CHAP. 19.]

GEN RAL OBSERVATIONS.

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VI. That God has declared in prophecy, that it is His will that war should eventually be eradicated from the earth; and that this eradication will be effected by Christianity, by the influence of its present principles :

VII. That those who have refused to engage in war, in consequence of their belief of its inconsistency with Christianity, have found that Providence has protected them.

Now we think that the establishment of any considerable number of these positions is sufficient for our argument. The establishment of the whole forms a body of evidence to which I am not able to believe that an inquirer to whom the subject was new would be able to withhold his assent. But since such an inquirer cannot be found, I would invite the reader to lay prepossession aside, to suppose himself to have now first heard of battles and slaughter, and dispassionately to examine whether the evidence in favour of peace be not very great, and whether the objec tions to it bear any proportion to the evidence itself. But whatever may be the determination upon this question, surely it is reasonable to try the experiment, whether security cannot be maintained without slaughter. Whatever be the reasons for war, it is certain that it produces enormous mischief. Even waiving the obligations of Christianity, we have to choose between evils that are certain and evils that are doubtful; between the actual endurance of a great calamity and the possibility of a less. It certainly cannot be proved that peace would not be the best policy; and since we know that the present system is bad, it were reasonable and wise to try whether the other is not better. In reality I can scarcely conceive the possibility of a greater evil than that which mankind now endure; an evil, moral and physical, of far wider extent, and far greater intensity, than our familiarity with it allows us to suppose. If a system of peace be not productive of less evil than the system of war, its consequences must indeed be enormously bad; and that it would produce such consequences, we have no warrant for believing, either from reason or from practice,-either from the principles of the moral government of God, or from the experience of mankind. Whenever a people shall pursue, steadily and uniformly, the pacific morality of the gospel, and shall do this from the pure motive of obedience, there is no reason to fear for the consequences: there is no reason to fear that they would experience any evils such as we now endure, or that they would not find that Christianity understands their interests better than themselves; and that the surest and the only rule of wisdom, of safety, and of expediency is to maintain her spirit in every circumstance of life.

"There is reason to expect," says Dr. Johnson, "that as the world is more enlightened, policy and morality will at last be reconciled."* When this enlightened period shall arrive, we shall be approaching, and we shall not till then approach, that era of purity and peace, when "violence shall no more be heard in our land, wasting nor destruction within our borders;" that era in which God has promised that "they shall not hurt nor destroy in all his holy mountain." That a period like this will come, I am not able to doubt: I believe it, because it is not credible that he will always endure the butchery of man by man; because he has declared that he will not endure it; and because I think there is a perceptible approach of that period in which he will say,-"It is enough."†

• Falkland's Islands.

+ 2 Samuel xxiv. 16.

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CONCLUSION.

[ESSA III. In this belief the Christian may rejoice: he may rejoice that the number is increasing of those who are asking,-"Shall the sword devour for ever?" and of those who, whatever be the opinions or the practice of others, are openly saying, "I am for peace.

It will perhaps be asked, what then are the duties of a subject who believes that all war is incompatible with his religion, but whose governors engage in a war and demand his service? We answer explicitly, It is his duty, mildly and temperately, yet firmly, to refuse to serve.-Let such as these remember that an honourable and an awful duty is laid upon them. It is upon their fidelity, so far as human agency is concerned, that the cause of peace is suspended. Let them then be willing to avow their opinions, and to defend them. Neither let them be contented with words, if more than words, if suffering also, is required. It is only by the unyielding fidelity of virtue that corruption can be extirpated. If you believe that Jesus Christ has prohibited slaughter, let not the opinions or the commands of a world induce you to join in it. By this "steady and determinate pursuit of virtue," the benediction which attaches to those who hear the sayings of God and do them, will rest upon you; and the time will come when even the world will honour you, as contributors to the work of human reformation.

CONCLUSION.

THAT hope which was intimated at the commencement of this work, -that a period of greater moral purity would eventually arrive,-has sometimes operated as an encouragement to the writer in enforcing the obligations of morality to an extent which few who have written such books have ventured to advocate. In exhibiting a standard of rectitude such as that which it has been attempted to exhibit here,―a standard to which not many in the present day are willing to conform, and of which many would willingly dispute the authority, some encouragement was needed; and no human encouragement could be so efficient as that which consisted in the belief that the principles would progressively obtain more and more of the concurrence and adoption of mankind.

