THE ADVOCATE OF PEACE NOVEMBR AND DECEMBER, 1861. THE CAUSE OF PEACE NOT TO BE GIVEN UP. Give up our cause! Why? Is it wrong in its spirit, its principles or its aims? In every one of those respects it is admitted, alike by friends and foes, to be truly, if not eminently, Christian. Is it, then, no longer needed? Alas! let the condition, present and prospective, of our land, and of all Christendom, give the mournful response. To say nothing of the thousand million dollars spent every year by Europe, and more than four million men employed, in support of her warsystem, we ourselves, from the lack of a right training of our people in habits of peace, are at this hour wasting more money, life and moral power, five times over, than would suffice under God for the world's conversion to Christianity. Better, as a mere question of dollars and cents, for the Christians of America alone, without the slightest aid from any other quarter, to bear the entire expense of evangelizing the whole earth, than continue the present state of things among us. Our views, if seasonably wrought into the habits of our whole people, would doubtless have averted all this. Had Christians as a body responded, as they might and should forty years ago, to the appeals of peace men, these terrible evils would never have come upon our land; but, as they would not then give one dollar for peace, they are now compelled to spend and lose fifty or a hundred thousand dollars for war, with the THE ADVOCATE OF PEACE NOVEMBR AND DECEMBER, 1861. THE CAUSE OF PEACE NOT TO BE GIVEN UP. Give up our cause! Why? Is it wrong in its spirit, its principles or its aims? In every one of those respects it is admitted, alike by friends and foes, to be truly, if not eminently, Christian. Is it, then, no longer needed? Alas! let the condition, present and prospective, of our land, and of all Christendom, give the mournful response. To say nothing of the thousand million dollars spent every year by Europe, and more than four million men employed, in support of her warsystem, we ourselves, from the lack of a right training of our people in habits of peace, are at this hour wasting more money, life and moral power, five times over, than would suffice under God for the world's conversion to Christianity. Better, as a mere question of dollars and cents, for the Christians of America alone, without the slightest aid from any other quarter, to bear the entire expense of evangelizing the whole earth, than continue the present state of things among us. Our views, if seasonably wrought into the habits of our whole people, would doubtless have averted all this. Had Christians as a body responded, as they might and should forty years ago, to the appeals of peace men, these terrible evils would never have come upon our land; but, as they would not then give one dollar for peace, they are now compelled to spend and lose fifty or a hundred thousand dollars for war, with the moral certainty of its being necessary to continue no small part of this enormous waste just as long as we maintain our war-system, and the war-habits of our people. 'But what can we do just now?' Very little, we fear; and yet there are some things that we can and should do, even at this crisis. We can continue our testimony, and prove ourselves faithful to our principles and our object. We can at least keep our cause alive, if not so active or efficient as heretofore; and certainly we must not fail to do this at all events. We can and must hold up to public view its grand idea, as a beacon-light, of having all disputes adjusted by rational, peaceful, Christian expedients, in place of lead and steel, of the cannon and the sword. True, we cannot, as we would not, divert the country from the great issue now pending between Slavery and Freedom; but, in settling this controversy aright, there are needed the very principles and habits we inculcate, and have all along been laboring to dif fuse. Without these, adopted alike by the North and the South, we can never hope, whether united or separated, for permanent peace and prosperity. We cannot just now keep them, as we once could, before the whole country; but, by our publications still sent to all our higher seminaries of learning, and to the editors of periodicals taken by a majority of our reading people, we may reasonably hope to do something, even under all our present disadvantages, towards setting the public mind right on this great, vital question. As much as this we certainly can and should attempt; and in doing so, we shall need, as we hope to receive, the cordial and effective aid of our friends. Passing events are furnishing a superabundance of facts, arguments and motives for the future prosecution of our cause. Some of these, especially the most startling, we cannot use now, as the people are in no mood to receive them; but when the heat and smoke of the contest are over, they will be sure to hear, read and ponder. For that hour of returning sobriety we must wait; and when it comes, whether sooner or later, we shall need the evidence of well-attested history to make a future age believe, that such an outburst as we have lately been witnessing of the war spirit, of war-principles and war-vengeance, could ever have been tolerated, much less applauded, by men calling themselves ambassadors and followers of the Prince of Peace. What a spectacle! A religion of peace and good will abetting, in this noon of the nineteenth century, the most gigantic and atrocious rebellion the world ever saw, for the avowed purpose of spreading over the land of Washington an empire of slavery, and curse forever a continent! Had Christians learned the merest alphabet of peace taught by Christ and his apostles, or had those at the South done this only half as well as we have at the North, this mighty avalanche of crime and misery could never have come upon us. Alas! for the dark page of history we are What a record for Christians to carry now stereotyping in blood! THE PEACE SOCIETY AND THE REBELLION. The Peace Society has for a considerable period been doing its quiet work by the diffusion of intelligence on a great question of morals. That no small influence has been produced, is certain. Powerful minds and pens have been enlisted, and proselytes to the beautiful creed, "Peace on earth, and glory to God in the highest," have steadily multiplied. It has procured to be inserted in several treaties between nations, an article binding the high contracting parties to refer to arbitration disputes which may arise between them. It has influenced the literature, poetry and painting of the age. And leaning, as it does, on the eternal rock of truth, it has survived unhurt both ridicule and opposition. True, it has failed to drawtowards it any large number of supporters, or any general prevalence of attention. It has worked on, in its noiseless sphere, obliged to be contented with being favored by a few, and regarded as a harmless lucubration by the many. But now that THE WAR is a word in every man's conversation, and its modes, causes and effects in every one's thoughts, the Peace Society becomes a thing of note. Its intents are scanned, its advocates crossexamined, and its toleration made a question of expediency. A class of our citizens, who are anxious to try to restore the old status of North and South by further concessions to the South, and who regard with disfavor the present efforts of the nation to retain its Capital and its stability, have been designated the Peace Party! With this party many confound the Peace Society, or at least regard its purposes as similar. Hence, in place of good-humored indifference towards it, as a harmless ism, it is tartly accused of weakening the government, by denying the rightfulness of armies and battles in defence of our national life. We are not sorry to see this change of feeling towards our Society. Anything is better, for the diffusion of truth, than inattention. We seek no private ends. Our programme presents no plan for making money, or acquiring fame. We have no friends to reward, or foes to |