1. Never slap a man who’s chewing tobacco.
2. Never kick a cow chip on a hot day.
3. There are 2 theories to arguing with a woman…neither works.
4. Never miss a good chance to shut up.
5. Always drink upstream from the herd.
6. If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging.
7. The quickest way to double your money is to fold it and put it back in your pocket.
8. There are three kinds of men: The ones that learn by reading. ††† The few who learn by observation. ††† The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence.
9. Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment.
10. If you’re riding’ ahead of the herd, take a look back every now and then to make sure it’s still there.
11. Lettin’ the cat outta the bag is a whole lot easier’n puttin’ it back.
12. AND FINALLY: After eating an entire bull, a mountain lion felt so good he started roaring.† He kept it up until a hunter came along and shot him… The moral, When you’re full of bull, keep your mouth shut.

HOW DO YOU DECIDE WHO TO MARRY?
You got to find somebody who likes the same stuff. Like, if you like sports, she should like it that you like sports, and she should keep the chips and dip coming.
– Alan, age 10 (going on 40?)
No person really decides before they grow up who they’re going to marry. God decides it all way before, and you get to find out later who you’re stuck with.
– Kirsten, age 10
WHAT IS THE RIGHT AGE TO GET MARRIED?
Twenty-three is the best age because you know the person FOREVER by then.
– Camille, age 10
No age is good to get married at. You got to be a fool to get married.
– Freddie, age 6
HOW CAN A STRANGER TELL IF TWO PEOPLE ARE MARRIED?
You might have to guess, based on whether they seem to be yelling at the same kids.
– Derrick, age 8
WHAT DO YOU THINK YOUR MOM AND DAD HAVE IN COMMON?
Both don’t want any more kids.
-Lori, age 8
WHAT DO MOST PEOPLE DO ON A DATE?
Dates are for having fun, and people should use them to get to know each other. Even boys have something to say if you listen long enough.
– Lynnette, age 8
On the first date, they just tell each other lies, and that usually gets them interested enough to go for a second date.
– Martin, age 10
WHAT WOULD YOU DO ON A FIRST DATE THAT WAS TURNING SOUR?
I’d run home and play dead. The next day I would call all the newspapers and make sure they wrote about me in all the dead columns.
– Craig, age 9
WHEN IS IT OKAY TO KISS SOMEONE?
When they’re rich.
– Pam, age 7
The law says you have to be eighteen, so I wouldn’t want to mess with that.
– Curt, age 7
The rule goes like this: If you kiss someone, then you should marry them & have kids with them. It’s the right thing to do.
– Howard, age 8
IS IT BETTER TO BE SINGLE OR MARRIED?
It’s better for girls to be single but not for boys. Boys need someone to clean up after them.
– Anita, age 9
HOW WOULD THE WORLD BE DIFFERENT IF PEOPLE DIDN’T GET MARRIED?
There sure would be a lot of kids to explain, wouldn’t there?
– Kelvin, age 8
HOW WOULD YOU MAKE A MARRIAGE WORK?
Tell your wife that she looks pretty even if she looks like a truck.
– Ricky, age 10

An old prospector shuffled into town leading a tired old pack mule. The old man headed straight for the only saloon to clear his parched throat.
He walked up and tied his old mule to the hitching rail. As he stood there brushing some of the dust from his face and clothes, a young gunslinger stepped out of the saloon with a gun in one hand and a bottle of whiskey in the other.
The young gunslinger looked at the old man and laughed, saying, “Hey old man, have you ever danced?”
The old man looked up at the gunslinger and said, “No, I never did dance . . . never really wanted to.”
A crowd had gathered as the gunslinger grinned and said, “Well you old fool, you’re gonna dance now,” and started shooting at the old man’s feet.
The old prospector, not wanting to get a toe blown off, started hopping around like a flea on a hot skillet. Everybody was laughing, fit to be tied.
When the last bullet had been fired, the young gunslinger, still laughing, holstered his gun and turned around to go back into the saloon.
The old man turned to his pack mule, pulled out a double-barreled shotgun, and cocked both hammers. The loud clicks carried clearly through the desert air.
The crowd stopped laughing immediately.
The young gunslinger heard the sounds too and he turned around very slowly. The silence was almost deafening. The crowd watched as the young gunman stared at the old timer and the large gaping holes of those twin barrels.
The barrels of the shotgun never wavered in the old man’s hand, as he quietly said, “Son, have you ever kissed a mule’s ass?”
The gunslinger swallowed hard and said, “No sir . . . but . . . I’ve always wanted to.”
There are a few lessons for us all here: Never be arrogant. Don’t waste ammunition.
WHISKEY MAKES YOU THINK YOU ARE SMARTER THEN YOU ARE!
Don’t mess with old men . . . they didn’t get old by being stupid!

Dear Folks,

As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being. It may even be assumed that just as the unconscious affects us, increase in our consciousness likewise affects the unconscious. — Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) Psychologist

love to bring it all back into harmony.

Peace,

Jim — The Positive Qualities

TACTFUL

Compatible Qualities: patient, sagacious

Familial Qualities: finesse, graceful

Comment: To be tactful is not to be compromising. One must perceive the consciousness of one’s audience to understand what and how to say precisely what is needed.

JUST

Saying: Fiat justitia, ruat caelum (Latin): “Let justice be done though the heavens fall.”

Motto:Justitia omnibus (Latin): “Justice for all.” — District of Columbia

Quotes:

It is wise to disregard laws when they conflict with justice.

— L. Frank Baum (1856-1919) Tik Tok of Oz

The just shall shine, and shall run to and fro like sparks among the reeds.

— Amenemope (c. 1100 BCE) The Book of Wisdom, 3:7

[Justice] is the first virtue of social institutions, as truth is of systems of thought.

— John Rawls (1921-2002) American Philosopher

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly.

— Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968) Letter from Birmingham City Jail

Appropriate anger can be a force for good. Anger has provoked good and courageous people to come forward and defend the rights of those who are powerless to defend themselves.

— The Anger in All of Us and How to Deal with It

Comment: Justice has a lot to do with seeing reality from the “other’s” point of view.

Observation: The problem with a jury of one’s peers is the redneck jury who sentenced a fourteen year old black boy to death because he spoke flippantly to an older white woman. Then when the jury who tried him were put on trial, their peers declared their actions just. There must also be, at least, fairness stacked on top of justice.

