The daily morning journal and courier., 1897-12-20
A PASTORS PLEA FOR PEACE
REP. DR. M'LANE'S SERMON AT
 PLTMOUIH CHURCH.

Doubtful Advantages of War-Its Cause to
 be Fouud in the Character of NIen-Cos
 of Wars One of Worlds Great Burdens,
 as Witness Standing Armies of Europe
 Pensions and Public Debt ofU.s.
 At Plymouth church this morning the
 pastor Rev. Dr, McLane, set forth the
 blessings of peace and the evils of war
 in a noble and practical sermon. He
 spoke on the subject "A Plea for
 Peace,' in substance as follows:
 The American Peace society has is
 sued a request to the pastors of the churches to preach on the third Sun day of December against war and in
 faNor of peace, In compliance with
 this request I shall make to-day plea
 Tor peace. I have selected two texts:
 The Lord is a man of war Exodus | AFo g. He-the Lord of hosts-maketh wars to cease until the end of the earth;
 lie breaketh the bow and cutteth the l spear in sunder; He burneth the char | lot Tn the tire.'-Psalm XLVI, 9.
 These two texts which are not dec l larations that God has made respecting Himself but declarations which men have made concerning Him, depend, like many other human declarations upon the time and place and point of view of the author. Even a declaration which God makes of Himself is affected by the mind of the men to whom He makes 1t. When He declared Himself as the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, there were men of Israel who accepted that truth but inferred that He was not the God of other nations. That is to say, they limited God along the lines of their own imagination. In like manner, the victories which Israel won, and won, too under divine pro- lection, would lead them to speak of God as God of war. Perhaps this an cient description of God does not com mend itself to the pacific mind of a peaceful age. But it must be remember cd that 1t was sung by Moses and Mir jam on the shores of the Red sea whan they had just escaped from bondage and been delivered from Pharaoh's pur- suing army and had seen the horse and his rider swept away by the waves of the sea. And they gave God the praise of their victory. There have been many times since when men have done the same thing.
 When in 15SS Philip II of Spain sent the invfncible armada of 13O vessels to invade England and to overthrow Pro- testantism and two successive storms scattered his fleet the people of Eng land felt that the lord was a man of war and was on their side.
 When Cromwell sregiment-the Iron sides-in 1850 went into the battles of Marston Moor and Dunbar singing the sixty-eigth psalm, 'Ler God arise; let His enemies be scattered' they un- | doubtedly thought that the Lord was on their side.
 When generation ago a line of flame and smoke swept along the south- ern border of our northern states and the people of the north were praying | for victory, we thought the Lord was a | man of war and was on our side
 That is to say, men have felt in the | conflicts between nations that. some | how, the Lord was on the side of the oppressed rather than on the side of the oppressors, on the side of freedom and | liberty and righteousness.
 But along with this opinion there | has been among men the growing con | viction that God is not a man of war, | and that His relation to war is not | casual, but only one of control and di- | rectton in the way of ultimate issues | just as He controls and overrules all l evil
 Even the Israelites came to see and | hold this truth as the self-revelation of | God which He made to them gave them i q larger and more accurate conception | of God. Hence the psamist sang, He | maketh the wars to cease unto the end | of the earth. And Hosea says by the | spirit of the Lord, T will break the | sword and the battle out of the earth. and will make them to lie down safe ly. And Isaiah behoding the vision of | peace lying beyond the confusion and | blood of battle fields says, They shall | beat their swords into pIOWshares. and | their spears into pruning hooks; na- tion shall not lift up sword against na- ton, neither shall they learn war any more And Zachariah shouts in Mes sianic promise, Rejoice greatly. o l daughter of Zion; shout, o daughter of Jerusalem; behold thy king cometh | unto thee; He is just and having sal walton; lowly and riding upon an ass and a colt, the foa1 of an ass And He shall speak peace unto the heather, and His dominion shall be from sea to Sea, and from the river even to the ends of the earth
 Jesus told His disciples that they should hear of wars and rumors of wars and that they were not to be terrified thereby, but He did not tell them that they should engage in war to bring His kingdom. He did tell them that all they who take the sword shall per sh by the sword. The issues of wars have sometimes been good and they have served, incidentally, to promote
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