“THE WILD BEASTS OF SOCIETY.”
By Editor
This is what a prominent daily paper of the West calls the Anarchists, and demands their extirpation. But it may be well to question whether the social system of the world is not responsible for the production of these “wild beasts.” We have no sympathy with anarchy or violence. We believe in law-abiding faithfulness to all civil governments, even under oppression, when the laws of that government do not contravene conscience by intervening between the soul and God. But when one man can pile up a fortune of millions and hundreds of millions in a few years, while many others famish and die, whether he is responsible or not, he is arousing discontent and hatred on the part of those who are poor and needy, of which the world is supplying millions. Nothing turns the nature of the human into that of the wild beast like hunger and want; and if the present systems continue, “the wild beasts of society may be shot down,” but will multiply more rapidly than the “extirpation” goes on. The violence used in suppressing nihilism and anarchy has never lessened its disciples. God has given instruction and warning concerning these very things. These warnings are recorded in James 5, in Habakkuk 1 and 2, and in Amos 8. The last scripture referred to is a picture of the ten-tribe kingdom, before it fell. It is typical of these days of evil. The effeminate, hard-hearted, gain-getting, and pleasure-loving people are represented by a basket of summer fruit, signifying, “The end is come.” Those who are oppressed will rise up in wrath against their oppressors who “swallow up the needy, and cause the poor of the land to fail,” “making the ephah small, and the shekel great [lessening the price of produce by appreciating the value of the coin], and dealing falsely with balances of deceit.” “Shall not the land tremble for this, and every one mourn that dwelleth therein?” “And the songs of the palace shall be howlings in that day, saith the Lord God; the dead bodies shall be many; in every place shall they cast them forth with silence.” See Amos 8:1–8, R.V. The apostle pictures the same oppression of the poor, the defrauding of wages; and the terrible result will be manifest in enmity against the rich: “Go to now, ye rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and your silver are rusted; and their rust shall be a testimony against you, and shall eat your flesh as fire. Ye have laid up your treasure in the last days.” See James 5:1–6, R.V. It is thus doing on the part of some of the great landed proprietors, some of the great corporations, some of the great barons of coal fields, oil fields, and treasure mines, that makes despairing, workless, hungry men lay it to all who are rich. Knowing not God, they lose hope in everything, and grinding oppression and want make them beasts, if you please, “the wild beasts of society,” held in check now by law, but waiting only the favorable opportunity to break the bonds that bind them and rise up against the tyrant that “makest men as the fishes of the sea, as the creeping things, that have no ruler over them,” that counts his employees as parts of a great machine, worth only what can be gotten out of them in cent per cent. It is thus that God by His prophet speaks of such a one: “Wo to him that increaseth that which is not his! how long? and that ladeth himself with pledges! Shall they not rise up suddenly that shall bite thee, and awake that shall vex thee, and thou shalt be for booties unto them? Because thou hast spoiled many nations, all the remnant of the peoples shall spoil thee.” See Hab. 1:13 to 2:11. This is but a part of the solemn warning which God has given the selfishly rich in His Word. Let them go on, and they will but multiply “the wild beasts of society,” which will bite and devour them. But there is a remedy for the rich. Here it is, an infallible one:— “Charge them that are rich in this present world, that they be not high-minded, nor have their hope set on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy; that they do good, that they be rich in good works, that they be ready to distribute, willing to communicate; laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on the life which is life indeed.” 1 Tim. 6:17–19, R.V. Would He have the poor and oppressed rise up in vengeance?—Nay, not at all. They but reap more misery in so doing. He says to them: “Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. . . . Stablish your hearts; for the coming of the Lord is at hand.” James 5:7, 8. “Vengeance is Mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.”