Sidor som bilder
PDF
ePub

Physical evils of war.

These are never denied; but none

among us have any adequate conception of their extent and severity;-its waste of property, its havoc of human life, and the sufferings attendant on marches, or heaped upon the field of battle, or crowded into hospitals and camps. We mean not to declaim, but to give well authenticated facts and statistics. It would be of little use to stop with the most graphic delineation of such evils; but some view of them is requisite to break the popular lethargy of ages, and furnish materials for argument, and motives to effort.

Political evils. The nature and extent of these are little suspected, and mistakes are widely prevalent concerning war as the supposed guardian of our rights; and we shall, therefore, endeavor to show, that it has ever been a deadly foe to the welfare of nations, the origin and support of aristocracy, despotism, and every species of oppression, the worst of all obstacles to the progress of liberty and political reform.

Social evils. Of these, few among us have any thing like an adequate conception; and on this point, as upon others, we shall bring facts to illustrate the influence of war upon the happiness of families and communities, the endless variety of personal, domestic and social miseries which necessarily follow in its train. Ample materials are at hand; and we hope erelong to have a series of tales founded on fact, like those on temperance, which shall give a juster and more vivid impression of these evils than we could get without the anguish and desolation of actual experience.

Moral and spiritual evils. These far outweigh all the other evils of war; and we shall, therefore, hope to bestow upon them special attention, and to present such facts and views as will be likely to reach the hearts of those who are toiling, in various enterprises of benevolence and reform, to enlighten the ignorant, reclaim the vicious, and send salvation through the world.

Pretexts and occasions of war. rious, and ought to be fully exposed.

These are extremely va

History records few, if

any wars that were strictly defensive; and the broadest prin

ciples for which the advocates of self-defence contend, would not justify more than one war in a thousand that have scourged our world. Rulers wait for inciting occasions, and then find or feign plausible pretexts for their schemes of avarice, ambition or revenge. Public opinion has come to demand a reason for bloodshed; and even Napoleon used to plead the necessity of his wars, and to represent himself as fighting only in defence of his rights, or redress of his wrongs.

Causes which still sustain the custom of war;-some imbedded in the depravity of mankind; others diffused through the literature of the world; still more found in the wrong education of children, in the practical heresies of the church on this subject, and in a multitude of false and pernicious maxims extensively prevalent even among the wise and the good. We shall aim our heaviest blows at these things as the very root of this mighty Upas of crime and wo.

Correction of mistakes. We confess our surprise at the number and seeming inveteracy of mistakes in the community respecting our principles, our aims, and our measures. We see in them little "malice prepense;" but, as they deter not a few from aiding our cause, and even from lending an ear to its claims, we shall correct these mistakes as well and as fast as

we can.

Possibility of abolishing the custom of war;—a topic of vital importance; for nearly all who stand aloof from our cause, or lend it only a feeble and fitful aid, are more or less skeptical about its feasibility. If we can convince them that the object is attainable, and let them see how it can be accomplished, we shall confidently expect the cheerful and efficient. coöperation of multitudes who wish us success, but deem it impracticable. A point so fundamental, we shall examine with all possible care, and endeavor to show that our object can be attained with absolute certainty by the right use of those means which God has appointed for the purpose, and in no other

way.

The means requisite. Here is the turning point in practice; and we shall hope to show what can and should be done

for the spread of peace, along with Christianity, over the whole earth. We shall not abstain from urgent appeals to the patriot and the philanthropist; but we shall address ourselves more especially to Christians, as the chosen co-workers with the God of peace in this great evangelical enterprise, and strive to rivet upon their consciences the obligation of promoting it as a part of their religion, and as absolutely essential to the world's entire and thorough conversion. Here is our strong-hold; and this point we design to discuss more than any other.

