The Old Roman World | Page 9

and the Roman Empires, and still
more forcibly in the empire of the popes in the Middle Ages, and of the
vast influence of France and England during the last hundred years.
This is both a mystery and a fact. It is mysterious that bad men should
be allowed to succeed so often, but it is one of the sternest facts of life,
only to be explained on the principle that they are instruments in the
hands of the Great Moral Governor whose designs we are not able to
fathom, yet the wisdom of which is subsequently, though imperfectly,
made known. It was wicked in the sons of Jacob to sell Joseph to the
Ishmaelites; their craft and lies were successful: they deceived their
father and accomplished their purposes; yet his bondage was the means
of their preservation from the evils of famine. The rise and fall of
empires are to be explained on the same principles as the rise and fall
of families. A coarse, unscrupulous but enterprising man gets rich, but
his wealth is made to subserve interests far greater than that of his
children. Hospitals, colleges, and libraries are endowed as monasteries
were in the Middle Ages. If vice, selfishness, and pride were not
overruled, what would become of our world? The whole history of
civilization is the good which is made to spring out of evil. Men are
nothing in comparison with Omnipotence. What are human plans? Yet
enterprise and virtue and talent are rewarded. In the affairs of life we
see that goodness does not lose its recompense, and that vice is
punished; but beyond, what more impressively do we behold than this,
that the instruments of punishment are often the wicked themselves.
[Sidenote: The results of the crusades.]
[Sidenote: Their immediate consequences are disastrous; their ultimate,
beneficial.]
Among the worst wars in history--uncalled for, unscrupulous,
fanatical-- were the Crusades. And when were wars more unfortunate,
more unsuccessful? Five millions of Crusaders perished miserably in

those mad expeditions stimulated by hatred of Mohammedanism. No
trophies consoled Europe for its enormous losses, extended over two
hundred years. But those wars developed the resources of Europe; they
broke the power of feudal barons; they promoted commerce and the
arts of life; they led to greater liberality of mind; they opened the
horizon of knowledge; they introduced learned men into rising
universities; they centralized the power of kings; they weakened the
temporal jurisdiction of the popes; they improved architecture,
sculpture, and painting; they built free cities; they gave a new stimulus
to all the energies of the European nations. Their benefits to civilization
were not the legitimate result 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.