114         Jewish Wars as Precedents for Modern Wars.         [April,

argument which, in any other way, can be refuted only by uncom-
mon logical skill. Observe, then, some of the consequences in-
volved in the argument just stated. If valid at all, it must be so
in reference to the character of the wars included in the minor
premise, as certainly as in reference to war in the abstract. For
if God can not sanction that which is morally wrong, he certainly
can not and has not sanctioned wars which are wrong in their
character. In other words, God can not sanction a wicked war;
and to the full extent that his sanction justifies war, it justifies
wars of the same character with those which he has sanctioned.
If such wars are justified, then nations, and even Christians, may
innocently engage in them. But the very first war which the
Jews were commanded to undertake was a war of invasion, con-
quest, pillage, and extermination. They entered the land of
Canaan not in self-defense, but to exterminate the native tribes,
to seize or destroy their movable property, and to take per-
manent possession of their country. They came to cultivate vine-
yards which they had not planted, and to dwell in houses which
they had not built. In a subsequent age King Saul, with the
sanction of God, undertook a similar war against the Amalekites,
sparing neither age, sex, nor condition, but putting the whole
population to the sword. But our argument justifies such wars;
and if a nation in which Christians live were now to undertake a
war of this character, they could innocently take part in it; for
God commanded his chosen people to wage such wars, and what
God has commanded or sanctioned can not be morally wrong.
Where is the Christian advocate of war who is willing to abide
this inevitable result of his own logic?
   In the second place, this argument, if valid in reference to the
main question, must be equally so in reference to the causes which
justify war. If God can not sanction that which is morally
wrong, he can not and has not sanctioned a war undertaken for
an unjust purpose or an insufficient cause. But the Jewish war of
extermination against the Canaanites was not provoked by a
single act of hostility, or even of unkindness. There had been no
intercourse between the parties for generations previous, and they
had, just previous to the war, scarcely a knowledge of each other's

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