testimony, had he not said a word, that he condemned the act of Peter. But not content with this unequivocal proof of disapprobation, he adds, Put up again thy sword into its place, for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.' Now let us state any parallel case between father and child, teacher and scholar, master and servant, ruler and subject. Let the son, the pupil, the domestic, the citizen do what they conceive to be their duty, by the parent, instructor, master, governor; and let these only exhibit similar acts and sentiments, and who could doubt a moment that they amounted to the clearest condemnation.

4. I am disposed to regard this passage in another very impor tant light. The previous passages furnish an instance of our Saviour's preparing Peter with full notice, for a severe rebuke of his self-confidence; may not this passage have been introduced by Jesus, (knowing that they had the swords, knowing what their re mark would be, and knowing how Peter would use one of them,) in order to afford him the fittest opportunity, not by precept merely, as when John and James would have called down fire from heaven, Luke ix. 54-but by a most striking example, to reprove the fiery zeal, and readiness to shed blood, on the part of Peter? If our Saviour had neither healed the ear, nor spoken as he did to Peter, would not the argument in favor of arms and military warfare have been conclusive? Surely then the opposite inference must be equally clear, from an opposite state of facts.

5. Let me add another remark. Was not the whole passage from ver. 36 to ver. 38 intended to prepare the way for illustrating in the conduct of Peter, the striking difference between the courage and weapons of the soldier, which Christ needed not, but condemned, and the fortitude and spiritual arms, which he required and appro ved in his disciples? Was it not intended to furnish a noble com.

mentary on the texts, Resist not evil,' 'Love you enemies,' 'Bless them that curse you,' &c.? Is not this the commentary? Follow not the ways of the world, which rejoices to return evil for evil, which covets the opportunity and the means to chastise those who oppose or offend it. But I say unto you, with the power to punish, punish not: with the sword at your side, draw it not? Was it not as though Christ had said, 'With the strongest temptation to break the law of love, humility, forbearance, forgiveness, forget not, that the very temptation is to be the test of your faithfulness. Sell your

garment and buy a sword, to prove your self-command and lowliness of spirit, that the world, when they see you armed, may be struck by the astonishing fact, that the sword itself is with the faithful disciple of the meek and lowly Jesus, not an instrument of violence, but a trial of his patience and love, and a test of his obedi ence and self.command.' Is not this consistent with the whole scheme of Christian probation? Now, Peter had boasted, 'Lord, I am ready to go with thee both into prison and to death,' and of this he gave unequivocal proof, according to the world's notions, by the act of violence which he committed. But this mode of illustrating his devotion was condemned on the part of our Saviour, by word and deed. And when Peter, after having followed him to the high priest's palace, (another unequivocal proof, according to the world's ideas, of his devotion,) had thrice denied him, Jesus turned and looked on him, to reproach and condemn his WANT of the ONLY courage that becomes a Christian. Was it not as much as to say, 'Thou wast ready to go with me to prison and death, provided I would allow thee to do it sword in hand, and with the violence of armed warfare; but thou art not willing to follow me to prison and death, in the only way I approve, with the fortitude of faith, not with the resistance of valor? The sword of the warrior I condemn: the sword of the spirit I sanction and approve.”—p. 142–145.

We have now completed our intention of giving as far as our limits would allow, a specimen of the manner and sentiments of this work. In conclusion we earnestly recommend this book to the thoughtful perusal of all who call themselves disciples of Jesus Christ. The questions it discusses have been long prejudged and neglected by the bulk of the Christian world. We urge the duty of a solemn and candid revision of this subject upon all who without much reflection have acquiesced in the current opinion of the world at large.

ARTICLE III.

CRITICAL NOTICES.

BY THE EDITOR.

1.-The Religious Magazine by the Messrs. Abbott, for January, 1835-The glorious advantages of a War with France.

In pursuance of our plan of making this part of our work a repository of such things as may promote our cause from the current literature of the day, and of such suggestions as it may occur to us to make in connexion with them, we give place here to the follow. ing article from the highly popular and valuable magazine above named. Previously, however, we wish to say, that, for ourselves, we do not at present apprehend a war with France; and, also, that though the considerations adduced in the following article are weighty and deserving of all serious regard, yet they are by no means ALL, nor the MOST SOLEMN and important, of the consequences which would follow from such a war. We will mention two others at which possibly the mere statesman, and the military man, or the man of the world, may laugh; but at which we defy the Christian believer to laugh. He knows he would deserve excommunication from all the blessings of Christianity, if he should. Is not thenwe urge it upon him-is not his APATHY on this subject a monstrous and guilty inconsistency? Christian, weigh this inquiry.

The following are the two consequences which would follow a war with France, besides all those named in the article referred to:

1. In virtue of War being one of the most demoralizing of all possible influences, thousands and perhaps tens of thousands of immortal souls would be corrupted, or matured in evil.

