subject that existed at the time they were delivered. The
object here is not to inculcate the lawfulness of war but
the necessity of sound wisdom in relation to the actions
of men ; and the subject of war appears to be intro
duced merely to illustrate this idea. The counsel and
wisdom of men in relation to their temporal and worldly
concerns are often worthy of imitation in reference to
spiritual things; for the children of this world are, in
some sense, wiser in their generation than the children
of light, and the conduct of worldly men is often very
appropriately introduced to illustrate Christian duty.
Our Lord says, " What king, going to war with another
king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he
be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh
against him with twenty thousand?" Doubtless our
Lord's design was to warn people to count the cost
before they professed to be followers of him, that they
might not be deceived and discouraged, and that they
might act from principle and not from hypocrisy. But
he inculcated these things by referring to the example
of kings in their consultations about war. And it is
believed that the passages before cited are of similar
import. These references to war, being introduced
merely for the illustration of other subjects, will no
more prove the lawfulness of war than the reference
of the apostle to the Olympic games, for illustration,
will prove the lawfulness of those heathen feats. But
if this explanation should not be satisfactory, it may. be
observed that the Proverbs were written under the Old
Testament economy which tolerated offensive as well as
defensive war ; whence it does not appear that any war

THE RELIGION OF JESUS CHRIST 99

can be undertaken under the present dispensation, " by
wise counsel," except that which is spiritual ; so that if
the ancient was typical of the new dispensation, then the
passages quoted will now apply only to spiritual warfare.

Objection eighth. When the soldiers demanded of
John the Baptist what they should do, one of the direc
tions which he gave them was to be content with their
wages. If their occupation had been unlawful, then he
would not have directed them to be contented with
the wages of wickedness.

Answer. John the Baptist was under the Mosaic
economy, the new dispensation not having commenced.
He was but the forerunner of the Lord, a herald to sound
his approach. But he gave the soldiers another direc
tion, viz., to "do violence to no man," obedience to
which is totally incompatible with war, as that is nothing
else but violence. Only hinder soldiers from doing
violence to any man and you stop at once the whole
progress of war ; therefore, if the directions of John
are insisted on as gospel authority, they will prove,
probably, much more against the lawfulness of war
than in favor of it.

Objection ninth. The Centurion and Cornelius were
Christians and soldiers and highly approved of God for
their faith and piety ; nor were they directed by Christ
or his apostles to renounce their profession ; therefore
the profession of arms is not inconsistent with Chris
tian duty.

Answer. They were first soldiers and then Christians ;
and we have no evidence that they continued in the
profession of arms ; nor are we warranted to say that

100 WAR INCONSISTENT WITH

they were not directed to renounce that profession, as
the Scriptures are silent on the subject. Peter, it
appears, tarried a number of days with Cornelius, and
he doubtless explained to him the spirit and precepts
of the gospel ; and it is very probable that neither
Cornelius nor the Centurion continued soldiers in any
other sense than they were soldiers of Christ, as the
idolatrous rites enjoined on the Roman soldiers were
totally inconsistent with the Christian character, aside
from the unlawfulness of war itself. Besides, the Roman
soldiers were as often engaged in offensive as in defen
sive war; therefore, if the argument has any force on
the question, it will tolerate not only defensive but
offensive war, and also the idolatrous rites of the
Roman armies.

Objection tenth. Our Lord paid tribute money, which
went to support military power, but he would not con
tribute to the support of a wicked thing, therefore war
is not inconsistent with Christianity.

Answer. A distinguished trait of the Christian reli
gion is peace. The command is, " Follow peace with
all men." " Blessed are the peacemakers : for they shall
be called the children of God."

Our Lord set the example of giving no just cause of
offense to any. Tribute was demanded of him unjustly
according to the existing laws, but lest fault should be
found, he wrought a miracle and paid it. Money is a
temporal thing, and belongs to the governments of this
world, as the various coins bear the ensign of the nation
by whom they were made ; but the Christian's treasure
is not in this world, and when the rulers of this world

THE RELIGION OF JESUS CHRIST 101

call for that which bears their own image and super
scription, Christians have no right to withhold from
them their dues, for they must " render to Caesar the
things that are Caesar's." For this cause they ought to
pay tribute and resign up temporal things without a
murmur to temporal governments, and leave it with
Caesar to manage the things of Caesar. Thus far are
Christians warranted to act, from the example of Christ
and the precepts of the gospel ; but how does the law
fulness of war follow from Christians rendering to
Caesar his due? Is it because some of the money goes
to support war? Probably, of the money which our
Lord paid as much went to the support of idolatry and
the games of the day as to the support of war. Now
if the argument is sound, we may not only prove by it
the lawfulness of war but the lawfulness of idolatry
and many other abominable things practiced by the
heathen governments.

Objection eleventh. Our Lord, just before his cruci
fixion, commanded his disciples to take swords, and, if
any were destitute, to sell their garments and procure
them, as they would no longer have his personal pres
ence to protect them ; and as they were to encounter
great trials and difficulties, they must, besides relying
on providence, take all prudent means for their defense
and preservation.

Answer. That our Lord did not direct them to take
swords for self-defense is evident because he told them
that two were enough, and because the disciples never
made any use of them after their Master directed Peter
to put up his and pronounced a penalty on all who

102 WAR INCONSISTENT WITH

should have recourse to swords afterwards. But the
design seems to have been to show by example in the
most trying situation where self-defense was justifiable,
if in any case, that the use of the sword was utterly
prohibited under the gospel economy, and to show the
criminality and danger of ever using deathly weapons
against mankind afterwards. If Christ's kingdom had
been of this world, then, he tells us, his servants would
have fought; but his kingdom being not of this world,
the weapons of their warfare were not carnal but
spiritual. He therefore rebuked them for their mis
taken zeal, healed the wound they made, and forbade
the use of the sword.

Objection twelfth. Christians are commanded to be
in subjection to civil rulers who are God's ministers to
execute wrath on the wicked and are ministers of good
to the church ; therefore Christians are bound to take
the sword at their command ; for civil government is
ordained of God and civil rulers are not to bear the
sword in vain, and Christians may lawfully do what God
ordains to be done.

Answer. That civil government, so called in distinc
tion from religious government, is ordained by God is
fully admitted, and also that God ordains whatsoever
comes to pass. But there is a great difference between
his decretive and his preceptive will. The former is
not a rule of duty for man without the latter ; the latter
is always a rule of duty. This fact might be proved by
a multitude of instances from Scripture. Persons there
fore may be very wicked in doing what God ordains to
be done, if they act without his command.

THE RELIGION OF JESUS CHRIST 103

That civil governments and civil rulers exist only by
God's decretive will, which is fulfilled by his providence
and not by his preceptive will, is evident because God
has never authorized the appointment of them or given
any precepts or any commands as a code of laws to any
denomination or class of people as such, distinct from
his own covenant people or church ; and this fact I beg
leave to submit as a conclusive evidence that civil gov
ernments and civil rulers exist only by God's decretive
will and not by his preceptive will. Under the ancient
dispensation no laws or directions were given to any
class of men, as such, other than God's own covenant
people or church, unless some special commands on
singular occasions, or the general command to repent
and turn to God, be excepted.

The king on the throne of Israel was as truly an
officer in the church of God as the high priest who
entered into the holy of holies. Both were set apart
and anointed with the holy oil, at the command of God,
and both were types of the Son of God. The king as
much typified his kingly office as the priest did his
priestly office. Both were necessary parts of that com
plete shadow of good things then to come.

Under the gospel dispensation no authority from
God is to be found for appointing and setting apart
civil rulers, nor are there any directions given to civil
rulers, as such, how to conduct in their office, unless
those who rule in the church are called civil rulers.
All the precepts and directions in the gospel, excepting
such as were special (as those which related only to the
apostles) or such as are universal (relating alike to all

104 WAR INCONSISTENT WITH

men), are given to the disciples as members of Christ's
kingdom, who are not of this world, even as he was not
of this world.

The Son of God came into the world to set up the
kingdom of heaven, which is a perfect and everlasting
kingdom and distinct from all other kingdoms which
are to be destroyed to give place to his divine and
heavenly reign. He came in the likeness of men, sin
excepted, and laid down his life a ransom for the
world, and then rose a triumphant conqueror, and in the
complex character of God and man, as Mediator, he
took the universe, his purchased possession, into his
hands as a lawgiver, judge, and rewarder. He took the
scepter when it departed from Judah, and is exalted far
above all principality and power and might and dominion,
and has a name above every name, all executive power
in heaven and earth being given to him as Mediator.
Thus, as Mediator, the kingdom of heaven is his king
dom. He reigns not only as King of kings and Lord of
lords but seated on the throne of his father David, he is
forever King in Zion and is head over all things to his
church. His kingdom is not of this world, neither are
his subjects of this world, though some of them are in it.

He sent out his disciples to appear in a distinct char
acter from the world and to be a light to it by imitating
his example and by exhibiting his spirit and temper.
They ought not to say, as the Jews did, that they have
no king but Caesar, for they have an everlasting King
and kingdom and laws perfect and eternal. They should,
therefore, set their affections on things above and not
on things beneath.

THE RELIGION OF JESUS CHRIST 105

While the kingdoms of this world exist, Christians
must remain in captivity to them and must obey all their
laws which are not contrary to the laws of the gospel ;
otherwise they cannot remain peaceful, harmless, and
blameless in the midst of a wicked world before whom
they must shine as lights.

Though the church is now in captivity, yet her redemp
tion draweth nigh, for God will soon "overthrow the
throne of kingdoms," and the thrones will be cast down
and the princes of this world will come to naught. The
stone which was cut out of the mountain without hands
will dash them to pieces, as the potter's vessel is shivered,
and will become a great mountain and fill the whole
earth ; then the kingdom and the dominion and the
greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven shall
be given to the people of the saints of the most high
God whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom and of
whose dominion there shall be no end.

Though God, by his decree, has ordained civil gov
ernments and established kingdoms, and will by his
providence make them subservient to the good of his
church and people, and notwithstanding it is the duty
of Christians to be in subjection to them and pay tribute,
yet it does not follow that their genius and laws may
not often be contrary to the genius and laws of the
gospel, and when they are so Christians must not obey
them nor count their lives dear to themselves. It
should be distinctly remembered that when Christians
were exhorted and commanded to be obedient to civil
rulers, they were under heathen, idolatrous, civil gov
ernments, and those civil governments were bv no

106 WAR INCONSISTENT WITH

means congenial with the spirit and precepts of the
gospel ; still Christians were commanded to be in sub
jection to them ; not, however, without limitation, for
they utterly refused obedience in many instances and
nobly suffered or died as martyrs.

Thus civil government may be an ordinance of God,
may be subservient to the good of the church, may be
an instrument in God's hands of executing his wrath,
and Christians may be bound to obey magistrates in all
things not contrary to the gospel ; and yet it will not
follow that Christians may consistently with the gospel
take up the sword or do anything to countenance war.

If it be the duty of Christians to take the sword and
enter the field of battle at the command of their civil
rulers, then there could be no impropriety in having
armies wholly made up of real Christians, especially
since it is the duty of every man to become a Christian ;
and as professing Christian nations are almost con
stantly fighting each other, it would be perfectly proper
for hosts of pious saints to be daily engaged in shed
ding each other's blood. But how would it appear, how
does it appear, for those who have drunk into the same
peaceful and heavenly spirit, who are united together
by the tender ties of the Redeemer's blood, who are all
members of the same family, and who hope through
divine grace to dwell together in everlasting love and
blessedness, to be fighting one another here with
relentless fury?

