Page:Christian Review - War.djvu/7

Rh heard in thy land; wasting nor destruction within thy borders."—Isa. 9: 18.

Ezekiel writes:—"And I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them; and I the Lord will be their God, and my servant David a prince among them; and I will make with them a covenant of peace; and will cause the evil beasts to cease out of the land; and they shall dwell safely in the wilderness, and sleep in the woods."—Ez. 34: 23-26. Jeremiah writes:—"Behold! the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and house of Judah; not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers; I will put my law into their inward parts, and write them in their hearts; and I will be their god, and they shall be my people, and they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, know ye the Lord; for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, saith the Lord: for I will forgive them their iniquities, and their sins I will remember no more."—Jer. 31: 31-35.

In Isaiah, 35th chapter, it is written:—"And a high way shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called the way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for those; the way faring men, though fools, shall not err therein. No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon, it shall not be found there; but the redeemed shall walk there: and the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come unto Zion with songs, and everlasting joys upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away." More prophecies would be superfluous.

We have been asked the question:—"Why are we not authorized to go to war as well as Joshua, David," &c.? The times have changed. God has established a new dispensation, in which the subdued in heart alone have an inheritance. The road to bliss is now "a high way," and none but the "ransomed shall walk there;" "no lion," or man of lion's heart, "shall be there;" and "no ravenous beasts shall go up thereon;" "the unclean shall not pass over it;" but the redeemed alone shall dwell in Zion. Swords and spears were not to be the weapons of the citizens of this new dispensation. "They shall not hurt, nor destroy, in all my holy mountain," saith the Lord.