ages, the idea may occur to us, of the peculiar atrocity of destroying a life which might, in the course of nature, have lasted so long. Living beings cloven down, or mortally pierced, or poisoned, or burnt, that might have lived seven or eight centuries,-for improvement,-for serving God,for usefulness, for whatever happiness there might have been in this world, or preparation for another. At length, another power invaded their fields of battle; the furies of their warfare were quenched; their trophies, fortresses, monuments, swept away. "Their furies quenched," we have just said; but it would be no violently improbable imagination that they might burn and blaze at the very last; for, there have been examples to prove, that an assemblage of men, on one spot whence there is no escape from peril and destruction, may kindle with an insane rage against one another, and perish as it were before their time, by mutual violence. (Wreck of the French ship Medusa.)

The world began anew, in the person and family of the selected patriarch, whom alone "the Lord had seen righteous in that generation." Now then for a better race,-if the human nature were intrinsically good, or corrigible by the most awful dispensations. It was by the descendants of the only faithful servant and friend of the Almighty found on earth, that the desolated world was to be re-peopled. A new surface was spread over the earth, concealing beneath their feet the entire race that had stained its former face with crimes and blood. Yet from beneath the ground, that enormous multitude of the victims of the Divine justice, might seem, to thought, to utter a warning against renewing the scenes of violence. But, all in vain! The Flood could not cleanse the nature of man; nor the awful memory and memorials of it repress the coming forth of selfishness, pride, amition, anger, and revenge.

The Sacred History, after just recounting some successions of names in the different branches of the new race, limits its narrative to the origin and progress of what became the Jewish people-Abraham and his posterity. Their history, however, in proceeding downward, involves much of that of the surrounding nations. And some of the profane histories go far back into the period subsequent to the Deluge. And what is so conspicuous, over all the view, as wars and devastations? There is one portion of this tragical exhibition which we are to take out of the account of ordinary war; namely, the war of extirpation against the Canaanites. This was by Divine appointment for the punishment and destruction of transcendent and incorrigible wickedness; and is to be placed nearly on the same moral ground as God's immediate inflictions in the flood, the land of Egypt, and Sodom and Gomorrah. But, setting this portion of the history aside,-think of the long course of sanguinary conflicts within the boundary of the selected nation itself, between Israel and Judah. Besides the slaughters, of battle and massacre, within each, separately, of these two divisions of that people,—add, all their wars with Syria and Egypt, with the Babylonian, Grecian, and Roman powers-closed finally, in that most awful catastrophe, the siege and destruction of Jerusalem.

Then, glance a moment over the wider view of the whole ancient world; as far abroad, and as high up in time, as history has made it visible. The human race is exhibited, in some regions, in the form of numerous small states. But, their smallness, of size and strength, was not the measure of their passions. What we are certain to read of them is, that they attacked and fought one another with the ferocity of wild beasts. By some ambitious "conquering hero" a great number of these were subdued and moulded together into a great kingdom, on one large space of the

earth, and the same on another. And then, with a tremendous clash, these empires came into conflict. And the ordinary, and often repeated story, is, of vast tumultuary battles, the exterminating rage of the victors,-territories overrun and reduced to a desert,-innumerable victims perishing. At length, these empires, small and great, were swallowed up by one enormous power, which subdued them all, (within the greatest part of the known world,) by a succession of martial operations, in which a greater number of human beings perished than would have been enough to constitute an empire. So effectually was this achieved, that, at the time our Lord came on earth, there was a state of peace established (such as it was) to an extent over the world never known before. It was but a temporary calm; and doubtless the storm was raging all the while in remote lands beyond the great circuit of the Roman empire.

But, now, if we could take one grand compass of view, over the earth, and down through time, from that period to this! What a vision of destruction! Think of all that tormented and desolated the earth, during the long period of the fall of the Roman Empire;-of that inundation of ravage and death, the progress and utmost extension of the Mahomedan power;—of the mighty account of slaughter in the Spanish conquest of America;-of the almost incessant wars among the states of civilized Europe, down nearly to the present hour. Think even of the bloody wars within our own island, especially on the Border, between its northern and southern divisions ;-the hundreds of remaining fortresses, monumental of war. And, to complete the account,―as if the whole solid earth were not wide enough, -the sea has been coloured with blood, and received into its dark gulf myriads of slain,-as if it could not destroy enough by its tempests and wrecks! Such a general view is awful and horrid enough,-and we need not dwell, here,

on the detail of the horrors of war, though that is undoubt edly the way to bring its frightful aspect the closest to our apprehension. Imagine the spectacle of a violent death inflicted on one human being, with the instruments of war; multiply this, to the extent of a great battle-with all the diversity of modes in which the living body may suffer, may be smitten, lacerated, mutilated, and destroyed; and what there is in the minds of the mutual inflicters and sufferers; -and all the consequences to survivors-to relatives-and to the condition of the inhabitants.

But now reflect a moment! What a state of the spirit of mankind,—of their heart and intellect-is here disclosed before us!

Again; what a state of their social constitution, and of their national situation, that the mass and strength of nations should, over the greatest part of the world, be at the absolute disposal of a few individuals, for this very business of war. And also; what a state of the moral sense, or whatever we may name it, that there should be whole hosts of men, leaders and followers, capable of holding themselves totally divested of all personal responsibility for right and wrong, in the zealous prosecution of such achievements. And, once more; what a state of Christianity, as to any real, vital prevalence of it, among the nations denominated Christian. Our text must indeed be a prophecy yet unfulfilled. And so much the better for us, that it is not one of those of which the accomplishment is gone by. In looking toward the time when it will be accomplished, we have, it is too true, a formidable prospect before us; the fair vision beams from a distance, through a fearful intervening gloom. Looking at what men are as yet, compared with what they are to be in that better age, we may presage what is to come between! There will, meanwhile, be the prayers of all good men in the world;

and the zealous endeavours of many of them to enlighten and improve mankind. And particularly, it should be inculcated on religious and intellectual persons, on tutors and parents, that they set themselves, systematically, as opportunities offer, to counterwork that maddening enchantment of the " glory" of war; of war considered just merely as the field of great exploit. Let them strive to break up, in the view of young and ardent minds, this splendid pestilent delusion about heroes, conquests, fame, and glory.

We said, "war simply regarded as an affair of heroism and great exploit,”—war taken independently of the cause -the object-the reason-the justice; excepting, therefore, the heroic spirit as displayed in some very rare cases of war; that is to say, where it has been displayed on the pure ground, and in the pure love, of justice,-as in defence of liberty,-in vindication of the weak and injured,-in depressing the proud, ambitious, and cruel,-in resisting the oppressions of powerful wickedness; such examples (if we should mention names) as those of Judas Maccabeus,Alfred, Wallace,-Kosciusko,-Washington.

This will seem assuming the possibility of cases in which war would be just, and not violate Christian principles. In passing, may we be allowed to advert, a moment, to that topic?

We would observe,-it is most readily allowed, that any principles upon which a Christian casuist would justify war, under certain possible circumstances, would not justify, perhaps, one in twenty of the wars that have been waged. Very rare has been the instance of a war on either side, strictly and purely defensive, of either the nation itself, or any other endangered or oppressed people, depending on its protection. But suppose any case that should answer to the strictness of this condition,—what then?

It is within the easy recollection of many of

us, that