Let us contemplate the subject, in this point of view,
a little further. Suppose an English and an American
frigate in the time of war, both manned entirely with

THE RELIGION OF JESUS CHRIST 107

real Christians, should meet in a neutral port. Ought
they not then to conduct towards each other as brethren
of one common Lord? As they are all members of the
same family and have all been redeemed by the same
blood, and sanctified by the same divine spirit, they
surely must have the most tender affection for each
other, and it would be highly proper for them to meet
together for Christian fellowship, worship, and com
munion. Suppose, then, that they occasionally go on
board each other's ships for religious worship ; that
their chaplains lead in their devotions, using such peti
tions as these — praying that they may be all of one
heart and one mind in the knowledge of Christ, knit
together in the bonds of Christian love ; that they may
have much of the wisdom from above which is first
pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated ; that
they may do good to all as they have opportunity, espe
cially to the household of faith ; that they may be meek
and gentle as lambs and harmless as doves ; that they
may be kind and forgiving and that, like their Divine
Master, they may return good for evil and have their
affections on things above and not on things beneath ;
after which they unitedly partake of the symbols of
Christ's broken body and shed blood, and then part
with the tenderest tokens of Christian fellowship and
love. They leave the port and meet again at sea. It
now becomes their duty, on the principles of war, instead
of meeting as Christian brethren, to meet as raging
tigers and discharge the flaming engines of death on
each other ; and in order to perform " their duty to
their God and country," they must exert all their power

108 WAR INCONSISTENT WITH

and skill to destroy one another. The dreadful struggle
and carnage must be continued by both parties as long
as both can fight. When half of their crews are wal
lowing in their blood and expiring in agonies, a violent
effort must be made by one or both to board the other
and end the contest sword in hand. Those hands which
recently saluted each other with Christian love now
plunge the envenomed steel into their brethren's bosoms.
At length one is vanquished and yields to the other.
Those who remain alive after the conflict again unite
in prayer and give thanks to God that he has given
them courage and strength to fight so nobly, and that
he has shielded their lives in the hour of battle. Thus
they again resume their Christian fellowship and com
munion. This mutual fellowship, communion, and love
are perfectly consistent with Christian character and
are required by it. The conduct which has been sup
posed as enemies when fighting is also entirely consist
ent with the principles of war and with the character
of warriors, and is such as would be highly applauded
and admired by the world. But is it not obviously and
perfectly absurd and perfectly incompatible with the
principles of the gospel for Christians to act in this
twofold character? If, however, it is the duty of Chris
tians to obey the command of their rulers and engage
in war, then it would be perfectly proper for what has
been supposed to take place. Christians may one day
surround the table of the Lord together, and the next
kill and destroy each other.

The god of this world, not being yet chained down
to hell, deceives the nations and gathers them together

THE RELIGION OF JESUS CHRIST 109

to battle ; but the children of peace, the citizens of Zion,
ought not to mingle with them or listen to the deceiver.
They should take to themselves not carnal weapons but
the whole armor of God, that they may be able to stand
in an evil day and to quench all the fiery darts of Satan.

Objection thirteenth. To deny the right of the magis
trate to call on his subjects to take the sword is to deny
that he is an avenger to execute wrath, though the
gospel expressly declares that he is.

Answer. This conclusion does not follow unless it is
a fact that God cannot and does not actually make him
the instrument of doing it, by his providence, without
his command ; for, as we have already observed, men
may fulfill the decrees of God under his providence,
without his command, and be very criminal in the deed.
God raised up the king of Assyria and made him the
rod of his anger, to chastise his people and to execute
wrath upon the ungodly nations around. " Howbeit he
meant not so, but it was in his heart to cut ^"nations
not a few." And God declared, with reference to him,
" that when he had performed his whole work he would
punish the fruit of his stout heart and the glory of his
high looks." It will not be contended that warlike
nations are commanded by God to destroy and trample
down the nations of the earth as the dust of their feet ;
yet, when they do so, they doubtless fulfill his high
decree and are avengers to execute his wrath on a
wicked world.

The beast represented in the Revelation with seven
heads and ten horns has generally been considered as
an emblem of nations. These ten horns, or powers, are

110 WAR INCONSISTENT WITH

to hate the great harlot of Babylon ; to eat her flesh
and burn her with fire; and though they destroy the
greatest enemy of the church, and in this way are min
isters of good to her, yet they receive their power and
their seat and their authority from the old serpent, the
dragon. And a magistrate or king may be a minister
of good to the church and an avenger to execute wrath,
and still be very wicked in the deed and use very
unlawful means to accomplish the end. While he ful
fills the decree of Heaven, he acts not in obedience to
the command of God, but to the dictates of his own
lusts and passions.

Objection fourteenth. The passages of Scripture which
have been quoted against retaliation and which incul
cate love to enemies and the returning of good for evil
have reference to individuals in their conduct towards
each other, but have no relation to civil government and
are not intended as a rule of duty for one nation towards
another ; they therefore have no bearing on the sub
ject of war.

Answer. Those precepts of the gospel appear to be
binding universally without any limitation, and men
have no right to limit that which God has not limited.
If the commands of the gospel are binding upon every
one in his individual capacity, then they must be bind
ing upon every one in any collective body, so that
whatever is morally wrong for every individual must
be equally wrong for a collective body ; and a nation is
only a large number of individuals united so as to act
collectively as one person. Therefore, if it is criminal
for an individual to lie, steal, quarrel, and fight, it is also

THE RELIGION OF JESUS CHRIST in

criminal for nations to lie, steal, quarrel, and fight. If
it is the duty of an individual to be kind and tender
hearted and to have a forgiving and merciful disposition,
it is likewise the duty of nations to be kind, forgiving,
and merciful. If it is the duty of an individual to return
good for evil, then it is the duty of nations to return
good for evil.

It is self-evident that individuals cannot delegate
power to communities which they do not possess them
selves. Therefore, if every individual is bound to obey
the precepts of the gospel and cannot as an individual
be released from the obligation, then individuals have
no power to release any collective body from that obli
gation. To say that God has given to nations a right to
return evil for evil is begging the question, for it does
not appear and cannot be shown that God has restricted
the precepts of the gospel to individuals, or that he has
given any precepts to nations as such, or to any other
community than his own covenant people or church. This
objection makes government an abstraction according
with the common saying,"Government is without a soul."

No practice has a more corrupt tendency than that
of attempting to limit the Scriptures so as to make
them trim with the corrupt practices of mankind. Who
ever, for the sake of supporting war, attempts to limit
these precepts of the gospel to individuals and denies
that they are binding upon nations destroys one of the
main pillars by which the lawfulness of war is upheld.
The right of nations to defend themselves with the
sword is argued on the supposed right of individual
self-preservation ; as it is said to be right for individuals

112 WAR INCONSISTENT WITH

to defend themselves with deathly weapons, so it is law
ful for nations to have recourse to the sword for defense
of their rights. But if these passages are applicable to
individuals and prohibit them from acts of retaliation,
and if the rights of nations are founded on the rights
of individuals, then nations have no right to retaliate
injury.

Objection fifteenth. Christians, with comparatively
few exceptions, have not doubted the lawfulness of
war, and many have actually fought and bled on the
field of battle and considered themselves in the way
of their duty. And shall all our pious forefathers be
condemned for engaging in war ?

Answer. It is admitted that many pious people have
engaged in war, but they might have been in an error
on this subject as well as on many other subjects.
Many of our pious forefathers engaged in the slavery
of their fellow-men, and thought themselves in the way
of their duty ; but does it follow that they were not in
an error ? The circumstance that multitudes defend a
sentiment is no certain evidence of its truth. Some of
the reformers were objected to because the multitude
were against them. Popularity, however, ever has
influenced and ever will influence mankind more than
plain gospel duty, until the earth shall be filled with
the abundance of peace. But notwithstanding this, it
is not right to follow the multitude to do evil. All
ought to remember that they have no right to follow the
example of any one any further than that example coin
cides with the example of Christ or the precepts of the
gospel ; all other standards are fallible and dangerous.

THE RELIGION OF JESUS CHRIST 113

If real Christians have, from mistaken zeal, prayed
against each other and fought each other and shed each
other's blood, this does not justify war.

Objection sixteenth. If Christians generally should
adopt these sentiments, it would be impossible for them
to subsist in this world in its present state, and if they
did continue it must be in abject slavery. They would
become hewers of wood and drawers of water to the
tyrannical and oppressive, and would only encourage
them in their deeds of wickedness. The injustice of
men must be restrained or the earth will again be filled
with violence. The necessity of the case is such that
mankind would be warranted to take up arms to main
tain their rights and repel oppressors, if the Scriptures
were silent on the subject.1

Answer. We have the history of the heathen world
to teach us what mankind are without the light of reve
lation. They are full of all unrighteousness, covetous-
ness, maliciousness ; full of enmity, murder, debate,
deceit, malignity ; they are proud, boasters, without
natural affection, implacable, unmerciful. Now the very
design of the gospel is to subdue and overcome these
abominable passions and dispositions ; not however by
returning violence for violence but by producing vir
tues directly contrary. The great duty of Christians is
to be a light to this wicked world by exhibiting in their
conduct and conversation the spirit and temper of the
gospel. If such were the practice of Christians, we have
reason to believe that wicked men would be overawed and

1 All these objections introduced are carefully selected from some of
the ablest advocates for the lawfulness of war.

114 WAR INCONSISTENT WITH

deterred from their violence in a great measure. Besides,
if all real Christians should utterly refuse to bear arms
for the destruction of their fellow-men, it would greatly
diminish the strength and boldness of warlike nations,
so that it would be impracticable for them to prosecute
war with the vigor and fury that they now do.

But if the gospel prohibits war, then to urge the ne
cessity of the case against the commands of God is
open rebellion against his government as well as total
distrust of his word and providence.

If Christians live in habitual obedience to God's com
mands, they have the promise that all things shall work
together for their good, and they have no reason to fear
them that kill the body and after that " have no more
that they can do."

It is strange that Christians should have so great a
reluctance to suffer inconvenience in worldly things for
the sake of the gospel. The scoffs and persecutions of
the world and the fear of the loss of worldly things are
powerful barriers against Christian warfare. The gos
pel teaches us that all who live godly in Christ Jesus
shall suffer persecution, and that through much tribula
tion the saints must enter into the kingdom of heaven ;
and is it not plainly owing wholly to their conformity
to the world that they now suffer so little persecution
and practice so little self-denial ? If there is reserved
for them an eternal weight of glory, what if they, like
their Divine Master, should not have where to lay their
heads ? If they are to inherit a crown of immortal
glory, what if they are called to suffer the loss of
earthly things ? If they are hereafter to reign as kings

THE RELIGION OF JESUS CHRIST 115

and priests unto God, what if they are not ranked among
the great and honorable of the earth ? If they suffer
with Christ, then will they also reign with him ; but if
they deny him, he also will deny them ; and if they are
ashamed of him, he will also be ashamed of them before
his Father and the holy angels. Let Christians then
obey his commands and trust to his protection while
they resolutely abstain from the wicked practices of
the world.

Objection seventeenth. It is the duty of mankind to
use means for the preservation of life and liberty; they
must till the ground, if they expect a crop. It would be
presumptuous for them to pray for and to expect their
daily bread without using such means as God has put
in their power to obtain it ; and it would be equally
presurnptuous to expect the preservation of their lives
and liberties without using such means to preserve and
defend them as God has put into their hand ; they
must act as well as pray.

Answer. That using means is the duty of Christians,
there can be no doubt ; but they must be such as God
has appointed, and not such as human wisdom may
dictate. There is no dispute as to the propriety of
using means, but only as to the kind of means which
Christians ought to use. The weapons of their warfare
are not carnal, but spiritual, and they are mighty
through God to the pulling down the strongholds of
sin and Satan. It is often said, If you wish to put a
stop to war, spread the gospel through the world. We
would inquire, If the gospel tolerates war, how will its
universal diffusion put a stop to war?