2. Thousands and perhaps tens of thousands would be hurried, before their time, and unprepared, into another world; or, to put it in language which agrees with the creed and suits the habits of expression of a multitude of high professors of the gospel, who are very anxious and abundant in their prayers and alms for the souls of the distant pagans, and yet seem to be perfecily asleep on the subject of war in general, and of this apprehended war with France, (unless so far as it may affect their purses, or some similar weighty

considerations,)-we would say, that a war with France, of mode. rate continuance, would, probably, ripen thousands and tens of thousands of immortal souls for hell, and send them thither by hundreds and thousands at a time. We throw the responsibility on those who, by their creed, must admit the above statement, and would most naturally make it in the above form-the responsibility, we mean, of being so insensible to the wickedness and guilt of war. The article alluded to is as follows:

"1. We expend three or four times that sum in raising an army, strengthening fortifications, equipping and sustaining ships of war. A few millions of dollars is but a mere trifle in carrying on war with France. One single ship, with all its stores and ammunition, will cost nearly half a million. And a chance shot from the enemy may sink it at once, with its twelve hundred men, in the depths of the ocean. We must fill the Atlantic with such ships, to meet the fleets of France, to defend our extended coast, and to protect our merchandize. We shall hardly have begun the war, before we shall have expended three or four times as much as we are trying to regain. True, we shall capture some French ships; but that is a game which France can play at as well as we. As our commerce is more exposed than hers, we shall probably lose more than we shall gain. The bells may often ring the merry peals of triumph, but as often they must toll the dismal knell of defeat. What delightful cruising ground the French will have along the shores of the Mediterranean, or off St. Helena, gathering up our home-bound Indiamen! How easy to pick up our London, and Liverpool, and Havre packets! and how many American gentlemen will probably have the privilege of being chased by a French privateer, and of passing a few months in a French prison ship! And, under such circumstances, will it cost us a trifle to defend and retaliate? The boy who bought a penny candle to find his half-penny cake, was thought not wise: is it wise in us to expend fifty or sixty millions to recover four or five?

"2. The war must be attended with a vast expenditure of life. The victory of Waterloo filled Europe with widows and with or. phans; and war with France must fill our country with weeping families. Every victory and every defeat will alike bring to many dwellings lamentation and wo. There will be widowed wives and childless parents who will weep tears of blood, and go down in sorrow to the grave. O what are a few millions of dollars, compared with the blighted hopes of parents, and the agonies of the widowed wife, and of the maiden weeping for her lover who can never return? A tax upon the nation for a hundred millions of dollars, would not produce one half the distress of a year's war with France. And shall our citizens feel the weight of these woes, for the paltry sum of a few millions of dollars? Shall we expose many thousands to

be shot down upon the deck of the ship and on the bloody field? Is the life of an American citizen of so little value that we can afford to have thousands weltering in their gore, rather than lose a sum of money so small that, if lost, scarcely one in a million of our inhabitants will ever feel it?

"3. The war will be attended with immense physical suffering. Many, mangled by the horrid missiles of war, must linger for hours in the utmost intensity of physical agony. A cry of pain must ascend from many a deck, so loud and so dreadful, that, could it fall upon the nation's ear, the nation would be filled with dismay. The surgeon must ply his fearful instruments in cutting off arms and legs, and digging balls and slugs from the mangled body. Many a young man, now in the pride of strength, and walking in the beauty of his manly form, will return from the war, a poor, deformed, and crip. pled wretch, dragging out for weary years a miserable existence, loathing life, and longing to bury in the grave the deformities which war has stamped upon him. Oh! who can gauge the dimensions of this wo? Who can tell the years of irremediable wretchedness which multitudes will endure? And for all this, is our rich country to receive but the paltry pittance of a few millions of dollars!

"4. This war will cause a vast amount of our property to be destroyed by the enemy. How many small towns are there along our extended coast, entirely unprotected. A few hot shot from a French ship envelopes one of them in flames. The wretched inhabitants flee in dismay from their burning dwellings, beggared and miserable for life. The conflagration of one half day may destroy more property than the whole debt that France owes us, and cause more distress than that unpaid debt would cause, if it were twenty times greater than it is. To conquer this country is impossible; but any powerful nation may send sorrow through the whole length and breadth of the land. True, we may, perhaps, ravage the coast of France, and send hot shot into her dwellings; but if my house is burnt down, and my son slain in battle, and I myself made a beggar for life, it is poor consolation to be told that some three thousand miles across the Atlantic there is a Frenchman equally wretched. It is the very spirit of war, for each to do the other as much injury as possible. The fleets of France would not long scour our coast, without showing us the horrors of a sacked and conflagrated city. And he who has a heart to feel for human wo, must shrink appalled from the retaliating woes which we shall suppose ourselves under the necessity of inflicting upon the French. These woes will fall upon the innocent as well as upon the guilty; upon the bereaved widow and the broken-hearted orphan; and the march of invading armies must be followed with those woes of female violation at which humanity shudders.

"5. This war will be attended with the derangement of all our commerce. Our enterprising merchants now find every sea open before them. Every breeze impels our defenceless and yet fearless