4) Lady Justice [blindfolded woman with scales]

Mythology: Astraea, in Greek and Roman mythology, the goddess of Justice who became the constellation Virgo

Masquerading in Conservative Garb

by Robert H. Kalk for www.SchoolOfStatesmanship.org

The professional politician has created an illusion for every situation. And for those constituents with an exaggerated sense of entitlement, privilege will always be made to seem like an open ended right. They have fully embraced a latter day “golden gimmick” to give themselves a highly subsidized lifestyle. And their political consorts, catering to every indulgence, give each special constituency the plausible deniability needed to help maintain a “healthy” public or self-image.
The original Golden Gimmick refers to a November 1950 deal that accorded the Arabian-American Oil Company (ARAMCO), a consortium comprising Standard Oil of California (Socal), Standard Oil of New Jersey (Exxon), Standard Oil of New York (Mobil) and Texaco, a tax break equivalent to 50% of their profits on oil sales. The other 50% was diverted to King Ibn Saud via the US Treasury.
King Ibn Saud agreed to this fifty/fifty splitting of Aramco’s oil profits instead of nationalizing Aramco’s oil facilities on Saudi soil. He was inspired by Juan Pablo Pérez Alfonzo of Venezuela who had cut a similar deal with Jersey Standard Oil and Royal Dutch Shell. Venezuela eventually led the effort in forming OPEC and Saudi Arabia gained full control of Aramco by 1980.
In the days when beneficiaries of the welfare scheme were mostly poor, some people objected to the use of subsidies, because subsidizing goods or services could lead to over consumption. Recently we’ve seen the highly distorted debates concerning agriculture and oil industry subsidies. The combination of long supply lines, competition for available oil, and limited refinery capacities affects everyone’s price at the pump for gasoline. Building passenger cars on truck frames to accommodate an obesity epidemic simply exacerbates both the effects of limited supply and the health problems.
Now that the most heavily subsidized among us are rich, the price of subsidized commodities is reduced for the “ultimate consumer.” This encourages guilt suppression through binge drinking, gluttonous eating and gas guzzling. Just as the uninsured pass on billions of dollars in costs to people who carry insurance, those with unhealthy lifestyles drive costs up for everyone.
To the extent they are content in having society carry them, the faux conservative enjoys conspicuous consumption together with an excuse to indulge in liberal helpings for one’s self. This occurs even while begrudging others the means to meet their most basic human needs. For the condescending elite, each heavily subsidized self-helping also feeds an unreal sense of self-reliance and an exaggerated sense of self-importance.
The sense around the world is that the United States is in terminal decline. In the case of our pampered executives, people rightly ask if we’re looking at the kind of inspired leadership that built the enterprise from scratch and taking it from one meaningful level of attainment to the next or, are we seeing the feel-good custodial whose talent seems limited to the selective amplification, contextualization, and filtration of facts sought by the hit and run short-term investor. The pretense of those corporations, waxing patriotic for political purposes and registered off-shore for tax evasion purposes, further pollutes the electoral swamp.
While the rich have come to live more and more on the public dole, the poor face servility to endless war. The elitist and corporate forms of welfare that are provided through new social insurance models are not, in substance, anything new. In 1834, on closing the Second Bank of the United States, Andrew Jackson had this to say:

“I too have been a close observer of the doings of the Bank of the United States. I have had men watching you for a long time and I am convinced that you have used the funds of the bank to speculate in the breadstuffs of the country. When you won, you divided the profits amongst you, and when you lost, you charged it to the Bank. … You are a den of vipers and thieves.”

Recent observations about privatizing the gains and socializing the losses of the well-to-do barely scratch the surface of deceitful practices. In May of 2011, oil industry executives testified before the United States Senate on ending tax breaks for the largest multinational oil companies. And throughout the hearing, they addressed only those subsidies that were admitted to by politicians that appear to be wholly owned and operated by the industry. Yet over the years we have witnessed ample evidence pointing to a vast array of unacknowledged subsidies that inure to the benefit of the oil industry.
From the Truman era Golden Gimmick to the protection of Saudi oil fields, from the re-flagging of Kuwaiti tankers to the protection of shipping lanes on behalf of all countries by the United States through its Fifth Fleet. There is no commodity more heavily subsidized than oil. And yet, in the U.S., pandering politicians seek to divert the public’s attention to certain paltry subsidies concerning domestically produced alternative fuels.
While the corporate media runs oil industry public relations material on a continuous loop, there is no denying its complicity in squelching any honest debate on the true merits. There is no refuting the way the United States, since World War II, has undertaken a strategic redeployment of its military assets to keep the long, way too long oil pipeline open. It is largely for this reason, especially with respect to mid-east contingencies, that the U.S. military budget accounts for approximately 40% of global arms spending. Oh, if only the bleeding ended there.
In light of the history, it is clear that whenever a politician mentions the “strategic interest” of the United States in any particular country, it is undeniably a reference to that country’s oil. At the heart of the Carter Doctrine for example, was that president’s belief that the energy challenge is the “moral equivalent of war.” In 1980 he dramatically expanded the perimeter of the U.S. defensive shield by declaring:

“Let our position be absolutely clear: An attempt by any outside force to gain control of the Persian Gulf region will be regarded as an assault on the vital interests of the United States of America, and such an assault will be repelled by any means necessary, including military force.”

Carter was well aware that the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan in December of 1979 inched Russia closer to its long-held desire to reach the Persian Gulf. In the wake of the 2011 retirement of Robert Gates as Secretary of Defense, several witnesses testifying during confirmation hearings made desperate attempts to help the U.S. electorate overcome its abysmal ignorance concerning the history of U.S. involvement in Afghanistan. To these witnesses we would ask: Do you really expect them to watch a confirmation hearing when you can’t even get them to rent Charlie Wilson’s War?
During the time when the United States was a participatory democracy in the making, Sir Edmond Burke’s Report to King George described our forebears as attentive to the task at hand. Burke wrote:

This study renders men acute, inquisitive, dexterous, prompt in their attack, ready in defense, full of resources. In other countries the people are more simple and are of a less mercurial cast. They judge of an ill principle only in government, only by an actual grievance. Here they anticipate the evil and judge the pressure of the evil by the badness of the principle. They honor misgovernment from a distance and snuff out the approach of tyranny in every tainted breeze.”

