of destructive passions. The natural penalty of folly and crime was paid
in hardship, sorrow, disease, captivity, disappointment, poverty, and
death. But out of the ashes a new creation arose, not what any of the
leaders of those movements ever contemplated--infinitely removed from
the thoughts of Bernard, Urban, Philip, and Richard, great men as they
were, far-sighted statesmen, who expected other results. The hand which
guided that warfare between Europe and Asia was the hand that led the
Israelites out of Egypt across the Red Sea. Moreover, _quem deus vult
perdere prius dementat_. What uprising more foolish, insane,
disastrous, than the great Southern rebellion! Its result was never
dreamed of for a moment by those Southern leaders. They hoped to see the
establishment of a great empire based on slavery; they saw the utter
destruction of slavery itself. The course by which they anticipated
dominion and riches ended in their temporal ruin. They were made the
destroyers of their own pet system, when it could not have been
destroyed in any other way. It was only by a great war that the fetters
of the slave could be removed, and God sent war so soon as it pleased
Him to bring the wicked bondage to an end. If any thing shows the hand
of God it is the wars of the nations. They are sent like the famine and
the pestilence. All human wisdom and power sink into insignificance when
they are put forth to stop these scourges of the Almighty. It is against
all reason that they ever come; yet they do come, and then crimes are
avenged; evil punishes evil, and succeeding generations are made to see
that the progress of the race is through sorrow and suffering. No great
empire is built up but with the will of God. No empire falls without
deserving the chastisement and the ruin. But God has promised to save
and to redeem, and the world moves on in accordance with natural laws,
and each successive century witnesses somehow or other a great advance
in the general condition of mankind. It is not the great rulers who plan
this improvement. It comes from Heaven. It comes in spite of human