That there are indications of an advancement of the human species towards greater purity in principle and in practice cannot, I think, be disputed. There is a manifest advancement in intellectual concerns:Science of almost every kind is extending her empire;-political institutions are becoming rapidly ameliorated;† and morality and religion, if their progress be less perceptible, are yet advancing with an onward pace.‡

Psalm cxx. 7.

"The degree of scientific knowledge which would once have conferred celebrity and immortality is now, in this country, attained by thousands of obscure individuals."-For's Lectures. "To one who considers coolly of the subject, it will appear that human nature in general really enjoys more liberty at present, in the most arbitrary governments of Europe, than it ever did during the most flourishing period of ancient times."-Hume.

Not that the present state or the prospects of the world afford any countenance to the speculations-favourite speculations with some men-respecting "human perfectibility."

ESSAY III.]

CONCLUSION.

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Lamentations over the happiness or excellence of other times have generally very little foundation in justice or reason.* In truth, they cannot be just, because they are perpetual. There has probably never been an age in which mankind have not bewailed the good times that were departed, and made mournful comparisons of them with their own. If these regrets had not been ill-founded, the world must have perpetually sunk deeper and deeper in wickedness, and retired further and further towards intellectual night. But the intellectual sun has been visibly advancing towards its noon; and I believe there never was a period in which, speaking collectively of the species, the power of religion was greater than it is now at least, there never was a period in which greater efforts were made to diffuse the influence of religion among mankind. Men are to be judged of by their fruits; and why should men thus more vigorously exert themselves to make others religious, if the power of religion did not possess increased influence upon their own minds? The increase of crime, even if it increased in a progression more rapid than that of population and the state of society which gives rise to crime,-is a very imperfect standard of judgment. Those offences of which civil laws take cognizance form not a hundredth part of the wickedness of the world. What multitudes are there of bad men who never yet were amenable to the laws! How extensive may be the additional purity without any diminution of legal crimes!

And assuredly there is a perceptible advance in the sentiments of good men towards a higher standard of morality. The lawfulness is frequently questioned now of actions of which a few ages ago few or none doubted the rectitude. Nor is it to be disputed, that these questions are resulting more and more in the conviction, that this higher standard is proposed and enforced by the moral law of God. Who that considers these things will hastily affirm that doctrines in morality which refer to a standard that to him is new are unfounded in this moral law? Who will think it sufficient to say that strange things are brought to his ears? Who will satisfy himself with the exclamation, These are hard sayings, who can hear them? Strange things must be brought to the ears of those who have not been accustomed to hear the truth. Hard sayings must be heard by those who have not hitherto practised the purity of morality.

Such considerations, I say, have afforded encouragement in the attempt to uphold a standard which the majority of mankind have been little accustomed to contemplate; and now, and in time to come, they will suffice to encourage, although that standard should be, as by many it undoubtedly will be, rejected and contemned.

I am conscious of inadequacy,-what if I speak the truth, and say, I am conscious of unworthiness—thus to attempt to advocate the law of

In the sense in which this phrase is usually employed, I fear there is little hope of the perfection of man. At least there is little hope, if Christianity be true. Christianity declares that man is not perfectible except by the immediate assistance of God; and this immediate assistance the advocates of "human perfectibility" are not wont to expect. The question, in the sense in which it is ordinarily exhibited, is in reality a question of the truth of Chris. tianity.

"This humour of complaining proceeds from the frailty of our natures; it being natural for man to complain of the present and to commend the times past."-Sir Josiah Child, 1665. This was one hundred and fifty years ago: the same frailty appears to have subsisted two or three thousands of years before: "Say not thon, What is the cause that the former days were better than these? for thou dost not inquire wisely concerning this."— Eccles. vii. 10.

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God.

Let no man identify the advocate with the cause, nor imagine, when he detects the errors and the weaknesses of the one, that the other is therefore erroneous or weak. I apologize for myself: especially I apologize for those instances in which the character of the Christian may have been merged in that of the exposer of the evils of the world. There is a Christian love which is paramount to all; a love which he only is likely sufficiently to maintain who remembers that he who exposes an evil and he who partakes in it, will soon stand together as suppliants for the mercy of God.

And finally, having written a book which is devoted almost exclusively to disquisitions on morality, I am solicitous lest the reader should imagine that I regard the practice of morality as all that God requires of man. I believe far other; and am desirous of here expressing the conviction, that although it becomes not us to limit the mercy of God, or curiously to define the conditions on which he will extend that mercy,-yet that the true and safe foundation of our hope is in "the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

THE END.