Today, it’s as if we never learn. For even after the Arab oil embargo of 1973, an action designed to punish the U.S. for its support of Israel, the strategic interests of the United States are still rooted, not in any structured soil, but in sifting sand. You cannot build enduring legacies on a plane of unreality. And you will certainly reap what you sow when your seed stock is composed almost entirely of worthless derivatives.
Like those elected officials feigning surprise during the 2008 financial meltdown, it would seem military leaders only recently discovered there is no national security without a strong economy. Their betrayal of the doctrine which demands maintaining the industrial base was supported by a chicken-hawk administration intent on outsourcing nearly everything of value. The White House oilmen deliberately mislead their constituencies while industry executives mislead their consumers and their investors with import statistics that combine foreign oil imports with domestic natural gas in their reporting. This is done to lull people into a false sense of security based upon a skewed sense of just how much oil has actually been imported from unfriendly nations.
The price of gas at the pump is also misleading. For by the time you factor in the true cost of securing shipping lanes, re-flagging tankers, fighting well and refinery fires in war zones, protecting fields and pipelines, the disruption to military families, attending to wounded soldiers, and the payment of death benefits; you have expenditures that inure to the benefit of oil companies in ways that are not reflected at the point of sale. The loss of human life is apparently not a factor to be considered by those for whom saving a nickel on a gallon of gas is paramount.
There is one reason the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has not been tasked with determining the material cost of oil subsidies. And that is the unmitigated selfishness of those the politicians seek to gratify. Don’t expect the Boehner’s owners to be served by such a disclosure. Don’t look to a lemming-like press to expose their own compromising position. For just as the oil companies have come to expect they can foul the waters and move on, the political realm and the journalistic medium are every bit as polluted. The true enemies of this country are those that would pacify the electorate, thus serving their own narrow interests.
Native Americans, at least as far back as 1410 AD, had been harvesting oil for medicinal purposes by digging small pits around active seeps and lining them with wood. Spanish explorers in 1543 discovered the black, sticky tar found washed up on the beaches along the Texas coast could be used to waterproof their boots, European settlers also recognized the oil skimmed from seeps as a valuable source of lamp fuel and machinery lubrication.
No one of sound mind would argue that oil is not valuable. But the gamesmanship surrounding what counts as a subsidy, and what does not, distorts our view of the marketplace. The relative cost, within a wide range of energy alternatives, is simply not known because the government of the United States can not be relied upon for a set of honest numbers. As long as CBO tasking is determined by a self-serving group of politically motivated individuals those “term limits” some call elections become increasingly meaningless.
The tax code of the United States is an obfuscation device designed as part of a political payoff mechanism to perpetrate and perpetuate a fraud upon the electorate. Those who characterize themselves as both fiscal and social conservatives, who claim to believe in market economics, are betraying their very core as well as their constituents, if they are willing to accept the kind of market manipulations embedded in the code. It is clear the politicians, most boisterous about the folly of picking winners and losers, protect oil and other pet subsidies with the same kind of pseudo-religious fervor that those masquerading in conservative garb have recently come to embrace.
It is time to examine the motivations of so-called reformers who have put forth claims that a consumption tax would be un-progressive. A consumption tax would serve to remind consumers of what is and what is not subsidized with every transaction. The current system of taxing productivity effectively confuses and masks the sophistries of any elected give-away artist. With a corporate income tax rate of zero, manufacturing would return to the USA, workers would only pay taxes at the point of sale, the desperately poor could apply for rebates, and a small contingent of former IRS auditors could process the claims.
In the over the counter scenario corporations would continue to be exempt for domestically produced raw materials actually utilized in the manufacture of domestically produced finished goods. Their accounting burden would be reduced to focusing only on the same bill-of-materials scrutinized during the normal course of business. They would pay the exact same sales tax as their workers for items consumed through activities other than manufacturing.
Food, housing, healthcare and even stocks could be made exempt as a matter of public policy. The difference is that such above board transactions would promote the health of the State by ushering the self-serving politician one step closer to extinction.
 

Original Downloaded from www.ServingMammon.org © 2011 Robert H. Kalk — www.SchoolOfStatesmanship.org

The CEOs of AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint Nextel, and consumer and worker advocates testified on the proposed merger of AT&T and T-Mobile. AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson argued that the merger will “drive innovation and competitive prices and give customers fewer dropped calls, faster speeds and better broadband Internet service.” Sprint Nextel CEO Daniel Hess spoke against the merger noting that the combined forces of the two companies would roughly control 80 percent of the market.

