“George Fox”: An Address Delivered to the Society of Friends in the Devonshire House Meeting House, Bishopsgate Street, London, on Tuesday Evening, November 6th, 1866.

I am always glad to hear of a soldier being a Christian, I am always sorry to hear of a Christian being a soldier. Whenever I hear of a man who is in the profession of arms, being converted, I rejoice; but whenever I hear of a converted man taking up the profession of arms, I mourn. If there be anything clear in Scripture, it does seem to me that it is for a Christian to have nothing to do with carnal weapons, and how it is that the great mass of Christendom do not see this I cannot understand; surely it must be through the blinding influences of the society in which the Christian church is cast.

The Christian who enlists in the army of our earthly king forgets that they that take the sword shall perish with the sword, and that Jesus has said, “Resist not evil; but if any man smite thee on the one cheek, turn to him the other also.” “My kingdom is not of this world, else would my servants fight.” May the day come when war shall be regarded as the most atrocious of all crimes, and when for a Christian man, either directly or indirectly, to take part in it, shall be considered as an abjuration of his principles. The day may be far distant, but it shall come, when men shall learn war no more; a right view of ‘the true character of war may hasten that happy era.