330 FROM T. C. UPHAM'S PRIZE ESSAY ON War. "The God of thy people, the Holy one And the path that shall reach the skies, As his father dies!-with the breath that bore, The soul of a king-for the strife is o'er, But has he not, by his high bequest, H. F. GOULD. War. THERE is much philosophy in one of Esop's fables. The sun and the north wind once had a contest which should first disarm a certain traveller of his cloak. The wind blew, but the traveller wrapt his cloak about him: it blew more loudly and angrily, but the traveller, exerting all his strength, held his cloak more closely and firmly than ever. The sun took an opposite course: he gave no indications of violence and wrath he spread over hill and valley the warmth of his purest and gentlest radiance: the traveller smiled, and at once. yielded the cloak to kindness, which he had refused to force. This is a picture of human life. It finds its counterpart all the FROM T. C. UPHAM'S PRIZE ESSAY ON War. 331 world over and it would be an endless labour to exhaust the illustrations and proofs which every where present themselves. It is impossible to repress the desire we feel, that men generally, particularly those who profess to be guided by the principles of the Gospel, should look the great subject of war fearlessly in the face, not only in its outlines but in its details. With but few exceptions, it is certainly not too much to say that they have never done it as yet. What shall we say when we see men created in our own likeness horribly mangled and torn to pieces: the wounded left to perish on bleak snows or burnt to death in their own hospitals: every possible form of agony and despair? Can we be deemed unreasonable in saying, that this is a state of things which must be met, must be looked into? that it is high time for philosophers, for politicians, above all, for professed Christians, to scrutinize it with the deepest solicitude? Shall the attention of the whole scientific and intellectual world be directed to the comparatively trifling circumstance of the discovery of a new planet, to the fall of a meteoric stone, or to some atmospheric phenomenon-and shall war-that great moral phenomenon, so inexplicable as to strike angels with astonishment, and to fill even the spirits of darkness with wonder, be deemed of so little consequence as to arrest no thought, excite no feeling, and secure no spirit of inquiry? We are, at this very moment, sending missionaries to Syria and Palestine but upon that very spot, dreadful have been the conflicts of christians if it be not a sort of sacrilege to give them that holy name. Recall the history of those events. "The capture of Jaffa was brilliant. Four thousand of the best troops of Djezzac were put to death," writes Buonaparte to Mormont, and how? writing to Kleber, he says, "At Jaffa, the garrison consisted of four thousand of the best troops. Two thousand were put to the sword, and two thousand I ordered to be shot in twenty-four hours!" After such displays of violence and cruelty by men coming from Christian countries, the missionary makes his appearance, and announces the Gospel 332 FROM T. C. UPHAM'S PRIZE ESSAY ON WAR. of Peace! Will not the Arab and the Mohammedan point to the ruins of Jaffa and St. Jean d' Acre? Will they not point to the bones of their slaughtered countrymen, and say, and with reason to, "We have have no confidence in your Gospel?' The Christian public may depend upon it that the world will not be converted, nor will any marked success attend the missionary cause, until this great question is settled. Some perhaps will say, "These are solitary cases, and that a great portion of the heathen world are not thus acquainted with the vices and crimes of Christians." We wish it were so but it is not. The roar of Christian cannon, and the flash of Christian musketry, and the hyena cry of the Christian military onset, have been heard and seen wherever there are men. : The untutored African will experience the greatest difficulty in satisfactorily solving the problem of the direct contradiction between alledged Christian principles and known Christian. practice and so long as this is the case, it cannot be expected that their hearts will be thrown fully and frankly open to the reception of Divine Truth. "We give you the Gospel" says the missionary "we come to you in peace and we pray you to listen to us, and become Christians." "Oh," says the bereaved and heart-broken mother, "give me rather my wretched sons and daughters, whom you Christians have torn shrieking from my arms and have plunged into the ocean, or enslaved in foreign lands." And now, what is to be done? Have we not erected a Chinese wall in the way of the progress of the Gospel? We must not suppose that the world will be converted without our taking this great stumbling-block out of the way. Ships of war must be laid up armies must be disbanded: the militia system must be given up: fortifications must be demolished: cannon must be melted into bells for Churches: swords must be beaten into plough-shares, and spears into pruning hooks: and then, what light will beam from the brow of the missionary as he stands, the messenger of the Prince of Peace, on heathen soil! T. C. UPHAM. Che Angels of Buena Vista. A LETTER Writer from Mexico states that at the terrible fight of Buena Vista, Mexican women were seen hovering near the field of death, for the purpose of giving aid and succour to the wounded. One poor woman was found surrounded by the maimed and suffering of both armies, ministering to the wants of Americans as well as Mexicans with impartial tenderness. "SPEAK and tell us, our Ximena, looking northward far away, O'er the camp of the invaders, o'er the Mexican array, Who is losing? who is winning? are they far, or come they near? Look abroad, and tell us, sister, whither rolls the storm we hear." "Down the hills of Angostura still the storm of battle rolls; Blood is flowing, men are dying; God have mercy on their souls!" "Who is losing; who is winning?"—"Over hill and over plain, I see but smoke of cannon clouding through the mountain rain." "Holy Mother! keep our brothers! Look, Ximena, look once more :" "Still I see the fearful whirlwind rolling darkly as before, Bearing on, in strange confusion, friend and foeman, foot and horse, Like some wild and troubled torrent sweeping down its mountain course." "Look forth once more, Ximena !" "Ah the smoke has rolled away; And I see the Northern rifles gleaming down the ranks of grey. Hark! that sudden blast of bugles! there the troop of Minon wheels; There the Northern horses thunder, with the cannon at their heels." 334 THE ANGELS OF BUENA VISTA. "Jesu, pity! how it thickens! now retreat and now advance! Right against the blazing cannon shivers Puebla's charging lance! Down they go, the brave young riders; horse and foot together fall; Like a ploughshare in its fallow, through them ploughs the Northern ball." Nearer came the storm, and nearer, rolling fast and frightful on: "Speak, Ximena, speak and tell us, who has lost and who has won." "Alas! alas! I know not; friend and foe together fall, O'er the dying rush the living; pray, my sisters, for them all!" "Lo the wind the smoke is lifting: Blessed Mother, save my brain' I can see the wounded crawling slowly out from heaps of slain. Now they stagger, blind and bleeding; now they fall and strive to rise; Hasten, sisters, haste and save them, lest they die before our eyes!" "Oh my heart's love! oh my dear one! lay thy poor head on my knee; Dost thou know the lips that kiss thee? Canst thou hear me, canst thou see? Oh my husband, brave and gentle! oh my Bernal, look once more On the blessed Cross before thee! Mercy! mercy! all is o'er." "Dry thy tears, my poor Ximena; lay thy dear one down to rest; Let his hands be meekly folded; lay the Cross upon his breast; |