Matthew 26:53

Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to My Father?

War opposed to the precepts and spirit of Christianity

Show that war is opposed to the spirit of Christianity.

I. Offer such reasons as prove this.

1. The toleration of war under the New Testament dispensation is contrary to what Christianity was expected to be by the prophet who foretold the coming of the Messiah, and by the Church of the Jews, to whom they were sent (Isaiah 9:6; Zechariah 9:9).

2. The advent of the Saviour was attended with revelations, which indicated peace. The angels sang of peace on earth.

3. The doctrine which Christ taught condemns war (Matthew 5:3, etc.)

4. The example of Christ teaches the same truth. His life was unresisting.

5. War originates in a passion which Christianity condemns.

6. It can only be carried on by the use of those means which Christianity must condemn.

`II. Answers objections.

1. It is said that war was allowable under the Old Testament dispensation, that therefore it cannot be wrong in the abstract.

2. It is said that the predictions of the New Testament foretell wars in the course of Christianity through the world.

3. It is said that the civil magistrate shall not bear the sword in vain.

4. It is said that to argue in favour of these principles is a proof of cowardice and imbecility.

5. What will be the consequences if men act in this way?

III. Make a few reflections.

1. It calls for a close examination of the subject.

2. It is the duty of parents to be careful in training up their children.

3. I would urge that no professor of Christianity should think of bearing arms. (N. M. Harry.)

The willing surrender

“Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.” The glory of Christ is in His willing surrender of that which belonged to Him, and which He might have always had and enjoyed. The multitude whom the chief priests had sent was arresting Jesus. Then one of His disciples drew the sword. Jesus bade him put his sword into its place again. He tells His eager followers that if He wants He can protect Himself. “Thinkest thou,” etc. The helpless prisoner looked up and saw the air thick with angels hurrying to His relief. A word from Him and they would have been His warriors. He had the power, but would not use it. The nobleness of this surrender of Jesus; no man becomes really noble who has not its repetition in himself. To give up some precious thing which is legitimately yours; to shut your eyes upon visions of glory, or safety, or luxury, which you might make your own without blame, that is one of the marks of nobleness. The man who is taking all that he has a right to take in life is always touched with a shade of baseness. Let us study the nobleness of voluntary surrender.

I. We want to feel how definite and distinct it is. There are base imitations of it. There are two kinds of renunciation of things which have this origin in unworthy motives.

1. The first is the renunciation which comes from idleness or lack of spirit. There will always be people who might be rich, learned, famous, who despise these things simply because of the trouble they involve. The surrender they make is a loss not a gain; it has nothing in common with the Divine relinquishment of Jesus.

2. The second of the two base forms of voluntary surrender is what we may call the ascetic form. It includes the renunciation of legitimate enjoyments, that we may be chastened by disappointment. Now turn back to Jesus. When He said, “I will not call the angels,” it was no pusillanimous submitting to His fate; nor was it any unnatural submitting of Himself to suffering that He might be cultivated and purified, or that the release from suffering when it came might be more sweet. It was the quiet surrender of what was His, because He could not have it and yet do His work and save the world. No man in this world has a right to all his rights. Here is really the key to the question of voluntary abstinence from certain innocent indulgences for the sake of others. Voluntariness lies at the root of it all. We talk of the glory of resignation to the inevitable; but the true glory is in resignation to the inevitable. To stand unchained, with perfect power to go away, and so standing to let the fire creep up to the heart-that is the truer heroism. Christ knew what it was to gain the life He lost, to have the thing that He surrendered. When He refused to call the angels to His help, the strength which was the meaning of the angels was surely entering into Him, and making Him ready for the battle which He was just about to fight. (P. Brooks, D. D.)

Self-surrender under the influence of a higher purpose

When a man who might be rich deliberately gives up the chance of wealth that he may be a scholar, men whose object in life is wealth, and who know that he has the same power to get wealth which they have if he should give himself to its pursuit, must honour him and feel the influence of his renunciation. It is not laziness, for he goes to work harder than any of them. It is not asceticism, for he has no foolish sweeping abuse of wealth with which to insult his fellow-men’s intelligence, It is not incapacity, for he is as bright as the brightest. It is simply the power of a higher purpose. It is the calm, manly, uncomplaining choice to do this greater thing, and to surrender whatever would hinder the doing of it most faithfully and well. The man goes off into his study, and thinks that nobody sees him-indeed, does not think for a moment whether anybody is seeing him or not; but his life and such lives as his are the salt of the society in which they live. (P. Brooks, D. D.)