exertion.  And in what cause can the energies of Christian benevolence be more appropriately exercised?  To prevent war is to avoid the effusion of human blood, and the commission of innumerable crimes and atrocities;—­it is to diffuse peace, and comfort, and happiness, through the great family of man,—­it is to foster the arts and sciences which minister to the wants of society,—­it is to check the progress of vice,—­to speed the advance of the gospel,—­to rescue immortal souls from endless misery,—­and to secure to them a felicity as durable as it is inconceivable.

“To him who in faith and zeal labors in this great and holy cause a rich reward is secured.  While doing good to others, he is himself a sharer in the blessing he bestows.  The very exercise of his benevolent affections affords a pure and exquisite delight, and when he enters the world of peace and love, he shall experience the full import of those cheering, but mysterious words—­Blessed are the peace makers, for they shall be called the children of God."’

APPENDIX G. P. 89.

OPIUM WAR WITH CHINA.

“TO THE CHRISTIAN PUBLIC OF GREAT BRITAIN.

“In again appealing to you in reference to the opium war in China, I will begin by quoting the following extracts from a letter which I addressed to you on the 19th of the Third Month, 1840.

“’It is now too notorious to render needful entering at large into the subject, that the guilty traffic in opium, grown by the East India Company, to be smuggled into China, at length compelled the Chinese Government to vindicate the laws of the Empire, which prohibit its introduction, and to take decisive measures for the suppression of the traffic, by the arrest of the parties concerned in it at Canton, and the seizure and destruction of the opium found in the Chinese waters.[A] It is also well known that the superintendent of the British trade, (Capt.  Elliott) so far compromised his official character and duty, as to take under his protection one of the most extensive opium smugglers, and thus rendered himself justly liable to the penalties to which they were obnoxious; and at the same time gave, as far as was in his power, the sanction of the British nation to this unrighteous violation of the Chinese laws.

    [Footnote A:  “See ‘Thelwall’s Iniquities of the Opium Trade,’
    and ‘King’s Opium Crisis,’”]

“’The following fact is, however, not so generally known.  An individual,[B] now in this country, who has acquired immense wealth by this unlawful trade, has been in communication with the Government, and his advice, it is presumed, has in no small degree influenced the measures they have adopted; though a leading partner in a firm to which a large proportion of the opium that was destroyed belonged; and at the very time he was claiming compensation, or urging a war with