great ones are received without examination, and as it were swallowed without thought and without reflection. Persons who pursue such a course are among the blind guides, who can neither teach themselves, nor be taught by others.
April Fourteenth.
SWORD AND PLOUGH-SHARE.
"They shall beat their swords into plough-shares."—Isa. ii. 4.
THE prophet Isaiah, speaking of a day of peace and consequent tranquillity, when the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established on the top of the mountains, exalted above the hills, and when all nations shall flow into it, says, they then "shall beat their swords into plough-shares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more." But what says the Lord by the prophet Joel? "Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles (nations), Prepare war, wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near; let them come up: beat your plough-shares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears: let the weak say, I am strong." (Joel iii. 9, 10.) Here war is commanded to be proclaimed among the nations, entirely reversing the order given by Isaiah; the peaceful plough-shares, instruments of cultivation, are to be beaten into swords, and, pruning hooks into spears. Now war is the Divine command, and the weak are each to say, I am strong. These passages appear, literally, to contradict each other; but patience, reader! the mystery will soon disappear; and
