It developed into an action in which everybody seemed to become involved. And the people of Israel were smitten there before the servants of David, and there was a great slaughter there that day of twenty thousand men. We, too, are painfully, personally, and practically aware of the fact enunciated here, that the accompaniments and consequences of war can be far more disastrous than the actual fighting. It is the unexpected that happens, the unlooked-for that piles up the casualties. And it was all so easily done.
Tragedies usually do take place when the sun is shining.
And moral disasters, like physical ones, generally occur in happy autumn fields and vernal woods. The major damage is caused by such trifling things. You would never think that those pleasant woods of Ephraim would turn traitor - the orchard closes of home. From noble oaks standing in luxuriant grass shot with a rich variety of wild flowers, the wood pigeons rise in clouds, and jays and woodpeckers flash and chatter in every glade. You cannot help feeling that these things were written for your edification who find that the battle of life is spread over the face of all the country, so that everybody is drawn into it.