can we receive? We have His promise that He will protect those who abandon their seeming interests in the performance of His Will; and we have the testimony of those who have confided in Him, that He has protected them. Can the advocate of War produce one single instance in the history of man, of a person who had given an unconditional obedience to the will of heaven, and who did not find that his conduct was wise as well as virtuous, that it accorded with his interests as well as with his duty. We ask the same question in relation to the peculiar obligations to irresistance. Where is the man who regrets, that, in observance of the forbearing duties of Christianity, he consigned his preservation to the superintendence of God?—And the solitary national example that is before us, confirms the testimony of private life; for there is sufficient reason for believing, that no nation, in modern ages, has possessed so large a portion of virtue or of happiness, as Pennsylvania before it had seen human blood. I would therefore repeat the question-What evidence do we ask or can we receive? 16. This is the point from which we wander :-WE DO NOT BELIEVE IN THE PROVIDENCE OF GOD. When this state ment is formally made to us, we think, lieve, we should also confide in it, and should be willing to stake upon it the consequences of our obedience.1 We can talk with sufficient fluency of "trusting in Providence;" but in the application of it to our conduct in life we know wonderfully little. Who is it that confides in Providence, and for what does he trust Him? Does his confidence induce him to set aside his own views of interest and safety, and simply to obey precepts which appear inexpedient and unsafe? This is the confidence that is of value, and of which we know so little. There are many who believe that War is disallowed by Christianity, and who would rejoice that it were for ever abolished; but there are few who are willing to maintain an undaunted and unyielding stand against it. They can talk of the loveliness of peace, ay, and argue against the lawfulness of War; but when difficulty or suffering would be the consequence, they will not refuse to do what they know to be unlawful, they will not practise the peacefulness which they say they admire. Those who are ready to sustain the consequences of undeviating obedience, are the supporters of whom Christianity stands in need. She wants men who are willing to suffer for her principles. 1 "The dread of being destroyed by our enemies if we do not go to War with them, is a plain and unequivocal proof per-four disbelief in the superintendence of Divine Providence."-The Lawfulness of Defensive War impartially considered. By a Member of the Church of England. 17. The positions, then, which we have endeavoured to establish are these— I. That those considerations which operate as general Causes of War, are commonly such as Christianity condemns: II. That the Effects of War are, to a very great extent, prejudicial to the III. That the General Character of Christianity is wholly incongruous with IV. That some of the express Precepts and Declarations of the Christian Scrip- V. That the Primitive Christians believed that Christ had forbidden War: and that some of them suffered death in affirmance of this belief: VI. That God has declared, in Prophecy, that it is His Will that War should eventually be eradicated from the earth; and that this eradication will be effected by Christianity, by the influence of its present Principles : VII. That those who have refused to engage in War, in consequence of their belief of its inconsistency with Christianity, have found that Providence has protected them. 18. Now, we think that the establishment of any considerable number of these positions is sufficient for our argument. The establishment of the whole forms a body of Evidence to which I am not able to believe that an inquirer, to whom the subject was new, would be able to withhold his assent. But since such an inquirer cannot be found, I would invite the reader to lay prepossession aside, to suppose himself to have now first heard of battles and slaughter, and dispassionately to examine whether the evidence in favour of Peace be not very great, and whether the objections to it bear any proportion to the evidence itself. But whatever may be the determination upon this question, surely it is reasonable to try the experiment, whether security cannot be maintained without slaughter. Whatever be the reasons for War, it is certain that it produces enormous mischief. Even waiving the obligations of Christianity, we have to choose between evils that are certain and evils that are doubtful; between the actual endurance of a great calamity, and the possibility of a less. It certainly cannot be proved that Peace would not be the best policy; and since we know that the present system is bad, it were reasonable and wise to try whether the other is not better. In reality I can scarcely conceive the possibility of a greater evil than that which mankind now endure; an evil, moral and physical, of far wider extent, and far greater intensity, than our familiarity with it allows us to suppose. If a system of Peace be not productive of less evil than the system of War, its consequences must indeed be enormously bad; and that it would produce such consequences, we have no warrant for believing, either from reason or from practice-either from the principles of the moral government of God, or from the experience of mankind. Whenever a people shall pursue, steadily and uniformly, the pacific morality of the gospel, and shall do this from the pure motive of obedience, there is no reason to fear for the consequences: there is no reason to fear that they would experience any evils such as we now endure, or that they would not find that Christianity understands their interests better than themselves; and that the surest, and the only rule of wisdom, of safety, and of expediency, is to maintain her spirit in every circumstance of life. 19. "There is reason to expect," says Dr. Johnson, "that as the world is more enlightened, policy and morality will at last be reconciled." When this enlightened period shall arrive, we shall be approaching, and we shall not till then approach, that era of purity and of peace, when “violence shall no more be heard in our land-wasting nor destruction within our borders ;"--that era in which GOD has promised that "they shall not hurt nor destroy in all His holy mountain." That a period like this will come, I am not able to doubt: I believe it, because it is not credible that He will always endure the butchery of man by man; because He has declared that He will not endure it; and because I think there is a perceptible approach of that period in which He will say--" It is enough." 