War

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Apr 14, 1898

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 24, No. 15.

War.—It would be well for some of our “Christian,” patriotic Americans who desire to plunge the nation and perhaps the world into the eager pursuit of taking life, to consider the following words by an American whose patriotism and intelligence can not be questioned, namely, the late James Russell Lowell, in “Biglow Papers”:—

“Ez fer war, I call it murder,— There you hev it plain and flat; I don’t want to go no further Than my Testyment fer that; God hez sed so plump and fairly, It’s ez long ez it is broad, An’ you’ve gut to git up airly— Ef you want to take in God.

“’Taint your eppyletts an’ feathers Make the thing a grain more right; ’Taint afollerin’ your bell-wethers Will excuse ye in His sight; Ef you take a sword an’ dror it, An’ go stick a feller thru, Guv’ment ain’t to answer fer it, God’ll send the bill to you.

“Wut’s the use o’ meetin’-goin’ Every Sabbath, wet or dry, Ef it’s right to go a-mowin’ Feller-men like oats and rye? I dunno but wut it’s pooty Trainin’ round in bobtail coats,— But it’s curus Christian dooty This ’ere cuttin’ folks’s throats.”

But this, in these days of martial “Christian Citizenship” men-made theocracies, and Boys’ Brigades, will, we opine, be considered old-fashioned. But in some circles the Bible is really out of date and style.