on the too easily affected imagination which needlessly dreads a foe, whose outwo.rd bigness is no accurate measure of the dimensions of his real furce.-G. Yer. 23.-Rest from war. These words bring us a gi·ateful sense of relief. We are wea.ry of reading the long catalogue of bloody yictories-how of one city after Rnother it is said, " They smot€ all the souls that were therein with the edge of the sword. utt€rly destroying them; there was not anything left to breathe.'' We are ready to say with the Prophet, " 0 thou sword of the Lord, how long will it be ere t.hou be quiet?" (Jer. xhii. 6). If it were not for our conviction that nn alh,ise and righteous Divine purpose determined nil this (Carlyle's distinction between the " surgery" of God's judgments and "atrocious murder''), we should turn "ith loathing from the sickening to.le of slaughter. Certain thoughts about war are suggested. I. THE CAUSES OF WAR. The baser pe.ssions of human nature are the sources from which it always more or less directly springs. Th86e are the root of all its practical w:ickednesses. ""Whence come wars and fightings among you? Come they not hence, e,en of your lusts that war in your members?" (James iv. 1). Vain nmhition, the desire for ter1it-0rial aggrandizement, the thirst for power, jealousy, reYenge, &.c.-these are the demons that kindle its destructive fires. Other and more plausible motives are but the false veil that hides their hatefulness. There is no real exception. Self-defence is no doubt an imperious instinct of nature, and there are interests (liberties, sanctities of social life, principles of eternal righteous- ness) which it may often be a noble thing for a nation, even by utmost force of arms to guard. But there would be no need to defend if there were no lawless lust or cruel wrong to endanger them. These " wars of the Lord " are no exception to the rule. They were waged by the Divine command, but their cause lay in the moral e,il that cursed the land-those foul iniquities which, to the view ofinfinite Wisdom, could be wiped out only by such a baptism of blood. II. THE MISERIES OF WAR. It is the very symbol of almost all the woea of which human nature is capable, and that can darken with their shadow the field of human life. (1) The frenzy of malignant passions, (2) physical suffering, (3) the cruel rending of natural ties, (4) the arrest of beneficent industries, (5) the im- position of oppressive burdens, (6) the increase of the means and instruments of tyranny. These are some of the calamities that follow in the track of war. Their sadness and bitterness cannot be exaggerated. III. THE POSSmLE BENEDICTIONS OF wAR. It is a marvellous proof of the Di-ine beneficence that reigns supreme o.-cr all human affairs that even this deadly evil has something like a fair side to it, and is not unmixed with good. (1) It developes certain noble qualities of character-self-reliance, self-control, resolution, fortitude, mastery of adverse circumstances, &c.; so much so that men have been led to look upon the experience of great wars as essential to the vigorous life of a nation, necessary to save it from the lethargy of moral indifference and the ener- vating i.r!fluence of self-indulgence. We may give due weight to those heroic qwilities that war calls forth, and yet feel that they in no way counterbalance the crimes and horrors that attend it. (2) It prepares the way for new and better conditions. As storms clee.r the air, as a great conflagration in the city destroys its dens of shameful vice and loathsome disease, so wars which dislocate the whole frame of society, and let loose lawless passions, and inflict unspeakable miseries, do, nevertheless, often bring about healthier conditions of national life, and clear the ground for the spread of truth and righteousness. God " makes the wrath of man to praise him,'' though in itself it '' worketh not his righteousness." And when the land rests from war there often arises a benign power of restoration th11t soon changes the face of things- " softening and concealing, And busy with its hand in bee.ling," the rents and ravages the sweep of the destroyer may have made. IV. THE CURE FOK wilL There ie no cure but that which is supplied by the on. x1. 1-23.) THE BOOK OF JOSHUA. 203
redeeming influence of the Prince of Peace. (1) It will uproot and destroy those h1ddeu evils in the heart of man from which all war arises, substituting for them that "love which wor~eth no ~l to his neighbour." (2) It ~l turn those energies of our nature to which war gives 11 false and fatal impetus mto worthier directions enlisting them in a purely moral conflict with the abounding evils of the world (2 Cor. x. 4, 6; Eph. vi. lZ--18).-W.