2 In this belief the Christian may rejoice; he may rejoice that the number is increasing of those who are asking "Shall the sword devour for ever?" and of those who, whatever be the opinions or the practice of others, are openly saying, "I am for Peace." 3 20. It will perhaps be asked, what then are the duties of a subject who believes that all War is incompatible with his religion, but whose governors engage in a War and demand his service? We answer explicitly, It is his duty mildly and temperately, yet firmly, to refuse to serve.-Let such as these remember, that an honourable and an awful duty is laid upon them. It is upon their fidelity, so far as human agency is concerned, that the Cause of Peace is suspended. Let them then be willing to avow their opinions and to defend them. Neither let them be contented with words, if more than words, if suffering also, is required. It is only by the unyielding fidelity of virtue that corruption can be extirpated. If you believe that Jesus Christ has prohibited slaughter, let not the opinions or the commands of a world induce you to join in it. By this "steady and determinate pursuit of virtue," the benediction which attaches to those who hear the sayings of God and do them, will rest upon you; and the time will come when even the world will honour you, as contributors to the work of Human Reformation. - CONCLUSION. 21. That hope which was intimated at the commencement of this volume--that a period of greater moral purity would eventually arrive - has sometimes operated as an encouragement to the writer, in enforcing the obligations of morality to an extent which few who have written such books have ventured to advocate. In exhibiting a standard of rectitude such as that which it has been attempted to exhibit here--a standard to which not many in the present day are willing to conform, and of which many would willingly dispute the authority, some encouragement was needed; and no human encouragement could be so efficient as that which consisted in the belief that the principles would progressively obtain more and more of the concurrence and adoption of mankind. 22. That there are indications of an advancement of the human species towards greater purity in principle and in practice, cannot, I think, be disputed. There is a manifest advancement in intellectual concerns:- Science of almost every kind is extending her empire ;-Political Institutions are becoming rapidly ameliorated; 1—and Morality and Religion, if their progress be less perceptible, are yet advancing with an onward pace.2 Lamentations over the happiness or excellence of other times have generally very 1 "The degree of scientific knowledge which would once have conferred celebrity and immortality, is now, in this country, attained by thousands of obscure individuals." Fox's Lectures. "To one who considers coolly of the subject, it will appear that human nature in general really enjoys more liberty at present, in the most arbitrary governments of Europe, than it ever did during the most flourish ing period of ancient times."-Hume. 2 Not that the present state, or the prospects of the world, afford any countenance to the speculations-favourite speculations with some men-respecting "human perfectibility." In the sense in which this phrase is usually employed, I fear there is little hope of the perfection of man; at least there is little hope, if Christianity be true. Christianity declares that man is not perfectible except by the immediate assistance of God; and this immediate assistance the advocates of "human perfectibility" are not wont to expect. The question, in the sense in which it is ordinarily exhibited, is in reality a question of the truth of Christianity. little foundation in justice or reason.1 In truth they cannot be just, because they are perpetual. There has probably never been an age in which mankind have not bewailed the good times that were departed, and made mournful comparisons of them with their own. If these regrets had not been illfounded, the world must have perpetually sunk deeper and deeper in wickedness, and retired further and further towards intellectual night. But the intellectual sun has been visibly advancing towards its noon; and I believe there never was a period in which, speaking collectively of the species, the power of religion was greater than it is now at least there never was a period in which greater efforts were made to diffuse the influence of religion amongst mankind. Men are to be judged of by their fruits; and why should men thus more vigorously exert themselves to make others religious, if the power of religion did not possess increased influence upon their own minds? The increase of crime—even if it increased in a progression more rapid than that of population, and the state of society which gives rise to crime— is a very imperfect standard of judgment. Those offences of which civil laws take cognisance, form not an hundredth part of the wickedness of the world. What multitudes are there of bad men who never yet were amenable to the laws! How extensive may be the additional purity without any diminution of legal crimes! 