CHRISTIANITY AND WAR 143 



even justify polytheism. We justify hundreds of things 

 which even the most earnest advocate for war would 

 scarcely wish to justify. In shorty the argument proves 

 too much. 



But, even in the Old Testament, the most inspired 

 of the prophets looked forward to a time when war 

 should cease. Not only so, but they looked forward to 

 it as an ideal to be striven after, a consummation devoutly 

 to be wished. Thus the prophets, Isaiah and Micah, 

 alike speak of a time when ** They shall beat their swords 

 into ploughshares and their spears into pruning-hooks. 

 Nation shall not rise against nation, neither shall they 

 learn war any more,'^ 



It is very interesting to find Irenaeus and Justin 

 Martyr, two early Christians who wrote towards the 

 close of the second century, speak of these prophecies 

 of our Lord as having been fulfilled in their own day 

 by the fact that Christians of their day refused to carry 

 arms. Well was it for them that they lived in the 

 second century and not in the twentieth ! 



And this leads me on very naturally to consider the 

 question in what light they regarded the teachings of 

 Jesus on the question of war, who lived nearest His time ? 

 For surely those who lived nearest the time of our Lord 

 were in a specially favourable position for understanding 

 His real meaning on such a point. 



Now, in the first place, I need scarcely point out 

 the fact that the teaching of the apostles was just as 

 pacific as was that of their Master, Thus James, our 

 Lord's brother, writes : '* Whence come wars and 

 fightings among you ? Come they not hence, even of the 

 lusts that war in your members ? ** 



Then, again, the Apostle Paul writes : ** If thine 

 enemy hunger, feed him ; if he thirst, give him drink ; 

 for in so doing thou sbalt heap coals of fire on his head. 

 Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good,'' 



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