Part 3 (1/2)
Property is what a great proportion of mankind are struggling to obtain, and many at the hazard of their lives. Though in some instances they may misuse it, yet it is the gift of G.o.d, and when made subservient to more important things, it may be a blessing to individuals and communities.
It has in it, therefore, a real value, and ought not to be wantonly destroyed while it may be used as an instrument for benefiting mankind.
It is a notorious fact that war does make a great destruction of property. Thousands of individuals on sea and on land lose their all, for the acquisition of which they may have spent the prime of their lives. s.h.i.+ps on the high seas are taken, often burnt or scuttled, and valuable cargoes sent to the bottom of the deep, some possibly laden with the necessaries of life and bound to ports where the innocent inhabitants were in a state of famine. Whole countries are laid waste by only the pa.s.sing of an immense army: houses are defaced, furniture broken to pieces, the stores of families eaten up, cornfields trodden down, fences torn away and used for fuel, and everything swept in its train as with the besom of destruction more terrible to the inhabitants than the storms of heaven when sent in judgment. Beautiful towns are often literally torn to pieces with shot and sh.e.l.ls. Venerable cities, the labor and pride of ages, are buried in ashes amid devouring flames, while in melancholy grandeur the fire and smoke rise to heaven and seem to cry for vengeance on the destroyers.
Notwithstanding an avaricious individual or nation may occasionally in war acquire by plunder from their brethren a little wealth, yet they usually lose on the whole more than they gain. On the general scale the loss is incalculable. It is not my object to examine the subject in relation to any particular nation or war, but upon the general scale in application to all warlike nations and all wars under the light of the gospel.
If war does destroy property, reduce individuals to beggary, and impoverish nations, then it is unwise to engage in it.
IV. WAR IS UNWISE, AS IT IS DANGEROUS TO THE LIBERTIES OF MEN
Liberty is the gift of G.o.d, and ought to be dear to every man; not, however, that licentious liberty which is not in subordination to his commands. Men are not independent of G.o.d. He is their creator, preserver, and benefactor. In his hand their breath is, and he has a right to do what he will with his own; and the Judge of all the earth will do right. As man is not the creator and proprietor of man, he has no right to infringe on his liberty or life without his express divine command; and then he acts only as the executor of G.o.d. Man, therefore, bears a very different relation to G.o.d from what he does to his fellow-man.
The whole system of war is tyrannical and subversive of the fundamental principles of liberty. It often brings the great ma.s.s of community under the severe bondage of military despotism, so that their lives and fortunes are at the sport of a tyrant. Where martial law is proclaimed, liberty is cast down, and despotism raises her horrid ensign in its place and fills the dungeons and scaffolds with her victims.
Soldiers in actual service are reduced to the most abject slavery, not able to command their time for a moment, and are constantly driven about like beasts by petty tyrants. In them is exhibited the ridiculous absurdity of men rus.h.i.+ng into bondage and destruction to preserve or acquire their liberty and save their lives.
When the inhabitants of a country are cruelly oppressed by a despotic government, and they rise in ma.s.s to throw off the yoke, they are as often as otherwise crushed beneath the weight of the power under which they groaned, and then their sufferings are greatly increased; and if they gain their object after a long and sanguinary struggle, they actually suffer more on the whole than they would have suffered had they remained in peace. It is generally the providence of G.o.d, too, to make a people who have thrown off the yoke of their oppressor smart more severely under the government of their own choice than they did under the government which they destroyed. This fact ought well to be considered by every one of a revolutionary spirit.
War actually generates a spirit of anarchy and rebellion which is destructive to liberty. When the inhabitants of a country are engaged in the peaceable employments of agriculture, manufactures, and commerce, anarchy and rebellion seldom happen. When these useful employments flourish, abundance flows in on every side, gentleness and humanity cast a smile over the land, and pleasure beams in almost every countenance.
To turn the attention of a nation from these honest employments to _that of war_ is an evil of unspeakable magnitude. The great object in times of war is to rouse up what is styled the spirit of the country,--which, in fact, is nothing but inflaming the most destructive pa.s.sions against its own peace and safety. If you infuse into a nation the spirit of war for the sake of fighting a foreign enemy, you do that which is often most dangerous to its own liberties; for if you make peace with the common enemy, you do not destroy the spirit of war among your own inhabitants; pride, discontent, and revenge will generally agitate the whole body, so that anarchy and confusion will fill the land, and nothing but a despotic power can restrain it; and often absolute despotism is too feeble to withstand it, and the only remedy is again to seek a common enemy. Nations have sometimes waged war against other nations because there was such a spirit of war among their own inhabitants that they could not be restrained from fighting, and if they had not a common foe they would fight one another. So when a nation once unsheathes the sword, it cannot easily return the sword again to the scabbard, but must keep it crimsoned with the blood of man until ”they who take the sword shall perish with the sword,” agreeably to the denunciation of Heaven.