Safety of pacific principles. This we fully believe; but the mass of people in Christendom, we presume, are ready to scout the idea as a dream of delusion bordering on madness. The principle of armed self-defence has been tried with a vengeance; and for five thousand years it has filled the earth with carnage, devastation and wo. We can hardly conceive of a

course productive of more mischief; and common sense would decide, that it is high time to try some other expedient for the protection of human rights and interests. No nation has ever yet acted upon the strict principles of peace; but these, wherever put to a fair test by individuals or small communities, have been in every case a much surer defence than the sword. The world has yet to learn the wonderful efficacy of these principles; and we shall bring arguments and facts to prove them, even in their utmost extent, far safer than the present war system founded on the fatal error, that preparation for war is the best means of preventing it; a maxim which occasions fifty wars where it prevents one, and does more than almost all other causes to perpetuate a system which has converted Christendom into a vast amphitheatre of barracks.

Here is a wide range of subjects; and not a few of them are of such importance and magnitude as to require, for their full discussion, volumes instead of brief articles. We commend these topics to the special attention of our correspondents, and solicit their aid in bringing them satisfactorily before the public. We need more space for them than the present size of this work will afford; but we shall take them up as our limits may allow, and the exigences of our cause require. Our

periodical will probably be enlarged as soon as practicable, and perhaps issued once a month; but, for special reasons, no change can well be made before the close of the current

year.

III. REVISED CONSTITUTION.

This will speak for itself; but we cannot refrain from a few words of explanation on the point of its recognising all war as contrary to the spirit of the gospel.

This step is less a change than a distinct avowal of sentiments long cherished. The society has never taken any ground at variance with this position; it has merely left the point for its members to settle, each for himself, in the light of revelation; while the tone of its appeals, the drift of its measures, and the deep-seated convictions of its leading friends, have always been against every species of war as repugnant to the Sermon on the Mount.

In recognising this principle as the basis of our society, we have acted merely as the organs of those who take the deepest interest in the cause of peace. Nearly all its prominent friends, in spite of their own early prejudices, and the force of public opinion, have been brought upon this high ground, not by the ultraism of the age, nor yet by the impulses of a blind or visionary enthusiasm, but by a calm, prayerful examination of the gospel. We have found few persons of lower views that would or could labor in our service with much zeal or success; and the cause has thus been thrown for support upon the advocates of total abstinence from war. Several of the highest ecclesiastical bodies in New England,-Baptists, Congregationalists, Methodists and others,-representing large and very influential portions of the Christian community, have almost unanimously passed resolves, declaring all war contrary to the spirit of the gospel. The same has been done, to some extent, in other parts of our country. Most of the peace

societies, formed within the last year or two, have adopted this principle; and some of them have refused to become auxiliary to us, because we had in our constitution taken no ground on

this vexed question. Not a few of our best friends could not in conscience join a society that did not recognise this principle as its basis; and thus were we driven to the necessity, if we would faithfully represent the best friends of our cause, and insure its continued prosperity through their coöperation, of taking the course we have.

We fully believe, too, that this is the right ground. So we read the gospel; and, if our Saviour did teach the principle of forgiving injuries, of loving even our enemies, and not resisting evil, but overcoming it only with good, as applicable alike to individuals and nations, we cannot be too soon in bringing his whole church upon this high and broad ground of primitive Christianity. It is a momentous question; and it must be decided in the light of the gospel alone, and the result be woven into the character and habits of all that profess to be followers of the Prince of peace.

Nothing short of this can make the peace reform thorough and effectual, or furnish sufficient motives to effort in this cause. If we admit the lawfulness of defensive wars, the staunchest stickler for the present war-system of Christendom will tell us. he asks nothing more, and will urge the plea of self-defence to justify any war that cupidity, ambition or revenge may demand for their gratifiction. There is little need of an association like ours to convince a Christian community that wars of avowed aggression or revenge are utterly wrong; but, if we call upon them to inquire whether the whole war-system in its best form is not rotten to the core, and whether the gospel does not condemn every species of war as a tissue of robbery and murder with which its votaries can consistently have nothing to do in any way, we propose a definite, momentous question to be carried out into practical results extensive as the world, and lasting as time. Decide this question against all war as contrary to the spirit and aims of the gospel; get this principle to be regarded, like repentance or faith, as a part of our religion; and, by thus identifying peace with Christianity, you do all that can be done for the spread of the former co-extensive with the latter. This is just the object of our cause;

« FöregåendeFortsätt »