We shall not be at a loss to ascertain what are national judgments, if we bear in mind that in Scripture they are represented as identical with national calamities. Anything that affects the honour, the influence, the lives, the resources of our people is a judgment, of mercy or wrath—of mercy it will prove, if we heed it; of wrath if we heed it not. When, then, a famine starves our people, or a pestilence cuts them off, or an enemy assails them, or they are involved in an aggressive war, or perplexed by civil commotions and intestine broils, we may be sure that GOD’S judgment is upon the earth, that He is requiring us to learn righteousness, or to eat the fruits of iniquity. War in all its forms, aggressive, defensive, or intestine, is assuredly a Divine judgment. It may be, often is, that the sword is put into a people’s hand for them to use as the soldiers of GOD: but that sword is always two-edged, wounding those who wield it as well as those on whom it falls. To be thus enlisted in the service of GOD should never be the source of self-gratulation or be regarded as a proof of Divine favour. It is a calamity (that is, a Divine judgment), even when we maintain the righteous cause of a weak ally, or defend ourselves from a wanton aggressor, or put down our wickedly rebellious subjects. Assyria’s hosts in fighting GOD’S battles were made to punish themselves. Israel had no warfare to wage when GOD was well pleased with it, but only when it required correction. And we, my brethren, in our last two righteous wars, had surely proofs enough in the loss of our best blood, the drain upon our resources, the griefs, the anxieties, the perplexities, that to be GOD’S agents of vengeance is no privilege to be coveted; that is a scourge, a fearful scourge, which a GOD who never afflicts willingly—that is, in mere caprice—would not have laid upon us, had we not needed chastisement, had we not provoked Him to displeasure.
And what shall we say of that which is uppermost in all men’s minds and foremost on all their tongues at this time—our warfare in India? Is our part therein a righteous one? Assuredly. Do those to whom we are opposed merit the severest chastisement our sword can inflict on them? Who dare doubt it? Does GOD call on us to punish them, in His name and as His deputies? We all reverently believe that He does. Is it then all glory, all privilege, all favour—that we are thus employed? Surely the many disasters, the sad, sad troubles we have already encountered, the further troubles which, without a prophet’s skill, we can see to be awaiting us, must convince us to the contrary. The famine-stricken garrison allowed by Him who can save by few as well as by many, who can give food from Heaven, or sustain without it, to yield itself to the foully treacherous foe—the pestilence-stricken band of noble, righteous warriors checked in their good career—are these proofs of GOD’S unmingled approbation? Would He without a purpose ever have allowed such contending elements as Hindooism and Mohammedanism to combine against us? Would He who restrained this ripe rebellion when our forces were elsewhere doing His work, have given a loose to it now, had He deemed us worthy of His constantly protective power? Would not He, who in some cases has caused a mere handful of men to put to flight a host, a woman to keep at bay a score of infuriated agents of Satan—would not He have led us in all cases to easy triumph—have crowned us long since with complete bloodless victory and trampled all those that hate us under our uninjured feet—had we not deserved the rod of chastisement? By His occasional intervention on our behalf, He has vindicated the general righteousness of our cause, and manifested His power to help us when He will. Would not that aid, then, have been more frequent, would it not have been constant, had we so deserved to conquer? Recollect (it cannot be too strongly or too frequently impressed upon you) GOD is free from all caprice; He does not afflict without a cause. He may and does spare when we deserve punishment; He cannot afflict without provocation.