“Prepare War! Wake up the Mighty Men.”
By Mary W. Howard
THIS passage of God's word has been so often cited that it may seem so hackneyed a theme that no new ideas can be advanced upon it. Nor am I so vain as to expect to do so; but a few thoughts seem to call for expression, and till the one side desist from ringing the various changes upon the words of Isaiah and Micah, when they record that in the last days the people shall say, “Beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning-hooks: nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more”—should those who have God's word for authority, and passing events for illustration, give over from seeking to draw attention to the real truth, or entreating others in the words of the prophet to “Come ye and walk in the light of the Lord?” True, the majority are so far away—engrossed with their myths and preconceived opinions, that they will not hear, or if, peradventure, your voice can reach them, they will close their ears so they will not heed! And need we marvel, since those who should be watchmen on the towers of Zion, to “sound the alarm, and blow the trumpet,” sit, as it were, with the foot upon the cradle, swinging it with that gentle motion so conducive to repose, and with soft and soothing tones singing the fatal lullaby,—“the world's conversion.” A writer in an English Magazine, in causing the “Fighting Power of Europe” to pass before the mind, states that there are “five millions of men under arms in Europe!” and after making the “shining cohorts muster from every part of the continent,” and pass trooping by before the mental vision, he says, “We believe ourselves at peace; to be reposing under our own vine and fig-tree with the cloud of war far from us. Years of comparative exemption from hostilities have fed the illusion. We mocked ourselves with the idea that civilization was introducing moral elements into the government of the world, and that the sword was to be converted into ploughshares, and the spear into pruning-hooks. Yet, never in the annals of history have the nations maintained such stupendous armies, or mankind witnessed such fearful destruction on the battle-field, as at the present day; never has the spirit of war been so systematically fostered, as in the year of grace 1864. Varied are the illustrations developing how little peaceable are the ideas that prevail.” How applicable is most of this to our own nation. Alas! “how little peaceable are the ideas that prevail,” when little country villages, that in quietness have rested all their days, deem it necessary to have arms and amunition in reserve for emergencies, against a dread uncertainty, which looms up in the future in ominous indefiniteness. Whither are we drifting?—must be hopelessly asked by the ideal dreamer in “that good time coming.” But he that rests assured that the great “day of the Lord hasteth greatly,” should be able to maintain a calm repose in God, knowing that not one of his purposes shall fail of accomplishment. Nevertheless, who among the calmest and boldest has not felt his blood pause and then creep chillingly along its channels, at the recital of the outbursts of that iniquity which stalks through our land? “Moral elements at work!” The various changes on this theme have been so repeatedly rung, that no wonder the skeptic's lip curls with scorn at the bare mention of it; or that he sets all Christianity aside, as equally visionary and fanatical. What wonder that he is sometimes tempted to apply the scathing words of Jesus, “Ye compass sea and land to make proselytes, and when he is made ye make him two-fold more the child of hell than yourselves.” “Proclaim ye, Prepare war; wake up the mighty men. Let all the men of war draw near; let them come up. Beat your ploughshares into swords, and your pruning-hooks into spears.” Joel iii, 9, 10. This is a command given, “for the Lord hath spoken it;” while the antithetical words given by Isaiah and Micah are only as being what “the people shall say” (see Isa. ii, and Micah iv), when they “have mocked themselves with the illusion” that they were “standing on the vestibule of a resplendently glorious era.” And the prophet beholds all this, as also that there is no corresponding action; but on the contrary, he sees “the loftiness of man bowed down, and the haughtiness of man made low,” and in his final discomfiture dropping his idols as he seeks to escape “in caves of the earth, in the clefts of the rocks and into the tops of the ragged rocks, for fear of the Lord and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth.” Isa. ii, 19-21. Joel, after giving his soul-stirring command, sees “multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision,” and yet the people of God should pray that they may be kept from the war spirit. From the “fall of Sumpter,” there sprung an enthusiasm among our loyal north, to make a short and speedy work of suppression. And when the magnitude of the fell rebellion dawned upon the mind, there seemed to be born in our countrymen a “holy patriotism.” Call after call for “men of war” was responded to—draft succeeded draft, and yet they come—and wherefore? It was necessary, proper, to raise local bounties; but where now is patriotism? Merged, swallowed up in the love of money. And with a heart anxiously loyal to our present administration, I have groaned in spirit as I have seen husbands, fathers, and sons sell themselves, or be sold. And alas! the end is not yet!
MARY W. HOWARD.
Malone, N. Y., Oct. 1864.