The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1889-09-11
Wisdom vs.. Weapons of War.

We see that in those communities
where it is usual to carry weapons tt
defend life--as in the Southern States
there are many more lives lost that
those persons who never carry deadly
weapons are scarcely ever murdered
and that the governments that used nc
deadly weapons in enforcing theil
laws, were as we'll Obeyed as those who
nse them, and were more free from
foreign invasion. Under these circum.
stances it does not appear very incon.
sistent with common sense and com.
mon honesty to tell us pompously that
our plans would be sure to fail. Oul
opponents should bring at least one
well attested case of the failure OF
peace principles against the many we
can bring of their success, before com.
ing to SO positive a decision against
them.
Although the majority still refuse to
accept peace principles, yet the mum.
Der who accept them is constantly in.
creasing, and includes some of the
wisest and best of mankind. I will
give quotations from some of them,
and put at the head of list one from
our Saviour himself: my kingdom
is not of this world !; if my kingdom
were of this world then would my ser.
wants fight" ..
Irennus Ca. D. [60) says: "Christ-
ians have changed their swords into
instruments of peace, and they know
not how to fight" .>.
Tertullian "a. D. 1917 says: "Can
one who processes the peaceable doc
trine of the Gospel he a soldier? Je-
sus Christ, by disarming Peter, dis
armed every soldier. afterwards; for
custom can never sanction a wrong
act"
Archbishop Wheatly says: "War
is great disgrace to civilized men and
Christians" :.
Lord Brougham says: II abomin-
ate war as unchristian. I hold it the
greatest of human crimes. deem it
to include all others-violence, blood,
rapine, fraud, everything which can
deform the character, alter the nation,
and debase the name of man."
Southey says whence is it that
wars still disgrace the self-styled
Christian world? 1t is owing to the
doctrine of expediency. If Christ
ians had boldly looked in the face of
their duty, as developed in the New
Testament, this senseless and Internal
system of wholesale >butchery must
long ago have ceased" @~
Soame Jenyns says: "As contrary
as. cruelty is to mercy, tyranny to
charity, so is war and bloodshed to the
meekness and gentleness of the Christ
ian religion"
DR.. Arnold says "Could there by
any possibility have been another war
in the world if we had accepted the
mercies given us? The Sermon on the
Mount cannot be read by any good
man without the strongest feelings of
shame and humiliation for the con-
trast between the picture of Christian
principles there drawn and the reality
he sees around him."
| Chalmers says: "The mere exis-
tence of the prophecy, they shalllearn
war no more is O sentence of con-
demnation on war and stamps GRIM
inality on it's very forehead so soon as
Christianity shall gain full ascen-
dency in the world, from that mom-
ent war disappears"
Robert Hall says: "War is moth
ing less than a temporary repeal of
the principles of virtue. 1t is a sys-
tenn out of which almost all the vir-
| tues are excluded and in which nearly
all the vices are included"
Sydney Smith says !; "The greatest
curse that. can be entailed on mankind
is a state of war. All the atrocious
crimes committed in years of peace,
all that is spent in peace by the secret
corruptions, or by the thoughtless ex-
travagapce of nations, are mere trif1es
compared with the gigantic evils which
stalk over this world in state Of war.
God is forgotten in war, every princi-
pie of Christianity is trampled upon" !"
Adam Clark says: "War is as con-
trary to the spirit of Christianity as
murder. Nothing can justify nations
lin shedding each others blood"
John Wesley says: "Shal Christ
a murderer from the beginning, by
telling the world of the benefit of
war ?"
Theodore Parker says: "War is in
utter violation of Christianity. If
war be right then Christianity is
wrong-false- lie. Buff Christian
ity be true-if reason, conscience. re.
igion, the highest faculties of man
are to be trusted-then war is wrong,
the falsehood, the lie.r
Jacob Abbot says :: "In war the
blood, the agency, the thirst, the
groans are as nothing compared to the
raging fires of hatred, anger, revenge,
and furious passion which nerve every
arm, and boil in every heart, and with
which thousands upon thousands pour
in crowds into the presence of their
Maker. There are what constitute the
reals horrors of battle field"
DR.. Guthrie says: 1--WE talk OF
wild t,easts-we speak of savage an
imals-but when does nature, in her
most savage aspects, present any scene
analogous TO O field of battle? A
thing in truth 80 unnatural is war
that men would stand astonished to
see the brates copy their example ana
outrage nature by so monstrous a SIN.
A battle field were men, brothers-the
children of a common Father-are
met to destroy each other, is the most
revolving and indeed monstrous spect-.
acle this earth offers to the eye OF
God"
DR.. Midhurst says: "There must
be strong connection between the
peace society and missionary eXertions
because war is the principal antagonist
to the circulation Of the gospel"
I will sum up thissubject by quo
tation from A. Barnes, which is as true
as it is forcible:
"There is no one subject on which
men have been more wicked than on