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The golden chain; or, The Christian graces illustrated and enforced
The golden chain or The Christian graces illustrated and enforced Author:John Harvey Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: LEOTTJIRE III. " With aspect mild, and elevated eye, The christian seated on a mount serene, Above the joys of sense, and passions storm: All the black cares ... more »and tumults of this life, Like harmless thunder breaking at his feet, Excite his pity, not impair his peace." In whatever relation we contemplate the subject of peace, whether it be in relation to God, to nations, to families, or to individuals, it always affords great pleasure and peculiar interest to a pious mind. It is one of the greatest national blessings that can be enjoyed. War is a system of barbarity, wretchedness, devastation, and death. "Every battle of the warrior is with confused noise, and garments rolled in blood." It is a violation of the laws of Heaven for nation to lift up sword against nation. Such adventures are at variance with the principles of the New Testament; in which such iron-hearted encounters and bloody contests are sternly prohibited. "War is not of recent origin; it is not the offspring of yesterday; it is coeval with the infancy of the world. "We see the system in miniature in the murder of righteous Abel; but the principle which influenced that tragic deed was not coffined with the ashes of that early martyr, but it has been strengthened and cherished in every subsequent age. This life-destroying systemhas been established on a broader basis, and carried out on a more extended scale; and even yet the hands of some nations are crimsoned with the blood of the slain. The long train of evils which are the effects of such contentions cannot be fully enumerated or depicted. It has snapped the link which united nations, and they have tumbled into confusion; it has depopulated cities, dethroned monarchs, dissolved dynasties, robbed man of his rights, embarrassed governments, overthrown empi...« less