Il6 WAR INCONSISTENT WITH

As has already been observed, it would be open rebel
lion to do what God has forbidden, and high-handed
presumption to ask his aid in the things which he has
prohibited.

Objection eighteenth. Some ecclesiastical historians
inform us that Christians in the early ages of the church,
though they contended so firmly for the faith as to
suffer martyrdom rather than submit to idolatry, yet
did not refuse to bear arms in defense of their country,
even when called upon by heathen magistrates, and
their example ought to have weight with us.

Answer. The testimony of the early Fathers is enti
tled to regard, but must not be considered as infallible
authority, for they were men of like passions with others
and cannot be followed safely any farther than they
followed Christ. But the weight of their testimony on
the subject, I apprehend, will be found to stand directly
against the lawfulness of war on Christian principles.

Erasmus, who was an eminent scholar, and who was
probably as well acquainted with the sentiments of the
primitive Fathers as any modern writer, in his Anti-
polemos, or Pica against War, replies to the advocates
of war as follows : " They further object those opinions
or decrees of the Fathers in which war seems to be
approved. Of this sort there are some, but they are
only late writers, who appeared when the true spirit of
Christianity began to languish, and they are very few;
while, on the other hand, there are innumerable ones
among the writers of acknowledged sanctity which
absolutely forbid war ; and why should the few rather
than the many intrude themselves into our mind ? "

THE RELIGION OF JESUS CHRIST 117

Barclay, who examined the writings of the Fathers
on this subject, says, " It is as easy to obscure the sun
at midday as to deny that the primitive Christians
renounced all revenge and war."

Clarkson, who also examined the Fathers, declares
that " every Christian writer of the second century who
notices the subject makes it unlawful for Christians to
bear arms."

Clarkson has made copious extracts from the writings
of the Fathers against war, a few of which, as quoted
by him and others, shall be inserted here.

Justin Martyr and Tatian both considered the devil
the author of war.

Justin Martyr, while speaking of the prophecies relat
ing to the days of peace, says, "That this prophecy is
fulfilled you have good reason to believe, for we who in
times past killed one another do not now fight with our
enemies." Clarkson adds, "It is observable that the
word 'fight' does not mean to strike, beat, or give a
blow, but to fight in war ; and the word ' enemy ' does
not mean a common adversary who has injured us, but
an enemy of state."

Irenaeus says that Christians in his day " had changed
their swords and their lances into instruments of peace,
and that they knew not how to fight."

Maximilian and a number of others in the second
century actually suffered martyrdom for refusing, on
gospel principles, to bear arms.

Celsus made it one of his charges against the Chris
tians that they refused to bear arms for the Emperor.
Origen, in the following century, admitted the fact and

Il8 WAR INCONSISTENT WITH

justified the Christians on the ground of the unlawful
ness of war itself.

Tertullian, in his discourse to Scapula, tells us " that
no Christians were to be found in the Roman armies."

In his declaration on the worship of idols he says,
" Though the soldiers came to John and received a
certain form to be observed, and though the Centurion
believed, yet Jesus Christ, by disarming Peter disarmed
every soldier afterwards ; for custom can never sanction
an illicit act."

Again, in his Soldier s Garland, he says : " Can a
soldier's life be lawful, when Christ has pronounced
that he who lives by the sword shall perish by the
sword? Can one who professes the peaceable doctrine
of the gospel be a soldier when it is his duty not so
much as to go to law? And shall he who is not to
avenge his own wrongs be instrumental in bring
ing others into chains, imprisonment, torment, and
death ? "

He tells us, also, that the Christians in his day were
sufficiently numerous to have defended themselves if
their religion had permitted them to have recourse to
the sword.

There are some marvelous accounts of Christian sol
diers related by Eusebius ; but Valesius, in his annota
tions on these accounts, has abundantly proved them
to be fabulous, though he was not opposed to war and
could have had no other object but to support the
truth. Eusebius, in his orations on Constantine, uses
such extravagant adulation, which falls but little short
of idolatry, that his account of Christian warriors ought

THE RELIGION OF JESUS CHRIST 119

to be received with great caution, especially when we
recollect that church and state were, in his day, united.

On the whole, it is very evident that the early Chris
tians did refuse to bear arms, and although one of their
objections was the idolatrous rites connected with mili
tary service, yet they did object on account of the
unlawfulness of war itself.

We have no good evidence of Christians being found
in the armies until we have evidence of great corruption
in the church. But admitting that we had good evidence
that there were professing Christians in the army at an
early period of the church, I apprehend it would be of
little importance, for the idolatrous rites and ceremonies
of the heathen armies were of such a nature as to be
totally inconsistent with Christian character, and the
example of idolatrous Christians surely ought to have
no weight.

Some objections of less importance might be stated
which have from time to time been made against the
sentiments here advocated ; but to state and reply to
everything that might be said is not necessary. Spe
cious objections have been and still are made to almost
every doctrine of Christianity. Mankind can generally
find some plausible arguments to support whatever they
wish to believe. The pleas in favor of war are very con
genial with the natural feelings of the human heart, and
unless men will examine with a serious, candid, and prayer
ful disposition to ascertain the truth as it is in Jesus,
they will be very likely to imbibe and defend error.1

1 The last point American Christians will give up is the justification
of their fathers in the War of the Revolution.

120 WAR INCONSISTENT

The writer, though far from supposing that every
thing he has said on a subject that has been so little
discussed is free from error, is conscious of having
endeavored to examine it with seriousness and candor,
and feels satisfied that the general sentiments he has
advanced are according to godliness. He sincerely
hopes that every one who may peruse these pages will
do it in the meek and unbiased spirit of the gospel,
and then judge whether war can be reconciled with the
lamblike example of Christ ; whether it is really for
giving the trespasses of enemies, loving and doing them
good, and returning good for evil ; for if it is not, it
is unquestionably inconsistent with the spirit and the
precepts of Christianity.

All who earnestly desire and look for the millennial
glory of the church should consider that it can never
arrive until the spirit and practice of war are abolished.
All who love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity cannot
but ardently desire that wars may cease to the ends of
the earth and that mankind should embrace each other
as brethren. If so, is it not their duty to do all in their
power to promote so benevolent an object? Ought not
every individual Christian to conduct in such a manner
that if every other person imitated his example it would
be best for the whole? If so, would they not immedi
ately renounce everything that leads to wars and fight
ings and embrace everything which would promote that
glorious reign of righteousness and peace for which
they earnestly hope, long, and pray? "The work of
righteousness shall be peace, and the effect of right-
eousnesss, quietness and assurance forever."

HYMN

SUGGESTED HY THE PRECEDING TRAIN Of THOUGHT, AND APPENDED
TO THE ORIGINAL EDITION OF THE ESSAY ON WAR

Great Sun of glory, rise and shine,
Dispel the gloom of night ;

Let the foul spirits stretch their wings,
And fly before thy light.

Rebuke the nations, stop their rage,

Destroy the warrior's skill,
Hush all the tumults of the earth;

O speak ! say, " Peace, be still."

Break, break the cruel warrior's sword,

Asunder cut his bow,
Command him by thy sovereign word

To let the captives go.

No more let heroes' glory sound,
No more their triumphs tell,

Bring all the pride of nations down —
Let war return to hell.

Then let thy blessed kingdom come,

With all its heavenly train,
And pour thy peaceful spirit down,

Like gentle showers of rain.

121

122 HYMN

Then shall the prowling beasts of prey,
Like lambs be meek and mild ;

Vipers and asps shall harmless twine
Around the weaned child.

The happy sons of Zion sit
Secure beneath their vines ;

Or, shadowed by their fig-tree's tops,
Shall drink their cheering wines.

The nations to thy scepter bow,
And own " thy gentle sway" ;

Then all the wandering tribes of men
To thee their tribute pay.

Angelic hosts shall view the scene,
Delighted, spread their wings ;

Down to the earth again they fly,
And strike their lofty strings.

The listening nations catch the sound,
And join the heavenly choir,

To swell aloud the song of praise,
And vie with sacred fire.

" Glory to God on high! " they sound,

In strains of angels' mirth ;
" Good will and peace " to men, they sing,

Since heaven is brought to earth.

THE MEDIATOR'S KINGDOM NOT OE
THIS WORLD: BUT SPIRITUAL

BY AN INQUIRER

The writer of the following pages has, for a considerable time,
doubted the propriety of some of the common practices of Chris
tians. To satisfy himself he has, if he is not deceived, candidly
and diligently examined the Scriptures with a view to ascertain
and practice the truth. After considerable inquiry his doubts
increased. He then applied to some highly respectable and pious
friends, who frankly acknowledged that they had never fully exam
ined the subject, as they had never had any doubt concerning it.
They judged the matter weighty and advised him to arrange his
thoughts and commit them to paper. This he has endeavored to
do as well as a very infirm state of body and a press of commercial
business would admit. After submitting what he had written to
some of his friends, they unanimously advised him to lay it before
the public, hoping that it might have a tendency to call the subject
into notice and lead to a more complete and full examination.
With this view he has ventured to commit the following sheets to
the press. He has only to beg that the Christian who may take
the trouble to read them will not be so solicitous to reply to the
arguments as to examine and illustrate the truth.

The kingdom of our glorious Mediator is but little
noticed in the world, yet it is precious in the eyes of
the Lord. The Lord hath chosen Zion. She is the
redeemed of the Lord. He hath said, he who touches
her touches the apple of his eye. She is purchased by
the blood of the Lamb, sanctified by the Spirit of grace,

'23

124 THE MEDIATOR'S KINGDOM

and defended by the arm of Omnipotence. Notwith
standing she may still be covered with sackcloth, the
days of her mourning have an end. The Lord will raise
her from the dust and make her an eternal excellency
and the joy of many generations. The mystical body
of Christ is composed of that innumerable company
which no man can number, — out of every nation and
kindred and people and tongue, — which will finally stand
before the throne of God and the Lamb, clothed with
white robes and palms in their hands. It is but one
body, although composed of many members. The
temple, which was a symbol of the church, was com
posed of many stones, although but one building. The
spiritual temple is built of lively stones upon the founda
tion of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ him
self being the chief corner stone. This spiritual temple
will continue to rise under different dispensations until
the elect are gathered together from the four winds of
heaven and the top stone is carried up with shouts of
Grace, Grace, unto it !

The Mediator's kingdom is not of this world. "Jesus
answered, My kingdom is not of this world : if my
kingdom were of this world, then would my servants
fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews "
(John xviii. 36). In remarking upon these words we are
naturally led to consider,

I. What the Mediator's kingdom is.
II. Its nature.

III. Its laws.

From which we propose to make several inferences and
illustrations for improvement.

NOT OF THIS WORLD: BUT SPIRITUAL 125

Agreeably to the arrangement of our subject, we
shall first endeavor to ascertain what the kingdom of
the Mediator is ; or that kingdom which he so emphat
ically calls " My Kingdom," in distinction from all other
kingdoms. " Jesus answered, My kingdom— Our
glorious Mediator takes to himself the majesty of a
sovereign and claims a kingdom. In his mediatorial
character he possesses, in an extensive sense, universal
empire. He is exalted far above all principality and
power and might and dominion, and has a name which
is above every name. He is King of kings and Lord of
lords. He is not only king on his holy hill of Zion but
rules amongst the nations. He is, however, in an appro
priate sense, king of saints under the gospel dispensa
tion, as he governs the worlds with a view to his own
glory and their exaltation.

