The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Chronicles — Section 323

are of a high, bencficei:.t, and far-reaching kind. But the final risk involved in war produces a phenomenon, and more than merely a phenomenon, in some aspects amon" the most terrible, nay, incomparably the most terrible, to be witnessed beneath the sun~ There are ever ascending and broadening forms of strife, as of philanthropy amon" mankind. The strife so familiar, as it shows itself between individuals, is passed b~ that of families, and of cliques, and of many and various an association of multit~des of almost every description. The strife that so often appears between such units as these is passed again, by that between Churches, and this finally by that between nations, and nations which even league together in order to prosecute their strife more success- fully and on larger scale. Now, for all these forms and occasions of strife there is some sort of judge, arbiter, or external authority to end it, except for that between nations. Hence the principle of resistance shows itself in its own unqualified hideous- ness, in its own repulsive malignity of essence. It culminates in war, which is another word for the slaughter in systematic form of numbers of human beings by others animated by no personal ill will, and to whom they are personally unknown. 2. ·war cannot profess to anything more, anything deeper, than a trial of force against force. The stronger force has to be accepted pro tem., even though the time be prolonged. Nor is it in this respect out of analogy with the decisions of courts of justice in the internal life and administration of a nation. These decisions are respected by those against whom they are given by the judge, not because they are believed to be right, yet less because they are felt to be right, nor even because in all cases they are right, but because they are supported by the overwhelming power of the strong arm of the law, with all which that phrase means. The order of society is pitted against tho passion, the misapprehension, or sometimes even the right of the individual in his solitary plaint. 8. Though war can pretend to nothing but the determination of who is the stronger, yet right is presumably one of the combatants. That right sharing the constant present fate of right is often enough overpowered, defeated, the loser. Yet it has bad the opportunity of asserting itself. It has asserted itself. It bas insisted in a very practical manner on making its voice heard. It has insisted on its presence and its force counting for something. And then again, though stricken and bleeding afresh from many a new-made wound, it is sent back to take its patient though oppressed station yet a.while and to bide its time. 4. The real measure of the condemnableness of war depends on its motives, on the real causes, hidden or proclaimed, which occasiou it. But then it is to be observed that the greater and more decisive the condemnatiou that may be shown on the one hand, the more the defensibleness conceded to the other side, which resists even unto blood. The proportion that greed, vanity, passion, mere pique, or absolute lust of conquest bear in the production of war will be the real measure-whoever is in the position to assign it--of the guilt of the guilty and of the defence of the innocent. 6. A just estimate of the real nature of war demands that the physical untold misery of it be kept separate in our minds from the moral aspects and results of it. Wo.r has offered to view some of the highest possibilities of human nature in its self-devotion, in its sentiment disentangled of individual hostility or animosity, iu its obedience of the individual to the principle of the community's necessity or weal. 6. The long-looked-for time, the long-prayed-for era, when war sho.11 cease, is the goal to bo reached only by the purified and heightened moral sense and goodness of tho individuals of aU nations. 'l'his is equivalent to saying, the goal can only be reached by Christianity, in its spread universal, in its diffusion impartial, in its peuetmtingness individual, in its efficaciousness sovereign. No policy, no wisdom, no external authority 6eems imaginable that should subdue it, and put it under the feet of men, a destroyed thing. Only the victory of e.11 victories can be looked forward to to lead captive this captivity, and accomplish its end. The clear and sure destruction of this at the same time most barbarous and keenest destroyer of men will be among the last, the gra.Il(lest, the crowning achievements of Christ, Prince of peace, the promise of "peace on earth," the expression of "good will to men." Ver. 1.-0ne cunning bosom sin. "But David tarried at Jerusalem." There is not so much as the suggestion of any evidence from which we could justify the inference that David, in thus II tarrying at Jerusalem," was actuated by any wrong design, or was laying himself open to the charge of neglect of duty, indifference to his high respons1- L CIIRONIOLES, Y 322 THE FIRST BOOK OF 'l'HE CHRONICLES. [011. u. 1-8.