p. 9 | Perilous Times by John S. Wightman

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Mar 22, 1906

Perilous Times

By John S. Wightman

JOHN S. WIGHTMAN

Referring directly to “the last days,” the very chiefest of the apostles declares that “perilous times” must come. While cumulative prophetic evidence abounds on every hand that we have reached the dramatic closing scenes of earth’s history, yet there is no more striking fulfilment of prophetic utterances than the universal prevalence of sin and crime, which a thousand and one voices unite in declaring to be of amazing magnitude. And the observer of current events must realize that we shall soon enter, if we have not already entered, upon the times like those of the days of Noah, when “violence” was abroad in the land, and men’s hearts were altogether evil. That evil day of which the prophet Daniel writes shall “be a time of trouble” such as has never been seen,—there are perilous times, days fraught with dangers, varied and extensive, in all the walks of life and in a thousand different ways; not alone from disaster on land and sea, by fire and flood, cyclone and earthquake, but from multitudinous crimes and iniquities perpetrated by wicked men.

Who can have read the astounding revelations resulting from the trial of Berthe Claiche in the criminal court of New York City, and not feel a nameless dread and apprehension of what may yet be expected from crime and criminals? The city and the nation may well pause in the mad rush for wealth and honor, and earnestly inquire, What next? A leading New York paper, referring to the trial and its incidents, says: “Police-protected vice has grown to proportions never dreamed of in the days of the Lexow investigation.” Guardians of the peace, liberally paid and sworn to uphold the majesty of the law, are found with hands reeking in vice and crime! Just two blood-stained dollars weekly yielded to officers of the law, shielded the disreputable denizen of

the tenderloin from the law, secured immunity from arrest, and the privilege to pursue a nefarious calling!

Nor is crime confined to the tenderloin district and the shades of night, for in a single month several cases are reported of bold bandits holding up and robbing women in the crowded streets of the metropolis in broad daylight, one robbery occurring in the very shadow of the splendid fifteen-million-dollar Waldorf-Astoria, and the robbers made good their escape! “Twelve-Year-Old Girls as Shoplifters” is a recent head-line of an article that informs of the arrest of an organized band of shoplifters, young girls of ten and twelve years of age. “Forty-eight Families Ask Permit to Shoot” is the heading of another, relating how a whole neighborhood is alarmed over many burglaries and murderous assaults of daily occurrence, and desire legal permission to arm for protection. Two bold daylight murders in stores, an armed sanguinary death battle upon the streets of “Chinatown,” and the morning police courts crowded with a motley gathering of smaller offenders—all this in New York City, of which it may be said none is better guarded and policed. And now even the police come under public suspicion and official arraignment! It is no wonder that a New York daily paper refers to the condition as “a carnival of crime.” And conditions in New York do not differ from conditions in all the other large cities of America. An “epidemic of crime” seems to hold universal sway; and the noose, the electric chair, and the prison seem powerless to deter the law-breaker. For according to the state prison commission of New York State, the state prisons “are fuller than ever before.”

Nor does crime confine itself alone to the utterly vicious and depraved, but “in full evening dress” stalks abroad in counting-house and stately palace, in state-house and banking institution, alike; as theft, masquerading under the polite title of “graft,” it invades well-nigh every precinct of human life imaginable. Graft, graft, graft is everywhere, and graft, too, brings “perilous times” in the financial and business world; for property and money are not safe while in the kingdom of graft. A Minnesota newspaper has estimated that the loss sustained by the federal government in 1904 alone was five hundred million dollars, as the result of criminal graft in the appropriation of the public lands. Five hundred million dollars—enough to build the Panama Canal—stolen and lost in one single year! A legislative committee in Ohio unearths the startling fact that many banks bribe those in possession of state and county funds to deposit with them, and it was revealed that one bank had paid as high as twenty thousand dollars in one year to a single individual, in gratuities of this kind, to secure large deposits of the people’s funds without interest!

