p. 10 | The Necessity of Law by Milton C. Wilcox

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jan 27, 1916

The Necessity of Law

By Milton C. Wilcox

The Law of God — No. 1

The Necessity of Law

MILTON C. WILCOX

Few are the persons who pause to appreciate the blessing of law. They gather of its benefits and blessings, thinking naught of the source from which they come.

Many there are who wish, in various limited senses, at least, that law was suspended or repealed. Thus wishes the thief, the forger, the highwayman, as he stands at the bar of justice.

Suppose that reliable news should come to us on a certain evening that the next day at midnight all civil law would be suspended for one week. The thoughtless would laugh at the idea as a huge joke. The criminal would chuckle to himself over ill-gotten gains no more illegal. The thoughtful and conscientious would shudder with consternation, and the children of God would pray to be kept by the Upholder of the universe during that awful time. The foolishly longed-for and wisely dreaded hour would come, and the fearful reign of lawlessness would begin.

In the awful record of that week we would read of events something like these:—

Regular and habitually criminal persons plunged at once into a carnival of evil deeds. Others with criminal propensities were held for a while by custom and education. The moral people passed on as usual, led by a higher law. But the covetous at heart, the inward hater of good, the evilly disposed, began at once to plot deeds of evil or to put into operation plans already laid, that a few hours before were criminal, but now were not, though as inherently wrong as ever.

Many men do business as usual, believing that success demands it. But not so with many others. The “ephah” is made small and the “shekel great.” The “false balances” are brought out, and used with impunity.

The morning of the second day began to bring news of the more dread results. Mr. Jones remarks to his wife, “Neighbor Smith’s horse was stolen last night.” “That is a great loss to him,” said his wife; “does he know who took it?” “Yes,” was the reply, “he has every evidence needed to prove that Gimlin across the street took the horse, and is now using it openly.” “Why is he not arrested?” it is asked, and Mr. Jones’s reply is, “There is no law now against horse stealing, and neighbor Smith is not strong enough physically to take the horse from the Gimlins.”

In a little while a neighbor steps in and asks, “Have you heard the news regarding the Jepsons?” “No, what is it?” “The father was shot down in cold blood in his own yard by Redson River last night. River has held a grudge against him for some time, and he took advantage of the suspension of the law against murder. He is not therefore a criminal by law, and is legally a free citizen.”

“How dreadful!” moans the wife. “No one is safe,” she continued. “We are not, for we have enemies as well as Jepson, and for the same reason too,—we helped to close the saloons.”

And thus the day wore on to noon, and from noon to night. Murder, rape, adultery, theft, robbery, assault, crimes innumerable and unnamable were perpetrated in ever-growing frequency, only they were not crimes now. Law was not.

Mob law resulted. Communities sought to execute summary vengeance in self-protection, but mob law opposed them. Populous neighborhoods were scenes of internecine strife. Men committed murder and were murdered. Women went mad from fear and grief. Children fled like hunted hares. Pillage and arson reigned in the cities. The country became a living hell. Before the week had half rolled by the people were crying for “law and order.”

Yet there were bright spots. There were men and women who were calm, hopeful, devoted in service for others, doing justice and right at all times. These had written on their hearts the moral law, which if men transgress they must die, but which can never be repealed because it is rooted in infinite knowledge, wisdom, and righteousness.

Is the picture overdrawn? We know it is not. “The carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.” Rom. 8:7. Therefore the haters of God’s law need the restraining influence of civil law. But if all civil, legal restraints were removed, what a fearful world it would be, and how infinitely worse it would be if there were no higher law than that of man’s shaping!

Then as law and government are ordained of God, he is a God of law, a God of order, otherwise his government would be anarchy, ending in everlasting night and oblivion. Civil law is a necessity in a world of sin. Moral law is infinitely more a necessity, back of which must be a moral Governor infinite in knowledge, in wisdom, in power, in resource, in duration.

Civil law is often a perversion of the divine, and works injustice to humanity. The world has been cursed with iniquity

and tyranny throughout the ages. But this very thing mightily argues for a divine law and a divine Lawgiver, a law perfect in its operations, and a Lawgiver whose decisions and judgment are infinitely just.

Nature gives glimpses of such a God. But terrestrial nature does not present a perfect law nor reveal a perfect God; for she is herself perverted. The fearful storms which sweep our planet, the mighty earthquakes that rock and rive the earth, are not the results of perfect law from a perfect God. Rather they are the results of the perversion of his law. Nature reveals wisdom and beauty and power, but we must have a higher revelation to know God.

The God of the Bible

Such a revelation is found in the Bible, the word of God to the children of men. That word reveals God as Creator, the great moral Governor, the compassionate Father, the mighty Redeemer, the loving Friend. That God has a law, the fulness of perfection morally, comprehending every duty in its marvelous scope, prohibiting every wrong. What that law is will be the topic of the next article in this series. It is worthy of our most earnest study.

Mountain View, Cal.