That the church, under the gospel dispensation, is in
a special manner the kingdom of heaven or the king
dom which Christ so often called his kingdom appears
evident (it is thought) from many passages of Scripture.
The prophet Daniel, while interpreting the symbols of
the four great empires which were to arise in the earth,
adds that " in the days of these kings shall the God of
heaven set up a kingdom which shall neyerbe destroyed."
This kingdom could not be the Church Universal, for
that was established in the family of Adam and had con
tinued without being broken in a line of holy men down
to the prophet's day. It must therefore have a special
reference to something future. When John the Baptist
came preaching, he said, " Repent ye, for the kingdom
of heaven is at hand," fully implying that it had not

126 THE MEDIATOR'S KINGDOM

then commenced. He preached repentance preparatory
to ushering in that kingdom which the God of heaven
was about to set up. In the days of the fourth great
kingdom mentioned in the prophecy of Daniel the
Lord Jesus Christ came into our world to establish his
kingdom. As he entered upon his ministry he declared
that the time was fulfilled and that the kingdom of God
was at hand. When he first commissioned his disciples
and sent them forth to preach, he directed them to say
to their hearers, " The kingdom of God is come nigh
unto you." In speaking of John the Baptist, he says,
He was the greatest of prophets ; but adds, " He that
is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he";
which must be conclusive evidence that John the Bap
tist was not in the kingdom of God. At the Last Sup
per, after our Lord had blessed and partaken of the
bread, he said to his disciples, " I will not any more
eat thereof until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God."
In like manner, after taking the cup, he said, " I will
not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of
God shall come." All of which seems fully to imply
that the kingdom which the God of heaven was about
to set up did not commence before the gospel dispen
sation. Christ came under the Mosaic dispensation,
that is, under the law, to redeem those who were under
the law, by the sacrifice of himself ; "and being found in
the fashion of a man, he humbled himself, and became
obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
Wherefore God hath highly exalted him, and hath given
him a name which is above every name." After he
arose from the dead he appeared to his disciples " by

NOT OF THIS WORLD: BUT SPIRITUAL 127

many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days,
and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom
of God." "And Jesus came and spake unto them, say
ing, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.
Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in
the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Ghost : teaching them to observe all things whatsoever
I have commanded you : and, lo, I am with you always,
even unto the end of the world. Amen." Here we see
the Mediator possessing a kingdom and giving laws to
his subjects and commanding obedience. Although his
kingdom was then small, like a little leaven, yet it had
the power to leaven the whole lump. The stone which
was cut out of the mountain without hands will become
a great mountain and fill the whole earth. Every knee
must finally bow to his scepter and every tongue con
fess that he is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

From this concise view of the subject we conclude
that the kingdom of God, or Christ's kingdom, is in a
special manner the gospel dispensation which was not
completely established until after the resurrection of
our Lord.

II. The next point of inquiry is its nature. "Jesus
answered, My kingdom is not of this world." By this
we understand the Mediator's kingdom, not being of
this world, supposes that its nature, its laws, and its
government are all distinct from the nature, laws, and
governments of this world. That the Mediator's king
dom is not of this world, but spiritual, heavenly, and
divine, will fully appear, it is apprehended, from the
following reasons.

128 THE MEDIATOR'S KINGDOM

ist. From the character of the King. He was not
born like the kings of the earth. He was the Son of
the living God and Heir of all things. He was con
ceived by the power of the Holy Ghost and born of a
virgin. His birth was not celebrated with the earthly
pomp of princes, but by a few humble shepherds and a
choir of angels. His palace was a stable and his cradle
a manger. When a child he was not amused with toys,
but was about his Father's business. When he was ded
icated to his ministry, it was not by the appointment of
kings, or the consecration of bishops, but by the bap
tism of his humble forerunner, and the descent of the
Holy Ghost in a bodily shape like a dove, and a voice
from the excellent glory, saying, " This is my beloved
Son, in whom I am well pleased." His companions
were the despised fishermen of Galilee and the angels
of heaven. He was " a man of sorrow and acquainted
with grief" ; yet he was the eternal Son of the eternal
Father. Nature owned his voice and devils trembled
at his power ; but he was despised and rejected of men.
When he fed the hungry multitude, they were gratified
with the loaves and fishes and sought to make him a
king; but he departed out of the place; for his kingdom
was not of this world. When Satan, the god of this
world, offered him all the kingdoms of this world and
the glory of them if he would only fall down and wor
ship him, he rebuked him with holy contempt and said,
Get thee hence, Satan ; for his kingdom was not of
this world. The Mediator did not intermeddle with
the affairs of the governments of this world ; for his
kingdom was not of this world. When he was solicited

NOT OF THIS WORLD: BUT SPIRITUAL 129

to command a brother to divide his earthly substance,
instead of complying with the request he only gave a
pointed admonition and said, " Man, who made me a
judge, or a divider, over you?" When his enemies
endeavored to catch him in his words by extorting from
him something unfavorable to the laws of Caesar, Jesus
answered them and said, " Render to Caesar the things
which are Caesar's, and to God the things which are
God's." When they demanded of him tribute, and that
unjustly, according to their own laws, he paid it with
out a murmur, to set an example of peace and quietness
for his disciples. In all things he avoided interfering
or meddling with the governments of this world.

2dly. From the representations of the Bible, " The
kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, and joy in
the Holy Ghost." The Mediator's kingdom is founded
in right. His scepter is a right scepter. He rules in
righteousness. "The unrighteous shall not inherit the
kingdom of God." Righteousness is opposed to all
injustice, oppression, and cruelty ; it regards the rights
of God and man ; it requires love to the Lord our God
with all our heart, with all our mind, and with all our
strength, and to our neighbors as ourselves. His king
dom is a kingdom of peace ; he is the Prince of Peace.
At his birth the angels sang, " Peace on earth, and good
will to men." Peace is opposed directly to all conten
tion, war, and tumult, whether it regards individuals,
societies, or nations. It forbids all wrath, clamor, and
evil speaking. It forbids the resistance of evil or retalia
tion, and requires good for evil, blessing for cursing,
and prayer for persecution. Our glorious Mediator not

130 THE MEDIATOR'S KINGDOM

only exhibited a pattern of peace in his life but preached
peace in the great congregation. His last and richest
legacy to his disciples was the gift of peace : " My
peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you : not
as the world giveth, give I unto you." Christ came in
the power of the Spirit, and was full of the Holy Ghost.
It is the communion of the Holy Ghost which fills the
kingdom of heaven with that joy which is unspeakable
and full of glory. " Except a man be born of the Spirit,
he cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven." Finally,
we have his own express declaration, " My kingdom is
not of this world."

From what has been said it may be concluded that
the Mediator's kingdom is, in a special sense, the gos
pel dispensation, or the kingdom of heaven, and that it
is not of this world, but spiritual, heavenly, and divine.
And this brings us to notice,

III. The laws by which it is governed. It is gov
erned by the same laws which regulate the heavenly
hosts. "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father
in heaven is perfect," is the command of our Divine
Master. It is the kingdom of heaven. "Jesus said,
My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were
of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should
not be delivered to the Jews." The laws of the Media
tor's kingdom require supreme love to God. Jesus said,
" Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart,
and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind ; this is the
first and great commandment." This implies right ap
prehension of his being and perfections, and supreme
love to his word and delierht in his law, such as the

NOT OF THIS WORLD: BUT SPIRITUAL 131

sweet singer of Israel expressed : O how I love thy law!
it is my meditation day and night. It implies unlimited
confidence in God and unshaken belief in the testimony
he has given of his Son and a spirit of filial obedience
to all his precepts.

The laws of the Mediator's kingdom require love to
man: "Thou shall love thy neighbour as thyself."
This prohibits rendering to any man evil for evil ; but,
contrariwise, it demands blessing. It utterly forbids
wrath, hatred, malice, envy, pride, revenge, and fight
ing; but requires, on the contrary, meekness, forgive
ness, long-suffering, tenderness, compassion, and mercy.
The subjects of the Mediator's kingdom are commanded
to do good to all as they have opportunity ; but espe
cially to those of the household of faith. This com
mand extends not only to the gentle and kind but to
the disobedient and froward ; to friends and to enemies.
" If thine enemy hunger, feed him ; if he thirst, give
him drink," is the command of our Lord. This injunc
tion, it is apprehended, is directly opposed to resisting
the oppression of enemies by force. Jesus said, " If
my kingdom were of this world, then would my serv
ants fight " ; but, instead of avenging wrongs, the
explicit direction is "to overcome evil with good."
The Mediator is the only avenger of the wrongs done
to his subjects : " For it is written, Vengeance is mine,
and I will repay, saith the Lord." In a special manner
the subjects of the Mediator must love the brethren.
They must visit the widow, the fatherless, and the
afflicted, and live unspotted from the world. The Lord
accepts every act of kindness done to the brethren as

132 THE MEDIATOR'S KINGDOM

done to himself, and regards every act of injustice,
cruelty, and revenge towards them as expressed towards
himself. He considers them his own property, the pur
chase of his blood. He will, therefore, not only be their
portion but their defense ; a wall of fire round about
them and a glory in the midst. The Mediator sits as
King upon his holy hill of Zion, and is swaying his
scepter in righteousness throughout his vast dominions.

Having very briefly considered what the Mediator's
kingdom in a special manner is, its nature and its laws,
we now pass, as was proposed, to make several infer
ences and illustrations.

ist. If the Mediator's kingdom is in a special man
ner the gospel dispensation, and its nature and laws are
not of this world, but spiritual, heavenly, and divine,
then we may infer that the kingdoms of this world are
not united to the kingdom of our Lord, but are opposed
to it. If they are not for him, they are against him ;
and if they gather not with him, they scatter abroad.
They must, therefore, be at war with the Lamb ; but
the Lamb shall overcome them, for he hath on his ves
ture and on his thigh a name written, King of kings
and Lord of lords. The great conflict in our world is
between the kingdom of the Mediator and the kingdom
of Satan ; but the victory is not uncertain. Although
the " heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing,
the kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers
take counsel together, against the Lord, and against his
Anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and
cast away their cords from us. He that sitteth in the

NOT OF THIS WORLD: HUT SPIRITUAL 133

heavens shall laugh : the Lord shall have them in deri
sion. Then shall he speak to them in his wrath, and
vex them in his sore displeasure." " Out of his mouth
goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the
nations ; and he shall rule them with a rod of iron : and
he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath
of Almighty God."

The Psalmist, by the Holy Ghost, says of Christ,
" Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron ; thou shalt
dash them to pieces like a potter's vessel." Again,
" He shall cut off the spirit of princes; he* is terrible to
the kings of the earth." Isaiah, by the revealing spirit,
had the scenes of futurity opened to his view. He saw
the glorious Redeemer marching through the earth in
the greatness of his power ; for he saw, by prophetic
vision, the great day of his wrath appear, and none but
his redeemed were able to stand. In view of the dread
ful scene his soul was filled with astonishment, and he
exclaims : " Who is this that cometh from Edom, with
dyed garments from Bozrah ? this that is glorious in
his apparel, travelling in the greatness of his strength ?
I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save. Where
fore art thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments
like him that treadeth in the winefat? I have trodden
the winepress alone ; and of the people there was none
with me : for I will tread them in my anger, and trample
them in my fury ; and their blood shall be sprinkled
upon my garments. For the day of vengeance is in my
heart, and the year of my redeemed is come. I looked,
and there was none to help ; and I wondered there was
none to uphold : therefore mine arm brought salvation

134 THE MEDIATOR'S KINGDOM

unto me ; and my fury, it upheld me. And I will tread
down the people in my anger, and make them drunk in
my fury, and I will bring down their strength to the
earth." From this it appears that the nations of the
earth will be gathered like the grapes of a vineyard,
and cast into the great wine press of the wrath of God
Almighty ; and the great Redeemer will thresh them
in his anger and trample them in his fury. Their
destruction must be inevitable if their laws and gov
ernments are directly opposed to the Mediator's king
dom. When 'he shall come out of his place to shake
terribly the nations of the earth, then the earth 1 will
no longer cover the blood of the slain ; for he will make
inquisition for blood, and write up the nations. Then
he will stain the pride of all glory and bring into con
tempt all the honorable of the earth. The nations will
be like stubble before the devouring fire, and will be
chased away like chaff before the whirlwind, and no
place will be found for them.

