When a great storm is impending, it takes only a trifling disturbance in equilibrium to precipitate it. Such a disturbance occurred in Prague (1618) over a church which the Protestants were erecting. An angry mob armed itself, burst into the Imperial Castle at Prague, and flung out of the window two Catholic Bohemian nobles. With this act of violence commenced the Thirty Years' War, which lasted through three reigns, those of Matthias, Ferdinand II., and Ferdinand III., and caused unparalleled misery in Germany. Two years from that day the Protestant faith was obliterated in the realm of Austria, and the progress of a hundred years was wiped out. In three years more, not only Austria, but Germany, was in a worse condition than she had known for centuries--the wretched people, a prey to both parties, were slaughtered, robbed, driven hither and thither, and a country only recently rejoicing in its material prosperity was a waste and a ruin. The Imperial troops were splendidly led by two great generals--Tilly and Wallenstein. The Protestant nations--England, Holland, Denmark, and Sweden--looked on in dismay as they saw a powerful and triumphant Protestantism being wiped out of existence in the land of its birth. By 1629 Ferdinand II. considered his power re-established absolutely over all Germany. He issued what was called the "Edict of Restitution," which ordered the restoration of all Protestant territory to Catholic hands. Wallenstein, in addition to this, declared that reigning princes and a national diet should be abolished and all power centered in the Emperor! Indeed this Wallenstein was minded to play the dictator as well as general. He traveled in regal state, with his one hundred carriages, one thousand horses, fifteen cooks, and fifteen young nobles for his pages! This taste for splendor was, like Wolsey's, his undoing. People began to fear the ambitious leader, and Ferdinand dismissed him. With rage and hate in his heart he retired to Prague to await developments. Twelve years of war in horrible form had wrought utter ruin and broken the spirit of the Protestants. But help and hope suddenly came in 1630. Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sweden, with his heart all aflame with zeal to defend the falling cause of Protestantism in Germany, is the knightliest figure which adorns the pages of history. We in this present age have reached a point of development when, without the quivering of an eyelash, we can hear of the destruction of suffering peoples, even if it involves the principles and things most sacred to us. Whether it be the effacing of Christianity in Crete, or of liberty in Cuba, the motto of practical men and nations is--"hands off."