WHAT IS WAR.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VII, Issue 1981, 4 May 1885, Page 2

WHAT IS WAR.

(Contributed.)

What is war ? I believe that half the people that talk about war have not the slightest idea what it is. In aalrort sentence it may be suminecl vjp tp be the combination and. concentration pf all tlie hqrrqrs, atrocities, crimes, and offerings of wluch human nature qn tfoe globe jp capable, But what iseyeii a rumor of war'/ Is there anybody here who has anything jn the funds, or who. is the ownoy of any railway stook, or ■ who perhaps has a large stook of raw material or manufactured goods? The funds have recently gone down 10 per cent. Ido not say that the fall iB all on account of this rumor of war, but undoubtedly a great proportion of it is. But that is merely a rumor of war, that is, war a long way off. It is the small cloud no bigger than a man's hand; but what will it be if it comes nearer and becomes a faot ? Surely sane men ought to consider whether the case is a good one, the ground fair, the necessity clear, before they drag a nation of nearly thirty millions of people intoa-long and bloody struggle. Well, if you go inte war, you will have more banners to decorate your cathedrals and churches. Englishmen fight now as well as ever they did; and tljere is ample ppwer tp pack them, if the country can be bu,t Bufljpjen>ly excited >:-and deluded; You, njav. rajse' up great gpnprals, ypu may ]|aye another Wellington nn4 Wthor Jfeliion, far this country OHII grow men capable qf every enterprise, Then there may he titles and nonslons, and marble monuments to eternize the pjon who have thus become groat; but what becomes of you, your country, and cyaur ahildronf. Writing hero, however, to such an audience—an audience probably for its numbers as intelligent and as influential, as ever was asaenfbled within the walls of any hall in this Empire—l think I may put before you higher considerations even than, those of property and the institutions of your country, I may remind you of duties mora soloinn and of obligations more imperative, You mako it your boast, even though boasting is somowhat out of place in such questions, that you are a Christian people, and that'you draw your rule of doctrine and practice, as from a well, pure and undefiled, from the living oracles of God, and from the direct revelation of the Omnipotent. You have even conceived the magnificent project of illuminating the whole earth, even to its remotest and darkest recess, by the dissemination of the volume ofj the New Testament, in whose every page are written for ever the words of peace. Within the limits of this Island alone, every Sabbath day 20,000, yes, far more than 20,000 temples are thrown open, in wjffcli devout men aiuj women assemble to worship Him who" js fjie "Prince of Peace." Is this a" reality; or is'your Christianity a romance, and [your profession a dream? It is because I believe this that I appeal to you with confidence, and (i'tttf s ?egha]l see, and,atnq Very distant time, sound economic principles wreaking much inove widely amongst the people; a sense of justice growing up in a aoil which hitherto has been deemed unfruitful ; and—better than all-the churches of the United Kingdom (the ohurohes of Britain), awaking as it were from their slumbers, and girding up their loins to more glorious work, when they shall not only accept and believe in the prophecy, but labor earnestly for its fulfilment, that there shall come a time—a blessed time—which shall last for ever—when " nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. A.C. .R.