THE

12457

ADVOCATE OF PEACE.

JANUARY AND FEBRUARY, 1862.

WHAT MAKES WAR NECESSARY.

There is an almost universal belief in the necessity of war; and all history, Christian as well as pagan, attests beyond doubt, the sincerity and strength of such a belief. How else can we account for the fact, that nations have from time immemorial made war and preparation for war their chief business, and that Christendom, with the creed of peace on her lips, is at this hour employing four or five million men, and spending every year more than a thousand million dollars in support of her war-system? Surely nations must, in all honesty and earnestness, believe it necessary, or they would never submit to a burden so enormous and crushing.

Is there, then, no real necessity for war or the war-system? None whatever, except what comes from the wrong habits, the guilty choice of nations; no more necessity for it than there is for intemperance, duelling or the slave-trade. It is because men in their folly and guilt choose it. It is a moral necessity alone, the result of wrong principles and habits. Bring these into full accordance with the gospel, or even with the dictates of a civilized common sense, and war would soon give place to some rational, equitable system for the peaceful adjustment of all national disputes.

war.

Let us analyze a little this stale, stereotyped plea of necessity for What in truth does it mean? That nations could not, even if they would, settle their difficulties without butchering each other? Just so does the duellist plead the necessity of duelling; but what does he mean by such a plea? That he must, whether he will or not, imbrue

his hands in his brother's blood? No; he must solely because he will, a matter of guilty choice; and he will, mainly because public opinion, rotten to the very core on the subject, is supposed to demand it of him under peril of her ban. There is no other necessity than this. Why does excited passion in our Southern States vent itself in duels? Custom there has hewn out this channel of blood into which excited passion flows. But why in New England does the same degree of passion never lead to duels? Public opinion here frowns upon the duellist as a calculating, cold-blooded murderer, and puts upon him the brand and penalty of murder. Yet is not human nature in each case essentially the same? Yes, certainly; and the whole difference results from the different education of the two communities.

Now, if all Christendom were trained to look upon war as the people of New England now do upon the kindred practice of duelling, nations would of course cease from all thought of an appeal to the sword as an unchristian, brutal, suicidal method of settling their disputes. Train them in Christian habits of thought and feeling on the subject; and they would soon find peaceful ways of adjusting all their difficulties. There is, in truth, no impossibility in the case. They could, if they would, discard at once the whole war-system as an arbiter of their disputes, and would do so, if they were educated as a body into the views of the gospel on the subject. Substitutes, incomparably better than the sword for all purposes of protection or redress, might be made to supersede entirely and forever the alleged necessity of war between nations. Once individuals had no other means than brute force for the redress of their wrongs, or the adjustment of their difficulties; but if that old practice of private wars gave place ages ago to codes and courts of law between individuals, is it not equally possible for nations, if they choose, to provide similar methods for the settlement of their disputes without the effusion of blood?

Such a consummation is most devoutly to be wished by all good men; and to this result, despite some strange, temporary outbursts of the warspirit, is public opinion gradually bringing the governments of Christendom. "With the advancement of society," said Daniel Webster, "a new and elevated tribunal has come into being, to which the disputes of nations must, in all cases, be referred. I mean the Tribunal of Public Opinion. Nations cannot now go to war, unless for grounds and reasons which will justify them in the general judgment of mankind." Let this process of improvement go on; and the time must surely come when a thoroughly christianized public sentiment shall ef

fectually forbid an appeal to arms in any case for the settlement of national disputes, and ultimately introduce, in place of the sword, a system of peaceful substitutes as the uniform and permanent policy of the civilized world.

Had such a policy been adopted ages ago, how surely and easily would it have obviated the wild, angry and fearful excitement arising from the late seizure of the rebel commissioners on board the English steamer Trent. Whether right or wrong. there was not the slightest occasion for war in any event of that affair. The fair presumption was, that the parties, on fully examining the case, would settle it between themselves to mutual satisfaction, but, if not, would unite in referring the question to an umpire whose decision should be final. In no view of the case ought there to have been the remotest thought of war; and yet for a time, did it convulse a vast empire from centre to circumference, and keep the civilized world in anxious suspense and fear. All the legitimate results of those war principles and habits to which Christendom has always been trained. Everybody now sees that there was no occasion or excuse for war in any event of this affair; and had there been in existence and effective operation a recognized system of international justice to decide such cases, and had the people and rulers of the two countries been accustomed to acquiesce in its verdict, the matter would have passed away with little or no excitement, and left the parties as friendly to each other as ever.

OUR DIFFICULTY WITH ENGLAND.

THE RIGHT APPLICATION OF THE GOSPEL TO ALL SUCH CASES

When a son of Count Oxenstiern, the great diplomatist and the most honest of his age, was appointed to an important political mission, he ingenuously objected, on account of his lack of ability for the task. But his father overruled the objection, saying, "Go and see how little sense governs the world." Most true is the remark in all ages. Passion, blinding self-interest, obstinate bigotry, erroneous theories, current events, and the power of custom, have controlled the policy of governments, national, municipal and domestic. Bitter traditional hates have involved districts in the desolations of war, where there was neither diversity of interests, nor ground of apprehension. Bloody persecutions have been set on foot, to make the regenerate conform to ecclesiastical laws made by vile and blasphemous rulers, in whose drunken bouts "the church and king" was always the chief toast.

Man is a

To account for such deplorable obliquity is not difficult. fallen creature. Satan is the "god of this world," "the prince of the power of the air." He hates man only less than he hates GOD. His baneful influence, on hearts already corrupt, educes conduct which assimulates to his own; and men damage and destroy each other, under the double potency of predisposition and temptation.

The gospel of Christ, which is given to control, purify and save men, has yet swayed no commanding influence in the world. Pagans, Mahometans and Jews know it not. The so called Christian church, from the time of Constantine, has ceased to be "a peculiar people,” “a garden enclosed." As Popery developed itself into a full anti-christ, it frowned, more and more, on the reading of God's word, until it prohibited it altogether. It denied to prince and ruler, no less than to peasants and rude men, that Divine teaching which was meant for all, and in which the duties of all are made so clear, that "a wayfaring man, though a fool need not err."

At this day, in the larger portion of the so called Christian world, the Bible is interdicted to all but priests, and its perusal not enjoined even on them. Abuses, unquestioned, have grown enormous. The lower orders grow up ignorant, and the higher classes licentious. Gov. ernments learn no lessons, and submit to no laws, which issued from the lips of the Son of God. The populace are left to derive their ideas of right from state laws, or prescriptive usages, and each generation grows up alien to truth, to peace, and to blessedness.

What is the cure for earth's disorders? The word of God. How promptly were the national derelictions of Israel redressed and righted, when Josiah discovered a copy of the divine law, and carnestly set himself to conform to it in his administration of the government, 2 Chron. 34: 14-33. How beautifully, in myriad instances, has the influence of Christianity turned lions into lambs, and made brothers of very enemies. How has it restrained the uplifted arm, and the envenomed insinuation, spreading a holy calm through discordant households, and distracted communities.

To diffuse and augment the influence of the New Testament of our Saviour Jesus Christ, is, then, the sublime work of all who profess themselves his followers. But they have not been so taught. Priests have monopolized the business of propogating religion, and the private person could only do so under the ban and the peril of sectarianism and strife.

In two nations only, at this time, is the word of God freely circulat