TESTIMONIES AGAINST WAR. and prosperity of nations, and carries an absurdity in the very idea of it." FRANKLIN was a staunch opposer of the war system:—“I have been apt to think," he says, "there never has been, nor ever will be, any such thing as a good war, or a bad peace. All wars are follies, very expensive, and very mischievous ones. We daily make great improvements in natural philosophy; there is one I wish to see in moral-the discovery of a plan that would induce and oblige nations to settle their disputes without first cutting one another's throats." POETS, LITERARY MEN, &c. VOLTAIRE, speaking of the causes of war, says :-" A hundred thousand mad animals, whose heads are covered with hats, advance to kill or be killed by a like number of their fellow-mortals covered with turbans. By this strange procedure, they want at best to decide whether a tract of land, to which none of them have any claim, shall belong to a certain man whom they call Sultan, or to another whom they call Czar, neither of whom ever saw, or will see, the spot so furiously contended for, and very few of these creatures who thus butcher each other. What an excess of madness!" SOAME JENYNS.-"If Christian nations were nations of christians, all war would be impossible and unknown among them." ROBERT SOUTHEY." Whence is it that wars still disgrace the self-styled christian world? It is owing to the doctrine of expedience. If christians had boldly looked in the face their duty, as developed in the New Testament, this senseless and infernal system of wholesale butchery must, long ago, have ceased." DOUGLAS JERROLD.-"What a fine-looking thing is war! Yet dress it as one may, dress and feather it, daub it with gold, huzza it, and sing swaggering songs about it, what is it, nine times out of ten, but murder in uniform-Cain taking the sergeant's shilling?" BURRITT." War is an organized outrage upon all the attributes of God. It is a combined effort of part of the human family to dethrone Him, and trample upon His laws. It is guilty of a spirit that would set the universe on fire with malignant passions, and fill it with anarchy and unsparing carnage, Carried out to its legitimate end, it would break peace in heaven TESTIMONIES AGAINST WAR. and fill the invisible world with maddened spirits, bent on mutual murder, and breathing curses upon themselves and their Maker." WARRIORS. The testimony of a warrior against his own occupation is like the concessions of an enemy, or the confession of a criminal; yet we have many such testimonies, from which we can only select the following: Prince EUGENE.—" A military man becomes so sick of bloody scenes in war, that in peace he is averse to re-commence them. I wish that the first minister who is called to decide on peace and war, had only seen actual service. What pains would he not take to seek, in mediation and compromise, the means of avoiding the effusion of so much blood!" FREDERIC THE GREAT.-"I consider no conquest I ever made worth one year's interest of the money it cost." : Lord RODNEY, in speaking of the horrors of war, says:"I wish I had the eloquence of Tully to set them in such a true and forcible light as to melt the rulers of the earth, and to make statesmen consider well what they are doing when they involve their fellow-creatures in war." The BUONAPARTE family was a nursery of warriors, yet Napoleon himself, in moments of chagrin and serious reflection, denounced war as "the business of barbarians," and declared that "the worse the man, the better the soldier." And Louis BUONAPARTE, after years of experience and reflection, says :"I still think, that war is but organized barbarism, an inheritance of the savage state, disguised or ornamented by ingenious institutions and false eloquence." The Duke of WELLINGTON, a few years since, in speaking on the case of Sir Peregrine Maitland, who resigned his post of commander of the British forces at Madras, rather than wound his conscience by countenancing Hindoo idolatry, told the House of Peers that Sir Peregrine Maitland did right (to resign), and said that “ men who have nice notions about religion, have no business to be soldiers." We hope the pithy and just sentiment of the Duke will soon become generally acknowledged, and may the day speedily arrive when all those who have nice notions about religion will not only cease to be soldiers, but cease in any way to support so unchristian a practice. ANECDOTES, SELECTIONS, AND GEMS. Poetry. "SCATTER THOU THE PEOPLE THAT DELIGHT IN WAR." LET the loud cannon cease to roar, The warlike trump no longer sound; The din of arms be heard no more, Nor human blood pollute the ground. Let hostile troops drop from their hands Let Peace descend with balmy wing; Thy blessings, Lord, on all men shed; Their souls all fed with heavenly bread. Anecdotes, Selections, and Gems. BLESSINGS OF PEACE.-To Peace we are indebted for cities lit with gas and rivers alive with steam. To Peace we owe the locomotive and the telegraph, which have made the British towns one capital, and remotest provinces the enclosing park. To Peace our thanks are due for food without restriction, and intercourse without expense; for journeys without fatigue, and operations without pain; cheap correspondence and cheap corn. And to the same bounteous source, or rather to the Giver of Peace and of every perfect gift, we stand beholden for the hundred expedients which now combine to make life longer and more happy. But far better than such material boons, are the social and moral blessings which have followed in the train of Peace. It has given us leisure to review our position, and has not only revealed but remedied some of its worst evils. It has enabled us to emancipate our slaves, and it has shortened the hours of factory labour. It has so enlarged the franchise that no frugal citizen need despair of attaining it, and it has given to public opinion a legislative power which it never knew before. It has revised our criminal jurisprudence, and has expunged from the statute-book the greater number of its sanguinary laws. And it has lately been turning a benevolent eye towards the abodes and occupations of the poor, and has sought to give the sons of toil cheerful amusements and salubrious dwellings. And by removing taxes on knowledge, and by improvements in printing, it has made the newspaper a familiar visiter of cottages, and has rendered Bibles and Testaments as cheap as loaves of bread. The Happy Home. ANECDOTES, SELECTIONS, AND GEMS. Selections. BEAR ANOTHER'S BURDENS.