The Lynch Era

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Sep 28, 1904

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 30, No. 38.

“The Lynch Era.”—Dr. A. M. Williams, of the Trinity Methodist Church, Savannah, Ga., in a recent sermon said:—

The future historian regarding our day in its relation to law can rightfully term it “the lynch era” of American history. The substitution of popular demand for conformity to previously-fixed rule of action is the essence of the lynch practise. The spirit of the times is to relegate law, its studied principles, its public sanctions, to the prejudices, the prepossessions, the whims, of the unorganized people. This is the rule of the mob or lynch law.

It takes two very opposite directions—violence when public opinion becomes angry, pushing aside all legal form; laxity when public sentiment seeks indulgence, pushing aside all legal exactions.

While the two directions seem distinctly opposite, they are really manifestations of the same evil. One is occasionally attracting the attention of the world to the helplessness of government. The other is constant, regular, subtle, concealing its enormity. Mayors declare it as policy in administration; chiefs predicate apologies on it for their failures in detecting crime; solicitors adopt it as axiomatic in handling their offices.

Jurors vindicate refusal to indict on such grounds. In the meantime, law is a plaything.

This is a sad, tho true, statement of present conditions. What is the primal cause?—Disregard of God and His requirements lie at the base of all lawlessness. The remedy?—Returning to God. Read Isaiah 59.