d free our hearts from all evil
motives.

II. All wars are unjustifiable, because "God commands us to love every
man, alien or citizen, Samaritan or Jew, as ourselves; and the act
neither of society nor of government can render it our duty to violate
this command."

It is true that no act of society can make it our duty to violate any
command of God: but is the above command to be taken literally, and as
forbidding us to engage in just war? Is it not rather intended to
impress upon us, in a forcible manner, that mutual love is a great
virtue; that we should hate no one, not even a stranger nor an enemy,
but should treat all with justice, mercy, and loving-kindness? If the
meaning attempted to be given to this command in the above quotation be
the true one, it is antagonistical not only to just war, but to civil
justice, to patriotism, and to the social and domestic affections.

But are we bound to love all human beings alike; that is, to the same
degree? Does the Bible, as a whole, inculcate such doctrine? On the
contrary, Christ himself had his _beloved_ disciple,--one whom he loved
pre-eminently, and above all the others; though he loved the others none
the less on that account. We are bound to love our parents, our
brothers, our families first, and above all other human beings; but we
do not, for this reason, love others any the less. A man is not only
permitted to seek first the comfort and happiness of his own family, but
if he neglect to do so, he is worse than an infidel. We are bound to
protect our families against the attacks of others; and, if necessary
for the defence of their lives, we are permitted to take the life of the
assailant; nay more, we are bound to do so. But it does not follow that
we _hate_ him whom we thus destroy. On the contrary, we may feel
compassion, and even love for him. The magistrate sentences the murderer
to suffer the penalty of the law; and the sheriff carries the sentence
into execution by taking, in due form, the life of the prisoner:
nevertheless, both the magistrate and the sheriff may have the kindest
feelings towards him whom they thus deprive of life.

So it is in the external affairs of the state. Next to my kindred and my
neighbors do I love my countrymen. I love them more than I do
foreigners, because my interests, my feelings, my happiness, my ties of
friendship and affection, bind me to them more intimately than to the
foreigner. I sympathize with the oppressed Greek