A Sermon Preached by the Rev.
A. N. Rowland on March 12, in Union Church, Shanghai When the King of Moab saw that the battle was too save for he took his eldest son that should have reigned in his stead and offered him for a burnt offering upon the wall: And there was great indignation against Israel, and they departed from him, and returned to their own lund." 2 Kings 8, 26 f.
There had always been internecine war with Moab, as desperate as between England and Scotland in the 13th and 14th centuries, and between England and Ireland, alas, many a time since. Generals like Joab and Omri would return. de claring that things were settled; that they had pacified the country by making it a desolation, but the moment Israel was in difficulties, Moab renewed the struggle. And that is what happened when the powerful King Ahab perished in battle with the Syrians.
In those days the fiscal policy of a country was very simple. Its only imports were from the countries it was able to conquer, and kings only stopped raiding and plundering in order that something might be left for tribute in the field and the fold. The hatred engendered must have been terrific. And it is a miserable fact that this describes the condition of Europe, to-day (though it is hard to see why a well-known journalist should be dilating on this subject in Japan). The word "nationality" which was to have been the key to the situation created by the war has opened the door to the bitterest rivalries and animosities. Such a state affairs was once cured by the laws and legions of Rome, and what we want now is the law without the legions.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.