Lessons from the Wisdom of War
THE WISDOM OF WAR.—The following paragraph is applicable to more cases than wars between kings and nations. Many of the troubles that rise among brethren to perplex and distract the church rest upon just about as great a foundation, and are carried on with just about as much reason, as in the following illustration. We hope the hint it contains will be taken and acted upon: “A certain king, it is said, sent to another king, saying, ‘Send me a blue pig with a black tail, or else—’” The other, in high dudgeon at the presumed insult, replied, ‘I have not got one, and if I had—’ On which weighty cause they went to war for many years. After a satiety of glories and miseries, they finally bethought them that, as their armies and resources were exhausted and their kingdoms mutually laid waste, it might be well enough to consult about the preliminaries of peace; but before this could be concluded, a diplomatic explanation was first needed of the insulting language which had formed the ground of the quarrel. ‘What could you mean,’ asked the second king of the first, ‘by saying, Send me a blue pig with a black tail, or else—?’ ‘Why,’ said the other, ‘I meant a blue pig with a black tail, or else some other color. But,’ retorted he, ‘what could you mean by saying, ‘I have not got one, and if I had—?’ ‘Why, of course if I had I should have sent it;’ an explanation which was entirely satisfactory, and peace was concluded accordingly.”