Law and Order

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, Cal. · Nov 24, 1887

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 13, No. 45.

A GOOD MANY PEOPLE imagine that they love law and order, when they do not. It is a fact that many, indeed the great majority of men, are perfectly indifferent as to whether or not the laws are enforced, so long as they themselves do not suffer by their violation. Laws are enforced in this country principally from selfish motives, and not from a love of justice. There is not an abhorrence of evil because it is evil. Men will make an outcry against a crime which involves their interest, and will excuse the same if they are in no way concerned. This is evidence that the law is not considered sacred and it is a necessary consequence of the teaching that the law of God does not now have any claims upon men. When men have become accustomed to seeing God’s law trampled under foot with impunity, it is the most natural thing in the world that they should esteem human laws lightly. The greater portion of the inhabitants of the earth, including many professed Christians, are anarchists so far as the law of God is concerned, and if they are not open anarchists in relation to human laws, it is not through any virtue of their own. There is no nation on earth that is to-day more in danger from the assaults of anarchists than the United States.