-"Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness: considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted." Was not Christ forgiving and meek, and condescending, and tender, and patient, and compassionate ?-so should his disciples be. We are not perfect ourselves, nor should we expect perfection in our brethren. They are men, not angels, nor yet spirits of just men made perfect. The day of small things is not to be despised. The broken reed is not to be crushed. If we are strong, we must bear the infirmities of our weaker brethren. Our Lord taught his disciples as they were able to bear it. The way to conquer is to love. To be beloved we must love. It is the law of kindness that recalls the erring. The feeble-minded must be comforted; the weary must be refreshed; and straight paths made for the feet of the lame, lest they be turned out of the way. Our mission in the world is not to consume, but heal and save. Vengeance belongeth only to the Lord. Oh! that christians would all follow Christ in truth. Then, beholding, as in a glass, His glory, they should be changed into the same image from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord. LOVE, JOY, HOPE, FAITH-these are graces of the Spirit, and under their powerful and combined influence, the Apostle was caught up, as it were, into the third heaven, and scarcely knew whether he was "in the body, or out of the body." With the same Spirit, the first martyr, Stephen, when he was stoned, saw heaven open to receive him. With the same Spirit, the apostles in prison sang praises to God at midnight. With the same Spirit, Daniel found the lion's den a paradise, and the three children in the burning fiery furnace found no hurt; yea, they found Christ, the Son of Man, walking with them, and they had far better company in the furnace than the king who put them there, possessed in his palace. They had a good conscience, they had a hope full of immortality. JAMES SHORE. THE RELIGION OF JESUS is that of love, of unity, of concord. Offences among brethren destroy the harmony and love of their fellowship, and if these be not restored, but too sure proof is given that the love of God never had its residence in their midst. The mind, and temper, and spirit of a man, as they appear in his actings with fellow-men, are but a transcript of what that mind, and temper, and spirit, will be in eternity. Are there offences in heaven? Is unforgiveness known or indulged in in heaven? No, but it is known in hell-that is the region of discord; there rage, and enmity, and war of mind, reign paramount-there the dark passions form a cup unmingled. ADEY. ANECDOTES, SELECTIONS, AND GEMS. Gems. OUR FATHER.-Now, God being a most indulgent father, governs his sons, as a family of discreet age, in the sweetest and mildest manners of paternal discipline. The government of the gospel, that is, of such a family, where there be no servants, but all sons, in obedience and not servility; for the service of God is true freedom. Milton. A WISE MAN AND A FOOL.-A wise man seeks to shine in himself; a fool to outshine others. The wise is humbled by a sense of his infirmities; the fool is lifted up by a discovery of the faults of others. The wise man considers what he wants; the fool what he abounds in. The wise man is happy in his own approbation; the fool in the applause of his fellows. Dr. Channing. THE THREE ON CALVARY." On either side one, and Jesus in the midst." Then the universe was represented there-the holy, the penitent, the wicked. This scene, as regards its leading characters, will be acted again in "that day." Reader, in which class shall you appear? EVERLASTING LIFE.-Happiness without eternity would not be happiness. The thought of our happiness coming to an end would make us unhappy even in heaven. The gospel offers everlasting life. Oh, glorious gospel! THE WORD OF GOD.-John Calvin said, and he was right, "God will make his kingdom known by the spiritual sword of his word, proclaimed by his ministers and preachers." THE GOSPEL OF GOD.-Were it not divine it would not be in the world at all. Man could not have conceived it. God alone could devise and accomplish it. SIN is the only thing God hates-and it is the very thing a wicked man loves. How can he and God be brought together? Must God give up his holiness to please him? Facts and Hints. EGGS.-Out of 72,000,000 eggs annually imported into England from France, Germany, the Netherlands, and other countries, France contributes 55,000,000. Calculating the first cost at 44d. per dozen, England pays annually to France for eggs about £77,000. VICTIMS OF DISEASE. It is again ascertained that the cholera and diarrhoea find their first victims among the dirty and the drunken. There are exceptions, but this is the rule. WHAT WOULD YOU DO if you lived in a crowded court, or row of houses, where all the people around you were dirty and noisy? Get away as soon as I could, for I could not go to a worse place. THREE SIEVES.-Before we allow ourselves to find fault with any one behind his back, we should ask ourselves three questions, viz.:-1. Is it true. 2. Is it kind? 3. Is it necessary. REFORMERS.-Every man has a right to be a reformer, and a radical reformer too, providing he begins with himself. WHAT IS A GOOD CURE FOR TROUBLE? Why, jump up directly, and begin to do something and keep at till you are well tired. GIVING.-He who gives for the sake of thanks, knows not the true pleasure of giving. "I CAN DO WITHOUT IT," is one of the best save-alls you ever heard of. Try it. |