To inflame a mild republic with the _spirit of war_ is putting all its liberties to the utmost hazard, and is an evil that few appear to understand or appreciate. No person can calculate the greatness of the evil to transform the citizens of a peaceful, industrious republic into a band of furious soldiers; and yet the unhappy policy of nations is to cultivate a martial spirit that they may appear grand, powerful, and terrific, when in fact they are kindling flames that will eventually burn them up root and branch.
In confirmation of what has been said, if we examine the history of nations we shall find that they have generally lost their liberties in consequence of the spirit and practice of war. Thus have republics who have boasted of their freedom lost their liberty one after another, and that this has resulted from the very nature of war and its inseparable evils is evident from the fact that so violent and deadly is this current of ruin, republics have generally sunk down to the lowest abyss of tyranny and despotism, or have been annihilated and their inhabitants scattered to the four winds of heaven. Indeed, what nation that has become extinct did not first lose its liberty by war, and then hasten to its end under the dominion of those pa.s.sions which war inflames?
Do nations ever enjoy so much liberty as when most free from the spirit of war? Are their liberties ever so little endangered as when this spirit is allayed and all its foreign excitements removed? Do not nations that have partially lost their civil liberties gradually regain them in proportion as they continue long without war? Is it not a common sentiment that the liberties of a people are in danger when war engrosses their attention? On the whole, is it not undeniable that peace is favorable to liberty, and that war is its enemy and its ruin? If so, what can be more unwise, what more opposite to every dictate of sound wisdom and policy, than the spirit and practice of war?
V. WAR IS UNWISE, AS IT DIMINISHES THE HAPPINESS OF MANKIND
Happiness is the professed object which most men are striving to obtain.
Alas! few, comparatively, seek it where it is alone to be found. But that happiness which flows from the benevolent spirit of the gospel is to be prized far above rubies; it is a treasure infinitely surpa.s.sing anything that can be found merely in riches, honors, and pleasures.
But war always diminishes the aggregate of happiness in the world. When nations wage war upon each other, all cla.s.ses of their inhabitants are more or less oppressed. They are subjected to various privations; prosperity declines; external sources of happiness are mostly dried up; anxiety for friends, loss of relations, loss of property, the fear of pillage, severe services, great privations, and the dread of conquest keep them constantly distressed. They are like the troubled sea that cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt.
Those actually engaged in war generally suffer privations and hards.h.i.+ps of the severest kind. Even the sage counselors who declare wars are often in so great anxiety and pain as to the result of their enterprises as to be unable quietly to refresh themselves with food or sleep.
All the rejoicings occasioned by military success are fully counterbalanced by the pain and mortification of the vanquished; and, in short, all the interest and happiness resulting from war to individuals and nations are dearly bought, and are at the expense of other individuals and nations.
It is because war has no tendency to increase, but does in fact greatly diminish, happiness that it is so universally regarded and lamented as the greatest evil that visits our world. Hence fasting has generally been practiced by warlike Christian nations to deplore the calamity, to humble themselves before G.o.d, and to supplicate his mercy in turning away the judgment.
Though fasting and deep humility before G.o.d is highly suitable for sinners, with a hearty turning away from their sins and humble supplication for G.o.d's mercy through the mediation of Christ, yet those fasts of nations who have voluntarily engaged in war and are determined to prosecute it until their l.u.s.ts and pa.s.sions are gratified do not appear to be such fasts as G.o.d requires.
Does it not appear absurd for nations voluntarily to engage in war, and then to proclaim a fast to humble themselves before G.o.d for its evils, while they have no desire to turn away from them, but, on the contrary, make it an express object to seek the divine aid in a.s.sisting them successfully to perpetuate it?
We often see contending nations, all of whom cannot be right, on any principle, proclaiming fasts, and chanting forth their solemn _Te Deums_ as each may occasionally be victorious. Though such clas.h.i.+ng hymns cannot mingle in the golden censer, yet few Christians seem to question the propriety of quarreling and fighting nations each in their turn supplicating aid in their unhallowed undertakings and returning thanks in case of success. Doubtless many would consider it as solemn mockery to see two duelists before their meeting supplicating G.o.d's blessing and protection in the hour of conflict, and then to see the victor returning thanks for his success in shedding the blood of his brother; and yet, when nations carry on the business by wholesale (if I may be allowed the expression) it is considered a very pious employment. The Lord has said, ”And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear; your hands are full of blood.”
Penitent Christians may weep and mourn with propriety for their own sins and the sins of the nations, with a hearty desire not only to forsake their own iniquities, but that the nations may be brought to confess and forsake their sins and turn from them to the living G.o.d. It is true that war is a judgment in G.o.d's providence. It is also a sin of the highest magnitude and ought to be repented of. It is a crime so provoking to Heaven that other calamities generally attend it. The famine, fire, and pestilence often attend its horrors and spread distress through a land.