p. 9 | OUTRAGEOUS by T.

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jan 23, 1901

OUTRAGEOUS

By T.

Several cases have recently been reported of individuals who are perfectly sane, but who, thru the connivance of officials, have been torn away from their homes and taken to the insane asylum, in order to get them out of the way of a designing husband or other relative. The facts in regard to one of these cases is stated as follows in a New York World editorial:—

“The facts, as stated in the Supreme Court in Brooklyn, show that without any notice whatever that her sanity was doubted, this woman’s home was suddenly invaded by a man and a woman, who coolly told her she must go at once with them to the Kings County Lunatic Asylum, or they would take her from her home and children by force, exactly as a person charged with a felony would be taken. In spite of her protests and the tearful pleadings of her four children, she was bundled off and locked up in the institution, without a hearing or opportunity of any kind for meeting the charge.

“All this was legally done, it appears, on an affidavit secretly sworn to by her husband, on which a charities commissioner had issued an order for her arrest. No proceeding of the famous third section of Russia’s arbitrary police system is more contemptuous of personal liberty than this. And there is nothing to show that, but for the fact that Mrs. —— was successful in getting word of her situation to her father, who had the will and means to get a writ of habeas corpus, she might not have been imprisoned indefinitely. And yet the doctors of the asylum, when brought to court under the great writ, calmly admitted that she was ‘perfectly sane.’

“Well might Judge Maddox call this occurrence ‘outrageous,’ and direct that the papers in the case be laid before the grand jury.”

Such things as this are done right along, in the face of the boasted civilization of this time; and such outrageous acts of injustice are becoming more and more common. Briberies and jobberies of various kinds make it impossible for the ordinary individual to get anything like the semblance of justice. Even the influences and immunities that are supposed to inhere in great wealth will not always shield a man from the outrages of this injustice. With the knowledge of these facts before the mind, read the following words from the prophet Isaiah:—

“And judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off; for truth is fallen in the street, and equity can not enter. Yea, truth faileth; and he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey; and the Lord saw it, and it displeased Him that there was no judgment. And He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor; therefore His arm brought salvation unto him; and His righteousness, it sustained him. For He put on righteousness as a breastplate, and an helmet of salvation upon His head; and He put on the garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a cloak. According to their deeds, accordingly He will repay, fury to His adversaries, recompense to His enemies; to the islands He will repay recompense. So shall they fear the name of the Lord from the West, and His glory from the rising of the sun. When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him.” Isa. 59:14-19.

The foregoing words of the prophet tell of a condition that will exist in the world; and who can doubt that we are even now in that time? We should be cheered by the promise that the arm of the Lord will bring salvation. Just as the antediluvian world was destroyed by the flood because of its wickedness, even so will it be necessary for the Lord to destroy the inhabitants of the earth to-day because of their gross wickedness; and the time can not long be delayed, otherwise there would be no righteousness left in the earth.

These are not things to cavil about; but the stern facts that are before the world to-day should lead us to serious reflection, and cause men to seek the Lord while He may be found, to seek Him before the overflowing scourge smites the earth because of its gross criminality and debasing sins. We entreat of you, do not consider the subject lightly, but look at the facts. The great event of all the ages is just before the world, even the coming of the Saviour in the clouds of heaven, to destroy all this wickedness. Let us get ready, for it will be a glorious time.