THE REASON OF LAWLESSNESS.
BLIND indeed is he to the light of prophecy who cannot see in these labor troubles and industrial movements the beginnings of the fulfillment of the prophecy in the fifth chapter of James: “Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.” These troubles which we now see are the premonitions of the coming storm. Among the poor, yea, the larger part of them, reigns discontent. It is among the discontented that anarchy and crime breed their lawless hordes. And lawlessness is continually increasing, and will increase till the great majority of the families of the poor are involved in it, and the conscience is not only benumbed, but the sympathy is awakened as well. It is thus that the poorer classes are honeycombed by lawless sentiments, that amount to little in the time of prosperity, but develop into crime, and hatred for the rich, in times of pinching poverty. But the fault is not all with the poor. Lawlessness and injustice are taught by the rich. The great fortunes are not justly acquired, albeit they are legally so. Laws are framed in favor of great, rich, grasping, sordid, soulless corporations; smaller firms and tradesmen are forced to the wall, and men are considered only as so much stock in trade, to be sacrificed whenever it will pay. And thus it is that the wealthy by their influence breed contempt, not only for the laws which are enabling acts to the formation of a great plutocracy, but for all other laws; for men in the condition of thousands to-day do not draw nice, ethical, or moral distinctions. It is for the above reasons that God tells the rich men that the miseries which shall450come upon them are “your miseries.” They are the fruit of their own sowing, the results of their own unjust, overreaching policy. The Lord continues:— “Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days. Behold, the hire of the laborers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth; and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter. Ye have condemned and killed the just; and he doth not resist you.” James 5:2-6. Here is the indictment, and in how many cases is it now true, as men may see! In how many more cases it is true the judgment of God will reveal. The cold avarice, the hoarded treasure, the heartless extravagance, the utter yielding to sensuous enjoyment, are all obvious in the cases of all too many of the wealthy, while the poor and needy are famishing, freezing, dying on every side. If the rich show contempt of justice and law, why not the poor? If “might makes right” in railroad wrecking, in stock gambling, in greedy corporations, crushing the life from individuals, it also makes right in train stealing, highway robbery, and questionable ways of the “commonweal” army. And is it not the same in principle morally in both cases? There is a deeper reason why law and government are brought into contempt, and that is that the greater part of the religious world have ignored the basis of God’s government, his holy law. Ministers of the gospel of Christ, professedly, have called it Jewish, have treated it with contempt, and utterly ignored some of the plainest statements. They have abolished the law in one breath which Christ lived and died to honor and magnify, and with the next breath they have demanded that human governments enact into civil law their amended code of the universe. They have made God altogether such an one as themselves, till law and religion have been brought into disrepute by those who ought to be the strongest pillars of the civil government, not through politics, but by letting politics alone, and preaching the gospel of Christ Jesus to individual men. But sad it is the majority have not done this. They have sowed the winds from their pulpits, in legislative lobbies, from the platform and press; they are about to reap the whirlwind in the oncoming wars of anarchy. God has predicted it all in his holy word. Read Isa. 56:9-12; 59:1-20; Eze. 13:3-23; 22:25-31; Luke 21:25-27. But in these evil times God would have all, and especially the poor, trust in him. He will render justice to all. “Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord.” “Stablish your hearts; for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.” There is no permanent help for the troubles of the earth in human schemes. The only sure hope is in the gospel of Christ.