THE KING’S BUSINESS
309
sagacity, soldiers their heroism, the people their self-control; literature becomes com mon-place, art lifeless, great men dwindle into mediocrities, good men perish from the land, and the glory of a nation departs, leaving only a shell, a shadow, a memory. Retribution may not come suddenly, but it will come. “Alas! alas! that great city that was clothed in fine linen, and purple, and scarlet, and decked with gold, and precious stones and pearls. For in one hour so great riches is come to nought.” The destruction of Babylon is not always thus sudden, but it is sure. As- Mommsen, one of the greatest of historians, declares, “History has a Nemesis for every sin!” INFINITE WISDOM It may seem that all might and majesty are with the unjust nation, and that “wounded men” only are on the other side; but at God’s call wounded men are Michaels wielding flaming swords. “The foolishness of God is wiser than men.” Sometimes we are greatly amazed and per plexed at the way in which history unfolds itself—it would seem as if the diplomacy of evil were too much for the Ruler of the World, as if Providence made hesitating moves, weak moves, fatal moves; but we have only to wait awhile to know that God’s foolishness is wiser than men. “He taketh the wise in their own craftiness.” “The Lord shall have them in derision.” “The weakness of God is stronger than men.” The sun is sometimes dark, but its earliest ray in the dawn is more than all our elec tric lights, the first faint beam of the spring is infinitely more than all the sparks of our kindling; the sea is sometimes weak—it is a mill-pond, We say—but in its softest rip ple is a suggestion of power that fills us with awe; the wind is sometimes weak, but in the gentlest zephyr is hinted the majesty of infinite strength. Nature shows how the weakness of God is immeasurably stronger than men; so does history with equal clear ness. The oft-quoted saying, “Providence is always on the side of the big battalions,” is one with an imposing sound, but it is disproved by history over and over again.
they believed in the. just God, and taught with profound and unflinching courage that no nation can violate the law of righteous ness with impunity, and history gives its sanction to the sublime teaching. Retribu tion may not come in the form of a loss of territory, but it will come. Some of our writers argue that retribution does not fol low on national wrong-doing, because ter ritory gained by cruelty, treachery, blood shed, is not as a matter of fact torn away from its guilty conquerors, but such ill- acquired territory remains a permanent portion of their splendid empire. But there are other ways of inflicting retribu tion upon a nation than by immediately depriving it of provinces. There is some thing very like irony in the government of God, and He sometimes punishes the victors through the spoil. Our Indian Empire is said to have been ill-gotten, and yet we retain it, that country being to Britain •what the tail is to the peacock—our glory and pride. But the gilded tail, it will be remembered, has been already splashed with blood, and the end is not yet. Retribu tion may not come in the form of specially inflicted judgments, but it will come. No pestilence, war, earthquake, or famine marks the Divine displeasure, but the retribution arises out of the iniquity. With great injustice and cruelty the French drove out the Huguenots, but in expelling these sons of faith, genius, industry, virtue, the French fatally impoverished their national life, and they are suffering today from these missing elements which none may restore. Retribution may not be revealed in material disaster, but it will come. “And he gave them their request: but sent leanness into their soul.” It is possible for a people to increase in material wealth and political consideration whilst its true grandeur, its greatness of soul, is gradually passing away. Very strange and subtle are the causes of the decay of nations, and little by little, quite unconsciously, does a people lose the great qualities which made it. Poets lose their fire, artists' their imagination, mer chants their enterprise, statesmen their
Made with FlippingBook - Online magazine maker