p. 615 | WHERE HOPE RESIDES by S.

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Sep 25, 1901

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 27, No. 39.

WHERE HOPE RESIDES.

By S.

THE Legislature of Wyoming has enacted two laws from which much good is expected. One is in reference to divorces, and the other has reference to gambling. The one declares that no person shall be entitled to a divorce in that State who has not resided within its jurisdiction for at least one year. The other repeals the previous statutes which made gambling a legal business, and it also provides serious penalties for future offenses in this direction.

As a license to conduct a gambling-house is simply an indulgence to do evil, granted for a consideration, the State has done a salutary thing in refusing longer to grant such indulgences. Such a law is not an invasion of human rights; it is simply the State taking itself out of partnership with the criminal. And the same is true in regard to Montana’s new divorce law, which, to a certain extent, takes the State out of partnership with the crime of unlawful wedlock. Heretofore parties would come to that State, reside there for a short time, and secure a divorce from husband or wife, in order to be technically free to marry some object of their fancy without delay, or sooner than the most pliant laws of other States would permit. Thus have practical free love and the disruption of family ties been fostered by the very agent which was set by the people to “guard ‘the public morals.’”

The passage of these laws was not due to an awakened legislative conscience. A vigorous campaign had been conducted by the people against the two named evils, and petitions had poured into the Legislature until the party in power there found that it must yield, or bring defeat upon itself. This was a vital consideration, and the new laws were enacted.

Now will Montana have an opportunity to learn the lesson which Kansas has learned, and experience the disappointment which she has felt. We are living in an age of disregard for law, and the lawyer who can most skillfully manipulate law to the advantage of a client is the one whose services are most eagerly sought after, and command the highest remuneration. Christians rejoiced when the Kansas Legislature enacted the prohibitory law; but to compel officers of the law to enforce it has been a long and apparently losing struggle, either through the opposition of the officers themselves, or through the powerful financial influence of the liquor men. To withhold the indulgence from the saloon-keeper is as commendable as to withhold it from the gambler or adulterer; and in granting the indulgence (license) to the saloon-keeper, the State is just as much a partner in the evil as it would be in granting it to the gambler, or the one who would desecrate the home; but Mrs. Nation found many targets for her hatchet in the State of Kansas, and there were many she did not find, and they are there yet—mute evidence of the disregard for law which is a characteristic of these days. Good men may compel legislators to put a good law upon the statute books; but the power of money is to-day sufficient practically to nullify any law that can be made.

We rejoice in the enactment of good laws, and in the repeal of those that are not good; but we are not living in a day when we can hope for any striking reformation in the land by any law that may be passed. The greed for gold is blinding the finer instincts of the race, till the conditions which Inspiration has said would characterize the last days are literally fulfilled before our eyes to-day. Here is what the Lord has told us we should expect in these days:—

“They all lie in wait for blood; they hunt every man his brother with a net. That they may do evil with both hands earnestly, the prince asketh, and the judge asketh for a reward; and the great man, he uttereth his mischievous desire: so they wrap it up. The day of thy watchmen and thy visitation cometh; now shall be their perplexity.” Micah 7:2-4.

That “visitation” is the second coming of Christ; and that “perplexity” is the consternation of the wicked when they see Him whom they have rejected; and the conditions there brought to view are the conditions which exist now. Good laws may be passed; but lawlessness is increasing, and will continue to increase; for it is declared that “evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.”

This being true, the only hope of any worth is the Christian’s hope in Christ. Anything else is vanity, and, in the end, disappointment and death. We may not pin our hope to man, or laws that man may make; but in perfect submission to the will of Christ and faith in Him we have an anchor whose hold no stress or strain or storm can break. In that is hope; in that is life.