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World Affairs Institute

The Earthly Triumphs of Christianity. In the Literary and Theological Review, No. III byBushAmerican Advocate of Peace (1834-1836), Vol. 1, No. 3 (DECEMBER, 1834), pp. 141-145

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1834.] The Earthly TriumphsofChristianity. 141all, and give a hue of poetry to thewhole life ofman. For allthevicissitudes fthatfeeling, sMr. Montgomery forciblyremarks,' are pre-eminently poetical, in every change of form and colorwhich it undergoes, being intimately associated with all that istransportingor afflictive,bright and pure, grand and terrible,peaceful, holy, and happy, in mortal existence.' "

2.?The Earthly Triumphs ofChristianity.By ProfessorBush. IntheLiterary and Theological Review,No. III., September,1834.This, article is on several accounts highly interesting. It con

tains many novel views and 'striking suggestions* presented in theauthor's somewhat peculiar style of thinking and expression. Prof.Bush endeavors to show thatChristianity is destined tobreak upthe political distinctions of nations and States,?to overthrow civilgovernments,?and to bring the whole human race into one vastcommunity. The reasons for this conclusion we have not room togive ; but can only remark, that it is on thisground he predictsthe cessation of War, and the ultimate prevalence of universal andpermanent Peace. We place before our readers what he says onthis point. We will previously observe, however, that, for ourselves,we have no faith in the peculiar ground taken by theable and excellent author. We do not believe that the final triumph fChristianity nvolves the dissolutionof political distinctions, r theoverthrow of civil governments. Nor do we believe this is necessaryin order to the universal abolition ofWar, any more than the extinctionof private property and the dissolution of the domesticrelations is necessary, before Christianity can correct the evilswhich are occasioned by them. The rightofprivate property, hedomesticrelations, nd the special bonds by which individuals rethusformed intodistinctfamilies,are theoccasion ofmany thingscontradictoryto the just, the generous and peaceful spiritof theGospel ; butwe do not believe that it is the intentionfProvidencetoput an end to theseevils by extinguishing, hrough hristianity,privateproperty, nd breaking up thedistinctionf families. Christianity will correct the cause, and not the occasion?the selfishnesswhich perverts, and not the institutions which are perverted. Inlike manner, we believe that civil governments and distinct Stateswill exist in theday of " the latterglory," as well as distinctfamilies ; and thatthe influence f Christianitywill be seen inbinding16

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142 The Earthly Triumphs ofChristianity. [Decine States and nations of the earth into one great, harmonious community of nations, ust as itwill bind the distinctfamiliesof everynation intoone harmonious communityof families : and thus thespirit nd the practice of war will be abolished. But we come tothe extract :

?The transitionfrom the appointed triumphs f Christianity inthe new modelling of the social organization of theworld, to itseffects in the abolition of War, is at once easy and natural. Despotism is the foster-motherf war ; and the extinctionof theformer will scarcely fail tobe theprecursor ofthat of the latter.Theexpectationof such a result is certainlywarranted by thesoberestdictates of reason and of revelation. In casting our thoughts orward to thatbright period, towardswhich the universal groaningcreature is ?stretchingforththe head,' it is impossibleto conceiveof the continuanceof this tremendous evil in connexion with thecheering visionswhich loom upon the eye of faith. There isagross incongruity n supposing thatmen shall keep up thehorrid4trade of war,'--that serried armies shall be mustered and marched?'thatdeadly armaments shall go forthtowaste, kill, and destroy?thatfleets hall be burned,cities sacked, and villages depopulated,while at thesame time the dove-like influences f theGospel aredescending upon all hearts. Who does not instinctivelyshrinkback fromthebare supposition f a moral anomaly like this? Onthe other hand, we are irresistibly ompelled to think f such aperiod as one inwhich wars and fightings hall cease?when thevoice of wasting and destruction hall nomore be heard,when thespectacle of murderous legions shall no more be an eye-sore tophilanthropy nd humanity, nd when there shall be a happymetamorphosis of the bloody weapons ofwar into the implementsofhusbandry and the peaceful arts. But to effect uch a revolutionin themost cherished sentiments, abits, and prejudices ofmankind,no otheragency but thatofChristianity is competent. So deep andinveterate re thewarlike appetencies inmen, that, part fromtheinspiredpredictionsrespectingthe result,we should renouncehope,decline effort,nd sit down in blank despair. Men might as wellunite toarrest thewinds in their course, or tostay theflowingofthe tides ; as wetymight theykneel down and put theirshouldersto theground to check theheavings ofan earthquake, as toattemptbymere human agency tobanishWar froma world which it .hasso longclaimed a prescriptiveright to lay waste. But, guided bytheoracles of truth, e can plant ourselves on thevery summit ftheMount of Delectable Vision, in anticipating the triumphs fChristianityover thismaster-scourge of the earth. It ishere, andhere only, thatwe findthe talismancapable of dissolving themagicmilitary spellwhich, fromthedays ofNimrod on theplains of Sainar, has fascinated nd enslaved so largea portion f thehumanrace.



