Looking this day upon the brotherhood of nations, we behold one sight
which might excite our joyful hope, were it not for another closely
connected with it, which must excite our astonishment and sorrow. We
behold, on the one hand, the nations of the earth brought into close
proximity and to the possibility of easy friendship, by the many
physical improvements of the age. These improvements, as we see, are
made and first used by enlightened and Christian nations,--and we are
encouraged to ask, shall not these improvements be the channels and
vehicles for conveying to all nations the influences of the gospel? In
this bringing of the ends of the earth together, by those whose great
glory is their possession of the knowledge of God's salvation, shall
not "all the ends of the earth," through their agency, speedily be
brought "to see the salvation of God?" But alas! The ardency of our
hopes is quenched, when we behold this day the most enlightened and
powerful and happy of the whole brotherhood of nations, whose great
tie is that of natural and Christian love, and whose great duty is to
strengthen the cords of love amongst all their brotherhood,--when we
behold these nations, submitting themselves to the demon of national
hatred and revenge, employing the agencies which should convey the
gospel of peace to all mankind, in transporting the munitions of war,
and then putting forth all their skill and energies in planning and
executing, with the aids of the most matured science, and by means of
the most ingenious and mighty enginery, the devilish work of national
desolation and destruction.

Can we, my hearers, conceive of a higher and more horrid contradiction
of the whole spirit of our religion than a national war? And can there
be anything more discouraging to him who hopes for the speedy
diffusion of the Gospel amidst the nations, than the contemplation of
the present war,--a war not only waged by nations the most Christian,
but a war involving no principle and devoid of all glory,--a war
stamped in its every feature, and chargeable at its every step, with
the attribute and the crime of murder.

O when shall war be recognized in its brutality and fiendishness and
hellish horrors? When shall patriotism separate itself from a proud
ambition and a cruel revenge, and become the loving handmaid of a pure
philanthropy? When shall Christian nations become capable of a
Christian transaction? Must "the sword devour forever?"