JT-26-A THOUGHT ON WAR.

A THOUGHT ON WAR.

Like mighty storms on winter’s sky,
Descending from the hills,
That rake destruction as they fly,
And sweep the trembling rills.

So war with his attendant host
Approximates the field,
There champion chiefs their courage boast,
Nor will the contest yield.

They give command and rush amain,
The soldiers bleed around,

And countless numbers lick the plain,
And bleed upon the ground.

When foaming streams together meet.
And toss their surges high,
When, on the rocky shallows beat,
The rooted forests die.

So chief with chief, and mall, with man,
In battle’s dread affright,
Commix and rage, and kill who can,
And heap the bloody sight.

From wing to wing the carnage runs,
No hiding place is near,
Wide wasting death, in cannon guns,
In sword, in dart and spear.

A thousand thunders shake the sky,
The frighted clouds look pale,
A thousand heroes gasp and die,
And blanch upon the vale.

Promiscuous slaughter raves along,
And thins the rank and file,
How soon, alas! he wastes the throng,
And heaps the reeking soil.

Relations, friends and brothers dear,
In murd’rous conflict meet,
And stain with blood the polish’d spear,
And die at other’s feet.

Let ocean break divine decrees,
And whelm the guilty shore
Let pestilence tile cities siege,
And slay a thousand more.

Let earthquakes shake the distant strand,
And wide dispart the earth;
Alarm the nations as they stand,
And stop their guilty mirth.

Let famine rage along the plain,
And waste our wicked race,
Let glutton’d monarchs feel the pain,
And wear a haggard face.

And should our crimes yet more inflame,
O Lord, thy dreadful ire,
Then teach us all our guilt and shame,
By mildews, blasts and fire.

These are thy scourges, Lord, we know,
To humble human pride,
But stay thy hand, nor strike the blow,
And better things provide.

But war with his attendant woes,
Is not from thee, divine,
From hellish passions he arose,
And no descent of thine.

Let nations know the gospel strain,
And hear the Savior’s lore;
Let them the Christian cause maintain
And war shall be no more.

Let swords be made to plough the field,
And spears to sickles turn;
O, may the world to Jesus yield,
And his example learn.