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1834.] The Earthly Triumphs ofChristianity. 143Here only do we finda principle adequate to the entire regenerationof public opinionon this subject, and of which the effect hallbe tohold up thedemon ofWar in all thegrim repulsiveness of hisfeatures. It is a corrected and Christianized public sentiment which,like Old Mortality at the grave-stones of the Covenanters, shallrenew or alter the inscriptions on the tombs of warriors, writingmurderer instead of hero, ambition instead of patriotism, revenge instead of justice, and transforming the sculptured laurel wreath intothefuneral cypress." But how shall this result,by thisagency, be achieved ? Admitting that the influenceof Christianity is appointed to exorcisethisfiendof fireand sword, thisApollyon of blood and carnage?fromthe earth,will itbemerely by infusing entiments f reciprocalgood-will into the nations, and thus rendering them averse to engageinwarlike strife That suchwill be the factwe have no question ;but that this is all thatwill be necessary to divest theworld of itsbelligerent character, we cannot persuade ourselves. The rivaland conflicting interests of nations have hitherto been the main causesofWar. But these interests would not have existed had not distinct national organizations existed, and will doubtless exist no longerwhen they are done away. For ourselves, we confess that ourhopes of the general prevalence of peace are founded principallyupon the prospect of the disintegration of all great consolidated governments, and the merging into one vast community of the hithertodivided empires and sovereignties of the earth. Rival nations, madesuch by the most arbitrary and artificial causes, have ever constituted the grand abutments on which the arches of the templeofWar have rested.

" *Mountains interposed,Make enemies of nations, who had else,Like kindred drops, been mingled into one.' "But for the permanent removal of this colossal curse from theworld, isnot thegrand requisite,thedoing away of itsmain pro

curing causes 1 As long as the existing fabrics of separate governments are kept up, nations will subsist in a rival attitude, and whilethis is thecase, mutual jealousy will stillbe supplying a thousandoccasions for the outbreaking of the war spirit. What is essentialfor the extirpation of the evil is, for men to believe, and to act uponthebelief,that thegood of thewhole is the good of every part?that ina rightly rdered state of things, there could be no groundof collision between different portions of the race?that the interestsof one could no more clash with those of another, thar? any of thestraight lines drawn from the centre to the circumference of a circleshould cross, or intersect each other?and that a bloody strife between two communities is as really unnatural and as abhorrent toall the better principles of our nature, as would be a mortal combatbetween two brethren of the same family. A pyramidal pile of ancient prejudices must doubtless first be unsettled and thrown down,



