Not Trusting in Man by C. M. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Aug 11, 1910

Not Trusting in Man

By C. M. S.

SOME of the States have recently passed laws which are in themselves good, and have repealed others which are in themselves bad; and for every passage of a good law and for every repealing of a bad law, we rejoice. The anticigarette laws, the antigambling laws, and all laws that prevent fraud and deeds of violence, are good. The laws which make divorce on light pretexts easy, the laws which permit gambling, pool-selling, and liquor-selling, are bad. We could wish that every bad law on the statute-books of our land were repealed, and that every good law that should be enacted might be enacted at once.

Nevertheless, we are not pinning our hope of a renovated humanity upon the passing or repealing of human laws. They may make the way we travel more convenient or more fearsome, as the case may be; but they can not change the hearts of men, planting good there and uprooting the bad. Only the power of Jesus Christ in the life can do that. All hopes based on anything else are doomed to disappointment.

We have had numerous illustrations recently to the effect that the passing of good laws is not generally due to an awakening of conscience on the part of the legislators themselves. They have yielded to the pressure of an insistent demand on the part of bodies of their constituents, or to the effect of long rolls of petitions. They have passed the laws demanded, fearing lest they might fail of re-election, or their party might fail of maintaining its dominance. The States in which these “good laws” have been enacted will have an opportunity to learn, as some States have learned already, that the passage of a law does not mean its enforcement.

We are living in an age of disregard for law; and the lawyer who can most skilfully manipulate law to the advantage of his client, is the one whose services are most eagerly sought after, and command the highest remuneration. Christians rejoiced when the Kansas Legislature enacted the prohibitory law; but to compel the officers of the State to enforce it, has been a long and tedious struggle, either through the opposition of the officers themselves, or through the powerful financial influence of the liquor men. Good men may compel time-serving legislators to place good laws upon the statute-books; but the power of money is so great to-day as to be able to nullify almost any law that can be made.

He who looks to-day for any striking reformation in the land by the enactment of law, is cherishing a vain hope. The greed for gold is blinding the finer instincts of the race, till the conditions which Inspiration has said would characterize the last days are literally fulfilled before our eyes to-day:—“They all lie in wait for blood; they hunt every man his brother with a net. That they may do evil with both hands earnestly, the prince asketh, and the judge asketh for a reward; and the great man, he uttereth his mischievous desire; so they wrap it up. . . . The day of thy watchman and thy visitation cometh; now shall be their perplexity.” Micah 7:2-4.

That “visitation” is the second coming of Christ; and that “perplexity” is the consternation of the wicked when they see him whom they have rejected; and the conditions there brought to view are the conditions of this present day. Good laws may be passed; but lawlessness is ever increasing, and will continue to increase; for it is declared that “evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.”

This being true, the only hope of any worth is the Christian’s hope in Christ. Everything else is vanity, and, in the end, disappointment and death. We must not pin our hope to man, or to laws that man may make; but in perfect submission to the will of God and faith in him, we have an anchor whose hold no stress nor strain nor storm can break. In that is hope; in that are life and joy and peace. C. M. S.