The interpretation of the symbols of the four great
empires by the prophet Daniel fully confirms this idea.
In first describing the vision to Nebuchadnezzar he
says : " Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out with
out hands, which smote the image upon his feet that
were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces. Then
was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the

1 The earth, in symbolical language, is supposed by the writer to
denote civilized nations, in distinction from uncivilized, which are sym
bolized by the agitated sea. Civilized nations will no longer cover the
blood of the slain, under the specious idea of defending their rights and
liberties.

NOT OF THIS WORLD: BUT SPIRITUAL 135

gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff
of the summer threshingfloors ; and the wind carried
them away, that no place was found for them : and the
stone that smote the image became a great mountain,
and filled the whole earth." The prophet thus interprets
the vision : "And in the days of these kings shall the
God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be
destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other
people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these
kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever. Forasmuch as thou
sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain with
out hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass,
the clay, the silver, and the gold ; the great God hath made
known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter."

Thus we see that the kingdoms of the world by not
submitting to the kingdom of our Lord, but by making
war with the Lamb, are devoted to awful destruction,
for the Lamb will overcome them. His kingdom will
stand, for it is an everlasting kingdom ; and of his
dominion there shall be no end. The gospel dispensa
tion (or the kingdom of heaven) must remain forever,
as it is governed by the same spirit which prevails in
the eternal fountain of blessedness himself. It is there
fore emphatically called the kingdom of God not only
in distinction from the kingdoms of this world but in
distinction from all the other dispensations of the
church. It is not of this world ; it is the kingdom of
heaven, — the reign of righteousness, peace, and joy in
the Holy Ghost.

2. If the Mediator's kingdom is not of this world,
but spiritual, heavenly, and divine, and the kingdoms of

136 THE MEDIATOR'S KINGDOM

this world are opposed to it, then we may infer that the
kingdoms of this world must belong to the kingdom of
Satan. There are but two kingdoms in our world. At
the head of one is the Mediator, and at the head of the
other is Satan. Satan is the god of this world and
reigns without a rival in the hearts of the children of
disobedience. He is the prince of the power of the air.
All the kingdoms of this world and the glory of them
are given to him 1 until the time that God shall write
up the nations and make inquisition for blood. Then
the great battle of God Almighty will be fought, and
the beast and the false prophet will be cast into a lake
of fire ; and Satan will be bound a thousand years ; and
the saints will take the kingdom and possess it ; and
wars shall cease from under heaven. After the thou
sand years Satan will again be let loose, " and shall
go out to deceive the nations which are in the four
quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them
together to battle : the number of whom is as the sand
of the sea." " And the devil who deceived them was
cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the
beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented
day and night for ever and ever." Thus it appears that
Satan is the mainspring of all warlike powers, and
when he is bound wdrs will cease ; but as soon as he is
again let loose they will rage. The writer is sensible
that this will be a very unpopular doctrine with the
men of this world, and with those worldly Christians

1 If the kingdoms of this world do not belong to Satan, then it was
no temptation to our Lord when he offered them to him. It is expressly
said that he was " tempted of Satan."

NOT OF THIS WORLD: HUT SPIRITUAL 137

who are struggling and teasing and panting for the
profits and the honors of this world. If it is a fact that
the nature and laws of the Mediator's kingdom are
diametrically opposite to the kingdoms of this world,
then the inference is irresistible that the kingdoms of
this world belong not to the kingdom of our Lord but
to the kingdom of Satan ; and however unsavory the
truth may be, it ought not to be disguised. Satan is
the strong man, but the Mediator is the stronger, and
he will bind him and spoil his goods. The Son of God
was manifested that he might destroy the works of the
devil. When he shall destroy the rage of the nations
and the tumult of the people, then Satan's goods will
be spoiled. When Satan is cast into the bottomless
pit, tumult and war will retire with him back to hell ;
and instead of the blast of the trumpet and the groans
of the dying will be heard the shouts of the saints and
the songs of the redeemed. Then will be " heard as it
were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of
many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunder-
ings, saying, Alleluia, for the Lord God Omnipotent
reigneth."

3. If the Mediator's kingdom is not of this world,
and the kingdoms of this world are under Satan's
dominion, then we may infer the great impropriety of
the subjects of the Mediator's kingdom using the
weapons of this world and engaging in tumults, wars,
and fightings. " Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of
this world : if my kingdom were of this world, then
would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered
to the Jews." The Jews expected in their Messiah a

138 THE MEDIATOR'S KINGDOM

temporal prince ; but because his kingdom was not of
this world they crucified the Lord of life and glory.
Had he only appeared in the pomp of this world and in
the splendor of a temporal conqueror to vanquish the
Romans who were in possession of their earthly Canaan
and oppressing their nation, they would immediately
have rallied round his standard and followed him to
earthly conquest and glory. He was apparently too
inattentive to their rights and liberties (which the
patriots of this world now emphatically call their dear
est interests). They said, " If we let him alone, all
men will believe on him ; and the Romans shall take
away both our place and our nation." It may be asked,
Why were the Jews apprehensive, if all men should
believe on him, the Romans would take away both their
place and their nation? The answer does not appear
difficult. They doubtless perceived that both his life
and precepts directly opposed rendering vengeance to
their enemies ; and, on the contrary, demanded noth
ing less than love to their enemies, good for evil, and
blessing for cursing. This they could not endure, as it
directly opposed their carnal desires and filled them
with malice against the Prince of Peace. They might,
with much greater propriety than any nation under the
gospel light, have said, " Shall we imbibe this pusillani
mous spirit of doing good to those who oppress us and
tamely bend our necks to the yoke of tyranny and
surfer our dearest interests to be wrested from us with
out once making a struggle to defend them ? Rather,
let us arise and fight manfully, and defend our liberties
or die gloriously in their vindication." We say they

NOT OF THIS WORLD: BUT SPIRITUAL 139

might, with much greater propriety, have made these
declarations than any under the light of the gospel,
because they considered themselves under the Mosaic
dispensation which had fully tolerated them not only
in defensive but offensive war. But when they per
ceived that the doctrines of the Mediator were calcu
lated to disannul their dispensation and extinguish their
carnal hopes (notwithstanding his credentials were
divine), their malice was kindled against him, and their
vengeance was not satiated until they wreaked their
hands in the blood of the Son of God. And we may
confidently expect that wherever the same Spirit of
Christ lifts up a standard against the same carnal policy
and temporal interest there will follow the same spirit
of envy, persecution, and revenge which was manifested
against the Lord of life and glory. If any man (no
matter who) will live godly in Christ Jesus, he shall
suffer persecution. The Spirit of Christ is the same
now that it was then, and the world is the same, the
carnal heart is the same, and the great adversary of
souls is the same. Only let it be styled " patriotic " to
persecute the followers of the Lamb of God, and we
should soon see the heroes of this world drunk with the
blood of the martyrs of Jesus ; and probably many
would be as conscientious as Paul was while breathing
out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of
the meek and lowly Jesus. It is not impossible that
when the witnesses1 are slain, their crime may be a

1 The writer has for a length of time been of opinion that no event
has ever yet happened to the church which answers to slaying the
witnesses. It has been given as a reason by some that the witnesses

140 THE MEDIATOR'S KINGDOM

refusal to use carnal weapons in defense of their
country.

As it is a matter of great practical consequence to
know whether the subjects of the Prince of Peace are
authorized in any case under the gospel dispensation to
use carnal weapons or not, we propose in this inference
to be a little more particular. Although it is supposed
that the Lord Jesus Christ acted in a threefold capa
city, — as God, Man, and Mediator, — yet we have never
heard it questioned by Christians that all his conduct as
man was to remain a perfect example for his brethren,
and all his precepts a perfect rule for their duty. As
his kingdom was not of this world, he did not inter
meddle with the governments of this world ; he only
submitted to all their laws which were not contrary to
the laws of his heavenly Father. He was meek and
lowly ; so little did he possess of this world that he had
not where to lay his head. He went about continually
doing good. He was full of compassion even to his
enemies. He wept over Jerusalem. He was finally
"brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as sheep before
their shearers are dumb, so he opened not his mouth."

have be,en slain, that so much light has been diffused since the art of
printing was discovered, and since the Reformation, that no reason can
ever again be found sufficiently plausible to satisfy the consciences of
mankind in again taking the lives of their fellow-men in matters of con
science. If our country was invaded and a law should be passed that
every man capable of bearing arms should equip himself for its defense,
on penalty of being considered as an enemy and to be publicly executed
accordingly in case of refusal for conscience' sake, there would not prob
ably be wanting patriots sufficient to execute the laws ; if they could
not be found in ouj land of liberty, they might be found amongst the
tyrants of the Old World.

NOT OF THIS WORLD: BUT SPIRITUAL 141

When he was reviled he reviled not again, but com
mitted himself to him who judges righteously. He
prayed for his murderers and apologized for his perse
cutors, saying, "Father, forgive them, for they know
not what they do." As the church under a former dis
pensation had divine authority for engaging in war,
it is important to ascertain whether this authority
was abrogated under the gospel dispensation or not.1
That many things have been tolerated under one dis
pensation of the church and prohibited under another,
most Christians allow. That the preceptive will of God
is to be our only rule of duty, few Christians deny.
The knowledge communicated to us of the preceptive
will of God to his church, under the first dispensa
tion, is very limited. We find, however, no authority
for taking the life of man in any case, not even for

1 If the permission given to the church under the Mosaic dispensa
tion to engage in war has not been disannulled by the gospel dispensa
tion (which is by no means granted), it is thought that it does not
admit of the consequences which are generally drawn. The Israelites
were God's covenant people and were utterly prohibited from making
any covenant with the nations around them, or engaging with them in
their wars. It must therefore be totally improper for God's covenant
people now to unite with those who are strangers to the covenant of
promise, and engage with them in their tumult and fightings. It is pre
sumed that no one who has ever read our Constitution will pretend that
the American nation has, in the Scriptural sense, made a covenant with
God. If the analogy holds good in one point, it must in another; and
in that case there is no alternative left for God's covenant people but
either to withdraw from those who are not in covenant with God, or
adopt a national religion which must be defended by the weapons of
the nation. It is believed that those who will not admit that the per
mission granted to the Israelites to engage in war was abrogated by the
gospel dispensation can never fully answer the arguments in favor of a
national religion.

142 THE MEDIATOR'S KINGDOM

murder; but, on the contrary, a sevenfold vengeance was
pronounced upon him who should slay the murderer.
Under the patriarchal dispensation he that shed man's
blood by man was his blood to be shed. In this, defen
sive war was tolerated. Under the Mosaic dispensation,
not only defensive but offensive war was tolerated, and
not only war was permitted, but retaliation, as, "an
eye for an eye"; "a tooth for a tooth"; "life for
life," etc.

