Vermont telegraph. [volume] (Brandon [Vt.]) 1828-1843, 1836-02-11
A SOLEMN APPEAL


I'm FAVOR OF THE CAUSE OF PEACE.
SEC. l3. Christians ought to labor and
pray forth abolition of WAR, because
q. God has promised to cro1cn their LaborS
aeitk SUccsSS. ~-.. +
food had not promised that the time
should come when the nations should
learn war no more, ] should never have I
made the attempt to call the attention of
christians to this object, which, without
such promises, should never have tho't !
attainable But | have fun faith in the |
"sure word Of prophecy" which at the |
same time it foretells the advent Of the
Prince of Peace, foretells that the religion
he would introduce, when rightly under
stood and practiced, would forever abolish
war among his disciples, and finally thro'
out the whole earth and when | see that
the precepts he taught do indeed virtually
forbid war, cannot doubt that the prophe-
cies will begin to be fulfilled, as soon as
his church shall undertake the work.
The prophecies which foretell the abo-
lition Of war, are too numerous to be trans
ferred to a periodical publication; oreven
to refer to all of them. | will therefore
barely mention Isaiah ii. 2 to 4, and xi.
too, Hosea IL rs, and Micah iv. l to A,
which closes thus " and they shall beat
their swords into ploughshares and their
spears into pruning hooks, nation shall
not lift UP sword against nation, neither
shall they learn war any more, but they
shall sit every man under his vine and fig
tree and none shall make them afraid for
the mouth of the Lord of hosts hath spoken
IT." Now, who is there that will dare to
doubt the word efthe Lord, when enforced
by 50 solemn an asseverationl But are
we to suppose that, because God has
promised these things, we may fold our
hands inindolence and look on with indif-
ference and see thousands and millions OF
our fellow creatures consigned to endless
perdition by the delusion Of war, and do
nothing to dispel it--not even pray that
christians may be enlightened2. Were
the prophecies given Us to make US lndo-
lent We do not reason so on any other
subject. God has promised to give his
Son the heather for his inheritance" SO
far is this from preventing our prayers
and labors to convert the heather, it is the
very reason that we give for our exertions
4. BY what strange fatality is it, that chris
tians look to heather lands and neglect
Christendom-that they labor with laud
able zeal to convert the heather, while
they leave the greatest obstacle to theil
conversion untouchedi We pray for the
success Of missions, but alas how few
pray that the horrible custom of wal
among christians, which prevents the ad
vancement Of the religion of the gospel
We both at home and abroad, should be abol
ished s.s... -
aAh! but, SAY some christians, "war
viii be abolished when the millennium
comes and not before; let us labor to max,
all men christians and we need not troubl,
ourselves about universal peace-that vii
come of course" This is making caus
and effect to change places. AS wei
might the husbandman say in the spring
"Ineed not trouble myself about planting
corn, l shall have crop when the han
: vest comes, for God has promised ths
seed time harvest shall not fail" w
can hardly suppose that any man coul
!. be 90 foolish, bun it is Just the way man
people reason with respect to war. The
donot reason SO on any other subject
They do not say that when the milieniur
comes alImen viii betemperate, and slav,
- ny will cease. They do not saw LET i,
temperance. and slavery alone until n
millennium but their conduct does. Writ,
ally, say, let christians continue to kin on
another, and glory in il, until the millen
um 80. --.
5 But instead of saying, wars cam
cease until the millennium is ushered i
the friends Of peace say, that the miller
um can never come until wars cease. Il
- rs morally impossible that heather natiOl
3 can be converted, to any great exter
while christian nations continue the Gu
J tom Of war. This Achan in rour cam
paralizes all tho ckertions Of our mission
~ armies. Tits the scoff and seorn of II
Jew, the Stumbling block of the beatbe
andthe taunt ofthe Mussulman. "Wb
do you come here Wolfe o. said Jew
that missionary in Jerusalem. At
prcach the gospel Of peaee,'' repli,
Wolfe Peace!" retorted the Je,
Look then a, Calvary, where your d
s.a#-HesF ~ =. ~ k 49,