WAR.

Aotearoa, or the Maori Recorder, Volume 1, Issue 1, 1 January 1861, Page 16

WAR.

• • War is an evil of no ordinary magnitude in whatever aspect it is viewed: The boasted glory which .attends a signal victory, is worse than a shadow, and' amounts simply to this, that a certain mass of matter, consisting of flesh and blood, succeeded in hewing to pieces so.. many bodies made of the same perishable material. - We can discover neither honour or glory, here; it is brute force agaist brute force, gun against gun, or spear against spear. All barbarous nations delight in war, and wherefore ? “ They are led cap* tive by the.devil at his will” and the, arch enemy will ever maintain extraordinary influence over mankind while he can keep up the thirst for war, at the same time he artfully conceals from the contending parties the solemn fact, that “ no murderer shall inherit the kingdom of God.” It may be urged that the Jews of old were not only permitted to go to war, but commanded. True; but ever since the fall, sin has polluted the atmosphere of this world, and the Divine Being uses many means in order to punish the impenitent and disobedient. Sometimes he causes a flood to overwhelm the guilty inhabitants of the earth. Fire and brimstone, pestilence, or famine, are the agents employed at other times, and not unfrequently a devastating war is permitted, carrying off its thousands, and tens of thousands. ■ Moreover, God’s command to the Jews under the Mosaic dispensation is no argument at all. The question is whether we have been commanded to go to war, or whether, under the brighter and more glorious dispensation .of the Gospel, we have not been strictly forbidden to raise tjie strong arm ? Hear the words of Divine truth—“ Put up thy sword into its ; sheath.—Resist not evil 1 whosoever shall smite thee on the right cheek turn to.’him. the other also.-r^Yengeance is mine, I will repay saith the Lord.” 'hj _ -

War is not a necessary evil as' many assert,' it is the outbreak ofungoverm ; able passion, and until men learn to conquer the evils of their nature, war must continue. Civilization has achieved much, nor may its advantages bo easily numbered; but it has no power to stem the torrent of iniquity which is being poured forth from every unregenerate heart. Christianity alone can calm the tumultuous sea of human strife; when nations, therefore, become wholly Christian, the “ sword will be beat “ into ploughshares, and the spear into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.’’ This Will be so in the Millennium, forthey shall not hurt nor destroy In all my holy mountain but it might be so now.