If, in fact, we would apprehend our position and the position of our Empire and of Europe in this war, we must in spirit see God upon His throne, permitting by His judgment the fierce passions of war to break forth, and controlling the whole course of the tremendous storms they involve by His justice and His will. As the Psalmist says, “The Lord reigneth, be the people never so impatient, He sitteth between the Cherubim, be the earth never so unquiet.” Or, again, “The Lord is King, the earth may be glad thereof; yea, the multitude of the isles may be glad thereof: Clouds and darkness are round about Him, righteousness and judgment are the habitation of His seat. There shall go a fire before Him and burn up His enemies on every side. His lightnings gave shine unto the world: the earth saw it and was afraid.” That might be taken for a picture of war with the thunders and lightnings of its “red artillery.” Let us, if we would turn this occasion to due account, look up for a while from the human thunders and lightnings by which the earth and sea are now shaken; let us raise our eyes and our hearts to the Psalmist’s vision of God sitting on His throne, above all these earthly and human struggles and sufferings, and though clouds and darkness are round about Him, yet controlling them by His righteous judgment. Let us look into this general consideration a little more particularly. War is the result of human passion, human error, and human sin. If only men were unselfish, wise, and true, there would be no occasion for the struggles from which it springs; but instead of that they are covetous, foolish, and blind, and God has so constituted mankind that the ultimate appeal of these passions and follies must be made to force; and in the ordinary course of His providence He leaves them to make that appeal. He lets their passions work themselves out to their natural results, and so bring their own punishment upon themselves. If, indeed, men sought His guidance and grace in all humility and earnestness before war broke out, we may be confident He would guide and control them; but the very danger of their pride and their passion is that it makes them forget Him, and then He suffers them to find their need of Him by leaving them to bear the consequences. But when those consequences have broken out into war, they are then, in the most absolute degree, subject to His over-ruling hand. It is an essential characteristic of war that it sets forces loose which are beyond calculation, and beyond human control. Ordinary ways of action are suspended, and we become subject to the most unexpected and most incalculable influences. We are beginning to see it ourselves in the present war. We are forced to resort to public measures which all confess to be absolutely unprecedented; and the whole world, old and new, is immersed in dangers and disorders never before dreamed of. But when men and nations are in this tumult and disorder and blindness,