Preached in the Tron Church, Glasgow, on “A Day of National Thanksgiving” 1816
“Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.” ISAIAH II. 4.
THERE are a great many passages in Scripture, which warrant the expectation that a time is coming, when war shall be put an end to – when its abominations and its cruelties shall be banished from the face of the earth – when those restless elements of ambition and jealousy, which have so long kept the species in a state of unceasing commotion, and are ever and anon sending another and another wave over the field of this world’s politics, shall at length be hushed into a placid and enduring calm; and many and delightful are the images which the Bible employs, as guided by the light of prophecy; it carries us forward to those millennial days, when the reign of peace shall be established, and the wide charity of the gospel, which is confined by no limits, and owns no distinctions, shall embosom the whole human race within the ample grasp of one harmonious and universal family.
But before I proceed, let me attempt to do away a delusion which exists on the subject of prophecy. Its fulfilments are all certain, say many, and we have therefore nothing to do, but to wait for them. In passive and indolent expectation. The truth of God stands in no dependence on human aid to vindicate the immutability of all His announcements; and the power of God stands in no need of the feeble exertions of man to hasten the accomplishment of any of His purposes. Let us therefore sit down quietly in the attitude of spectators – let us leave the Divinity to do His own work in His own way, and mark, by the progress of a history over which we have no control, the evolution of His designs, and the march of His wise and beneficent administration.
Now, it is very true, that the Divinity will do His own work in His own way, but if He choose to tell us that that way is not without the instrumentality of men, but by their instrumentality, might not this sitting down into the mere attitude of spectators, turn out to be a most perverse and disobedient conclusion? It is true, that His purpose will obtain its fulfilment, whether we shall offer or not to help it forward by our co-operation. But if the object is to be brought about, and if, in virtue of the same sovereignty by which He determined upon the object, He has also determined on the way which leads to it, and that that way shall be by the acting of human principle, and the putting forth of human exertion, then let us keep back our co-operation as we may, God will raise up the hearts of others to that which we abstain from; and they, admitted into the high honour of being fellow-workers with God, may do homage to the truth of His prophecy; while we, perhaps, may unconsciously do dreadful homage to the truth of another warning, and another prophecy. “I work a work in your days which you shall not believe, though a man declare it unto you. Behold, ye despisers, and wonder and perish.”
Now this is the very way in which prophecies have been actually fulfilled. The return of the people of Israel to their own land was an event predicted by inspiration, and was brought about by the stirring up of the spirit of Cyrus, who felt himself charged with the duty of building a house to God at Jerusalem. The pouring out of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost was foretold by the Saviour ere he left the world, and was accomplished upon men, who assembled themselves together at the place to which they were commanded to repair; and there they waited, and they prayed. The rapid propagation of Christianity in those days was known by the human agents of this propagation, to be made sure by the word of prophecy; but the way in which it was actually made sure, was by the strenuous exertions, the unexampled heroism, the holy devotedness and zeal of martyrs, and apostles, and evangelists.
And even now, my brethren, while no professing Christians can deny that their faith is to be one day the faith of all countries; but while many of them idly sit, and wait the time of God putting forth some mysterious and unheard of agency, to bring about the universal diffusion, there are men who have betaken themselves to the obvious expedient of going abroad among the nations, and teaching them; and though derided by an undiscerning world, they seem to be the very men pointed out by the Bible, who are going to and fro increasing the knowledge of its doctrines, and who will be the honoured instruments of carrying into effect the most splendid of all its anticipations.
Now the same holds true, I apprehend, of the prophecy in my text. The abolition of war will be the effect not of any sudden or resistless visitation from heaven on the character of men – not of any mystical influence working with all the omnipotence of a charm on the passive hearts of those who are the subjects of it – not of any blind or overruling fatality which will come upon the earth at some distant period of its history, and about which, we, of the present day, have nothing to do but to look silently on, without concern, and without co-operation. The prophecy of a peace as universal as the spread of the human race, and as enduring as the moon in the firmament, will meet its accomplishment, and at that very time which is already fixed by Him, who seeth the end of all things from the beginning thereof. But it will be brought about by the activity of men. It will be done by the philanthropy of thinking and intelligent Christians. The conversion of the Jews – the spread of gospel light among the regions of idolatry – these are distinct subjects of prophecy, on which the faithful of the land are now acting, and to the fulfilment of which they are giving their zeal and their energy.
I conceive the prophecy which relates to the final abolition of war will be taken up in the same manner; and the subject will be brought to the test of Christian principle; and many will unite to spread a growing sense of its follies and its enormities, over the countries of the world and the public will be enlightened not by the factious and turbulent declamations of a party, but by the mild dissemination of gospel sentiment through the land – and the prophecy contained in this book will pass into effect and accomplishment, by no other influence than the influence of its ordinary lessons on the hearts and consciences of individuals – and the treasure will first be carried in one country, not by the unhallowed violence of discontent, but by the control of general opinion, expressed on the part of a people, who, if Christian, in their repugnance to war, will be equally Christian in all the loyalties and subjections, and meek unresisting virtues of the New Testament – and the sacred fire of good-will to the children of men will spread itself through all climes, and through all latitudes – and thus by scriptural truth conveyed with power from one people to another, and taking its ample round among all the tribes and families of the earth, shall we arrive at the magnificent result of peace throughout all its provinces, and security in all its dwelling-places.
In the further prosecution of this discourse, I shall, First, epiatiate a little on the evils of war.
In the Second place, I shall direct your attention to the obstacles which stand in the way of its extinction, and which threaten to retard for a time the accomplishment if the prophecy I have now selected for your consideration.
And, in the Third place, I shall endeavour to point out, what, can only be done at present in a hurried and superficial manner, some of the expedients by which these obstacles maybe done away.
I. I shall expatiate a little on the evils of war. The mere existence of the prophecy in my text, is a sentence of condemnation upon war, and stamps a criminality on its very forehead. So soon as C
hristianity shall gain a full ascendancy in the world, from that moment war is to disappear. We have heard that there is something noble in the art of war; that there is something generous in the ardour of that fine chivalric spirit which kindles in the hour of alarm, and rushes with delight among the thickest scenes of danger and of enterprise ; – that man is never more proudly arrayed, than when, elevated by a contempt for death, he puts on his intrepid front, and looks serene, while the arrows of destruction are flying on every side of him ; – that expunge war, and you expunge some of the brightest names in the catalogue of human virtue, and demolish that theatre on which have been displayed some of the sublimest energies of the human character. It is thus that war has been invested with a most pernicious splendour, and men have offered to justify it as a blessing, and an ornament to society, and attempts have been made to throw a kind of imposing morality around it; and one might almost be reconciled to the whole train of its calamities and its horrors, did he not believe his Bible, and learn from its information, that in the days of perfect righteousness, there will be no war; – that so soon as the character of man has had the last finish of Christian principle thrown over it, from that moment all the instruments of war will be thrown aside, and all its lessons will be forgotten; that, therefore, what are called the virtues of war are no virtues at all, or that a better and a worthier scene will be provided for their exercise; but in short, that at the commencement of that blissful era, when the reign of heaven shall be established, war will take its departure from the world with all the other plagues and atrocities of the species.
But apart altogether from this testimony to the evil of war, let us just take a direct look of it, and see whether we can find its character engraven on the aspect it bears to the eye of an attentive observer. The stoutest heart of this assembly would recoil, were he who owns it, to behold the destruction of a single individual by some deed of violence. Were the man who at this moment stands before you in the full play and energy of health, to be in another moment laid by some deadly aim a lifeless corpse at your feet, there is not one of you who would not prove how strong are the relentings of nature at a spectacle so hideous as death. There are some of you who would be haunted for whole days by the image of horror you had witnessed – who would feel the weight of a most oppressive sensation upon you heart, which nothing but time could wear away who would be so pursued by it as to be unfit for business or for enjoyment – who would think of it through the day, and it would spread a gloomy disquietude over your waking momentswho would dream of it at night, and it would turn that bed which you courted as a retreat from the torments of an ever-meddling memory, into a scene of restlessness.
