Page:Christian Review - War.djvu/13

Rh But time would fail me, to detail the testimony of Justin Martyr, Tatian, Clemens of Alexandria, Tertullian, Cyprian, Lactantius, Arhchelaus, Chrysostum, Jerome, and Cyral, who all declared that christians countenanced not war; and could not be induced to take the least part in it. In the third century, christians began to deflect somewhat, from the purity of the faith, and a few began to conform to the belligerent world. They at least asked the aid and protection of civil powersl but it was not till the beginning of the fourth century, when the Crescent and the Cross were united, by Constantine the great, that christianity was wedded to the bloody codes of earth.

This, making the cause of the land support religion, and in turn, making religion uphold the frail fabrics of man, gave woeful evidence of the great apostacy, predicted by Christ and his Apostles.

From the days of Constantine, the father of the religon of Papists, to the present, Rome and her naturally depraved daughters have lived, in many countries, by the power of the sword, and sought aid by appeals to the laws which God intended alone, "for the disobedient and for man slayers." Not only have Romanists and Protestants, lived and feasted upon blood; but many of their leaders are at this moment, men famed for spilling the blood of their fellows. Most conquerors from Constantine to Santa Anna, professed to fight alone for God and religion. Such sacred missionaries were scarcely of Heaven's appointment, and the grand mistake of the world, consists in the fact, that men have failed to regard christianity as possessing no affinity for the wisdom of this world, or its institutions. God intended it to turn the eyes of its advocates from evil—to save their feet from the path of mischief, their hands from blood, and to direct their thoughs, and hightest aspirations up to the throne of his favor.

We have adduced nine arguments, any one of which, in our humble judgement is sufficent to satisfy the thoughtful, that from the time the angels announced the birth of the "Prince of peace." to the shepherds of Judea, the servants of the Lord, have been required to cultivate, "Peace on earth, and good will toward all men."

We pretend not to say that these arguments, will satisfy all christians, that there is no such a thing as "christian