QUAKERS AND WAR.
tTo TUE EDITOR OF TUE " SPECTATOR."] SIR,—In connexion with the attitude to war adopted by the Quakers and others, a very apposite incident is to be found in the Apocrypha, 1 Maccabees ii., verses 29.48, to which my attention was drawn the other day. Certain Jews had conscien- tious objections to fighting on the Sabbath, and were in conse- quence wiped out by their enemies. The story goes on: "And Mattathias and his friends know it, and they mourned Over them exceedingly. And one said to another, If we all do as our brethren have done, and fight not against the Gentiles for our lives and our ordinances, they will now quickly destroy us from off the earth." The argument seems to ate as practical as it is unanswerable. So many people seem to forgot that the sight of perfect goodness makes some people more savage. There was an impenitent as well as a penitent thief.—I am, Sir, &c.,
GUY M. KINDERSLEY.
The till house, C'oclicote, Welwyn, Herts.
Previous page