But generally the death of violence is not instantaneous, and there is often a sad and dreary interval between its final consummation, and the infliction of the blow which causes it. The winged messenger of destruction has not found its direct avenue to that spot, where the principle of life is situated – and the soul, finding obstacles to its immediate egress, has to struggle for hours, ere it can make its way way through the winding avenues of that tenement, which has been torn open by a brother’s hand. 0! my brethren, if there he something appalling in the suddenness of death, think not that when gradual in its advances, you will alleviate the horrors of this sickening contemplation, by viewing it in a milder form. 0! tell me, if there be any relentings of pity in your bosom, how could you endure it, to behold the agonies of the dying man – as goaded by pain, he grasps the cold ground in convulsive energy, or faint with the loss of blood, his pulse ebbs low, and the gathering paleness spreads itself over his countenance – or wrapping himself round in despair, he can only mark by a few feeble quiverings, that life still lurks and lingers in his lacerated body or lifting up a faded eye, he casts on rou a look of imploring helplessness, for that succour which no sympathy can yield him.
It may be painful to dwell on such a representation but this is the way in which the cause of humanity is served. The eye of the sentimentalist turns away from its sufferings; and he passes by on the other side, lest he hear that pleading voice, which is armed with a tone of remonstrance so vigorous as to disturb him. He cannot bear thus to pause, in imagination, on the distressing picture of one individual; but multiply it ten thousand time’s say, how much of all this distress has been heaped together upon a single field – give us the arithmetic of this accumulated wretchedness, and lay it before us with all the accuracy of an official computation and, strange to tell, not one sigh is lifted up among the crowd of eager listeners, as they stand on tiptoe, and catch every syllable of utterance, which is read to them out of the registers of death. 0! say, what mystic spell is that, which so blinds us to the sufferings of our brethren – .which deafens to our ear the voice of bleeding hmnanity, when it is aggravated by the shriek of dying thousands – which makes the very magnitude of the slaughter, throw a softening -disguise o’er its cruelties, and its horrors – which causes us to eye with indifference, the field that is crowded with the most revolting abominations, and arrests that sigh, which each individual would singly have drawn from us, by the report of the many who have fallen, -and breathed their last in agoney along wih him?
I am not saying the burden of all this criminality rests upnn the head of the immediate combatants. It lies somewhere; but who can deny that a soldier may be a Christian, and that from bloody field on which his body is laid, his soul may wing its ascending way to the shores of a peaceful eternity? But when I think that the Christian even of the great world, form but a very little flock, and that an army is not a propitious soil for the growth of Christian principle – when think on the character of one such army, that had been led on for years by a ruffian amnbition and been enured to scenes of barbarity and had gathered a most ferocious hardihood of soul, from the many enterprises of violence to which an principled commander had carried them – when I follow them to the field of battle, and further think that on both sides of an exasperated contest the gentleness of Christianity can have no place in almost any bosom; but that nearly every heart lighted up with fury, and breathes a vindictive purpose against a brother of the species, I cannot but reckon it among the most fearful of the calamities of war – that while the work of death is thickening along its ranks, so many disembodied spirits should pass into the presence of Him who sitteth upon the throne, in such a posture, and with such a preparation.
I have no time, and assuredly as little taste, for expatiating on a topic so melancholy, nor can afford at present to set before you a vivid picture of the other miseries which war carries in its train – how it desolates every country through which it rolls, and spreads violation and alarm among the villages how, at its approach, every home pours forth its trembling fugitives – how all the rights of property, and all the provisions of justice, must give way before its devouring exactions – how, when Sabbath comes, no Sabbath charm comes along with it – and for the sound of the church bell, which wont to spread its music over some fine landscape of nature, and summon rustic worshippers to the house of prayer nothing is heard but the deathful vollies of the battle, and the maddening outcry of infuriated men – how, as the fruit of victory, an unprincipled licentiousness which no discipline can restrain, is suffered to walk at large among the people – and all that is pure, and reverend, and holy in the virtue of families, is cruelly trampled on, and held in the bitterest d
erision. Oh! my brethren, were we to pursue those details, which no pen ever attempts, and no chronicle perpetuates, we should be tempted to ask, what that is which civilization has done for the character -of the species? It has thrown a few paltry embellishments over the surface of human affairs; and for the order of society, it has reared the defences of law around the rights and the property of the individuals who compose it. But let war, legalized as you may, and ushered into the field with all the parade of forms and manifestoes – let this war only have its season, and be suffered to overleap these artificial defences, and you will soon see how much of the security of the commonwealth is due to positive restrictions, and how little of it is due to a natural sense of justice among men.
I know well, that the plausibilities of human character, which abound in every modern and enlightened society, have been mustered up to oppose the doctrine of the Bible on the woful depravity of our race. But out of the history of war, I can gather for this doctrine the evidence of experiment. It tells me, that man, when left to himself and let loose among his fellows, to walk after the counsel of his own heart, and in the sight of his dwn eyes, will soon discover how thin that tinsel is, which the boasted baud of civilization has thrown over him. And we have only to blow the trumpet of war, and proclaim to man the hour of his opportunity, that his character may show itself in its essential elements – and that we may see how many, in this our moral and enlightened day, would spring forward as to a jubilee of delight, and prowl like the wild men of the woods, amidst scenes of rapacity, and cruelty, and violence.
II. But let me hasten away from this part of the subject; and, in the Second place, direct your attention to those obstacles which stand in the way of the extinction of war, and which threaten to retard, for a time, the accomplishment of the prophecy I have now selected for your consideration. But is this the time, it may be asked, to complain of obstacles to the extinction of war, when peace has been given to the nations, and we are assembled to celebrate its triumphs? Is this day of high and solemn gratulation, to be turned to such forebodings as these? The whole of Europe is now at rest from the tempest which convulsed it – and a solemn treaty, with all its adjustments and all its guarantees, promises a firm perpetuity to the repose of the world. We have long fought for a happier order of things, and at length we have established it – and the hard-earned bequest we hand down to posterity as a rich inheritance, won by the labours and the sufferings of the present generation. That gigantic ambition which stalked in triumph over the firmest and the oldest of our monarchies, is now laid – and can never again burst forth from the confinement of its prison-hold to waken a new uproar, and send forth new troubles over the face of a desolated world.
Now, in reply to this, let it be observed, that every interval of repose is precious – every breathing time from the work of violence is to be rejoiced in by the friends of humanity – every agreement among the powers of the earth, by which a temporary respite can be gotten from the calamities of war, is so much reclaimed from the amount of those miseries that afflict the world, and of those crimes, the cry of which ascendeth unto heaven, and bringeth down the judgments of God on this dark and rebellious province of His creation. I trust, that on this day, gratitude to Him who alone can still the tumults of the people, will be the sentiment of every heart – and I trust that none who now hear me, will refuse to evince his gratitude to the Author of the New Testament, by their obedience to one of the most distinct and undoubted of its lessons – I mean the lesion of a reverential and submissive loyalty. I cannot pass an impartial eye over this record of God’s will, – without perceiving the utter repugnance that there is between the spirit of Christianity, and the factious, turbulent, unquenchable, and evermeddling spirit of political disaffection. I will not compromise, by the surrender of a single jot or tittle, the integrity of that preceptive code which the Saviour hath left behind Him for the, obedience of His disciples. I will not detach the very minutest of its features, from the fine picture of morality that Christ hath bequeathed, both by commandment and example, to adorn the nature He condescended to wear – and sure I am that the man who has drunk in the entire spirit of the gospel – who, reposing himself on the faith of its promised immortality, can maintain an elevated calm amid all the fluctuations of this world’s interest – whose exclusive ambition it is to be the unexcepted pupil of pure, and spiritual, and self-denying Christianity – sure I am that such a man will honour the king and all who are in authority – and be subject unto them for the sake of conscience – and render unto them all their dues – and not withhold a single fraction of the tribute they impose upon him – and be the best of subjects, just because he is the best of Christians- resisting none of the ordinances of God, and living a quiet and a peaceable life, in all godliness and honesty.
But it gives me pleasure to advance a further testimony in behalf of that government with which it has pleased God, who appointeth to all men the bounds of their habitation, to bless that portion of the globe which we occupy. I count it such a government that I not only owe it the loyalty of my principles but I also owe it the loyalty of my affections. I could not lightly part with my devotion to that government which the other year opened the door to the Christianization of India – I shall never withhold the tribute of my reverence from that government which put an end to the atrocities of the Slave Trade – I shall never forget the triumph which, in that proudest day of Britain’s story, the cause of humanity gained within the walls of our enlightened Parliament. Let my right hand forget her cunning, ere I forget that country of my birth, where, in defiance to all the clarnours of mercantile alarm, every calculation of interest was given to the wind, and braving every hazard, she nobly resolved to shake off the whole burden of the infamy which lay upon her. I shall never forget, that how to complete the object in behalf of which she has so honourably led the way, she has walked the whole round of civilized society, and knocked at the door of every government in Europe, and lifted her imploring voice for injured Africa, and pled with the mightiest monarchs of the world, the cause of her outraged shores, and her distracted families. I can neither shut my heart nor my eyes to the fact, that at this moment she is stretching forth the protection of her naval arm, and shielding to the uttermost of her vigour, that coast where an inhuman avarice, is still plying its guilty devices, and aiming to perpetuate among an unoffending people, a trade of cruelty, with all the horrid train of its terrors and abominations. Were such a government as this to be swept from its base, either by the violence of foreign hostility, or by the hands of her own misled and infatuated children, – I should never cease to deplore it as the deadliest interruption which ever had been given to the interests of human virtue, and to the march of human improvement. O! how it should swell every heart, not with pride, but with gratitude, to think that the land of our fathers, with all the iniquities which abound in it, with all the profligacy which spreads along our streets, and all the profaneness that is heard among our companies to think that this our land, overspread as it is with the appalling characters of guilt, is still the securest asylum of worth and of liberty – that this is the land from which the most copious emanations of Christianity are going forth to all the quarters of the world – that this is the land which teems from one end to the other of it with the most splendid designs and enterprises for the good of the species
