health and life, for the privilege of keeping four millions of faithful friends of the Union enslaved to its deadly enemies. Is it not about time to put an end to the necessity for such an expenditure?"—N. Y. Tribune.

A CHRISTIAN VIEW OF WAR.-A pamphlet with this title, published lately at Quincy, Ill., we have received from the author, with permission to print it entire, but not "extracts from it." It breathes an excellent spirit, and presents some views of much importance; but we have not space for the whole, and cannot endorse all its positions.

One of these is, that Christians, as such, have nothing to do with civil government, except to submit to its authority without resistance. "All governments belong to the world, and are of this world, and are constituted by the will of man on the principles of the world. They are composed

of a heterogeneous mass of wicked men. God has laid down no principle in the Bible for such an organization, or for its perpetuation. He does not acknowledge its officers as subjects for his instruction. They are left to follow the dictates of their own will. Christians are commanded to come out from among them,"-take no part with other citizens in the affairs of Government-" and touch not the unclean thing." All this means, if it means anything to purpose, that Christians, as such, should take no part in civil government.

Another principle taken is, that all resistance against wrong by force is unchristian. "Carnal weapons and all resistance to evil are prohibited. It (the church) is not to resist the wrongs of an enemy. It is not to take revenge. It is to overcome all evil of an enemy by doing him good, and in doing so, you cannot kill him. It saves life, but does not destroy it. Man is forbidden to take the life of man. There is as much authority ty in Moses' law for adultery and polygamy, as there is for taking the life of man. The taking of the life of man is a violation of the principles of

Christ."

Now, while sharing all the writer's hostility to war and war-system, we cannot endorse such extreme positions as these. He seems to assume hat no man can be a thorough, consistent friend of peace who does not believe in the strict inviolability of human life; but, while allowing others to oppose war for whatever reasons they choose, we are not aware that any considerable Peace Society has ever adopted this principle. There is really no need of it. We seek to do away the custom of war; and that we hold to be wrong, whether it be right or not to hang the murderer, or to use force in putting down mobs and insurrections. We would fain rally as many as possible for the abolition of war; but if only those who believe human life to be strictly inviolable, or think that all Christians should abstain from any participation in the affairs of government, are to unite in this great reform, we must despair of its triumph in season to do much good.

TO PREVENT WAR BETWEEN ENGLAND AND OUR COUNTRY.-We reported in our last the noble efforts made on a large scale by English friends of peace to avert such a crime and calamity. Happily the necessity for their continuance was arrested even before they were fairly put in operation; but a specimen of what was in progress we have in an Address from " Ministers of Religion at Boston, Linconshire, England, to their brethren the Christian Ministers of all Denominations in the City of Boston, Massachusetts." It is a brief, touching appeal in view of a war then threatened. It was dated on the last Christmas-day, but did not reach us till several months after, too late to be properly used here. If we had space, we would gladly copy it entire, with the names of the nine Christian ministers appended. To our namesake in the father-land, we would send back from our American Boston a most cordial response to this kind, Christian greeting. Let our friendship be uninterrupted and perpetual !

BRITISH MISSCONCEPTIONS OF AMERICA.-On this theme we have thus far kept silent; but we confess our patience has been sorely tried by the strange and seemingly incurable miscenceptions prevalent in England respecting our country and its great rebellion. We will not now break this silence, except to express the earnest hope that our English friends, who certainly have now the means of doing so, will correct their wrong views, and that our own countrymen will, as we think they have thus far done much better than could have been expected, restrain those feelings of distrust and prejudice, if not of hatred and vengeance, to which they have been provoked by the treatment we have received from the British government. Till within the last month it has acted all along the part of an enemy under disguises that could deceive only its own partizans; but, while we see no possible excuse for this hostility betrayed by the men at the helm of her government, by her leading organs of public opinion, and by her aristocratic classes, we feel happy in the assurance that the people of England, do not share these hostile feelings towards us. They are our reliable friends, and ought ever to be so regarded and treated by us.

Our friends who are able to help us, should bear in mind, that we are now in more need than ever of their aid.

ANNIVERSARY OF OUR SOCIETY-will be held, as usual, in Boston on the last Monday in May, the 26th. Business meeting at 3 P. M., and the pub lic exercises in the evening. Annual Address by the President, HowARD MALCOM, D.D., LL.D. W. C. BROWN, Rec. Sec.

THE

ADVOCATE OF PEACE.

MAY AND JUNE, 1862

ADDRESS,

BY HOWARD MALCOM, D. D., LL.D.

Great principles of truth and justice, which never would be questioned, or seem obscure, if regarded in the abstract, are often subject to doubt and contention when brought to bear on particular issues. Doctrines which by their nature know neither age, country, nor circumstance, but apply every where, and at all times, to man as man, may be so mixed up with local or casual questions, as to be robbed of their power to determine action. Not only so. The advocates of great truths, which the men of their day are unwilling to admit, or incapable of comprehending, are deemed enemies to public tranquility, invaders of private rights, and wanderers from common sense. They encounter contempt, or opposition, according to the temper of the times; and in some instances have been effectually silenced by a dungeon or a scaffold.

We meet this day, as advocates of a doctrine which the world is not ready to receive, and under circumstances, which make our object discordant to the prevailing feeling, and subject to jealous scrutiny. We are surrounded