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THE CHILDREN'S CORNER.

The Children's Corner.

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THE WONDERFUL SIXPENCE.. them in the course of the last year. On a lovely morning in the month This account produced such an ef of May, as I was travelling in the fect on the mind of James Hall (for neighbourhood of a small town in that was the boy's name), that he the county of Salop, I was over- resolved to try what he could gain taken by a young man of rather in the same way. So with his sixgrave countenance, and probably pence he purchased two young rababout twenty five years of age. bits; and, after a few months they Happening to be both travelling the produced four more. Two of these same way, we soon fell into conver- he sold when they were one month sation about the state of trade, old for threepence each; so by this money matters, and other subjects. time he had his sixpence again After we had conversed together a and four rabbits besides. short time on these, he said "Well, year, the produce of his four rabbits sir, I will relate to you an anecdote brought him in 15s. with which he of a boy who was very well known purchased a few potatoes, and rentby my father, to show you what can ed a small piece of land. He raised be done with but a very small sum fifteen bushels, three of which he of money. The parents of this boy kept to plant and the other twelve were so poor that they could not he sold for 2s. 6d. per bushel, which, afford to take more than two scanty with 10s saved by his rabbits, came meals each day. The father in fact to £2. The following year he went was not able to earn a livelihood to service, and gave the rabbits to for his family, in consequence of a his parents. He, however, rented paralytic stroke, with which he was a larger piece of land for raising attacked when the subject of this potatoes; this piece yielded him story was not more than nine years 60 bushels, which he sold at 3s. old, so that what little they had to per bushel, and having saved 10s. depend upon came wholly from the out of his wages, he had therefore parish. When this boy was about £9. 10s. in his possession. eleven years of age, a neighbouring death of his father, whose funeral farmer one day employed him to expences cost him £2. 10s., reduced assist in driving a few pigs to mar- his money to £7. In the following ket, for which he gave him sixpence. year he rented half an acre of land The boy, on receiving this, was so for potatoes, which cost him £3. overjoyed that he did not at first 4s.; this piece yielded him 96 know what to do with it; but, after bushels, which he disposed of at considering a short time on the 3s. per bushel. The amount, added subject, he at last resolved to give to £4. 16s. which he had in hand, it to his parents. When he got and £1. saved out of his wages, home, however, they refused it, say- came to £30. 4s. Thus he went on, ing that, as he had done the work, and at length he left service, married, he had the greatest right to the and rented a small farm; and by money. A few days after this, while constant perseverance, and making he was in company with some other a right use of his property, he soon boys about his own age, one of them became the most opulent farmer in happened to commence talking the neighbourhood, and died worth about rabbits, and told his com- more than £20,000. panions what he had gained by

The

O. P.

TESTIMONIES AGAINST WAR.

Ir is an encouraging fact to a lover of peace, that in most ages of the world, great and good men have been found who have deplored the existence of war; who have characterized it as the destroyer of the welfare of mankind, and who have declared, that of all the customs, ancient or modern, there is none which produces more misery, none more universally evil, none, in short, more repugnant to sentiments of humanity, justice, benevolence, and piety. How comes it, then, that whilst those who zealously advocate institutions for the increase of knowledge, for the repression of drunkenness, cruelty to ani mals, &c., permit, nay, encourage this terrible scourge? What but the most lamentable perversion of public opinion could have rendered it so popular as the arbiter of national disputes? This opinion in favour of war must be radically changed before peace can become permanent and general; and among other means calculated to produce so desirable a change, we wish to show how men the most distinguished for their learning, wisdom, and virtue, have regarded the custom of war.

PAGANS.

We could not expect the heathen to denounce a custom so emphatically their own; yet we find the wisest and best of them reprobating it in the strongest terms. Here are the

"We

words of the great moralist of antiquity, SENECA: punish murders and massacres committed amongst private persons; what do we respecting wars, and the glorious crime of murdering whole nations? Here avarice and cruelty know no bounds. Barbarities are authorized by decrees of the senate and the votes of the people; and things, which if men had done in their private capacity, they would have paid for with their lives, we extol when perpetrated in regimentals at the bidding of a general."-MINUTIUS calls it "the part of a wild beast, not of man, to inquire how bite may be returned for bite, and evil for evil."-CICERO complains bitterly of the effects of war on the liberal arts and peaceful pursuits, and says: "As soon as the alarm of war is sounded, wisdom herself, the mistress of affairs, is driven from the field; force bears sway, and the grim soldier alone is caressed."

TESI IMONIES AGAINST WAR.

EARLY CHRISTIANS.

CLARKSON says, that "so long as the lamp of christianity burnt pure and bright, christians held it unlawful to bear arms, and actually abstained from the use of them at the hazard of their lives." The opinions of the first christian writers after the apostles relative to war, were similar for 300 years, if not longer. JUSTIN MARTYR, one of the earliest in the second century, and TATIAN, the disciple of Justin, both consider war unlawful, as does CLEMENS of Alexandria, a contemporary of the latter. IRENEUS, who flourished in 180, declares that "christians have changed their sword into instruments of peace, and they know not how to fight;" and TERTULLIAN, a little later, says, "Can one who professes the peaceable doctrine of the gospel, be a soldier? Jesus Christ, by disarming Peter, disarmed every soldier afterwards." To these testimonies might be added those of CYPRIAN, AMBROSE, CHRYSOSTOM, JEROME, and many others who were of opinion that it was unlawful for christians to engage in war.