Dishonesty in the great life insurance companies upon an amazing and tremendous scale, is now simply a matter of record. Referring to the resignation of Stuyvesant Fish as trustee of the Mutual Life, with the methods of which concern he was entirely dissatisfied, and the attempt of Railway Magnate Harriman to punish him by ousting him from the directorate of the Illinois Central, the Chicago Tribune facetiously remarks, “Mr. Fish has committed the unpardonable offense of being an honest man.” Surely, in view of these events, “judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity can not enter.” Eugene Hale tells the august Senate that “there is a general staff conspiracy in the United States Army,” and David Graham Phillips fairly caps the climax in “The Treason of the Senate,” a “long, unbroken story of treachery, privilege, and plunder” upon the part of many of the nation’s law-makers—and all for millions of graft!

To substantiate that these are “perilous times,” take, for instance, some recent newspaper head-lines: “Riots in Springfield; Troops Shot Down; Houses Fired by Mob;” “Miners Murder and Pillage in Wyoming;” “Millions of Graft Shared by British Army Officers;” “Perjury Gross in the Patrick Case;” “Train Wrecked and the Express Car Plundered;” “Stole One Hundred Thousand Dollars and Coolly Walked Away;” “Dark Days for Russia Under M. Witte’s Regime;” “Tramps Wreck the Fast Montreal Express;” etc., etc. The public press is literally gorged with the revelations of mountains of corruption, bribery, and evil. Every daily newspaper of itself is a remarkable chapter of accidents, capitalistic oppression, labor riots and misdeeds, crime, greed, immorality, and graft. The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle says: “A combination of official and business graft has been brought to light, which is illustrative of the extent to which the responsible life of this country is honeycombed with dishonest principles and methods.” What a dark and dismal picture indeed! The midnight hour of our country! Not only low-browed thugs and thieves and libertines operating everywhere, but the very life, the responsible life, of the whole country honeycombed with dishonesty! “A time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation”—such the venerable prophet declares shall be the end of it all. The crisis draws on apace. Senator Dolliver, in his speech on the Railway Rate bill, dramatically exclaimed: “I tell you that there is a storm brewing!”

Not only “perilous times” because of giant criminality, but human life is everywhere imperiled from increasing accidents and from physical disturbances of the earth. Note some recent head-lines: “Hawaii Hurricane Swept;” “Dynamite Explodes and Wrecks an Express Train;” “Steamship ‘Valencia’ Wrecked, and Nearly All Her Passengers Lost;” “Ten thousand Homes Swept Away by a Tidal Wave, Society Islands;” “Meridian, Miss., Almost Destroyed by a Tornado;” “Fearful Mine Explosion in West Virginia;” “A Department Store Collapses, and One Hundred Lives Lost;” “Theater Destroyed by Fire; Six Hundred Burned;” “One Thousand Ships Wrecked in 1905;” “Twelve Hundred Killed in French Mine Disaster;” etc., etc. Well may we inquire, “What do these things mean?” And is there no remedy? Can the people have no hope? With men “waxing worse and worse,” and “deceivers” and “workers of iniquity” multiplying, is there any escape? All these questions may be answered from the unerring Scriptures. These things mean that the coming of the Lord is near. Jesus of Nazareth is coming again, coming in all the power and the grandeur of heaven to reap “the harvest of the earth,” and the “harvest is the end of the world,” the end of the age of sin and iniquity, the abolition of the dark night of infamy and shame, and the ushering in of “a reign of righteousness” for those who have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb, and made “their calling and election sure.”

Reader, the “perilous times” are here, the last days have come, iniquity abounds, creation groans under the weight of countless woes, men’s hearts are “failing them for fear” of those things yet to come upon the earth; overtowering pyramids of dishonesty, cancerous masses of bribery and deceit; fearful malfeasance in official life, the love of many waxing cold, volcanoes of social impurity and degradation, a veritable reign of lawlessness—“as it was in the days of Noah”! Still there is hope for the individual—for you! Jesus Christ is the remedy for sin. He can cleanse, revivify, and make pure. To the waiting saints he directs the cheering words, “Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord.” Soon, soon, the righteous shall be delivered. He shall come whose right it is to reign. Beyond the dark clouds of “perilous times” there is the silver lining of eternal peace—of eternal happiness. “Can ye not discern the signs of the times?”

Bath, N. Y.