Semi-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1853-18??, 1864-10-18
PORTRAITURE OF WAR.

O tell me, if there be any relentings of
pity in your bosom, how could YOU endure
it, to behold the agonies Of the dying man,
as, goaded by pain, he grasps the cold
ground with convulsive energy, Or, faint
with the loss of blood, his pulse GIBBS low,
and the gathering paleness spreads itself
over his countenance-or wrapping HIM
self around in despair, ne can only mark,
by few feeble quiveringS, that life still
turks and fingers in his lacerated body
or lifting mp fading eye, he casts on you
n look Of imploring helplessness, tor that
81 ccor which which no sympathy can yield
him? 1t nay lie painful to dwell on such
q representation-bu this is the way in
which the cause of humanity is served -
The eye of the sentimentaiiS: turns away
from its sutferings and he passes by on the
other side, lest he hear that pleading voice.
which is armed with tone OF remon-
STRANGE so vigorous as to disturb him. He
cannot bear thus to pause, in imagination,
on the distressing picture of one individ-
ual; bat multiply it ten thousand times
say, how much Of this distress has been
heaped together upon single field
give us the arithmetic Of this accu-
lnulated wrctchedness, and lay it before
US with all the accuracy Of an official COM
puta;ion: and, strange to tell, not one
sigh is lifted up among the crowd Of eager
listeners. As they stand on tiptoe, and catch
every svIlabic OF utterance which is read
to them ont of the register of death. Oh!
say, what mystic spell is that which so
blinds US to the suffering of our brethren-
which deaiens to our ear the voice OF
bleeding humanity, when it is aggravated
by the shricks Of diving thousands-whi
makes the very magnitude of the slaugh
ter throw sottening disguise over its CRU
elites and its horrors-whch causes us 20
eye with Indifference the field that is
crowded viii the most revolving abomin-
atoms, and arrests that sigh which each
individual would singly have drawn from
us, 10y the report OF the many who have
fallen and breahcd their last i'll agony
along with him?
When | think that the Christians, even
Of the great world, form but very little
flock, and that ALI army is not a prOpitiOus
soil for the growth of Christian principle
when think on the character of one such
army, that had been led on for years by a
ruffian ambition, and been Injured to scenes
of barbaritv. and had gathered most fe
IOCtOuS
enterprises OF violence to which an I'M
principled commader had carried them
when follow them to the field Of battle,
aud further think that, on both sides of an
eyasperated contest, the gCntleness of
Christianity can have. no =! lace in almost
any bosonI-but that nearly every heart
is lighted up with fury, and hreathes a
Yindctive purpose againsta brother OF tlIc
species, cannot but reckon it among the
most fearful Of the ca'amiie5 Of war, that
while the work Of death is ,thickenin9
aiony it's ranks, 50 many disembodcd Spir-
its should pass into the presence Of Him
who stteth upon the throne, in such
preparation.
l have no time and assurcdly as little
taste, for eEpatiating upon topic SO mel
anchoIy, nor Gin afford at present to set
before yon vivid picture Of the other
miseries which war carries in its train
how it de8olates every country through
which it rolls, and spreads violation and
alarm iii lis viiiages-how, at It's approach,
every home p"nrs forth it's trembling fl
gitivr-hnw all the rights of property and
all the provisions Of justice must give way
',etore its devouring eyactionS-- how, when
Sabbath comes, nn SaJbatii Charm comes
along with it-and for the sound of the
church. bell. which WAS wont to spread its
music 0ycY some fine landscape Of nature
and sumInon rustic worshippers to the
house of prayer, nothing ~ heard but the
.ualhful vulicys Of the battle, and tile mad
d'ning cutlery of intnriaed men how, as
the fruit of victory, an unprincipled l"on-