In support of these views the early christians suffered even unto death, usually testifying at the place of execution, as in the case of Maximilian, Marcellus, &c., that being christians they could not bear arms for any earthly consideration.

MODERN CHRISTIANS.

The

WYCLIFFE, the " morning star of the Reformation," says, "What honour falls to a knight that kills many men? hangman killeth many more, and with a better title. were it for men to be butchers of beasts, than butchers of their brethren!"

Better

ERASMUS, who lived about 150 years after Wycliffe, wrote against war with unrivalled beauty and force. He says, "If there is in the affairs of mortal men any one thing which it is proper uniformly to explode, and incumbent on every man by every lawful means to avoid, to deprecate, to oppose, that one thing is doubtless, war. There is nothing more unnaturally wicked, more productive of misery, more extensively destructive, more obstinate in mischief, more unworthy of man as formed by nature, much more of man professing christianity. Yet, wonderful to relate, war is undertaken, and cruelly, savagely conducted, not only by unbelievers but by (professing) christians."

THOMAS SECKER, archbishop of Canterbury, thus speaks: -"War in all cases is accompanied with dreadful evils, of which we are apt to consider the heavy expense as if it were

TESTIMONIES AGAINST WAR.

the only one, and forget the sufferings and miserable deaths of such multitudes of human creatures, though EVERY ONE of them is a MURDER committed by the authors of this calamity."

JOHN WESLEY thus expostulates: "You may pour out your soul, and bemoan the loss of true genuine love in the earth. Lost indeed! You may well say, but not in the ancient sense, 'See how THESE CHRISTIANS love one another!' These christian kingdoms that are tearing at each other's bowels, desolating one another with fire and sword! These christian nations that are all on fire with intestine broils, party against party, and faction against faction! Yea, what is most dreadful of all, these christian churches (tell it not in Gath; but, alas! how can we hide it from Jews, Turks, and Pagans?) that bear the name of Christ, the Prince of Peace, yet wage continual war with each other!"

VICESSIMUS KNOX.-"Morality and religion forbid war in its motives, conduct, and consequences." "What christian but must drop a tear over the fertile realms of Christendom, crimsoned with human blood, shed at the instigation of the spirit of Apollyon, or the Destroyer, taking his abode in hearts which have rejected the Holy Ghost, the spirit of love, the God of Peace."

BISHOP WATSON.-" Christianity looks upon all the human race as children of the same father; and in ordering us to do good, to love as brethren, to forgive injuries, and to study peace, it quite annihilates the disposition for martial glory, and utterly debases the pomp of war."

ROBERT HALL, the eloquent Baptist preacher, in his sermon, entitled "Reflections on War," thus speaks:-"War is the fruitful parent of crimes. It reverses, with respect to its objects, all the rules of morality. It is nothing less than a temporary repeal of the principles of virtue. It is a system out of which almost all the virtues are excluded, and in which nearly all the vices are included.”

ADAM CLARKE declares "War to be as contrary to the spirit of christianity as murder; that nothing can justify nations in shedding each other's blood; that all men should live in peace, and that all men MIGHT live in peace."

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J. A. JAMES says:- "A hatred of war is an essential feature of practical christianity; and it is a shame upon what is called the christian world, that it has not long since borne universal and indignant testimony against this enormous evil.”

TESTIMONIES AGAINST WAR.

R. WHATELY, the present archbishop of Dublin, says:— "That the best mode of accomplishing the extinction of that great disgrace to civilized men and christians-war, is an object which no one can more heartily desire than myself."

STATESMEN.

Sir WALTER RALEIGH says:- "There is no profession more unpropitious than that of warriors, and he that taketh up his rest to live by this profession, shall hardly be an honest man.”

General WASHINGTON, first president of the United States, exclaims: "How pitiful, in the eye of reason and religion, is that false ambition which desolates the world with fire and sword, compared to the milder virtues of making our fellowmen as happy as their frail condition and perishable natures will permit them to be."

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DANIEL O'CONNELL.-"Remember no political change is worth a single crime, or, above all, a single drop of human blood." Lord BROUGHAM, in his speech at the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, says :When I reflected that this peaceful and guiltless and useful triumph over the elements, and over nature herself, liad cost a million only of money, whilst 1,500 millions had been squandered in war, the greatest curse of the human race, and the greatest crime, because it involves every other crime within its execrable name; when I think that if 100, and but 100, of those 1,500 millions had been employed in promoting the arts of peace and the progress of civilization, and of wealth, and of property amongst us, instead of that other employment which is too hateful to think of; instead of being burthened with 800 millions of debt, borrowed after spending 700 millions, we should see the whole country covered with such works as the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, and with peace and the blessings of peace."

HISTORIANS, PHILOSOPHERS, &c.

The learned THOMAS DICK thus speaks of war:-"It is an indelible disgrace to nations in modern times, who designate themselves as civilized and enlightened, that such a mode of settling disputes and differences should be resorted to as that of warfare. It is glaringly unchristian; it is atrocious and inhuman; it is a violation of the fundamental laws which unite the moral universe; it is accompanied with almost all the evils that can afflict humanity; it is subversive of the wealth

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