144 QUAKER ASPECTS OF TRUTH 



And, again, how full are the writings of the Apostle 

 John of this spirit of love and universal brotherhood ♦ 



But far more explicit testimony is to be found when 

 we come to study the customs of the early Christians, 

 For there is not the slightest doubt that for the first two 

 centuries of our era Christians consistently refused to 

 carry arms, and when a soldier became converted to 

 Christianity, as a matter of course he left the army. 

 Many suffered martyrdom for this very cause, such as 

 Maximilian, and Marcellus, and Cassian, and all alleged 

 as an all-sufficient reason for their refusal to bear arms, 

 ** I am a Christian and therefore I cannot fight/' Scholars 

 tell us that over and over again do these words recur in 

 the records of the early Christians, ** I am a Christian, 

 and therefore I cannot fight/* 



It is very interesting to find these early Christians 

 refuting exactly the same arguments in favour of war that 

 we have to refute to-day. And they did it, as I have 

 attempted to do it, by reference to the Sermon on the 

 Mount, and to incidents in the life of our Lord, Thus 

 Tertullian, writing towards the close of the second 

 century, says : ** When Christ disarmed Peter, he dis- 

 armed every soldier,** 



And now let us consider whether the use of physical 

 force is ever lawful to the Christian ; and, if so, what 

 are the limits of its lawfulness, 



I suppose that followers of Tolstoy would answer the 

 question by saying that the use of physical force is never 

 lawful to the Christian, and this is a simple solution to 

 the problem. But it is not a solution which I myself 

 am able to adopt. 



Thus we make use of physical force to restrain 

 persons of unsound mind, and they themselves, when 

 they are recovered from their malady, are often the first 

 to thank us for what we have done. It is our solicitude 

 for their welfare which thus causes us to bring physical 



