the Franco-Prussian, £500,000,000; e.nd the comparatively smaller wars, £1,000,000; an e.mount altogether of £2,4-00,000,000--a sufficient sum to supply every inhabite.nt of the globe, not only with the necessaries, but with the comforts and educe.tional advantages of life. "Give me," says Stebbins, "the amount that has been spent in war, and I will purche.se every foot of land of the globe. I will clothe every man, woman, and child in an e.ttire that kings and queens might be proud of. I will build a school-house upon every hillside and in every valley over the habitable earth, I will supply that school-house with e. competent teacher. I will build an academy in every town, and endow it; and a college in every state, and fill it with able professors. I will crown every hill with a church consecrated to the promulgation of the gospel of peace. I will support in its pulpit an able teacher of righteousness, so that on every sabbath morning the chime of one hill shall answer to the chime of another around the earth's broad circumference; and the voice of prayer and the song of praise shall ascend like the smoke of a universal holocaust to heaven." •ro talk of the alories of war is to_exult in the horrors of hell. I_ c_onfess that ~ quivering seizes my nerves, and a chilly sadness comes over my spmts, when I hear men co.llinrr themselves Christians, especially ministers, uttering one word in favour of war, whether defensive or aggressive. The man who defends war defends the devil himself. 11. As A nA Y OF DIVINE RETRIBUTION. All these horrors of war are here repre- sented as judgments from the Almighty. It is called the "day of the Lord." He is represented as having "prepared a sacrifice," referring to the awful sacrifice of life and property; as having summoned his guests-the warriors, men of blood-to battle. Indeed, it is called the "Lord's 11acrisce." He is represented as saying, "I will punish the priDces;" "I will search Jerusalem with candles;" "I will bring distress upon men." And again, "The whole land shall be devoured by the fire" of his jealousy; "for he shal: make even a speedy riddance." In Bible phraseology, the Almighty is often represented as the Author of that which he merely permits. He does not originate wars. The consciousness of warriors attests this. All the passions of greed, revenge, and ambition, whence all wars spring, are self-geµerated in the breast of the man of blood. His moral constitution will not allow him to ascribe them to his Maker; he charges them on himself. He feels that he is not their Author, and he knows that they stand in awful contrast with the holy and beneficent will of the almighty Maker of the universe. He does not instigate these abominations, but allows, uses, and controls them. In using war as a. punishment for sin, three things are to be observed. 1. That al,l who perish in war righteously deserve their fate. God says here, "I will briDg distress upon men, that they shall walk like blind men, because they have sinned." War, in its most savage recklessness, does not strike one man down who has not sinned, and whose sin does not deserve death. The penalty of death that comes to men in war would, by the moral laws of the universe, come to them sooner or later in some other form. "It is appointed to all men once to die·;" "The wages of sin is death." 2. That warriors, in executing the Divine J°ustice, demonstrate the enormity of the evil req_uiring punishment. Where can sin be seen in aspects so complete in all that is morally horrific, outrageous, and infernal, as in the battle-field.? No thoughtful man can gaze on it there without feeling that the righteous Governor of the universe, for the happiness of his creation, is bound to visit it with his hot displeasure. 3. War, as an officer of Divine;'ustiu, reveals the amazi11g freedom allowed to the sinner in this world, and God's controlling power over hostile forces. Who will say that man is a slave when he sees the warrior going forth with a free step on a mission directly hostile to the beneficent laws of the universe, the moral institutions of his own nature, and the revealed will of Heaven? He allowed men even to put to death his own Son upon the cross. Here is liberty. Whilst human freedom is revealed, God's controlling power is also most strikingly manife~t. "He maketh the wrath of man to praise him." He has servants who serve him against their will, SB well as servants who serve him with their will. Warriors and devils are of the former class. "Ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good" (Gen. l. 20); "I have raised thee up for to show in thee my power" (Exod. ix. 16); "Let all the house of Israel know aSBuredlv that God bath made that same Jesus whom ye have crucified both Lord and Christ:" Out of the wars and tumults of his enemies he will bring ~omething glorious, a Lord and Chriijt. OH. II, 1-16.] 'l'llE BOOK OF ZEPHANIAH. D5
"Patiently received from thee, Evil cannot evil be; Evil is by evil healed, Evil is but good concealed." (Charles Wesley.) V,T,