The Impotency of Human Law in Moral Reform.
In Elder Haskett’s article, “Religious and Educational Interests of South Africa,” it will be noticed that in the provinces of Cape Colony and Natal “strenuous efforts are made yearly to render the Sunday laws more oppressive.” He also says that these laws are “more oppressive” in the South African Republic than in any of the colonies. Yet of Johannesburg, the principal city and business center of this republic, he said in a previous article, that,— “The very air is impregnated with vice. I was told that over 100 persons, officers and others, had come there in the interest of the Salvation Army, but had become bewildered with the prospect of getting rich, and are now among the vilest. The manner of doing business is a test of a man’s integrity if he would succeed.” The inefficiency of Sunday laws to promote moral reform has here a striking illustration, for the Sunday law of this South African Republic is so stringent in some points that the one who sells a pound of sugar or a loaf of bread is subject to a fine of $25 and imprisonment. But apostate Christianity seems to have transferred its confidence to the civil-law remedy for existing evils, and the more this nostrum fails the more is the determination to continue to administer it in ever-increasing doses. It is time that professed followers of Christ were learning that “vain is the help of man,” and that “through God we will do valiantly,” and through him only. The law of God is the only efficient moral law, and the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the only effectual means of moral reform.