The question to be decided is whether these regula
tions are still in force, or whether they were disannulled
by the gospel dispensation? The life and precepts
of our Lord and his disciples while under the unerr
ing guidance of his spirit must be our only author
ity in this inquiry. That many things were done away
by the gospel dispensation, none will deny who believe
the gospel. The ceremonial part, which was only a
shadow of good things to come, vanished away when
the substance appeared ; and not only the ceremonial
part was abolished, but many other practices. Polygamy
was permitted under the law, but forbidden under the
gospel. Divorce was allowed under the Mosaic but
prohibited under the gospel dispensation, except in the
case of adultery. Under the Mosaic dispensation the
penalty for whoredom was stoning to death. This pen
alty was not enforced under the gospel dispensation, as
may be seen in John viii. 11. That all kinds of war,
revenge, and fighting were utterly prohibited under the
gospel dispensation we think appears evident not only
from the life of our glorious Mediator but from his
express precepts. "Jesus answered, My kingdom is

NOT OF THIS WORLD: BUT SPIRITUAL 143

not of this world : if my kingdom were of this world,
then would my servants fight, that I should not be
delivered to the Jews." No comment can add force to
this passage, for it is apprehended that no language
can be more explicit against defensive war.

In Christ's Sermon on the Mount he quoted a pas
sage from Exodus, " Ye have heard that it hath been
said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth : but I
say unto you, That ye resist not evil : but whatsoever
shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the
other also." The force of this passage has generally
been obviated by saying that we are not to take all the
words of our Lord literally. Although this is admitted,
yet we are absolutely bound to take the spirit of every
word, if we can understand them, by comparing the
Scriptures with the Scriptures. That the spirit of this
passage is directly opposed to the one our Lord quoted
from Exodus, we think cannot fairly be denied ; and, of
course, it disannulled it, for he who had power to make
laws under one dispensation had power to abrogate
them under another.

The blessed Mediator did, in the most explicit man
ner, command his subjects to love their enemies and
render good for evil. This command we are of opinion
is totally incompatible with resisting them with carnal
weapons. He says, " But I say unto you which hear,
Love your enemies, do good to them which hate
you, and pray for them which despitefully use you."
Let us for one moment compare this precept with
defensive war and see if it can consistently be put
into practice. Suppose our country is invaded and a

144 THE MEDIATOR'S KINGDOM

professed disciple of the Prince of Peace buckles on the
harness and takes the field to repel by the point of the
sword his enemy. He advances amidst the lamenta
tions of the wounded and the shrieks of the dying to
meet his foe in arms. He sees his wrath kindled and
his spear uplifted, and in this trying moment he hears
his Lord say, " Love your enemy and render to him
good for evil"; and his kindness to him is like Joab's
to Amasa ; he thrusts him through the heart and hur
ries him to the awful tribunal of his Judge, probably
unprepared. Dear brethren, be not deceived ; for God
is not mocked. Who amongst our fellow-men would
receive the thrust of a sword as an act of kindness ?
Only let conscience do its office, and there will be no
difficulty in deciding whether defensive war is incon
sistent with the gospel dispensation or not. Carnal and
spiritual weapons will no more unite under the gospel
dispensation than iron and miry clay.

Our very salvation depends on being possessed of a
spirit of forgiveness to enemies. " If ye forgive not
men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive
your trespasses." If men invade our rights and tres
pass upon our privileges, is it forgiveness to repel them
at the point of the bayonet ? The honest Christian will
find no difficulty in conscientiously deciding this ques
tion, notwithstanding he may be slow of heart in
believing all that is written.

All the conduct of our Lord had meaning to it, and
much of it was with an express view to teach his disciples
by way of example. A little before he was betrayed, he

NOT OF THIS WORLD: BUT SPIRITUAL 145

ordered his disciples to take swords. The object of
this must have been either to use them for defense, or
for some other purpose. The event proves that they
were not taken for self-defense. The question then is,
For what were they taken ? The event appears fully
to answer the question, viz.: To prohibit, by way of
example, the use of them for self-defense in the most
trying situation possible. If any situation would justify
self-defense with carnal weapons, it must have been the
situation in which our Lord and his disciples were placed
at the time he was betrayed. They were in a public
garden, and they were assaulted by a mob, contrary to
the statutes of the Romans and the laws of the Jews ;
and the object was to take his life. This the disciples
knew, and Peter judged it a proper time for defense,
and drew his sword and smote a servant of the High
Priest and cut off his ear. As our Lord's kingdom was
not of this world, he would not suffer his subjects to
use the weapons of this world in any situation. He
therefore healed the wound they made and rebuked
Peter for his mistaken zeal. " Then said Jesus unto him,
Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that
take the sword shall perish with the sword. Thinkest
thou that I cannot pray to my Father, and he would
presently send me more than twelve legions of angels? "
Here we see that our Lord not only forbade his disciples
to use the sword in self-defense, but added a dreadful
penalty to transgressors, — "all they that take the sword
shall perish with the sword." The disciples did not then
fully understand that his kingdom was not of this world.

146 THE MEDIATOR'S KINGDOM

As soon as they were prohibited using the weapons of
this world they all forsook him and fled.1

The apostle James, in his epistle to the twelve tribes
of Israel which were scattered abroad, asks them this

1 Four things are noticeable from this history. First, That the sub
jects of the Mediator's kingdom have no right to use carnal weapons
for defense, in the most trying situation possible. Secondly, The pro
mulgation of a decree of heaven ; that all they (whether states, churches,
or kingdoms) who take the sword shall perish with the sword. Every
political or ecclesiastical body which is defended with the sword will by
the sword be destroyed. In confirmation of this sentiment, we see while
the great destroying powers were represented to St. John in the symbols
of ferocious beasts, it was added, " If any man have an ear to hear, let
him hear. He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity : he that
killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword "; but in opposition
to this it is said, " Here is the faith and the patience of the saints." We
would inquire how the faith and the patience of the saints appear, if
they, like the nations of the earth, lead into captivity and kill with the
sword? Thirdly, The weapon which the subjects of the Redeemer are
to use for defense is here brought into view, viz., Prayer. Nothing which
appears prevented our Lord from using this weapon when he was
betrayed, but the necessity of the Scriptures being fulfilled. Had he
prayed to his Father, more than twelve legions of ministering spirits
would have appeared swift as lightning to discharge his will. At the
time he shall come in all the glory of his Father the holy angels will
be with him. He will break through the heavens in flaming fire and
descend with the shout of the Archangel and the trump of God, and
cleave asunder the earth beneath; and send forth his angels who will
awake the sleeping millions from their tombs and gather together his
elect and take them up into the air to be ever with their Lord. Fourthly,
We may expect that angels will be sent to deliver the saints in the times
of trouble. Angels are ministering spirits and are sent forth to minister
to those who shall be the heirs of salvation. What a consolation it is
that the subjects of the Mediator can apply for help in times of trouble
to him who has the hosts of heaven at his command; and who has
said he will never leave nor forsake them ! The angel of the Lord
encampeth round about them who fear him, to deliver them out of all
their trouble. If God be for them, who can be against them ?

NOT OF THIS WORLD: BUT SPIRITUAL 147

question : " From whence come wars and fighting among
you? come they not even of your lusts that war in
your members? Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and
desire to have, and cannot obtain : ye fight and war, and
yet ye have not." " Ye adulterers and adulteresses,
know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity
with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend to the
world is an enemy of God." From this we think it
evidently appears that the warlike spirit of the world is
directly opposed to God. The God of this world works
effectually in the hearts of the children of disobedience
and stirs up their lusts which war in their members
and hurries them on to acts of cruelty, revenge, and
fighting.

This subject is of so much practical consequence that
it requires a few observations in reply to some of the
arguments of worldly and unenlightened Christians in
favor of using carnal weapons. It is said that govern
ment is an ordinance of God which exists throughout
his vast dominion. In heaven above there are angels
and archangels; and upon earth there arc magistrates
and powers ; and in hell there is the prince of devils.
That God in his holy providence has so disposed of
events that governments of some kind or other do exist
in all parts of his dominion, none but skeptics will deny.
But who would pretend that the governments in heaven
and hell are not diametrically opposite? One is the
spirit of peace and love, and the other, rebellion and
war. Perhaps the manifestation of these different spirits
here on earth may fairly be the dividing line amongst
its inhabitants, and show to which kingdom they belong.

148 THE MEDIATOR'S KINGDOM

They say all powers are ordained of God. Thus far
they are correct, but it is apprehended that they do not
make a proper distinction between the ordination of
God and his preceptive will for man. So far as the
former agrees with the latter, it is a rule of duty and
cannot be any further. One is the rule of God's own
procedure (if the expression is proper), and the other
the rule of action for his creatures ; but the counsel of
God and his laws for man are often diametrically oppo
site. It is not improbable that this is part of the mystery
of God which will, by and by, be finished.

The Lord Jesus Christ was delivered by the determi
nate counsel and foreknowledge of God ; and yet, by
wicked hands, he was crucified and slain. Here, as in
the case of Pharaoh, and many other instances recorded,
the divine counsel and the duty of man were directly
opposite. To ascertain our duty we must look at the
preceptive will of God and not to his eternal counsel.
Although all powers are ordained of God, yet it must
not be inferred that all the laws of the heathen or
civilized world are to be a rule of duty for the Mediator's
subjects, or that their spirit is agreeable to the spirit
of the gospel dispensation. It is said, We are com
manded to obey magistrates and every ordinance of
man for the Lord's sake. All this is admitted. But
these injunctions are either limited by other precepts
or they are unlimited. If they are unlimited, then all
who have died martyrs fell a sacrifice to superstition
instead of duty. Notwithstanding these directions
were intended as a rule for Christians in all ages, yet
they were promulgated while the disciples were under

NOT OF THIS WORLD: BUT SPIRITUAL 149

idolatrous governments, and were never intended to
encourage them to worship idols.

These commands must, therefore, be limited. The
question is, How are they limited ? We apprehend, by
the spirit and other precepts of the gospel. We have
already shown, we trust, that these absolutely prohibit
war in every form. If so, then none of these injunctions
can counteract the position we are examining. They
only enjoin strict obedience to all human laws under
which we live that do not contradict the spirit or pre
cepts of the gospel ; when they do, they are not bind
ing and must be resisted ; not, however, with carnal but
spiritual weapons ; we must take joyfully the spoiling
of our goods and count not our lives dear unto ourselves.

It has been often said that he who refuses to comply
with the commands of the magistrate resists the powers
that be, and, according to the apostle's reasoning, resists
the ordinance of God and will receive to himself dam
nation. And, further, as all powers are the ordinance
of God they ought to be supported, and if they cannot
without, they must be even at the point of, the sword.
Here the subject of the Mediator must make a distinc
tion between resisting the " powers that be " by force
of arms and refusing to obey their unlawful commands.
It is not supposed that in one case he would obey and
that in the other he would disobey the commands of his
Master. No martyr ever considered himself as violating
this precept in refusing to sacrifice to an idol at the
command of an earthly power ; neither will any subject
of the Mediator view himself as violating it by refusing
to use carnal weapons while he believes that his Lord

150 THE MEDIATOR'S KINGDOM

has utterly forbidden his using them. It is appre
hended that if this proves anything upon the principles
of war, that it will prove too much for its advocates.
The command is to obey the powers that be and not
the powers that ought to be. If it is taken in an unlim
ited sense, it must prohibit resisting even tyrannical
powers, and would, of course, condemn every Christian
who engaged in the American Revolution. To say that
all power is in the hands of the people, and, of course,
it is the people who are the powers that be, is thought
to be but a quibble. We will suppose a very possible
case, — that a foreign power completely overturns the
government of the people and disannuls their laws and
gives a new code ; in that case, the command to obey
the powers that be would not be annihilated. The pre
cept originally was given while the disciples were in
the midst of tyrannical governments. It is thought
that it is so far from tolerating defensive war that it is
opposed to it. The precepts of the gospel cannot be
dependent upon the convulsions of the nations. If
Christians are bound to aid with carnal weapons in
suppressing a rebellion, then, if the opposing power
gains the predominance, they must turn directly about
and fight the very power they were before supporting.
Such conduct would not become the citizens of Zion.
If it is said the powers that be are Christian rulers,
then we say, let them govern only by the laws of the
Mediator's kingdom, and we will bow with reverence
before them, and not teach for commandments the
doctrines of men, as we cannot receive human laws
for divine precepts.

