Shalt Not Steal, and Thou Shalt Not Kill,
are usually traceable to the violation of the first great
commandment--Thou Shalt Have No Other Gods Before Me--that is, to the
putting of self before service of the Creator.

The violation of these commandments by nations is not always, but
usually, due to selfishness--the putting of supposed material
advantages before obedience to the Divine Law.

War is occasionally altruistic in purpose and the soldier always
exhibits unselfishness of high order, but, as a rule, conflicts are
waged for selfish ends.

The individual finds that Jehovah's justice cannot be evaded; for
wrongdoing works its own punishment on the wrongdoer in the form of
perverted character when he escapes the penalties of human law. The
nation is as powerless to repeal or to ignore with impunity the laws
of God--"Though hand join in hand they shall not be unpunished."

If I have made it clear that the doctrine that might makes right is
the most common cause of war, we may pass to the consideration of a
maxim quite sure to be applied in war, namely, that "like cures
like"--the theory upon which retaliation rests.

The two are so closely allied that it is almost inevitable that those
who indorse the former will resort to the latter--one representing the
spirit of will, the other its most familiar manifestation. Rivalry for
rivalry in wrongdoing--a neck-and-neck race to the bottomless pit. And
yet there are many believers in the gospel of force, who have brought
themselves to think that cruelty can be cured by greater cruelty--that
the only way to win an antagonist away from inhuman acts is to surpass
him in inhumanities. Absurdity of absurdities!

But might must find a pretext for arming itself; and what is the
pretext? There was a time when men openly advocated war as a thing to
be desired; commended it to each generation as a sort of tonic to tone
up the moral system and prevent degeneracy, but we have passed that
day.

Now all join in the chorus for peace. And how, according to the
jingoes, shall peace be insured? "By preparedness," say these sons of
Mars. Prepare, all prepare; equip yourselves with the most modern
implements of destruction; arm, drill, get ready, and then stand with
fingers on a barrel of a musket and preserve peace--you preserve it
until some one, by accident or design, gives the signal--then all fall
upon each other with cries for blood. Preparedness is the kindling;
opportunity is