Why Look for Honesty by John Harvey Waggoner

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · May 2, 1878

Why Look for Honesty.

By John Harvey Waggoner

THERE is a cry going up all over the land against the prevailing dishonesty of the age. Man is suspicious of his fellow man; perhaps there never was a time when distrust so generally prevailed. Those who have been looked upon as being patterns of uprightness, and every way fitted to be guardians of public funds, prove defaulters to large amounts, such as they can never hope to pay; and they seem to feel no concern about the payment. It is getting to be a matter of serious inquiry, where shall men be found to discharge faithfully the duties of government offices, or to handle the funds of widows and orphans? A minister of Long Island after eulogizing a man on attending his funeral, said it was becoming a dangerous thing to speak a word in praise of any one deceased, until his accounts were examined. Wars rise up with the Indians, costing millions of money and hundreds of lives, because those who are entrusted with the means to carry out our treaty stipulations appropriate the money to their own uses. Our postal department is burdened on account of the dishonesty of contractors, who swear to service, and receive heavy pay for it, which was never performed. Officers of banks and insurance companies will, one week, swear to the good standing of their institutions, and the next week fail, and carry trouble and destitution to hundreds of households. Stealing is becoming an obsolete word; it would be impolite to charge with theft the man who lives in such a fine house and gives such splendid dinners—no, he is only a defaulter, reveling in the wealth which he has taken from the needy who trusted to his honor. Public buildings, which are estimated to cost only thousands, sometimes cost millions because those who handle public funds put all the money into their own pockets which they can possibly retain. Sympathy, instead of going out toward the victims of crime, rises up to shield the criminal from the punishment justly due his crimes.

The churches are sadly feeling the influence of this state of things. It is not forgotten that when a very prosperous revival meeting was progressing in New York, the men who were assisting in the work made way with the contributions. Money does not seem to be safe anywhere. The Christian Statesman, the organ of the party which is seeking to amend our National Constitution in favor of religion, founds its strong argument for this change in the need to secure a higher standard of honesty, especially in the administration of public affairs.

Having looked this matter over with much interest, our observation extending over a score of years on this very point, we are firmly fixed in conviction that the public feeling does not demand honesty. The standard is now as high as desired. This may seem to be a strange statement, but we are thoroughly convinced it is truth. The great majority of the religious world does not favor tenderness of conscience, and the Christian Statesman presents, in its course, the most glaring inconsistency in trying to build up the very state of things which it professes to be trying to put down.

The highest of all obligations is that which we owe to God. Irreverence for God is never accompanied by true reverence for any power. An open disregard of the claims of God is not consistent with a high regard for the rights of man. And where the rights of man are truly regarded there must of necessity be a regard for the just claims of all his creatures. A mother was once asked how it was that she succeeded in training up her children to such a nice sense of honor and virtue with the teachings and example of their father against all her efforts. Her answer was, that she constantly kept before them the authority of God, and inculcated reverence for Him; she never made any direct reference to the ungodly example of her husband, but she tried to fill their minds and hearts with a sense of obligations to God, and thus shut out those influences from which they were in danger of being ruined.

Let us now justify the opinion expressed above by reference to facts, such as are constantly transpiring all over the land. Not long since I held meetings in a small village where I received a good hearing. I presented the claims of the law of God, from which there was no open dissent, as there was no church of antinomians in the place. I presented the claims of the fourth commandment—the obligations to which was very generally confessed—and I proved, even to the satisfaction of almost every hearer, that it cannot be made to enforce any day but the seventh day. It was well known that scores were fully convinced that the argument was all right, and that the Bible teaches that "the seventh day is the Sabbath," to the exclusion of every other day. A brother a well esteemed member of the Methodist church, determined to obey the commandment. The next Sabbath he laid aside his working clothes, and, attired as was fitting for the day of rest, he walked through the street. He said he was much surprised to see that the people so generally regarded him with the greatest wonder. Those who were convinced that the seventh day is the Sabbath were free to express their surprise at his course. While no one expressed any surprise that professed Christians who had confessed the duty did not obey the commandment.

I am often reminded of the remark of a prominent member of a Baptist church in a western city, who, when asked why his people did not keep the seventh day when they become convinced it was duty answered: "That is not the kind of religion we have in this city. You must not expect people in this day to leave a popular error for unpopular truth." And so it is all over the land, the people of all grades, church members and even ministers, will confess the truth and their duty, and there they stop. Nobody looks upon it as at all strange that they utterly disregard their known duty to God. But if one more conscientious than his neighbors, dares to step out and act according to his convictions, he immediately becomes an object of ridicule and reproach. Professed Christians laugh at what they call his folly, and scoff at his following the dictates of his conscience, though enlightened and sustained in his course by the plainest declarations of God's word. Are not these things so? And while open disregard of the acknowledged claims of God's law is commanded, and obedience to the divine precepts is scoffed at even in the churches, is it any wonder that crimes against the rights of man cease to be considered criminals, that stealing softens down into defaulting, and lying is only prevarication or merely managing?

We can easily make good our assertions that the Christian Statesman presents in its course the most glaring inconsistency. Professing the highest regard for the claims of God's law and the strongest desire to correct the existing want of conscientious regard for right, and acknowledging the ten commandments as the foundations of all right, it is yet seeking to obtain a national law which shall compel men to violate their consciences, and to disregard the express words of Jehovah as given in that law. We have no words in which to express our astonishment at the blind folly of those who will thus profess and thus act.

We are thankful that, while the majority love a superficial religion, or the gloss and tinsel of the appearance of conscientiousness without the vitality and power, it is not so with all. There are truly honest-hearted ones, here and there, all over the land, who deplore this state of things, and who love the ways of God. They joyfully receive the message which points to a reform, and soon as they hear. As long as they find humble ones, with tearful eyes and words of gratitude, receive the assurance that God has not forgotten his waiting ones, but is leading his people out of this darkness into light, we are encouraged to labor on. If the sheaves are few which we reap compared with the abundance of the tares, we know that they will prove to be exceedingly precious in the day of our Saviour's coming. In hope of the joy of that day we will toil on, knowing that our beloved Redeemer will be "glorified in them that believe—in that day." 2 Thess. 2. J. H. WAGGONER. Clyde, O., April 7, 1878.