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144 The Earthly Triumphs ofChristianity. [Dec,before the view now presented can become prevalent, or at leastefficient ; but for ourselves, we cannot conceive of Christianity ashaving attained its highest triumph,till it has brought the entirepopulation of the globe to regard themselves as-one great family, oryto use the apostolic metaphor, as a vast body of substantial oneness,"compacted ofthat which every joint supplieth, and making increaseto theedifyingof itself in love." In the expedient,warmly advocated by some, of a court or congress of nations, for the ad justmentof international disputes, we confess we have little faith. It is aplan that supposes the continued existence of those political arrange*ments, the very being of which we consider as incompatible withthe prospect of abiding peace. No principle is to us of more obvious truth, than that any remedial device which takes for granted thecontinuance of an evil that Christianity tends and promises to destroy,oes directlytoperpetuate that vil. The only planwhich laysthe axe at the root of the evil, is that which assumes for its foundation, that there is no actual necessity for the occurrence of the causesof war, and these we conceive it to be the design of Providence tocut off, by the entire renovation of that political economy fromwhich theygrow.The suggestions now thrown out, connecting the prospect of theabolition of war with that of the downfall of civil governments,may seem to put off the day of the world's redemption from thescourge, to a very remote period,?a deferring of hope which maymake the heart of philanthropy sick. We are ready, however, toconcede much, very much, to the progress of an enlightened publicsentiment on this subject, even where pure Christianity has not had theprincipalhand inmoulding it. A pacificcourse ofpolicy in the intercourse of nations is evidently gaining ground. Men are becomingmore and more averse to the ultima ratio regum,?they shrink moredecidedly from the dire resort of an appeal to arms,?they cannotbring themselves so readily to " cry havoc ! and slip the dogs ofwar." It would seem that the truth of Cowper's remark, that" war's a game, which, were their subjects wise, kings would notplay at," is beginning to be very generally admitted. In all thiswe recognize but thenative humanizingefleptsofChristianityuponevery people, among whom it obtains, and only wait for its morecomplete operation to realize the utter and irrevocable abandonmentof the barbarous practice. To this result, moreover, we perceivea marked approximation, in the more pacific interpretation beginning tobe put upon theprecepts of theScriptures bearing upon thesubject, and in the rigid scrutinytowhich the reasonings infavourof defensivo war are beginning to be subjected. It is, doubtless, aquestion which may well give pause to the moralist, whether thecurrent opinions of mankind in regard to the duty of self-defence,do not stand related to the custom of war, with all its horrors, precisely as did, a few years since, the general sentiment in respect tomoderate drinking to the habit of intemperance. The advocate ofpeace may perhaps be taking toohighground indenying unqualiii



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1834.] The Peace-makers Exalted Parentage. 145edly the right of self-defence, but we are persuaded that the exped?encyof waiving therighton theground of its inevitable buse, offersa position on which he can safely stand. Making all due allowancefor the perversion of the doctrine, itmay yet be asserted that theextent of a Christian's permitted, we might say, commanded, reliance on the succours of an overruling Providence, is but imperfectlyapprehended, even by pious men. We are well aware, that the ideaof trusting to Providence, when armed legions are pouring downupon us,will be at once branded as the height of fanatical folly.Yet the charge moves us not. We grant, indeed, that if a peoplein such circumstances are not unanimously confiding, they cannotassure themselves of divine protection. The right-minded maysurfer from their fellowship with the unbelieving. .But let anycommunity, in the spirit of meekness, conscientiously and unitedlycast themselves upon the defences of Omnipotence, and that notmerely as a temporary expedient, b?t as part of a general courseof devout obedience, and we see not why the same power whichplanted an impregnable bulwark around the ancient race of Israel,so long as they remained steadfast in allegiance, will not interposefor the safety of those who trust in his Providence, from the fear oftransgressinghis law. Or ifwe suppose that they should failtobeprotected, and should become the victims of a brutal soldiery, yettheir voluntary sacrifice, which could easily be compensated inanother world, would tell so powerfully on the moral interests ofthe universe, thattheycould even affordtomake it. But after ll,our views of thegrand processwhich is to result in the abolitionofwar, repudiate the hypothesis of one people's thus invading and destroying another, from the mere wantonness of cruelty ; for thesame causes which will render the one averse to resisting evil, willmake theotherunwilling to inflictt."3.?The Peace-maker''s exalted Parentage and rich Inheritance : aSermon, fyc. By theRev. Cornelius C. Vanarsdalen. Hartford: 1834. pp. 31.This discourse was delivered at New Haven, in June last, duringthe session of theLegislature of theState, by appointment f theConnecticutPeace Society. After a brief but vivid exhibition f

the evils and miseries of war, and its deadly moral influences, theauthor proceeds to consider the application of the text,?" Blessedare the Peace-makers ; for they shall be called the sons of God"?to efforts for the suppression of the custom of public war. Heshows that the blessing here announced, rests on those who seek tomakepeace, topromote and diffuse he peaceful spirit f theGospelamong men, as well as to cherish and exhibit it in their own persons.16*


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