our right to use arms under any circumstances, there are many religious
enthusiasts in other communions who, from causes already noticed, have
adopted the same theory, and hold _all_ wars, even those in
self-defence, as unlawful and immoral. This opinion has been, within the
last few years, pressed on the public with great zeal and eloquence, and
many able pens have been enlisted in its cause. One of the most popular,
and by some regarded one of the most able writers on moral science, has
adopted this view as the only one consonant with the principles of
Christian morality.

It has been deemed proper, in commencing a course of lectures on war, to
make a few introductory remarks respecting this question of its
justifiableness. We know of no better way of doing this than to give on
the one side the objections to war as laid down in Dr. Wayland's Moral
Philosophy, and on the other side the arguments by which other ethical
writers have justified a resort to war. We do not select Dr. Wayland's
work for the purpose of criticizing so distinguished an author; but
because he is almost the only writer on ethics who advocates these
views, and because the main arguments against war are here given in
brief space, and in more moderate and temperate language than that used
by most of his followers. I shall give his arguments in his own
language.

"I. All wars are contrary to the revealed will of God."

It is said in reply, that if the Christian religion condemns all wars,
no matter how just the cause, or how necessary for self-defence, we must
expect to find in the Bible some direct prohibition of war, or at least
a prohibition fairly implied in other direct commandments. But the Bible
nowhere prohibits war: in the Old Testament we find war and even
conquest positively commanded, and although war was raging in the world
in the time of Christ and his apostles, still they said not a word of
its unlawfulness and immorality. Moreover, the fathers of the church
amply acknowledge the right of war, and directly assert, that when war
is justly declared, the Christian may engage in it either by stratagem
or open force. If it be of that highly wicked and immoral character
which some have recently attributed to it, most assuredly it would be
condemned in the Bible in terms the most positive and unequivocal.

But it has been said that the use of the sword is either directly or
typically forbidden to the Christian, by such passages as "Thou sha