Clearing the Way.

"I Will Fight Your Battles."—In a revelation, already cited, given through Joseph the Seer while Zion's Camp was resting on Fishing River, the Lord says concerning the Elders of his Church:

"I do not require at their hands to fight the battles of Zion; for, as I said in a former commandment, even so will I fulfill. I will fight your battles."

"Behold, the destroyer I have sent forth to destroy and lay waste mine enemies; and not many years hence they shall not be left to pollute mine heritage and to blaspheme my name upon the lands which I have consecrated for the gathering together of my Saints."^[1]

War and Deity.—There are many good people who believe that anything of a war-like character, anything involving violence and bloodshed, is wholly incompatible with the benign disposition and benevolent purposes of Deity. According to their view, God has nothing to do with wars. From first to last they are the work of the Evil One, moving upon wicked men to stir up strife for selfish and sordid ends. Everything peaceful and pleasant comes from him who is the Prince of Peace; everything of an opposite nature, and especially war, that prolific source of misery and sorrow, is due entirely to the Adversary. It is all well meant, of course, the object being to forefend Deity against the reproach that these good people fear would lie at his door, if it were admitted that he had even a share in what they conceive to be an unmixt evil, a thing absolutely wrong and unjustifiable. But how can such views be reconciled with divine revelation and the history of God's dealings with man? If war is always wicked, and destruction ever at variance with the will and purposes of Providence, how are we to understand such passages of scripture as the foregoing, wherein Jehovah, who is no other than Jesus, the meek and merciful, assures his servants that he will fight their battles, and assumes full responsibility for sending forth the destroyer to lay waste his enemies and theirs?

Prince of Peace and Lord of Hosts.—The problem, seemingly complex, is in reality simple and easy of solution. There are two sides to the Divine Character, two distinct and differing phases of God's dealings with mortals. The Lion as well as the Lamb plays a part in the stirring drama of human progress. The same perfect Being who counseled patience, charity, and the turning of "the other cheek," sternly rebuked hypocrisy, denounced wickedness in unmeasured terms, and with wrathful speech and thong of knotted cords, drove the thieving moneychangers from the Temple. "Blessed are the merciful," said the Author of the Beatitudes.^[2] "Love your enemies," enjoined the Redeemer of the World.^[3] But already He had proclaimed: "Vengeance is mine—I will repay;"^[4] and that high decree has never been revoked. Jehovah is both Prince of Peace and Lord of Hosts, the God of Sabaoth. These are among the titles belonging to him. Why are they his, if he has nothing to do with war—if such things are independently and exclusively the work of Satan?

Providence Over All.—The student of this problem must not lose sight of the fact that Satan's sphere, like man's, is limited. Neither can do more than the Most High is willing should be done; and his willingness extends only to such things as contribute, ultimately if not immediately, to the carrying out of his beneficent designs. The Book of Job is very plain upon this point. Only so far as the Almighty would permit, and it was deemed wise for that righteous man to be afflicted, in order to test his integrity, further develop the excellence of his character, and endow future ages with a deathless example of godlike patience—only so far was Satan allowed to go. He seemed to be having his own way with Job, and up to a certain mark did have it; but nothing beyond. The Lord had his way. Whatever he bade Satan not to do. Satan had to leave undone.

The Uses of Adversity.—Job's case is a reminder of the fact that the wicked can be used as a means of developing and improving the righteous, or of chastising and correcting people better than themselves. The painful experiences of the Latter-day. Saints furnish many cases in point. In Missouri, for instance, they were the victims of atrocious wrongs. They had done nothing, so far as their fellow men were concerned, to justify the cruel treatment meted out to them. But the Lord, in order to chasten his people and teach them wholesome lessons that they needed to learn, allowed their enemies to drive and despoil them.^[5]

Divinity Always Supreme.—Despite all appearances to the contrary, the Divine Will reigns supreme. To conclude otherwise is to mentally dethrone Deity, and allow that Evil is stronger than Good. God is above Satan, and holds him in leash.^[6]

Destruction Essential.—We are not to suppose, however, that the Lord delights in war—that He prefers it to peace; or that he would have aught to do with strife and devastation, if his good and wise purposes could always be accomplished by other and milder means. But if strife becomes necessary, and destruction essential, as when an old building is torn down to make room for a new one, and if the All-wise be the doer or director of the deed, who can question its rightfulness? "Shall the axe boast itself against him that heweth therewith? Or shall the saw magnify itself against him that shaketh it?"^[7]

Wars Decreed.—"I have sworn in my wrath and decreed wars upon the face of the earth, and the wicked shall slay the wicked."^[8] So says the Almighty to his servant Joseph. And there lies the problem in a nutshell. God has "decreed wars"—decreed them for a purpose. Human iniquity brings down divine retribution, and the wicked are permitted to slay one another—partly as a punishment for their sins, but mainly to help clear the way for a higher and better order of things.

Just and Unjust Wars.—Michael and the Dragon.—Some wars are righteous and just; others wrong and unjust. All depends upon the purpose for which they are waged, and whether or not the Lord sanctions them. All unrighteous wars are the work of Satan and his minions. But all wars are not unrighteous. When Michael and his angels fought against the Dragon, and overcame him,^[9] surely the fight was a righteous one on Michael's part. As for the provocation—that springs another question. It is undoubtedly true that there would have been no "war in heaven," if Lucifer had not rebelled; but, having rebelled, he had to be put down, and a righteous war was waged for that purpose. The conduct of those who make such wars necessary, is not to be compared with the acts of those who rise up to vindicate right and vanquish wrong.

