trust in God through all her woes, and
even in her darkest hours had refused to murmur. She had kissed the rod
that smote her, and now she praised Him with a strong and joyful heart.

Alas! there were many others in that village, and thousands of others
throughout that blood-soaked land, who had no such gleam of sunshine
sent into the dark recesses of their woe-worn hearts--poor innocent
souls these, who had lost their joy, their possessions, their hope,
their all in this life, because of the mad, unreasonable superstition
that it is necessary for men at times to arrange their differences by
war!

War! what is it? A monster which periodically crushes the energies,
desolates the homes, swallows thousands of the young lives, and sweeps
away millions of the money of mankind. It bids Christianity stand aside
for a time. It legalises wholesale murder and robbery. It affords a
safe opportunity to villainy to work its diabolic will, so that some of
the fairest scenes of earth are converted into human shambles. It
destroys the labour of busy generations, past and present, and saddles
heavy national debt on those that are yet unborn. It has been estimated
that the national debts of Europe now amount to nearly 3000 millions
sterling, more than three-fourths of which have been required for war
and warlike preparations, and that about 600 millions are annually taken
from the capital and industry of nations for the expense of past, and
the preparation for future wars. War tramples gallantry in the dust,
leaves women at the mercy of a brutal soldiery, slaughters old men, and
tosses babes on bayonet-points. All this it does, and a great deal
more, in the way of mischief; what does it accomplish in the way of
good? What has mankind gained by the wars of Napoleon the First, which
cost, it is said, two million of lives, to say nothing of the
maimed-for-life and the bereaved? Will the gain or the loss of Alsace
and Lorraine mitigate or increase in any appreciable degree the woe of
French and Prussian widows? Will the revenues of these provinces pay
for the loss consequent on the stagnation of trade and industry? What
has been gained by the Crimean war, which cost us thousands of lives and
millions in money? Nothing whatever! The treaties which were to secure
what had been gained have been violated, and the empire for which we
fought has been finally crushed.

When waged in self-defence war is a sad, a horrible necessity.