NOT OF THIS WORLD: BUT SPIRITUAL 151

It is stated that our Lord paid tribute, and that we
are commanded to pay tribute to whom tribute is due,
and that tribute supports the governments of this
world. This is granted ; but the Mediator's subjects
are required also to lead peaceable and quiet lives ; this
is more promoted by paying tribute than by the refusal.
Our Lord directs Peter to pay the tribute lest they
should give offense. But paying tribute for the sake
of preserving peace is a very different thing from
actually engaging in war.

Whenever the Christian is called upon to pay money
by way of taxes or tribute, he docs not part with any
spiritual treasure, but only earthly property, for which
he has the example and precepts of the Lord. The
.currency of the world generally bears the ensign of the
nation which made it. If it bears the image and super
scription of Ccesar, then " render to Ccesar the things
that are Caesar's, and unto God the things which are
God's." Christians, however, whose hearts are upon this
idol, will sooner give up their lives than their God.
"The love of money is the root of all evil." The real
Christian's treasure is in heaven and beyond the reach
of the powers of earth or hell. The things of this
world are but privileges loaned him, to be resigned
at the call of his Lord. Shall he then fear those who
can only kill the body and afterwards have no more
that they can do ? Rather, let him fear him who has
power to destroy both soul and body in hell forever.
It is better for him to suffer wrong than to do wrong.

The permission granted to the Jewish church to
wage war has often been pleaded as authority for

152 THE MEDIATOR'S KINGDOM

Christians. If this proves anything, it proves too
much, for not only defensive but offensive war was
permitted under the Mosaic dispensation. This the
tyrants of the world have not generally contended was
right since the gospel dispensation. We think, how
ever, that we have fully shown that this was abrogated
under the gospel dispensation, and that all kinds of war
were prohibited ; if so, it has no weight on the subject.1
It has been said that Christians with a small excep
tion have never questioned the propriety of defensive
war. As it regards nominal Christians, this statement
is perhaps correct, but as it respects the real disciples
of the Mediator, it is to be questioned. We hear of no
Christians in the first ages of the church engaged in
carnal warfare until we hear of great corruptions in the
church. Most Protestants have been of opinion that
those precious disciples who inhabited the dark valleys
of Piedmont during the great corruptions of the nom
inal church were the Redeemer's true subjects. These
disciples, of whom the world was not worthy, utterly

1 Although it is not expected that any intelligent and candid Chris
tian will attempt to say that the arguments which have been advanced
may fairly apply to offensive but not to defensive war, yet some weak
and unenlightened Christians may make the assertion. In answer to
such we would observe that this would be begging the question and
taking for granted the very subject in dispute. We cannot be satisfied
with anything short of a candid answer, drawn directly from the spirit
and precepts of the gospel. When it is fairly proved that under the
gospel dispensation our Lord did draw a clear line of distinction
between offensive and defensive war, and that he intended all such pre
cepts as have been adduced to apply to the former and not to the latter,
then we will acknowledge the weight of the argument. Until this is
done we shall not consider our arguments as answered.

NOT OF THIS WORLD: BUT SPIRITUAL 153

refused to engage even in defensive war, notwithstand
ing they were hunted down by their bloody perse
cutors.1

It has been often said that the Reformers, who were
good men, did not hesitate to engage in defensive war,
and that the Reformation was finally supported by the
sword. That the Reformers were generally pious men
is readily admitted, and that the Reformation, under
divine providence, was a glorious event to the church is
also granted. But the history of the Reformers, when
written by their friends, abundantly manifests that they
were men, subject to like passions with other men, and
that all the means they employed could not be justified,
either by the spirit or the precepts of the gospel.

Henry the Eighth was a vile man, but he was very
active in protesting against the Pope because his holi
ness would not grant him a divorce. God makes the
wrath of man praise him. It will not probably be a
great length of time (in the opinion of the writer) before
those churches which were defended with the sword
will be destroyed by the sword.

1 The writer perceives that he has made too unlimited a statement
respecting the disciples who inhabited the valleys of Piedmont. His
torians have generally considered those who dissented from the church
of Rome during the dark ages as possessing similar sentiments. It is
true they did agree in renouncing the authority of the Pope, but in
other things they did not all agree. Some courted the protection of
earthly powers and united with them in defending their rights by the
point of the sword, and were finally destroyed by the sword. Others,
instead of defending themselves with carnal weapons, fled from the face
of the serpent and were, under divine providence, the seed of the
church in the wilderness. It is the latter class to which the writer would
be understood as referring.

154 THE MEDIATOR'S KINGDOM

It has been further urged that not only the Reformers
but most pious Protestants have prayed for the prosper
ity of the arms of their country, and many have actually
fought in the field of battle. All this is likewise
admitted. But many pious men have had a mistaken
zeal. It is fully believed that Protestants, generally,
have been in the habit of considering the Reformation
so glorious an event that they have very little inquired
whether the means by which it was finally defended
were agreeable to the spirit of the gospel or not. They
have been taught from their earliest years to consider
that the weapons of warfare used by the Reformers
were lawful, so that they have not hesitated to follow
their example. That the example and prayers of pious
people ought to have weight is readily granted, but to
place a blind confidence in them, we apprehend, is
criminal, for their example is to be imitated no further
than it agrees with the spirit and precepts of the gos
pel. These must forever remain a perfect standard of
duty ; whereas the practice of real Christians, owing to
their imperfect state, is constantly changing and often
contradictory. During the American Revolution, doubt
less, real Christians were praying and fighting for the
success of the American arms, and real Christians in
the British service were praying and fighting for the
success of his Majesty's arms. The truth is, they ought
not to pray for war in any shape, but to pray that wars
may cease from under heaven, and that God's kingdom
may come and his will be done on earth as it is done in
heaven ; and not only to pray, but endeavor to advance
the kingdom of heaven and put a stop to wars and

NOT OF THIS WORLD: BUT SPIRITUAL 155

bloodshed. The opinions of pious people often vary
with the increase of light which shines upon the church.
One century ago most pious people believed in the pro
priety of the slave trade, but very few can now be found
to advocate the abominable practice. The nature of the
crime has not changed, nor the evidence against it, but
the truth is, that the opinion of pious people has mate
rially changed upon this subject. We ought always to
remember that the example of pious people is to be of
no weight any further than it agrees with the example
of our Lord. It is always unsafe to be looking too much
to the fallible example of those whom we have esteemed
pious for a rule of duty, while we have the unerring
word in our hands to light our way ; when any one is
depending upon the example of Christians not under
the immediate influence of divine inspiration for evi
dence to support his hypothesis, it is strong presump
tive evidence that he has not the word of God in his
favor. By the word of God and by that only ought every
controversy to be tried.

It is further urged that we are commanded to pray
for kings and all in authority; it is true we must pray
not only for kings but all men, even enemies. This,
however, does by no means imply that we are com
manded to pray for a blessing upon their unhallowed
undertakings ; but it only implies that we must pray
that they may be translated out of nature's darkness
into the light of the gospel, and from the power of Satan
unto the living God.

The great difficulty with the subjects of the Media
tor ever has been, and still is, a want of faith in the

156 THE MEDIATOR'S KINGDOM

promises of God. They are prone to be afraid of con
sequences. They look nearly as much at consequences
as the children of Israel did while journeying from
Egypt to Canaan. The truth is, they ought to have
nothing to do with consequences, but only duties.
" Thus saith the Lord," should be their warrant and
only guide. If they implicitly follow the command, con
sequences are all safe in God's hand. Had Abraham
looked only at consequences, it is not probable he would
ever have been styled the Father of the Faithful. It is
not uncommon for timid and worldly Christians to be
alarmed at consequences and to argue in this manner :
they say, " Shall we stand still and suffer an assassin
to enter our houses and take our lives and property
without ever attempting to resist him ? " All this must
go upon the supposition that he who has said he will
never leave nor forsake his people, and is a very present
help in every time of need, will take no care of them.
No assassin could stand a moment before the prayer of
faith which would enter the heavens and reach the ears
of the Lord of Sabaoth. If faithless Christians cannot
be persuaded to look at the precepts and the promises,
but only at consequences, they ought, at least, to exam
ine them well. Suppose God, in his holy providence,
should permit an assassin to take the life of one of his
dear children ; the consequence would be, he would
immediately be translated to glory; and possibly the
assassin might become a penitent ; but should he take
the life of the assassin in defending himself, the conse
quence then would be, he would hurry him into the
abyss of the damned where his probation would be

NOT OF THIS WORLD: BUT SPIRITUAL 157

eternally ended. He who puts his trust in the Lord
shall not fear what man can do to him ; he will be like
Mount Zion which cannot be moved.

Remember, dear brethren, that the weapons of our
warfare are not carnal but spiritual, and mighty through
God. " Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord,
and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armour
of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles
of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and
blood, but against principalities, against powers, against
the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual
wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you
the whole armour of God (here is the equipment of a
soldier of Jesus Christ), that ye may be able to with
stand in an evil day, and having done all, to stand.
Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth,
and having on the breastplate of righteousness ; and
your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of
peace ; above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith
ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the
wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the
sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: praying
always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit,
and watching thereunto with all perseverance and sup
plication for all saints." And the very God of peace
shall be with you, and he will shortly bruise Satan under
your feet. For yet a little while and the Almighty angel
will come down with a great chain in his hand ; and he
will lay hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is
the devil and Satan, and will bind him a thousand
years, and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut

158 THE MEDIATOR'S KINGDOM

him up, and set a seal upon him, that he shall deceive
the nations no more until the thousand years are ful
filled. Then wars will cease from under heaven and
the implements of death will be converted into the
harmless utensils of husbandry, and there will be nothing
to hurt nor destroy in all God's holy mountain. The
stone which was cut out of the mountain without hands
will become a great mountain and fill the whole earth.
Then will be heard "a loud voice saying in heaven,
Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom
of God, and the power of his Christ : for the accuser of
our brethren is cast down, which accused them before
God day and night. And they overcame him by the
blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testi
mony ; and' they loved not their lives unto the death.
Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in
them."

It is, however, very important, dear brethren, that
we keep it constantly in mind that the nature and pre
cepts of the gospel are the same now as they will be
then, in that glorious reign of righteousness and peace,
and that it is our duty constantly to be influenced by
the same spirit now which will then be manifested by
the followers of the Lamb. The little leaven is of the
same nature with whole lump when it is leavened. Let
us therefore gird up the loins of our mind and watch
unto prayer.

4. If the Mediator's kingdom is not of this world,
but spiritual, heavenly, and divine, and if the kingdoms
of this world are under the dominion of Satan, and if
the subjects of Christ's kingdom are not permitted to

NOT OF THIS WORLD: BUT SPIRITUAL 159

use carnal weapons, then we may infer who is the " great
whore that sitteth upon many waters; with whom the
kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the
inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with
the wine of her fornication." A virgin or chaste woman
is a familiar symbol in the Scriptures of the true church
of God ; and an unchaste woman is as familiar a sym
bol of an apostate or corrupt church. As a lewd woman
calls herself by the name of her husband, notwithstand
ing she has constant intercourse with other men, so the
corrupt church calls herself by the name of Christ, not
withstanding she has constant illicit intercourse with
the kings of the earth.1 To understand the true nature
of spiritual whoredom will assist us in ascertaining the
bounds of mystical Babylon.