Agnostic Arguments.—Joshua's conquest of Canaan—let us consider that.^[10] Agnostic writers, taking the view that all such wars are wicked, affect to regard this event as a grave crime. They brand Joshua as a murderer, and charge Jehovah with being a violator of his own statutes—a greater murderer, in short, who, after punishing the first slayer of his fellow man, the fratricidal Cain,^[11] and laying down the law to Noah, "Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed."^[12]—emphasizing it later with the commandment, "Thou shalt not kill"^[13]—directed the general of his armies to commit wholesale slaughter and extermination. Therefore was he a murderer and a lawbreaker. Such is the logic of Robert G. Ingersoll and other writers of his class.

And what a wretched piece of sophistry it is. How utterly shallow and vain. As if the Giver of life could not take back what he had given—the right to it having been forfeited—without committing a crime! As if the Author and Ruler of the universe could not repeal or suspend one of his own enactments, without being a law-breaker! Think of it: Colonel Ingersoll, an experienced lawyer, a practitioner and devotee of the science of jurisprudence, denying to the great Law-Giver a right inherent in and exercised by the humblest legislative body on earth! To such illogical extremes will men go, when they presume to pass judgment upon Providence.

The Case of the Canaanites.—Joshua's war upon the Canaanites was a just war, designed to rid the earth of a corrupt generation, which had forfeited its right to longer remain, encumbering the soil, particularly that part which the Creator and Owner of the planet had given to a worthier people. Jehovah's command to clear the ground upon which he proposed erecting a national structure that should stand as a temple of wisdom and light for the welfare of all succeeding generations, did not impinge upon any command of his previously given. Neither is the Divine One amenable to human judgment. "Thou shalt not kill" was a commandment from God, not to him. His word is superior to all human enactments and to all man's notions of right and wrong. The war waged by Joshua and the hosts of Israel against the wicked and usurping Canaanites was in every respect justifiable, so far as it was conducted according to Jehovah's command.^[14]

"The King Can Do No Wrong."—This proverb, when used by corrupt rulers to justify and cloak their crimes, is flagrantly false and pernicious. When applied to the King of Heaven, it is eminently and unquestionably true. The Author of life can send forth the destroyer and lay waste his enemies, without blood-guiltiness or even the shadow of wrong-doing. He can decree wars, and allow the wicked to slay the wicked, without partaking of their evil deeds or making himself responsible for their demon-inspired atrocities. These must all be accounted for at the bar of Eternal Justice.

The American Revolution.—It was not Satan who caused the heroic struggle of the American colonies, giving them power to win their freedom and independence, to the end that a nation might arise upon this chosen soil with a mission to foster and protect the infant and growing Church of Christ. That was a righteous war, and the divine inspiration for it rested upon the Patriot Fathers,^[15] who, at the hazard of their lives, signed the immortal Declaration, and drew their swords to defend and perpetuate that sublime annunciation of liberty and equal rights.

The World War.—So with the great war that over-threw the German Kaiser, putting an end to the wicked strife that he was waging. It was a righteous against an unrighteous exertion of military force. What better motive could a nation have than that which actuated the American people in sending forth their armies and navies to check the on-rushing hordes that were bent upon crushing freedom and setting an iron heel on the neck of the world? It was a holy war, so far as America was concerned; and a just war, a war of self-defense, on the part of her associated powers. The God of Justice was in it for the welfare of humanity. Who can doubt that He upheld and sustained the arms of those who carried it to a victorious conclusion? And if the result shall be even a partial clearing of the way for the introduction or further spread of Liberty's Perfect Law among spiritually benighted nations, the mightiest and costliest of earth's conflicts will not have been in vain.

1. D. & C. 105:14, 15.2. Matt. 5:7.3. Ib. 5:44; Luke 6:27, 35.4. Rom. 12:19; Deut. 32:35.5. Job saw the matter in a clear light (2:10). He did not charge Deity with the authorship of evil—evil as well as good being self-existent. He knew that God is a hater of iniquity (Psalms 45:7; Heb. 1:9); but he also knew that evil is controlled by the divine ruler and made tributary to the success of his plans. Therefore he did what all should do—he acknowledged the hand of the Lord in all things, in adversity as well as prosperity.6. President Woodruff, in his Brigham City address, June 24, 1894,—an address already cited in these pages—speaks thus of the Latter-day judgments: "God has held the angels of destruction for many years, lest they should reap down the wheat with the tares. But I want to tell you now, that these angels have left the portals of Heaven, and they stand over this people and this nation now, waiting to pour out the judgments."7. Isa. 10:15.8. D. & C. 63:33.9. Rev. 12:7-9.10. Joshua 1-12.11. Gen. 4:11, 12.12. Ib. 9:6.13. Ex. 20:13.14. The same may be said of Israel's war upon the Amalekites, in the days of King Saul, and of similar wars undertaken by "the armies of the living God," heaven-directed and divinely empowered. Samuel's hewing of Agag "in pieces before the Lord," was not a crime, but an act of justice, a righteous retribution upon an unrighteous ruler, whose sword had "made women childless."—1 Sam. 15:33.15. 1 Nephi 13:16-19.