The Revolt Against Law.
By J. S. Gilbert
The Greek word for sin denotes lawlessness. Lawlessness is a very marked characteristic of the present age. Everywhere we see this revolt against law. It begins in the family. In very many families there is no obedience to parents and no respect for age. The same spirit is manifested in the public schools. Is it any wonder that when these boys and girls grow up they have very little regard for law of any kind? Thus on every hand we see the manifestations of the spirit of lawlessness. Children do not wish to obey their parents, nor pupils their teachers. Great numbers hold in contempt the laws of the land; and even in the church there is very little by way of a healthful discipline. In Europe the very air is charged with sedition and revolt: nihilism in Russia, socialism in Germany, conspiracy and murder in Ireland, the red flag in France. Surely these are ominous signs of the times. Many speak of law as though it was the enemy of all freedom. They forget that law is the very foundation of all society and life. Freedom is not anarchy nor liberty universal license. If nature were not governed by fixed laws, we could never sow with any confidence, or go forth to harvest with any certainty. Society without law would soon degenerate into barbarism. The body, the soul, and spirit of man are all governed by fixed laws. If we violate these laws we must suffer the penalty. In seeking to free themselves from law, men subject themselves to the severest bondage. There is no despotism worse than that of a mob. Witness the awful scenes of the French Revolution! Yet we have very little hope that these sober thoughts and undeniable facts will prevail. The disease has gone too far. Lawlessness is a peculiar feature of the last times. Only by the coming of Him “whose right it is to reign,” will the lawless spirit be subdued. Look where you will, the skies are dark and lowering. In all Europe there cannot be found one throne that does not already begin to totter. Even in this, the first Government in all the earth, there are many that cannot abide the ordinary laws that govern and punish crime. The issue is certain. Law must prevail. Man cannot free himself from all control. How will the conflict end, and when? We believe that it will end in the overthrow of all oppression, but the complete triumph of all true law; and this overthrow of the one and this triumph of the other will take place when He comes “whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom.”—Rev. J. S. Gilbert, Methodist, in Messiah's Herald.