New-York daily tribune., 1844-03-16
From the Boston Christian World.
war Versus Christianity.

BELIEVING in the entire and irreconclable con.
trast between the battlefield and the altar of
Christ would endeavor to make good this unu-
sual position. In doing it, must condense
volume which the subject would require into
three brief first, the prln-
clples secondly, the conduct thirdly, the results,
Of the several warfares of Moloch and Christ.
First, then, the PRINCIPLES Of our warfare, and
that Of military life,-are they the same? Can
we possibly unite them any more than we can
light and darkness, liberty and slavery, heaven
ana hell The maxim Of Christ is Love your
enemy of every military hero, Harm him all
you cam Forgive those who I'M jure you, says
lhe Gospel: You are coward, slave, and
lool, II you do replies the war- code. DO
good TO those who desPlteiully use you cries the
Captain OF our salvation: Send them to hell
Nelson would shout in one of his glorious strug
gles. Bless them that curse you, IS the sweet
music OF our Lords entire life: the dscordant
yell of the battlefield is, Mangle, butcher, ex-
terminate every SHADOW Of foe :.
But enough OF this. Until some one shall be
Qulxotlc enough to question the fact we may
leave 1t as settled about principles; and review,
secondly, the CONDUCT of these two leaders |
take it, every person in this community Will &C
knowledge that Christianity goes on by peace,
order, industry, general virtue, the quiet safety
OF our homes, the entire absence Of every excite
ment of those lusts which war against the soul.
believe that, poor as our present civilization is,
every atom OF It's advance, every new sod it
covers with verdure every fresh sail it spreads to
the breezes of heaven, every quickening pulse it
gives the social life Of man, is SO much gain for
Christianity. On the other hand, | am confident
that the less of all these things community
possesses, the better fitted is it for war the less
property, the less industry, the less temperance,
the less intelligence, the less virtue of every sort
And to prove this, will quote at random a few
military maxlms. a foreign officer of high rank,
travelling not long ago in New-England, re-
marked, This people can never be strong in war.
They are too much educated, too independent,
too happy 10 be run into good soldiers 1t was
Napoleon who said, The worse the man, the
better the soldier and his great antagonist
echoed it, Men with nice notions Of religion
have no business to be soldiers' In fact, the
necessity of this is obvious, when we remember
that in the army there must ever be the most
rigid despotism, the most slavish subserviency,
the most reckless hazard of life, the most unhes-
tating violation Of every law save that of honor.
Robbery, murder, profanity, llcentlousness. and
every thing else that is savage and monstrous,
have hitherto traced the history of great camps
in ire-letters of condemnation.
Thirdly, the Results Of the Christian and
military warfare are as wide asunder as Christ
is from Barabbas. The purpose spirit, natural
effect earthly end of Christianity, is to multiply
every sort OF public blcssing,-plenty, prosperity,
reverence for law, the safety oil life, the estlma
ton OF female character, the appreciation Of duty,
and the hope of Heaven. The natural effect of
war rcverses all this; and gives US, as cannot
show at length poverty in place of wealth, ruin
in room OF prosperity, lntemperance instead OF
self-denial, general contempt for law and life,
for female intercourse and spiritual improvement,
for the commonplace round of social engage
ments, for the gentle restraints Of Christian
principle.
NV limits suffer me to illustrate only one or
two of these tendencies. COMBE's Constitution
of Man. shows that all the over labor and pau
perism of England at the present hour ale caused
by her successful and unsuccessful wars. we
ourselves have squandered IN the same costly
pastime more than eight hundred millions OF
dollars and it is an estimate below the truth that
fourteen thousand millions of human beings
have been swept from the earth by this single
scourge of mankind. At the capture of Magde-
burg, according to SCHILLER, neither the lnno.
CenCe OIL CnlldnOOu, HOI Tic HelpleSSHesS VI oiu
age, at all dsarmcd the conqueror's fury. Wives
were dishonored in their husbands arms; daugh-
tiers at their parents feet. Some Of the soldiers
found their fun in pitching children into the
flames Others in stabbing infants at their moth
ers Breasts The great good accomplished at
so vast a sacrifice was that one of the finest
cities of Europe was left heap of smoking ruins.
On the famous retreat of the French from
Moscow, many and many were they who cried,
Fire on US fire on US! At the head don't
miss!
After the execution of man at Greenbush, in
1914, whose crime was the going home to see
his wife and little children, the soldiers, after
marching around the blackened corpse, singing
Yankee Doodle, went home to exult over the
cold-booded murder in a treat of grog And the
common punishments of soldiers, fiogging the
wooden-horse, the gauntlet, the picket, have a
direct tendency to brutalize their subjects, and
leave them fit only for the penltentiary and the
gallows. AS camp is community where the
moral code of civil life is suspended, where viz
tue is Jest, and murder pastme, the dsband-
ing it's hordes must be- conclude, to scatter fire
brands, arrows and death over an entire land.
F. w. II.
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