414 / Christianity and War

and spiritual-mindedness. Thirdly, it "implies, a child, and an heir, of God," whose "conversation is in heaven"-who seeks an inheritance which is "incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven,"who looks for "a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God." Heb. 11:10.

And now comes the all-important question, to be answered, namely: Can a Christian take up the weapons of death, go forth to war, and destroy the lives of his enemies, and at the same time obey the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and be justifiable in the sight of God?

This question I will now endeavor to answer; not by my own knowledge and wisdom, not by the views and opinions of men, nor by "cunningly devised fables;" but by the pure doctrines, and the example of Jesus Christ and his apostles; and certainly no one who professes to be a Christian, will dare to dispute these.

Christ is that Prophet of whom Moses spoke, saying; "The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet, from the midst of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken." Deut. 18:15.-"And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto my words, which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him." ver. 19.

The above passage, Peter applies as follows: "For Moses truly said unto the fathers, A Prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you, of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear in all things, whatsoever he shall say unto you: and it shall come to pass, that every soul which will not hear that Prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people." Acts 3:22, 23. God himself by a voice out of a cloud from heaven, declared saying: "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased: hear ye him;" Matt. 17:5. and as every soul which will not hear that Prophet, is threatened with destruction, surely his words must be of great authority and weight. Christ himself says: "Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you." Jn. 15:14; these words evidently imply, that if we do not what he commands us, we are his enemies; "and those mine enemies," he will finally say, "which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before me." Lu. 19:27. Again he says: "if a man love me, he will keep my words,"-to the Jews he said, "if God were your Father, ye would love me," thus a Christian without loving Jesus would be like a fire giving no heat.

Now Jesus in his sermon on the mount said: "Ye have heard that it hath been said, an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth,"-this was recompensing evil for evil, which the apostle strictly forbids,-"but I say unto you that ye resist not evil." Now what mean these words of Christ and of Paul? surely they must mean something-they were not spoken nor written in vain, or for nought; and is this not their plain and simple meaning, namely, that if a man does an evil to us of any kind, out of ill-will, that we shall not resist that evil, by returning evil to him again; but rather suffer him to repeat the same evil unto us a second time?-as the second clause of the foregoing verse explains: "Whosoever shall smite thee on the right cheek, turn to him the other also; and if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also." Or, according to Luther, if a man would sue thee at the law rather than have a law-suit with him, let him have thy cloak also, if by doing