An Inquiry Into the Accordancy of War with the Principles of Christianity

resistance, or noncompliance, the apostles themselves practised. On this point we should be distinctly understood. We are not so inconsistent as to recommend a civil war, in order to avoid a foreign one⁠—Refusal to obey is the final duty of Christians.

We think, then, that it is the business of every man, who believes that war is inconsistent with our religion, respectfully, but steadfastly, to refuse to engage in it. Let such as these remember that an honorable and an awful duty is laid upon them. It is upon their fidelity, so far as human agency is concerned, that the cause of peace is suspended. Let them then be willing to avow their opinions and to defend them. Neither let them be contented with words, if more than words, if suffering also, is required. It is only by the unyielding perseverance of good that corruption can be extirpated. If you believe that Jesus Christ has prohibited slaughter, let not the opinion or the commands of a world induce you to join it. By this “steady and determinate pursuit of virtue,” the benediction which attaches to those who hear the sayings of God and do them, will rest upon you, and the time will come when even the world will honor you, as contributors to the work of human reformation.

Endnotes

1. Paley’s Moral and Political Philosophy. ↩

2. Knox’s Essays, No. 34. ↩

3. History of Scotland. ↩

4. Lord Clarendon’s Essays. ↩

5. Knox’s Essays. ↩

6. Lord Clarendon’s Essays. ↩

7. These observations apply also to the naval profession; but I have in this passage, as in some other parts of the Essay, mentioned only soldiers, to prevent circumlocution. ↩

8. Dr. Paley. ↩

9. “Christianity quite annihilates the disposition for martial glory.”

   —⁠Bishop Watson

   ↩

10. Acts 20:22. ↩

11. We know that there may be, and have been, cases in which the soldier possesses purer motives. An invasion may rouse the national patriotism and arm a people for the unmingled purpose of defending themselves. Here is a definite purpose, a purpose which every individual understands and is interested in: and if he die under such circumstances, we do not deny that his motives are patriotic. The actions to which they prompt, are, however, a separate consideration, and depend for their qualities on the rectitude of war itself. Motives may be patriotic, when actions are bad. I might, perhaps, benefit my country by blowing up a fleet, of which the cargo would injure our commerce. My motive may be patriotic, but my action is vicious. It is not sufficiently borne in mind, that patriotism, even much purer than this, is not necessarily a virtue. “Christianity,” says Bishop Watson, “does not encourage particular patriotism, in opposition to general benignity.” And the reason is easy of discovery. Christianity is designed to benefit, not a community, but the world. If it unconditionally encouraged particular patriotism, the duties of a subject of one state would often be in opposition to those of a subject of another. Christianity, however, knows no such inconsistencies; and whatever patriotism, therefore, is opposed, in its exercise, to the general welfare of mankind, is, in no degree, a virtue. ↩

12. “The Sentiments Proper to the Crisis.”⁠—A Sermon, preached October 19th, 1803, by Robert Hall, A.M. ↩

13. Nor is the preacher inconsistent with Apostles alone. He is also inconsistent with himself. In another discourse, delivered in the preceding year, he says: “The safety of nations is not to be sought in arts or in arms. War reverses, with respect to its objects, all the rules of morality. It is nothing less than a temporary repeal of all the principles of virtue. It is a system, out of which almost all the virtues are excluded, and in which nearly all the vices are incorporated. In instructing us to consider a portion of our fellow-creatures as the proper objects of enmity, it removes, as far as they are concerned, the basis of all society, of all civilization and virtue; for the basis of these, is the good will due to every individual of the species.”⁠—“Religion,” then, we are told, “sheds its selectest influence over that which repeals all the principles of virtue”⁠—over that “in which nearly all the vices are incorporated!” What “religion” it is which does this, I do not know⁠—but I know that it is not the religion of Christ. Truth never led into contradictions like these. Well was it said that we cannot serve two masters. The quotations which we have given, are evidence sufficient that he who holds with the one neglects the other. ↩

14. Decline and Fall. ↩

15. Essay on the Freedom of Wit and Humor. ↩

16. History of Brazil. ↩

17. See “the Inquiry,” etc. ↩

18. Lord Clarendon’s Essays. ↩

19. Lord Clarendon’s Essays. ↩

20. Life of Bishop Watson. ↩

21. Life of Bishop Watson. ↩

22. Southey’s History of Brazil. ↩

23. Essays. ↩

24. “Even thinking men, bewildered by the various and contradictory systems of moral judgment adopted by different ages and nations, have doubted the existence of any real and permanent standard, and have considered it as the mere creature of habit and education.”88⁠—How has the declaration been verified⁠—“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise!” ↩

25. I refer, of course, to those questions of morality which are not specifically decided. ↩

26. Matthew 5, etc. ↩

27. Matthew 5:28. ↩

28. Matthew 5:22. ↩

29. Yet the retention of both has been, unhappily