Visitation for sin it was certainly, but a visitation for the
sins of others--such is the way of Providence, and has been ever
since the world began, much to the amazement of many reflective
persons. Thou hast laid on Him the iniquity of us all, and Jesus is
crucified rather than the Scribes and Pharisees! Yet could we really
wish it otherwise? Would it have been better in the end that
Caiaphas and the elders should have been nailed upon Calvary, and
Jesus die at a good old age, crowned with honour? It was not yet
God's time in 1817, but God's time was helped forward, as it
generally is, by this anticipation of it. It is a commonplace that a
premature outbreak puts back the hands of the clock and is a blunder.
Nine times out of ten this is untrue, and a revolt instantaneously
quenched in blood is not merely the precursor, but the direct
progenitor of success.
We will spend no time over the death of Major Maitland. The tragic
interest, as one of our greatest masters has said, lies not with the
corpse but with the mourners, and we turn back to Zachariah. Ogden's
office was shut. On the night after the breakdown at Stockport a
note in pencil was left at Zachariah's house, in Pauline's
handwriting.
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