"Neither animated against his enemy by hatred or revenge": a sermon from the War of 1812

Ending this short Remembrancetide series of extracts from wartime sermons of Anglicans across the centuries, today an extract from John Strachan's sermon in York, Upper Canada, before the Legislative Council and House of Assembly, at the outset of the War of 1812. (Strachan would, in 1839, become the first Anglican Bishop of Toronto.) Strachan's words are a powerful reminder of the obligations combatants have to the enemy and the need for Christians to mortify the spirit of war:

A Christian Soldier is neither animated against his enemy by hatred nor revenge. These malignant passions have no influence on his operations, finding that gentle means have failed in bringing his enemy to reason, he confines himself to such acts of violence as shall bring him back to equitable terms of accommodation. In making war he keeps peace continually in his view, and whatever does not tend to bring it about, he conceives improper to be done. He separates the actions of his enemy from his person, the former he condemns, the latter he still considers worthy of his good will ... no conduct on the part enemies can free us from the obligation of doing them all the good that we can, after they have lost the power of doing us evil ...

It may be further observed, that by pursuing an enemy with hatred and revenge, we transform him into a private enemy and consider a man who has never done us any personal injury, and who has done only what he has been commanded, as guilty of his country's faults. But in wars between Nations, the individuals selected for carrying on hostilities, are seldom those who have injured us, and this ought to be an additional motive for us not to put them to needless pain, but to rest content with taking such measures as may successfully resist attacks, embarrass their Rulers, and bring them back to as sense of justice. Accordingly when we have taken any of our enemies and deprived them of the power of doing us an injury, we ought lo use them with kindness, they are now incapable of hurting us, and in our treatment of them, we can safely comply with the precept in the Gospel.

The picture is of the memorial to Sir Isaac Brock, the 'Hero of Upper Canada', who died in the Battle of Queenston Heights, 1812.

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