– that this is the land where public principle is most felt, and public objects are most prosecuted, and the fine impulse of a public spirit is most ready to carry its generous people beyond the limits ofa selfish and contracted patzotisrn.
Yes, and when the heart of the plilanthropist is sinking within him at the gloomy spectacle of those crimes and atrocities which still deform the history of man, I know not a single earthly expedient more fitted to brighten and sustain him, than to turn his eye to the country in which he lives- and there see the most enlightened government in the world acting as the organ of its most moral and intelligent population.
It is not against the government of my country, therefore, that I direct my observations – but against that nature of man in the infirmities of which we all share, and the evil of which no government can extinguish. We have carried a new political arrangement,. and we experence as the result of it, a temporary calm – but we have not yet carried our way to the citadel of humnan passions. The elements of war are hushed for a season – but these are not destroyed. They still rankle in many unsubdued heart and I am too well taught by history of the past, and the experience of its restless variations, not to believe that they will burst forth again in thunder over the face of society. No, my brethren, it will only be when diffused and vital Christianity comes upon the earth, that an enduring peace will come along with it. The prophecy of my text will obtain its fulfilment – but not till the fulfilment of the verses which go before it ; – not till the influence of the gospel has found its way to the human bosom, and plucked out of it the elementary principles of war; – not till the law of love shall spread its melting and all-subduing efficacy, among the children of one common nature; not till ambition be dethroned from its mastery over the affections of the inner man; – not till the guilty splendours of war shall cease to captivate its admirers, and spread the blaze of a deceitful heroism, over the wholesale butchery of the species; – not till national pride he humbled, and man shall learn, that if it be individually the duty of each of us in honour to prefer one another; then let these individuals combine as they may, and form societies as numerous and extensive a they may, and each of these be swelled out to the dimensions of an empire, still, that mutual condescension and forbearance remain the unalterable Christian duties of these empires to each other; – not till man learns to revere his brother as man, whatever portion of the globe he occupies, and all the jealousies and preferences of a contracted patriotism be given to the wind; – not till war shall cease to be prosecuted as a trade, and the charm of all that interest which is linked with its continuance, shall cease to beguile men in the peaceful walks of merchandise, into a barbarous longing after war in one word, till pride, and jealousy, and interest, and all that is opposite to the law of God and the charity of the gospel, shall be for ever eradicated from the character of those who possess an effectual control over the public and political movements of the species; – Not till all this be brought about; and there is not another agent in the whole compass of nature that can bring it about but the gospel of Christ, carried home by the all-subduing power of the Spirit to the consciences of men; then, and not till then, my brethren, will peace come to take up its perennial abode with us, and its blessed advent on earth be hailed by one shout of joyful acclamation throughout all its families; – then, and not till then, will the sacred principle of good-will to men circulate as free as the air of heaven among all countries – and the sun looking out from the firmament, will behold one fine aspect of harmony throughout the wide extent of a regenerated world.
It will only be in the last days, “when it shall come to pass, that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow into it: And many people shall go, and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem; and he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people;” – then, and not till then, “they shall beat their swords into plough-shares, and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.”
The above rapid sketch glances at the chief obstacles to the extinction of war; and, in what remains of this discourse, I shall dwell a little more particularly on as many of them as my time will allow me, finding it impossible to exhaust so wide a topic, within the limits of the public services of one day.
The first great obstacle then to the extinction of war, is the way in which the heart of man is carried off from its barbarities and its horrors, by the splendour of its deceitful accompaniments. There is a feeling of the sublime in contemplating the shock of armies, just as there is in contemplating the devouring energy of a tempest; and this so elevates and engrosses the whole man, that his eye is blind to the tears of bereaved parents, and his ear is deaf to the piteous moan of the dying, and the shriek of their desolated families. There is a gracefulness in the picture of a youthful warrior burning for distinction on the field, and lured by this generous aspiration to the deepest of the animated throng, where, in the fell work of death, the Opposing sons of valour struggle for a remembrance and a name; – and this side of the picture is so much the exclusive object of our regard, as to disguise from our view the mangled carcasses of the fallen, and the writhing agonies of the hundreds and the hundreds more who have been laid on the cold ground, where they are left to languish and to die. There no one pities them. No sister is there to weep over them. There no gentle hand is present to ease the dying posture, or bind up the wounds, which, in the maddening fury of the combat, have been given and received by the children of one common Father. There death spreads its pale ensigns over every countenance; and when night comes on, and darkens around them, how many a despairing wretch must take up with the bloody field as the untended bed of his last sufferings, without one friend to bear the message of tenderness to his distant home, without one companion to close his eyes.
I avow it. On every side of me I see causes at work which go to spread a most delusive colouring over war, and to remove its shocking barbarities to the back-ground of our contemplations altogether. I see it in the history which tells me of the superb appearance of the troops, and the brilliancy of their successive charges. I see it in the poetry which lends the magic of its numbers to the narrative of blood, and transports its many admirers, as by its images, and its figures, and its nodding plumes of chivalry, it throws its treacherous embellishments over a scene of legalized slaughter. I see it in the music which represents the progress of the battle; and where, after being inspired by the trumpet notes of preparation, the whole beauty and tenderness of a drawing room are seen to bend over the sentimental entertaininent; nor do I hear the utterance of a single sigh to interrupt the death-tones of the thickening contest, and the moans of the wounded men as they fade away upon the ear, and sink into lifeless silence.
All, all goes to prove what strange and half-sighted creatures we are. Were it not so, war could nevet have been seen in any other aspect than that of unmingled hatefulness; and I can look to nothing but to the progress of Christian sentiment upon earth, to arrest the strong current of its popular and prevailing partiality for war. Then only will an imperious sense of duty
lay the check of severe principle, on all the subordinate tastes and faculties of our nature. Then will glory be reduced to its right estimate – and the wakeful benevolence of the gospel chasing away every spell, will be turned by the treachery of no delusion whatever, from its simple, but sublime enterprises for the good of the species. Then the reign of truth and quietness will be ushered into the world, and war, cruel, atrocious, unrelenting war, will be stript of its many and its bewildering fascinations.
But again, another obstacle to the extinction of war, is a sentiment which seems to be universally gone into, that the rules and promises of the gospel which apply to a single individual, do not apply to a nation of individuals. Just think of the mighty effect it would have on the politics of the world, were this sentiment to be practically deposed from its wonted authority over the counsels and the doings of nations, in their transactions with each other. If forbearance be the virtue of an individual, forbearance is also the virtue of a nation. If it be encumbent on men in honour to prefer each other, it is incumbent on the very largest societies of men, through the constituted organ of their government, to do the same. If it be the glory of a man to defer his anger, and to pass over a transgression, that nation mistakes its glory which is so feelingly alive to the slightest insult, and musters up its threats and its armaments upon the faintest shadow of a provocation. If it be the magnanimity of an injured man to abstain from vengeance, and if by so doing, he heap coals of fire upon the head of his enemy, then that is the magnanimous nation, which, recoiling from violence and from blood, will do no more than send its Christian embassy, and prefer its mild and impressive remonstrance; and that is the disgraced nation which will refuse the impressiveness of the moral appeal that has been made to it.
O! my brethren, there must be the breathing of a different spirit to circulate round the globe, ere its Christianized nations resign the jealousies which now front them to each other in the scowling attitude of defiance – and much is to do with the people of every land, ere the prophesied influence of the gospel shall bring its virtuous and its pacifying control to bear with effect on the counsels and governments of the world.
