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The Christian-butchering Christian

The Christian-butchering Christian image
Parent Issue
Day
19
Month
May
Year
1845
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

'Persons who Iiavc nice scruples obout reli sion. Imve no business in thn anny." - Duke if Wellington. We trust that few can be found in this enlighlened nge dispoeed to dissent from nis sentiment of' the Hero of Waterloo. What business a follower of the meek and lowly Jesús can have in the army, is n question ivhicli has troubled. for centuries, the darken ed understandifig of the heat hen world. To them - poor pagans! - and to all the beings thtt ook down wiih pity and wonder upon Ehjs terrestiui scène, a field of battle, where Chrintiiins meet and iningle in snvage butchery, duf been the most unaccountable phenomenon in the moral world. In whnt state of sentiment the luve-breath ing religión of the gospel exists in the heart of a Christian, while, willi Ijis cyos unug like a tiger, he is pushing his bnyonet thiough the body ot" nnather Christian, or stamping him, breathing-, into a jelly benealh his horse's hoofs, ia a problem whicli no moral phyáiolojfiat has ever solved. We know there are some insects, reptile?, and qundrupede, whicli, after a long winter of tus pended animation, resum?, or assume, iinder the breath of Sprirïgf, a new and vigorous existence. Bul during this long interregnum of dentli, Ihey retain no characiereslic oftbeir several nature. Nuibing but their cold and lifeless forme, ascertains to you that they were oncu Üios, cnokus or inice. Through all ibis they assume no ncw qualttics. - They f=lcep and awuko, live ond die, inmutable and unchnnged in tlieir naturea. If the Ciiristian warrior could take advantage of u state analofjuus to his conditio;), the vilal principies of re'iyion inihi. perhaps, be perpetuaicd in his heart through a long winter of suspended unimation. But hcre is a difficult defect of parity in the two cases. While training for the prefessiun of man butcher, it engngcd in its ferocious and half caníbal utics, lie is ompeüed lo sweep his heart clean of uny estige of humonity, and "tr.ke unlo hiin-elf sevon ol lier spirits," a9 unlike the spirits of Christ - the vine of which he purnorls to be n. branch - as nny that ever feil out of hcnven and kindled the fnes of the infernal pit with the burning intensity of their tnahce.Id the first place, the oath tliat hc takcs .o violite cvery !av of God, at the cotnmund of the commaiidirig ofïicer, is nll thai Satan ever nbked of the robel angelí, wíth wliom ho nssnyec to dcthrone ilie Almighly. And, in complying wíth that oatli, nnd the ficndish cervices it involves, history, in seeking t' most rxproFsive terms of eulogy of the conducl of Ctiriïtiun armies on the field of batlle, hos doscribed thetn ns fighting tiot only üke tigers, Uoua and hycnns, bul like dtrvils.' This isa just disaiminalion. To say ihnt Cliris'ions fiver fottght like tigers and lions, is n libel Upon those carniverous beasts. In toe most insane ferocity oF these caiuniniated nnimnls, tliey gror.erally figlit for fooc, as well as viiliures and other birds of prcy It would miii.'.ite the bloody occupation of the Clirislian man butcher, if he could roifer the same i'Xcusc, 'i'xl thnt hc Touelu like n cuniribal. Ui;: inliumnn work wonlt! tlien be f-lightlv relieved by the pifia of necessity and his chanicicr as n bt-nst. In such n choracter on!y con a CliritTint) tighl lil;o a lion or tior. Bnt as nn intc-llectunl and moraF beinj;, if 'ie fiyhls ii t si II, li e musí figh! like n devil. lf he could destroy his fellow beins with fire and eword: tf ho could toke up li'tle infantv on the poini oí' liis bnyonet nnd roast them in the flames "at the vct! of command;" if on his furious stepcl he could lide Sówn the nrw wïdöwed rnothër, ns she flod through the crimsoncd suow with lier bibc on her breat; ifhe could ciuise old igc and infancy into the house of God and fire it over their heads; if lie cowld do all iliifi- nnd to di it is the bond- w.th no worse appetites and passions in hib lieart thun those which slimoltite the mist fetocious beusts of pr;y, he raight stül retain the dignity of fijrliting like a !on or tiger. Ifhe could do it in cnld blood, without an angry etnoiion stirrin in his bosoni, the world, with tinitcd voice, would denounce hi:n ss an irralional monster, below the lowest oí the brute cieation- a murdering aiitomaion, x human buteheriní: machine, wound nnd set agomg by a "tiiiperinr officer." Bul if he must do it as ui intelectual snd moral being, possessing a moral conscicnce, and in face of al! the laws, attributes, nnd reelntions of God; ifhe may not do il as a carniverous beast, a cannibal or n fiotilleesj cast ron machine, thn must he figlit like a dcvil, invested wiih the chirfest Itributes of that character. He must do il wit!) those mnügnant passioii3 burning in Ih'b beart, which make n devi), - which, bet on fire in a mase, make heli in any part of ihe tini

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Subjects
Signal of Liberty
Old News