1 As the writer has been for some time studying the symbolical lan
guage of the Scriptures, and intends (if the Lord will, unless some per
son more able should attempt an explanation) to give his views to the
public, he will not be so particular at present in explaining the symbol of
the great whore which sitteth upon many waters, as he otherwise should.
He early perceived that the heavens and the earth, with all their furni
ture, were used as an alphabet, in the language of things, to represent
moral subjects. His object has been to learn the true meaning of each
symbol by comparing Scripture with Scripture. No language can be
read until the alphabet is first learned. Symbolical language does not,
like other languages, change with time and place, but represents the
same idea to all nations and at all times. He is of opinion that one
symbol does not represent two events, unless it first have a reference
to some less event which is typical of some more important event; in
that case, all together may be figurative of some great ultimate end.
Although one symbol is supposed never to represent two different things,
yet two or more symbols generally represent one thing. He has found
by tracing .back a symbol to its first use, that its true meaning is gener
ally manifest. Since examining the Scriptures with this view he has
been irresistibly drawn into the conclusions now exhibited.

160 THE MEDIATOR'S KINGDOM

The children of Israel were separated from all the
nations of the earth and set apart to be holy unto the
Lord. As they were in covenant with the God of Israel,
he addressed them in the endearing character of a hus
band. Whenever they made any covenant or formed a
confederacy with the nations around them, or imitated
their idolatrous abominations, they were charged with
spiritual whoredom. The church, under the gospel dis
pensation, is redeemed from amongst men out of every
nation, and sanctified and set apart to be a peculiar
people to show forth the praises of God. It is styled
the Bride, the Lamb's wife. Its members are not to
be conformed to this world but to be transformed by
the renewing of the Spirit. They do not belong to any
earthly kingdom, for our Lord has said, " They are not
of the world, even as I am not of the world " ; but they
are citizens of the heavenly Zion and belong to the
household of God ; they are members of the same
community, with the innumerable company of angels
and the spirits of just men made perfect ; and are
to be governed by the very same spirit and temper
which reigns amongst those blessed inhabitants above.
God is an overflowing and unbounded ocean of bless
edness and love ; love is therefore the fulfilling of
the law.

Whenever the subjects of the Redeemer unite them
selves to the kingdoms of this world, and engage in
their political contentions and fightings, then it appears
they commit spiritual whoredom, for they forsake the
fountain of living waters and hew out to themselves
cisterns, — broken cisterns, which can hold no water.

NOT OF THIS WORLD: BUT SPIRITUAL 161

When they thus mingle with the world and unite in its
pursuits they may spiritually be styled adulterers.

The apostle James, while reproving the twelve
tribes, which were scattered abroad, for their wars and
fightings and friendship to the world, styles them
adulterers and adulteresses. In direct opposition to
this representation, the first fruits of the church are
styled virgins, as not being defiled with women. "These
are they which were not defiled with women; for they
are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb
whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from
amongst men, being the firstfruits unto God and the
Lamb. And in their mouth was found no guile : for they
are without fault before the throne of God." As vir
gins are pure and undefiled, so were the disciples of
Christ in the first age of the church when they had no
impure intercourse with the kingdoms of this world and
followed the Lamb in refusing to engage either in its
profits, honors, or fightings. They are, therefore, called
virgins, without fault, in opposition to those who mingle
with the world, who are spiritually styled harlots.

It evidently appears, if what has been said is true,
that mystical Babylon, that mother of harlots and
abominations of the earth, is just as extensive as the
union of the church with the kingdoms of this world ;
and just in that proportion in which an individual
Christian, or a single church, or a number of churches
united in one body, engage in the honors, profits, and
fightings of the kingdoms of this world, just in that
proportion they may be said to be guilty of spiritual
whoredom.

162 THE MEDIATOR'S KINGDOM

The writer is well aware that this inference, how
ever just, will be looked upon with contempt by worldly
political Christians whose dearest interest is involved
in the kingdoms of this world, and especially by those
who are clothed in purple and scarlet and have a
golden cup in their hands. He has no expectation of
being candidly heard by such, but it is God's own dear
children who have ignorantly mingled with the world,
having been blinded by their education, from whom he
expects a candid hearing. " If any man have ears to
hear, let him hear."

It is not common for a lewd woman openly to avow
to the world her character ; neither can it be expected
that the mother of harlots will own her name. The
writer is of opinion that very few have understood the
full dimensions of this mystical city ; she appears to
him in her greatest extent to be bounded but little
short of the whole visible church of God. She is
styled "the great City, which spiritually is called Sodom
and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified." "And
in her was found the blood of prophets and saints and
of all that were slain upon the earth." But a dreadful
judgment awaits her : " She shall utterly be burnt with
fire : for strong is the Lord God who judges her."
Being mingled with the nations and supported by their
power, when they become like stubble before the
devouring fire, she will be consumed with them. The
whore is represented as riding upon a scarlet-colored
beast, and upheld by him.1

1 The writer is fully of opinion that a ferocious beast is never used
as a symbol of a corrupt church, but of a tyrannical warlike power.

NOT OF THIS WORLD: BUT SPIRITUAL 163

When he, with all his heads, are cast into the lake of
fire, she will likewise be given to the burning flame.
But before this great and dreadful day of the Lord
shall come, which will burn as an oven, when the
whore shall be consumed with the nations of the earth,
God will call to his people to come out of her, saying
unto them, " Come out of her, my people, that ye be
not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her
plagues." As God's ancient people were carried cap
tives into literal Babylon, so God's dear people will be
found captives in mystical Babylon, until they hear the
command of their Lord to come out of her that they
be not partakers of her sins and that they receive not
of her plagues. The captive daughters of Zion are very
numerous. O that they may soon arise and shake
themselves from the dust ! " Shake thyself from the
dust ; arise, and sit down, O Jerusalem : loose thyself
from the bands of thy neck, O captive daughter of
Zion."

5. If the Mediator's kingdom is not of this world,
and the kingdoms of this world are under the dominion
of Satan, and if Christ's subjects cannot unite them
selves to the kingdoms of this world, without commit
ting spiritual whoredom, then we may infer the great
impropriety of the subjects of the Mediator's kingdom

He has been for some time of opinion that the second Apocalyptic beast
is rising, and that he will possess all the power of the first beast before
him, and that under him the false prophet will appear; and the wit
nesses will be slain; and upon his kingdom the six first vials of his
divine wrath will be principally poured out; and the seventh will be
poured upon Satan's kingdom universally, as he is the prince of the
power of the air.

1 64 THE MEDIATOR'S KINGDOM

becoming political Christians and enrolling themselves
with the men of this world. They cannot serve two
masters: for they will either hate the one, and love the
other ; or else they will hold to the one, and despise the
other.

How humiliating is it to see subjects of the King
of Zion engaged in the drudgery of the prince of
darkness, laboring and struggling to support his
tottering throne ! Satan's kingdom is divided against
itself and must, therefore, come to an end. But how
lamentable is it to see the sons of the living God,
the subjects of the Prince of Peace, taking sides in the
cause of the adversary of souls, and actually opposing
and fighting each other under his banner ! They
do it ignorantly and will, therefore, obtain forgive
ness, for they know not what manner of spirit they
are of. They are commanded to have no fellowship
with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather
reprove them.

Before our Lord departed from this world to go to
the Father, he gave laws to his subjects for their rule
of life until his second coming. All these laws con
templated their residing as a holy nation in the midst
of a wicked and benighted world, to reflect the rays of
the Sun of righteousness on the thick darkness which
covers the people. They were to be a city set upon a
hill and a light to the world. The apostle exhorts them
to "do all things without murmurings and disputings:
that ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of
God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and
perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the

NOT OF THIS WORLD: BUT SPIRITUAL 165

world." They must be a peculiar people to show forth
the praises of God. How inconsistent is it, then,
for the citizens of the heavenly Zion to be mingling
with the politicians of this world and uniting in their
processions, feasts, and cabals, when they ought rather
to be praying for them, that the very sins they commit
in these scenes may be forgiven them ! Dear brethren,
is it not high time to come out from the world and be
separated ? " Be ye not unequally yoked together with
unbelievers : for what fellowship hath righteousness
with unrighteousness ? and what communion hath light
with darkness ? and what concord hath Christ with
Belial?" "Wherefore come out from among them,
and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the
unclean thing ; and I will receive you, and will be a
Father to you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters,
saith the Lord Almighty."

6. In view of what has been said, we finally infer
that every interest which is not built upon the sure
foundation stone which God has laid in Zion will be
swept away when the storms of divine wrath shall beat
upon our guilty world. " For, behold, the day cometh,
that shall burn as an oven ; and all the proud, yea, and
all that do wickedly, shall be stubble : and the day that
cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that
it shall leave them neither root nor branch." " For the
day of the Lord of hosts shall be upon every one that
is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up;
and he shall be brought low." " The lofty looks of man
shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be
bowed down ; and the Lord alone shall be exalted in

166 THE MEDIATOR'S KINGDOM

that day." "The Lord at thy right hand shall strike
through kings in the day of his wrath. He shall judge
among the heathen, he shall fill the places with their
dead bodies ; he shall wound the head over many coun
tries." " For, behold, the Lord will come with fire, and
with his chariots like a whirlwind, to render his anger
with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire. For by
fire and by his sword will the Lord plead with all flesh :
and the slain of the Lord shall be many." " For
the indignation of the Lord is upon all nations, and
his fury upon all their armies : he hath utterly de
stroyed them, he hath delivered them to the slaughter.
Their slain shall be cast out, and their stink shall
come up out of their carcasses, and the mountains
shall be melted with blood." "For this is the day of
the Lord God of hosts, a day of vengeance, that he
may avenge him of his adversaries: and the sword
shall devour, and it shall be satiate and be made drunk
with their blood." The nations must drink of the
wine of the wrath of God, which shall be poured out
without mixture, into the cup of his indignation ; and
they will be trodden in the great wine press of the
wrath of God Almighty. And the great whore which
has drunk the blood of the saints and the blood of
the martyrs of Jesus will have blood to drink ; for
she is worthy.

The sword of the Lord has two edges ; it will cut
off the offending limbs of the church and destroy
her enemies. The fire of the Lord will purify his
saints but utterly burn up the wicked. He " whose
fan is in his hand will thoroughly purge his floor, and

NOT OF THIS WORLD: BUT SPIRITUAL 167

gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn
up the chaff with unquenchable fire." Although the
earth is thus to be desolated, and the nations de
stroyed, yet the saints of the Most High shall " possess
the kingdom for ever and ever." "And the kingdom
and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under
the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the
saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is an ever
lasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and
obey him."

Dear brethren, these events are rapidly rolling in the
fiery wheels down the descent of time; and although
the nations must first drink the vials of divine wrath
and the battle of God Almighty must first be fought,
yet the time is at hand when we shall no more hear the
sound of war, and of garments rolled in blood, for man
will cease to be the enemy of man, and every one will
sit quietly under his own vine and under his own fig
tree ; and there will be nothing to hurt or destroy in
all God's holy mountain, and the knowledge of the
Lord shall cover the earth as the waters cover the
channels of the mighty deep.

Dear brethren, is it not "high time to awake out of
sleep : for now is our salvation nearer than when we
believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand :
let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let
us put on the armour of light." And let us pray with
all prayer and supplication in the Spirit for all men, not
only for ourselves, our families, and our friends, and
the church of God, but for a dying world, that God
would in infinite compassion cut short these days of

168 THE MEDIATOR'S KINGDOM

dreadful calamity for his elect's sake; and in the midst
of deserved wrath remember mercy.

" He that hath ears to hear, let him hear what the
Spirit saith unto the churches ; To him that overcom-
eth will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the
midst of the paradise of God."