Youthful Criminals by C. M. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Feb 6, 1913

Youthful Criminals

By C. M. S.

We see frequent reference in the press of the day to conditions that are fulfilling the predictions of God's Word, but which, nevertheless, are not recognized by those who comment upon them as having anything to do with the fulfilment of the inspired prediction. For example, the Christian Observer of Jan. 1, 1913, speaks thus of “Youth and Crime:” —

One of the saddest commentaries on the apparent decline of morality is found in the fact of the universal increase of crime among children and youth of tender age. Complaints of this character come from nearly every European country as well as from various directions at home.

In Germany the reports indicate a steady and alarming increase of all kinds of crimes and misdemeanors of this kind. In 1909 this increase was 8.9 per cent, the next year 3.2 per cent, and so on; and this in the face of the fact that the general increase of crimes against the law was only .4 per cent. Last year the increase of youthful crimes was eight times greater than that of crimes in general. The Rundschau, Monatsschrift der Jünglingspflege, und Jungmaenner Mission points out that the solution of the riddle may lie in the fact that the courts usually punish first offenses of this character with an admonition, so that it has become common to say, “The first theft of youth goes scot-free.”

It is a well-known fact that the “Apaches” of France are in the main recruited from the ranks of mere youths. Some of the most revolting crimes of Paris are committed by boys in their teens. Said one of these young criminals recently to the judge, who was about to sentence him for a cold-blooded murder of an aged apple-woman, from whose dead body he had taken fifty centimes (less than ten cents): “We work at all prices, your honor.”

In England the same condition prevails, and the Christian press and Christian benevolent associations are all the time discussing the question how to change this sad condition of affairs. Nor is the situation different at home. Our great cities are breeding-places of youthful criminals, who recklessly commit all manner of crimes, not even stopping at murder. We recall the recent execution of a youthful quartet of murderers in Chicago, who had ruthlessly slain a vegetable pedler for a paltry sum of money. And the oldest of the quartet, if we remember rightly, was only nineteen years of age.

Where are we to find the true cause of this thing? Who will give us the key to its solution? The answer will differ according to the angle of view, of the one who gives it. Some will find it in the spirit of revolution which is in the air, others in the lack of training at home, others again in the condition of our schools.

In England the universal unrest and the decline of the simple faith of the past has undoubtedly much to do with this moral decadence of the youth of the land. In Germany the old ideals are passing away, the absolute discipline of the domestic and school life, the stern methods of the past, are slowly making place for so-called modern ideas and methods, . . . and the reverence for law and authority has sadly declined.

In France atheism is everywhere in evidence. The schools are its hotbeds. Like a pall, it covers the whole people. And where God is forgotten, what remains of the sense of moral responsibility? And are not these same dangers threatening at home? Is it not the universal complaint in the American church that our family altars have been thrown down, that our family piety is sadly declining, that our churches are poorly attended, that our schools are more and more secularized, that in many instances they have even left the path of neutrality, to assume an open inimical attitude to the things of old held so dear? What we sow we must reap; that is the unbreakable law of life, the life of the individual, the life of the home, the life of the nation. And we should not be surprised when this law forces itself upon our attention. What we need is an open eye to the danger that is menacing us, and the courage to apply the remedy.

These conditions are not overdrawn. In fact, they are barely touched. They constitute one of the most striking signs of our times which indicate that we are living in the last days. The Observer states the conditions now existing. The following scripture pictured them more than nineteen hundred years ago:—

“In the last days grievous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, haughty, railers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, implacable, slanderers, without self-control, fierce, no lovers of good, traitors, headstrong, puffed up, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.” 2 Tim. 3: 1-4. “Evil men and impostors shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.” Verse 13.

The Observer, like many another today, thinks there is a remedy for these conditions which will bring back again the simplicity and the charity and the reverence and the better ways of former days. Those who hold to such a hope are optimists in spite of Inspiration. The scriptures already quoted forbid such a hope. They declare that these conditions are the conditions of the last days. The only remedy is the gospel applied to individual cases. The conditions will not be altered for the better; but individual souls, through acceptance of the gospel, will be saved out of this world in spite of the conditions. That is the only hope there is. But the Observer concludes:—

What we need at home, what they need abroad, is a return to civic righteousness, founded on the acknowledgment of the right of God to rule in this world, and on the conception that aside from him such righteousness can not exist.

It was when the church began to talk about “civic righteousness,” to abandon heart-searching evangelistic work, and to revise the Bible in harmony with the “findings of modern science,” that the church began to lose its grip on the souls of men, and crime of every description began to multiply by leaps and bounds. Civic righteousness and the higher criticism constitute the will-o'-the-wisp that is leading so large a portion of the professed church of Christ into the mire and quicksand of spiritual death. Out of that slough of despond comes the cry for civic righteousness, a revised Bible, and human laws to make men religious. The miasma of that delusion has deadened the sensibilities to the need of spiritual power. The remedy they seek but increases the disease by causing men to put their trust in what the human can do, and to lose their love and respect and reverence for the Word of God and the laws which God himself has given to the children of men. Infinitely better is it to see in these very conditions the fulfilment of the Word of God, to understand what that fulfilment means, and with loyal and loving obedience to every command of the Creator, shape our lives, by his help, in harmony with his purpose. C. M. S.