Crime in New York by D. T.

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 18, 1867

Crime in New York.

By D. T.

THE startling fact that nearly seventy murderers are now lying in the prison in this city, awaiting trial or under the sentence of death, gives a sad insight into the moral condition of the lower classes of our society. The proportion is, we believe, unequalled in any other country that calls itself Christian and civilized. Even in Paris it is not reached. That city, wicked enough in other ways, is singularly behind New York in murders. A recent letter from that gay and abandoned capital, mentions in terms of horror that ‘fifteen murderers are at the present moment lying in the prisons of the Seine.’ We should think this ‘hideous’ statement very moderate. ‘Only fifteen?’ A New Yorker might exclaim; ‘look at our statistics of crime, and acknowledge our bad pre-eminence.’

What are the causes of this great difference? Why should there be more murders in New York than in Paris? Is our population more demoralized and wicked than hers? Has the spirit of Cain descended on our island and taken possession of men’s hearts? How can the dreadful problem be explained?

Answer: The horrible wickedness of these times can be explained by the fact that we are in the “last days;” the “vats overflow, and wickedness is great,” because “the harvest is ripe;” that the evil in men and women has culminated to its height; that the “sinful flesh” of mankind is become thoroughly impregnated with the quality of the serpent; that the times of Noah and Lot are come back again; that the judgment is near, and the devil who knows his time is short has come down in great wrath.”

But just so long as the church and world ignore these things, they will still cry out in alarm and wonder for a solution of the problem of these fearfully evil times.—D. T. T., in World’s Crisis.