THE CUSTOM OF WAR

THE CUSTOM OF WAR

“Shall the sword devour forever?”

We regard with horror the custom of the ancient heathens, in offering their children in sacrifice to idols. We are shocked with the customs of the Hindus, in prostrating themselves before the car of an idol to be crushed to death; in burning women alive on the funeral piles of their husbands; in offering a monthly sacrifice by casting living children into the Ganges to be drowned. We read with astonishment of the sacrifices made in the Papal crusades, and in the Muslim and Hindu pilgrimages. We wonder at the blindness of Christian nations, who have esteemed it right and honorable to buy and sell Africans as property, and reduce them to bondage for life. But that which is fashionable and popular in any country is esteemed right and honorable, whatever may be its nature in the views of men who are better
informed. But while we look back, with a mixture of wonder, indignation, and pity, on many of the customs of former ages, are we careful to inquire whether some customs, which we deem honorable, are not the effect of popular delusion, and whether they will not be so regarded by future generations? Isn’t it a fact, that one of the most horrid customs of savage men is now popular in every nation in Christendom? What custom of the most barbarous nations is more repugnant to the feelings of piety, humanity, and justice, than that of deciding controversies between nations by the edge of the sword, by powder and ball, or the point of the bayonet? What other savage custom has occasioned half the desolation and misery to the human race? And what, but the grossest infatuation, could render such a custom popular among rational beings?
When we consider how great a part of mankind have perished by the hands of each other, and how large a portion of human calamity has resulted from war, we surely cannot be indifferent as to whether this custom is or is not the effect of delusion. Certainly there is no custom that deserves a more thorough examination than that which has occasioned more slaughter and misery than all the other abominable customs of the heathen world. War has been so long fashionable among all nations, and its enormity is but little regarded; or when thought of at all, it is usually considered as a necessary and unavoidable evil. But the question to be considered is this: can the state of society and the views of civilized men be so changed as to abolish so
barbarous a custom, and render wars unnecessary and avoidable? If this question may be answered in the affirmative, then we may hope that “the sword will not
devour forever.” 1 Some may be ready o exclaim, “None but God can produce such an effect as the abolition of war, and we must wait for the millennial day.” We admit that only God can produce the necessary change in the state of society and the views of men, but God works by human agency and human means. None but God could have produced such a change in the views of the British nation so as to abolish the slave trade, yet the event was brought about by a long course of persevering and the honorable exertions of benevolent men. When the thing was first proposed, it probably appeared to the majority of the people as an unavailing and chimerical project. But God raised up powerful advocates, gave them the spirit of perseverance, and finally crowned their efforts with glorious success. It is probable now that thousands of people are wondering how such an abominable traffic ever existed in any nation that had even the least pretensions to Christianity or civilization. God can put an end to war in a similar manner, and fillthe world with astonishment that rational beings ever thought of such a mode of settling controversies