23. And assuredly there is a perceptible advance in the sentiments of good men towards a higher standard of morality. The lawfulness is frequently questioned now of actions of which, a few ages ago, few or none doubted the rectitude. Nor is it to be disputed, that these questions are resulting more and more in the conviction, that this 1 "This humour of complaining proceeds from the frailty of our natures; it being natural for man to complain of the present, and to commend the times past.”—Sir Josiah Child, 1665. This was one hundred and fifty years ago. The same frailty appears to have subsisted two or three thousands of years before: "Say not thou what is the cause that the former days were better than these? for thou dost not inquire wisely concerning this."-Eccles, vii. 10. cate the Law of God. Let no man identify the advocate with the Cause, nor imagine, when he detects the errors and the weak higher standard is proposed and enforced by the Moral Law of God. Who that considers these things will hastily affirm, that doctrines in morality which refer to a stan-nesses of the one, that the other is therefore dard that to him is new, are unfounded in this Moral Law? Who will think it sufficient, to say that strange things are brought to his ears? Who will satisfy himself with the exclamation, These are hard sayings, who can hear them? Strange things must be brought to the ears of those who have not been accustomed to hear the truth. Hard sayings must be heard by those who have not hitherto practised the purity of morality. 24. Such considerations, I say, have afforded encouragement in the attempt to uphold a standard which the majority of mankind have been little accustomed to contemplate ;—and now, and in time to come, they will still suffice to encourage, although that standard should be, as by many it undoubtedly will be, rejected and contemned. 25. I am conscious of inadequacy--what if I speak the truth and say, I am conscious of unworthiness-thus to attempt to advo erroneous or weak. I apologise for myself: especially I apologise for those instances in which the character of the Christian may have been merged in that of the exposer of the evils of the world. There is a Christian love which is paramount to all;--a love which he only is likely sufficiently to maintain, who remembers that he who exposes an evil and he who partakes in it, will soon stand together as suppliants for the mercy of God. 26. And finally, having written a book which is devoted almost exclusively to disquisitions on Morality, I am solicitous lest the reader should imagine that I regard the practice of morality as all that God requires of Man. I believe far other; and am desirous of here expressing the conviction, that although it becomes not us to limit the mercy of God, or curiously to define the conditions on which He will extend that mercy-yet that the true and safe foundation of our Hope is in "the redemption that it is in Christ Jesus." APPENDIX. ARBITRATION, ARMAMENTS, WAR. OPINIONS OF EMINENT MEN. Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone, speaking in Parliament upon the efforts which the Government were making to settle the "Alabama Difficulty," said :-" Both sides of this House are animated by one sentiment, that we should make progress in gradually establishing in Europe a state of opinion which should favour a common action of the Powers to avert the terrible calamity of War." Speaking again upon the same subject at the Guildhall, London, in November 1871, Mr. Gladstone said :—“ But differences will occur, quarrels will arise; honour—not merely visionary sentiments of honour, but sound principles of honour-will forbid the absolute surrender of the points for which the contest is waged. How are these contests to be settled? 'By blood,' has been the unfortunate reply almost invariably in former times. A great experiment is now being tried: it may be no more than an experiment. The vision may be too bright and too happy to be capable of being realised in this wayward and chequered world in which we live; but it is an experiment worth the trial, at any rate, whether it is possible to bring the conflicts of opinion between nations to the adjudication of a tribunal of reason instead of to the bloody arbitrament of arms." "I am fully convinced that there is reserved for this country a great and honourable destiny in connection with this subject. If we are to become effective missionaries of these principles, we can only derive authority by making them our own, and by giving to them practical effect by acting on the principles of moderation, goodwill, and justice. If we do so, then every year will add more and more weight to the abstract doctrines we preach." "I cannot question the fact that Militarism is a tremendous scourge, a tremendous curse to civilisation." Sir Robert Peel (1841).—" Is not the time come when the powerful countries of Europe should reduce those military armaments which they have so sedulously raised? Is not the time come when they should be prepared to declare that there is no use in such overgrown establishments? What is the advantage of one Power greatly increasing its army and navy? Does it not see that other Powers will follow its example? The consequence of this must be that no increase of relative strength will accrue to any one Power; but there must be a universal consumption of the resources of every country in military preparations. . . . The true interest of Europe is to come to some one common accord so as to enable every country to reduce those military armaments which belong to a state of War rather than of peace. ." (1850)." There was a current maxim, If you wish for peace, prepare for War.' That was regarded as an axiom which could not be contradicted, but he believed that one which must be received with greater qualification and reserve had never fallen from the lips of any man." |