I find that I must be drawing to a close, and that I must forbear entering into several topics on which I meant at one time to expatiate. I wished, in particular, to have laid it fully before you, how the extinction of war, though it should withdraw one of those scenes on which man earns the glory of intrepidity – yet it would leave other, and better, and nobler scenes, for the display and the exercise of this respectable attribute. I wished also to explain to you, that however much I admired the general spirit of Quakerism, on the subject of war; yet that I was not prepared to go all the length of its principles, when that war was strictly defensive. It strikes me, that war is to be abolished by the abolition of its aggressive spirit among the different nations of the world. The text seems to tell me, that this is the order of prophecy upon the subject; – and that it is when nation shall cease to lift up its sword against nation – or, in other words, when one nation shall cease to move, for the purpose of attacking another, that military science will be no longer in demand, and that the people of the earth will learn the art of war no more. I should also have stated, that on this ground, I refrained from pronouncing on the justice or necessity of any one war in which this country has ever been involved. I have no doubt, that many of those who supported our former wars, looked on several of them as wars for existence – but on this matter I carefully abstain from the utterance of a single sentiment – for in so doing, I should feel myself to be descending from the generalities of Christian principle, and employing that pulpit as the vehicle of a questionable policy, which ought never to be prostituted either to the unworthy object of sending forth the incense of human flattery to any one administration, or of regaling the factious, and turbulent, and disloyal passions of any party. I should next, if I had had time, offer such observations as were suggested by my own views of political science, on the multitude of vulnerable points by which this country is surrounded, in the shape of numerous and distant dependencies, and which, however much they may tend to foster the warlike politics of our government, are, in truth, so little worth the expense of a war, that should all of them be wrested away from us, they would leave the people of our empire as great and as wealthy, and as competent to every purpose of home security as ever.
Lastly, I might have whispered my inclination, for a little more of the Chinese policy being imported into Europe, not for the purpose of restraining a liberal intercourse between its different countries, but for the purpose of quieting in each its restless spirit of alarm, about every foreign movement in the politics and designs of other nations; because, sure I am, that were each great empire of the world to lay it down as the maxim of its most scrupulous observance, not to meddle till it was meddled with, each would feel in such a maxim both its safety and its triumph ; – for such are the mighty resources of defensive war, that though the whole transportable force of Europe were to land upon our borders, the result of the experiment would be such, that it should never be repeated – the rallying population of Britian could sweep them all from the face of its territory, and a whole myriad of invaders would melt away under the power of such a government as ours, trenched behind the loyalty of her defenders, and strong, as she deserves to be, in the love and in the confidence of all her children.
I would not have touched on any of the lessons of political economy, did they not lead me, by a single step, to a Christian lesson, which I count it my encumbent duty to press upon the attention of you all. Any sudden change in the state of the demand, must throw the commercial world into a temporary derangement. And whether the change be from war to peace, or from peace to war, this effect is sure to accompany it. Now for upwards of twenty years, the direction of our trade has been accommodated to a war system; and when this system is put an end to, I do not say what amount of the distress will light upon this neighbourhood, hut we may be sure that all the alarm of falling markets, and ruined speculation, will spread an oppressive gloom over many of the manufacturing districts of the land.
Now, let my title to address you on other grounds be as questionable as it may, I feel no hesitation whatever in announcing it, as your most imperative duty, that no outcry of impatience or discontent from you, shall embarrass the pacific policy of his Majesty’s government. They have conferred a great blessing on the country, in conferring on it peace; and it is your part resignedly to weather the languid or disastrous months which may come along with it. The interest of trade is an old argument that has been set up, in resistance to the dearest and most substantial interests of humanity. When Paul wanted to bring Christianity into Ephesus, he raised a storm of opposition around him, from a quarter which, 1 dare say, he was not counting on. There happened to be some shrine manufactories in that place, and as the success of the Apostle would infallibly have reduced the demand for that article, forth came the decisive argument of, “Sirs, by this craft we have our wealth, and should this Paul turn away the people from the worship of gods made with hands, thereby much damage would accrue to our trade”. Why, my brethren, if this argument is to be admitted, there is not one conceivable benefit that can he offered for the acceptance of the species. Would it not be well, if all the men of reading in the country were to be diverted from the poison which lurks i
n many a mischievous publication – and should this blessed reformation be effected, are there none to be found who would feel that much damage had accrued to their trade? Would it not be well if those wretched sons of pleasure, before whom, if they repent not, there lieth all the dreariness of an uuprovided eternity would it not be well, that they were reclaimed from the maddening intoxication which speeds them on in the career of disobedience – and on this event too, would there be none to complain that much damage had accrued to their trade?
Is it not well, that the infamy of the Slave Trade has been swept from the page of British history? and yet do not many of you remember how long the measure lay suspended, and that about twenty annual flotillas, burdened with the load of human wretchedness, were wafted across the Atlantic, while Parliament was deafened and overborne by unceasing clamours about the much damage that would accrue to the trade? And now, is it not well that peace has once more been given to the nations? and are you to follow up this goodly train of examples, by a single whisper of discontent about the much damage that will accrue to your trade? No, my brethren, I will not let down a single inch of the Christian requirement that lies upon you. Should a sweeping tide of bankruptcy set in upon the land, and reduce every individual who now hears me, to the very humblest condition in society, God stands pledged to give food and raiment to all who depend upon Him; and it is not fair to make others bleed, that you may roll in affluence; – it is not fair to desolate thousands of families, that yours may be upheld in luxury and splendour – and your best, and noblest, and kindest part is, to throw yourself on the promises of God, and he will hide you and your little ones in the secret of his pavilion, till these calamities be over – past.
III. I trust it is evident from all that has been said, how it is only by the extension of Christian principle among the people of the earth, that the atrocities of war will at length be swept away from it; and that each of us is hastening the commencement of that blissful period, who, in his own sphere, is doing all that in him lies to bring his own heart, and the hearts of others, under the supreme influence of this principle. It is public opinion, which, in the long run, governs the world; and while I look with confidence to a gradual revolution in the state of public opinion, from the omnipotence of gospel truth working its silent, but effectual, way through the families of mankind – yet I will not deny, that much may be done to accelerate the advent of perpetual and universal peace, by a distinct body of men embarking their every talent, and their every acquirement, in the prosecution of this, as a distinct object. This was the way in which, a few years ago, the British public were gained over to the cause of Africa. This is the way in which some of the other prophecies of the Bible are at this moment hastening to their accomplishment; and it is in this way, I apprehend, that the prophecy of my text may be indebted for its speedier fulfilment to the agencyof men, selecting this as the assigned field on which their philanthropy shall expatiate. Were each individual member of such a scheme to prosecute his own walk, and come forward with his own peculiar contribution, the fruit of the united labours of all would be one of the finest collections of Christian eloquence, and of enlightened morals, and of sound political philosophy, that ever was presented to the world. I could not fasten on another cause more fitted to call forth such a variety of talent, and to rally around it so many of the generous and accomplished Sons of humanity, and to give each of them a devotedness and a power far beyond whatever could be sent into the hearts of enthusiasts, by the mere impulse of literary ambition.
Let one take up the question of war in its principle, and make the full weight of his moral severity rest upon it, and upon all its abominations. Let another take up the question of war in its consequences and bring his every power of graphical description to the task of presenting an awakened public with an impressive detail of its cruelties, and its horrors. Let another neutralize the poetry of war, and dismantle it of all those bewitching splendours, which the hand of misguided genius has tbrown over it. Let another teach the world, a truer and more magnanimous path to national glory, than any country of the world has yet walked in. Let another tell, with irresistible argument, how the Christian ethics of a nation is at one with the Christian ethics of its humblest individnal. Let another bring all the resources of his political science to unfold the vast energies of defensive war, and show, that, instead of that ceaseless jealousy and disquietude which are ever keeping alive the flame of hostility among the nations, each may wait in prepared security, till the first footstep of an invader shall be the signal for mustering around the standard of its outraged rights, all the steel, and spirit, and patriotism of the country. Let another pour the light of modern speculation into the mysteries of trade, and prove that not a single war has been undertaken for any of its objects, where the millions and the millions more which were lavished on the cause, have not all been cheated away from us by the phantom of an imaginary interest. This may look to many like the Utopianism of a romantic anticipationist. I shall never despair of the cause of truth addressed to a Christian public, when the clear light of principle can be brought to every one of its positions, and when its practical and conclusive establishment forms one of the most distinct of Heaven’s prophecies – “that men shall heat their swords into plough-shares, and their Spears into pruning-hooks and that nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn the art of war any more.” – Thomas Chalmers
AEVIA

