ii. 4. _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._
A prediction of times yet to come. It is never yet been fulfilled. It
is true that when the religion of Christ came to the world it came
with the spirit and principles of an all-pacific dispensation (_"On
earth peace, goodwill towards men"_); and true that, in the degree of
its actual prevalence, this has been the effect. But how far is this
from anything adequate to the terms of the prediction, which exhibit
a bright and ample idea of this spirit and tendency of Christianity
realised, reduced to fact, on the great scale!
+I. War has been a prominent character of all ages.+
1. Man, when he came fresh from his Creator's hands, must have had in
his soul the principle of all kind affections (Gen. i. 27), a state
of feeling that would have been struck with horror at the thought of
inflicting suffering. Yet in the first family of man war and
slaughter began. Men may argue and quibble against our notion of
_"the fall,"_ but here was fall enough! and demonstration enough!
2. War prevailed among the antediluvians (Gen. vi. 5, 12). We are
told of some that "became mighty men, men of renown." How? Partly
perhaps in a war against savage beasts, but far more in the exploits
of that "violence" which filled the earth, and doomed it to be
overwhelmed.
3. War prevailed among the race descended from Noah. It was by the
descendants of the only faithful friend and servant of the Almighty
found on earth that the desolated world was to be repeopled, and we
might have hoped for a better race, if human nature were
intrinsically good, or corrigible by the most awful dispensations.
But the Flood could not cleanse the nature of man, nor the awful
memory of it repress the coming forth of selfishness, pride,
ambition, anger, and revenge. (1.) The history of the Jews is to a
large extent a history of wars. (2.) The history of the other races
is a history of their conflicts with each other, of a terrible
process by which the smaller states were absorbed in others, until
they were all included in the Roman empire. How many millions of
human beings were destroyed in the process! (3.) Since that period
the history of the world has been to a large extent written in
blood.[1]
_Reflections:_--1. What a state of the spirit of mankind is here
disclosed to us! 2. What a state of Christianity, or to any real
prevalence of it, among the nations denominated Christian! 3. How
necessary that all religious persons, especially tutors and parents,
should set themselves systematically, as opportunities offer, to
counterwork that maddening enchantment of the "glory" of war; of war
considered merely as the field of great exploits. Let them strive to
break up, in the view of young and ardent minds, this splendid,
pestilent delusion about heroes, conquests, fame, and glory.
+II. War is not necessarily sinful, nor are those engaged in it to be
always condemned.+ Defensive war does not violate Christian
principles. Nay, it is sometimes a duty.[2] An opposite opinion is
held by some who rest on the literal and extreme construction of a
few expressions, such as "Resist not evil," "Give place to wrath,"
"Love your enemies," "To him that smiteth thee on one cheek, turn
also the other." These interdict revenge. But their unqualified
literal interpretation requires that Christianity should subject
mankind universally to the unrestrained will of whoever is the most
unjust and wicked; should teach that so long as there are men who
have more of Satan and Moloch in them than the rest, and are intent
on practicing oppression and cruelty, it is the absolute duty of
Christians, as such, individually and nationally, to let them do
it,--at least rather than resist them in such a way as to endanger
their persons. This would be a delightful doctrine to all the
tyrants, bigots, slave-drivers, robbers, and murderers! But the
magistrate is not _so_ to leave the matter to God's disposal, or to
refrain from using the "sword" against the doers of evil. And the
government of a nation is but a magistracy on a large scale.
But those principles upon which a Christian casuist would justify
war, under certain possible circumstance, would not justify perhaps
one in twenty of the wars that have been waged. Very rare has been
the instance of a war, on either side, strictly and purely defensive,
of either the nation itself or any other endangered or oppressed
people depending on its protection. Hence--
+III. We rejoice over this prediction that war is to cease on the
earth.+
1. This prediction spreads a visionary sense before us so new,
strange, and delightful, that nothing but prophecy, and faith in the
Divine power and goodness, could enable us to expect its
realisation.[3]
2. It is difficult to conceive the practicability of its attainment.
For it is something intrinsic in the soul and nature of man,
throughout the whole race, that war has sprung from. _There_ is the
hot and terrible element that has burst abroad in so many thunders.
And yet is it _man_ that is to be universally at peace! How can it
be? (2 Kings vii. 2). Vicious selfishness, ambition, envy, rivalry,
rapacity, revenge, these are the things in men that cause wars
between them, on the small scale and the great. How can these ever be
so repressed, subdued, extirpated, that all war shall cease?