ENCOURAGING VENGEANCE by W. N. G.

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jun 23, 1898

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 24, No. 25.

ENCOURAGING VENGEANCE.

By W. N. G.

A LITTLE magazine published in Boston, organ of a philanthropic association, prints an extract of a letter from a young man, formerly a beneficiary of the association. This letter is published as evidence of the good done by the society, whose superintendent points with considerable pride to this product of its work. The letter, which comes from a war ship at Key West, says:—

I am first captain of a 6-pounder rapid-fire gun. Yesterday I received a prize of $10 for shooting with a rifle. Inclosed find $25, which deposit with the other. If I die, give all to my old grandmother. If I am killed, I shall die for my country, remembering the Maine.

It is a pity that from a society designed and desiring to do good, and eminently successful in a certain line, there should go forth to the world an approval of a young man’s ambition to die with vengeance in his heart. By the way, this so-called “Christian nation,” and many of her professed Christian teachers, are using every endeavor to inculcate a spirit of vengeance in the hearts of the young, as well as the old. The present war was professedly undertaken in the cause of liberty for the Cubans. The plea was that the people there were starving, but the first thing the war did was to blockade the ports, so that no provisions could be taken where many thousands were so badly in need. Such is the philanthropy of war. Then there suddenly developed the erstwhile latent fact that retaliation for the disaster to the battle-ship Maine was the inspiration of the cry for war. “Remember the Maine,” became the slogan. Even a large order for crackers given by the government was to have that inscription upon each one. It is heard in Congress, and in state Legislatures, and in the secular press, and sometimes in the religious press, and in many a religious social circle. So it is no wonder that ambitious young men think it glorious to die “remembering the Maine.” A contributor to the Sabbath Recorder notes that while delayed at a railroad station he saw several train-loads of soldiers passing, and adds this significant remark: “The soldiers were very young men, many of them beardless. A corporal said to me, as the train waited, ‘We are going to avenge the history of Spanish wrong-doing for the last two hundred years.’”

But “vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.” Vengeance is a dangerous weapon for men to handle. It belongs to God, and He only knows how to use it. The Christian who undertakes to handle such a weapon, and persists in so doing, will surely kill himself. And the people who raise the cry, and hoist the banner, and take on the armor of vengeance, would better disclaim the name of Christian. They are surely taking the name of the Lord in vain. W. N. G.