"The King Can Do No Wrong."—This proverb, when used by corrupt rulers to justify and cloak their crimes, is flagrantly false and pernicious. When applied to the King of Heaven, it is eminently and unquestionably true. The Author of life can send forth the destroyer and lay waste his enemies, without blood-guiltiness or even the shadow of wrong-doing. He can decree wars, and allow the wicked to slay the wicked, without partaking of their evil deeds or making himself responsible for their demon-inspired atrocities. These must all be accounted for at the bar of Eternal Justice.
The American Revolution.—It was not Satan who caused the heroic struggle of the American colonies, giving them power to win their freedom and independence, to the end that a nation might arise upon this chosen soil with a mission to foster and protect the infant and growing Church of Christ. That was a righteous war, and the divine inspiration for it rested upon the Patriot Fathers,[[15]] who, at the hazard of their lives, signed the immortal Declaration, and drew their swords to defend and perpetuate that sublime annunciation of liberty and equal rights.
The World War.—So with the great war that over-threw the German Kaiser, putting an end to the wicked strife that he was waging. It was a righteous against an unrighteous exertion of military force. What better motive could a nation have than that which actuated the American people in sending forth their armies and navies to check the on-rushing hordes that were bent upon crushing freedom and setting an iron heel on the neck of the world? It was a holy war, so far as America was concerned; and a just war, a war of self-defense, on the part of her associated powers. The God of Justice was in it for the welfare of humanity. Who can doubt that He upheld and sustained the arms of those who carried it to a victorious conclusion? And if the result shall be even a partial clearing of the way for the introduction or further spread of Liberty's Perfect Law among spiritually benighted nations, the mightiest and costliest of earth's conflicts will not have been in vain.
Footnotes
[1]. D. & C. 105:14, 15.
[2]. Matt. 5:7.
[3]. Ib. 5:44; Luke 6:27, 35.
[4]. Rom. 12:19; Deut. 32:35.
[5]. Job saw the matter in a clear light (2:10). He did not charge Deity with the authorship of evil—evil as well as good being self-existent. He knew that God is a hater of iniquity (Psalms 45:7; Heb. 1:9); but he also knew that evil is controlled by the divine ruler and made tributary to the success of his plans. Therefore he did what all should do—he acknowledged the hand of the Lord in all things, in adversity as well as prosperity.
[6]. President Woodruff, in his Brigham City address, June 24, 1894,—an address already cited in these pages—speaks thus of the Latter-day judgments: "God has held the angels of destruction for many years, lest they should reap down the wheat with the tares. But I want to tell you now, that these angels have left the portals of Heaven, and they stand over this people and this nation now, waiting to pour out the judgments."