Sowing the Wind: Reaping the Whirlwind by F. M. W.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Nov 19, 1914

Sowing the Wind: Reaping the Whirlwind

By F. M. W.

THAT a lessening of moral sense is responsible for the large increase of crime in the world, is the charge made by Alleyne Ireland in the New York World. He presents figures to show the marked increase in crime, particularly that of murder, during the last few years. At the head of the list of civilized nations he places the United States, and of this country he declares: “We are the most murderous nation which makes a claim to have emerged from savagery.”

In discussing the reasons for this, Mr. Ireland disputes the oft-repeated assertion that the increase of crime in this country is chargeable to immigration and the foreign-born population:—

The foreign-born population of the country is about fifteen per cent of the total; the number of foreign-born murderers is about sixteen per cent of the total number of murderers. This means that out of every one hundred murders, eighty-four are committed by native persons born in this country, and sixteen by alien immigrants, and that if every one, native and foreign-born alike, were equally murderous, the figures would be eighty-five for the native and fifteen for the foreigner.

This writer charges that there are two great causes for the increase of crime in this country. One is the slow and tardy process of justice, and the failure in the majority of cases to administer punishment at all. He quotes Carl Snyder as saying:—

If you commit murder in the United States the chances are, on the actual record, three to one that you will never be tried for your crime, ten to one that you will never be sentenced to the penitentiary, and eighty to one that you will never be hanged or electrocuted.

But even greater in its influence on the commission of crime, according to Mr. Ireland, is the lessening sense of moral responsibility which controls the public mind:—

But it is not merely the failure to punish murder which is a blot upon our administration of justice; our very sense of justice appears to be perverted, if we may judge by the frequency with which petitions signed sometimes by thousands of people are presented for the pardon of convicted murderers. Under the circumstances as they now exist, what possible restraining influence does society exert over a prospective murderer?

The Scriptures of Truth speak of a time in the world's history when judgment is “turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter. Yea, truth falleth; and he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey: and the Lord saw it, and it displeased him that there was no judgment.” Isa. 59: 14, 15.

Disregard for the justice of human laws springs from a disregard in the personal life of God's moral law. The lessening of a moral sense in the world generally, and among those nations of men where the gospel of truth has had the freest course, should not be regarded as an unusual condition when it is recognized that many religious teachers who are set for the defense of justice and equity are preaching today a gospel of liberalism. The law of God is discounted, and its holy requirements set aside. Cardinal doctrines which have formed the foundation faith of the Christian church are ridiculed.

For a long time the nations of men have been preparing for a terrible sowing, and the most deplorable consideration in this connection is that many Christian teachers have aided and abetted in this sowing. When, in order to evade the requirements of the fourth commandment, ministers of the gospel declare against the law of God, stating that it is an antiquated document, what can they expect as the result of this seed sowing? It will prove inevitably that if men lose confidence in God and respect for his requirements in their personal life, they will lose respect for all authority. When we sow the wind, we must expect to reap the whirlwind. F. M. W.