Portland Gazette, And Maine Advertiser

No. III.

On earth Peace, good will toward Men,

5. Letter 4th from Omar to the President of the U.

States.

" The opinion" says Omar in this letter " which

has been entertained of valor, or bravery in battle,

as an honorable virtue, was evidently borrowed

from the pagans, and not from the Gospel of Jesus

Christ. The followers of Jesus were to resemble

the harmless sheep and lambs, and not wolves and

tigers."

6. Letter 5th from the same to the same.

Patriotism, is the subject of this Letter. Ex-

tracts.—" As patriotism means love of one's own

country, we surely ought to understand by it love

to the lives, the privileges, the virtue, the peace, the

prosperity, and the happiness of the community of

which we are members." " One would sooner lay

down his own life to preserve the peace of his

country, than be an instrument of involving it in

the sins and calamities of war; but another loves

his country so well that he is willing to sacrifice

fifty or a hundred thousand of his fellow citizens in

war, rather than to endure any insult or injury

from a foreign power."

Comparing his views of patriotism with that of

the Saviour of men, he observes " How much

he might have been insulted, he would not I think

have "fought a duel" to vindicate his honor."

7. Letter 6th from the same to the same.

In this Letter, the writer makes some pungent

observations upon the allusion made by the Presi-

dent, in their late interview, to the custom of our an-

cestors in destroying those whom they considered

heretics, under this false principle that it was for

the honor and interest of the christian Church.

8. Next follows " A review of the Power assumed

by Rulers over the laws of God and the Laws of men.

To give a full view of this interesting subject

would require extracts too long for this paper.—

Suffice it to say that the Writer considers that the

conduct of Rulers in regard to war, is in many in-

stances either an absolute breach, or suspension of

the Laws of God and destructive to the happiness

they were intended to secure to man.

9. Omar's solitary Reflections.

These reflections are rational and very interest-

ing and would occupy two or three columns of a news-

paper, but as it was the writer's intention to be

concise, he will only present to the reader the fol-

lowing extracts. " How can I hope" says Omar

" to convince a statesman that war is a wicked cus-

tom while so great a portion of the clergy are its

advocates!

" How would the compassionate Saviour have

appeared at the head of an army, pronouncing a vio-

lent philippic, to excite men to revenge and havoc?

Or how would he have appeared as a chaplain,

praying to his Father to grant success to an army

about to engage in the work of vengeance and

murder! How opposite this, to the spirit of his

command 'love your enemies' and to his prayer on

the cross 'Father forgive them for they know not

what they do.'

"Had the custom of war never been adopted a-

mong christians of former ages—had our ancestors

kept themselves pure from shedding innocent blood

—and expressed a proper abhorrence of war, as it

existed among pagans; what horror would the

people of this country have now felt, at the bare

proposal of settling a national controversy, by an ap-

peal to arms? The thought of settling a parish

dispute in the same manner would not have ap-

peared so shocking and dreadful."

As I feel the most perfect conviction that War is

as murderous a dueling, that millions of men have

been sacrificed by it, and that millions more are in

danger of losing both their lives and souls; it must

be my duty to do what I can to convince others of

their danger, whether they will hear or whether

they will forbear."

"If a tenth part of as much property, as has

been expended and destroyed in the late war,

should be judiciously appropriated in Great Brit-

ain and the United States, in cultivating the spirit

of peace, and exciting an abhorrence of War—the

present tranquillity between the two nations would

probably be as durable as their existence.

"Behold how good and how pleasant it is for

brethren to dwell together in unity," but how

horrid to see them inflamed with hatred, and mur-

dering one another under the delusive idea that such

is the road to glory, and to heaven!

" O that the time may be hastened when chris-

tianity shall be exemplified in the lives of its pro-

fessors. Then will be realized, that blessedness,

the prospect of which animated a " multitude of

the heavenly host" while they sung "glory to God

in the highest, on earth peace and good will to-

wards men."

10. The noblest Treaty of Peace.

This concludes the first number of " the Friend

of Peace." It contain some remarks on the treaty

which Gelon, King of Syracuse, made with the

Carthagenians " that no more human sacrifices

should be offered to Saturn," and he insisted upon

their abolishing the custom of sacrificing their chil-

dren,

" Glorious indeed" says Montesquieu, who gave

it as his opinion that it was the noblest treaty of

peace ever mentioned in history ' After having de-

feated 500,000 Carthagenians, he required a con-

dition that was advantageous to themselves, or

rather he stipulated for human nature."