“Very true,” observed Alexander; “I can not help thinking that desolating contests like these are permitted by a controlling Providence as chastisements, yet with a gracious end; for, surely it was better that they should meet with immediate death, than linger till famine put an end to their misery.  This is certain, that they must have been destroyed, or others destroyed to make room for them.  In either case a great sacrifice of life was to be incurred.  War, dreadful as it is in detail, appears to be one of the necessary evils of human existence, and a means by which we do not increase so rapidly as to devour each other.

“I don’t know whether you have made the observation, but it appears to me the plague and cholera are almost necessary in the countries where they break out; and it is very remarkable that the latter disease never made its appearance in Europe (at least not for centuries, I may say) until after peace had been established, and the increase of population was so rapid.

“During the many years that Europe was devastated and the population thinned by war, we had no cholera, and but little of one or two other epidemics which have since been very fatal.  What I mean to infer is, that the hand of Providence may be seen in all this.  Thus sanguinary wars and the desolating ravages of disease, which are in themselves afflictive visitations, and probably chastisements for national sins, may nevertheless have the effect, in some cases, of preventing the miseries which result from an undue increase of population.”

“You may be quite right, Alexander,” observed Swinton; “the ways of Heaven are inscrutably mysterious, and when we offer up prayers for the removal of what may appear to be a heavy calamity, we may be deprecating that which in the end may prove a mercy.”

“One thing I could not help remarking in your narrative, Swinton,” observed the Major, “which is the position of the missionaries during this scene of terror.  You passed it slightly over, but it must have been most trying.”

“Most surely it was.”

“And yet I have not only read but heard much said against them, and strong opposition made to subscriptions for their support.”

“I grant it, but it is because people know that a great deal of money has been subscribed, and do not know the uses to which it is applied.  They hear reports read, and find perhaps that the light of the Gospel has but as yet glimmered in one place or another; that in other places all labor has hitherto been thrown away.  They forget that it is the grain of mustard-seed which is to become a great tree, and spread its branches; they wish for immoderate returns, and are therefore disappointed.  Of course I can not give an opinion as to the manner in which the missions are conducted in other countries; but as I have visited most of the missions in these parts, I can honestly assert, and I think you have already yourself seen enough to agree with me, that the money intrusted to the societies is not thrown away or lavishly expended; the missionaries labor with their own hands, and almost provide for their own support.”