I was struck again about how hollow and shallow it would be to try to live a Christian life that consists of singing songs, studying the Bible, listening to sermons, and so on – without being involved as agents of change in the world around us, especially relating to the growing global crises surrounding our planet, poverty, and peace.

AEVIA Reveals the Source

“God the great Creator of all things does uphold, direct, dispose, and govern all creatures, actions, and things, from the greatest even to the least, by His most wise and holy providence, according to His infallible foreknowledge, and the free and immutable counsel of His own will, to the praise of the glory of His wisdom, power, justice, goodness, and mercy.” – 17th Century Westminster Confession of Faith

Now that is a lot of really heavy theological stuff, but what I want you to come away with is that God is in perfect control of all things, and nothing has transpired in history or is set to transpire in the future that is of an accidental or coincidental nature. More so, it has been purposefully and carefully directed by God in such a way that his name receives the fullest realization of praise and glory. I think, because of this truth we can see God as an infinitely brilliant artist, a writer perhaps, or poet, or painter, and having declared the end from the beginning, he has crafted a story that is infused with deep and joyous meaning. From the very least to the very greatest of objects, circumstances and people, his story flourishes not on the pages of a book, or the moving frames of a film, but in and through the lives of real people, real places, and real events that shape the course of all existence.

AEVIA Reveals the Source

The Pew survey finds that constant movement characterizes the American religious marketplace, as every major religious group is simultaneously gaining and losing adherents. Those that are growing as a result of religious change are simply gaining new members at a faster rate than they are losing members. Conversely, those that are declining in number because of religious change simply are not attracting enough new members to offset the number of adherents who are leaving those particular faiths.

To illustrate this point, one need only look at the biggest gainer in this religious competition – the unaffiliated group. People moving into the unaffiliated category outnumber those moving out of the unaffiliated group by more than a three-to-one margin. At the same time, however, a substantial number of people (nearly 4% of the overall adult population) say that as children they were unaffiliated with any particular religion but have since come to identify with a religious group. This means that more than half of people who were unaffiliated with any particular religion as a child now say that they are associated with a religious group. In short, the Landscape Survey shows that the unaffiliated population has grown despite having one of the lowest retention rates of all “religious” groups.

AEVIA Reveals the Source