INCREASE OF CRIME by C. P. B.

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Aug 12, 1889

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 15, No. 31.

INCREASE OF CRIME.

By C. P. B.

THE New York Observer publishes the statement that the number of murders committed in the United States during the first half of 1887 was 867; of 1888, 941; of 1889, 1547. During the first week in July in this year, ninety people were stricken down by murderous hands. The Observer remarks:—

"This is an awful record for a Christian country, and it is due in great measure to the fact that the legal punishment due to murderers is so long delayed and so frequently remitted entirely."

It is not a little strange that in the face of such a record there are many who insist that the world is steadily growing better, in fact, that we have almost reached the fabled millennium. It must be that such forget the words of the apostle:—

"This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof; from such turn away." "But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived." 2 Tim. 3: 1-5, 13.

The Scriptures certainly do not teach that the time will ever come when the world will be any better than it is now, but rather that it will grow worse until the end.

C. P. B.