Honesty the Exception

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jul 13, 1904

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 30, No. 28.

Honesty the Exception.

The popular theory that “the world is growing better,” is popular because it flatters people, and not because it has any foundation in truth. The fact that a strictly honest man in public becomes noted on that account, and that the resistance of an easy opportunity to make gain by dishonesty is deemed remarkable, prove that such traits are exceptions rather than the rule. The universal demand for “security” from men occupying positions of financial trust, and the growing necessity for devices to prevent peculation by employees who handle money, may rightfully be taken as a general acknowledgment of a tendency to dishonest acts. But emphasis is placed on this acknowledgment by the fact that honesty on the part of a church is deemed so remarkable as to become worthy of widespread notice in the press. Note the following item clipped from the Commoner:—

According to the press despatches, the Southern Methodist Church of Hobart, Okla., has set a good example in returning an excess of fire insurance. The insurance company allowed the church $1,300 for repairs, but the church found that the repairs cost only $1,000, and returned the remaining $300. And why not? That the incident should excite attention shows the low state of public conscience. “The principles of right and wrong are easily discerned,” says Jefferson, “and require not the aid of many counselors.” That is true. It is not lack of intelligence, but lack of conscience that causes the most alarm to-day. Cheating in business, cheating in politics, and corruption of government—all spring from the same source, namely, indifference to moral obligations. The Hobart church has done well, but as “darkness brings out the stars,” so this incident is made conspicuous only by the fact that scrupulous integrity is not as common as it ought to be.