Epidemic of Crime by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Sep 19, 1911

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 38, No. 37.

Epidemic of Crime

By Editor

A HEADING in a San Francisco paper of September 4 reads: "Police Aghast at Epidemic of Crime. Murderous Thugs Shoot Victim Who Resists Attempt to Hold Him Up in Hotel. Pedestrians Are Victims. Out of Ten Crimes Reported to the Police, Three Arrests Only Appear on Records." And then the article declares that there is an unusual number of hold-ups and robberies occurring in San Francisco. And such is about the news that comes from all parts of the country.

In Leslie's Illustrated Weekly of August 24 is the following striking editorial, the perusal of which we commend to our readers as a fulfilment of what is stated over and over in God's Word,—that evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse:

"WHAT IS THE MATTER?"

"The world seems to be upset. Agitation, unrest, and distrust prevail. Kingdoms are being uprooted, monarchies undermined, while rankest Socialism seeks its day.

"Great labor disturbances with loss of life are chronicled on both sides of the ocean. Bombs and dynamite do their fearful work.

"Lynchings, north and south, of innocent and guilty, are reported. Mobs gather at slightest provocation and defy the authorities. Rioters, young and old, desecrate the Sabbath. Peaceful excursionists are insulted in our cities by young toughs and rowdies of both sexes.

"The divorce courts are working overtime, and young women parade the streets in costumes that the chorus girls of the stage have made notorious, ridiculous, and indecent. Chorus girls are on every street in flimsy, clinging garments, and the white-slave traffic increases by leaps and bounds.

"Legislative bodies are debauched by demagogs, and rankest municipal corruption is wide-spread. The prosperity of the country is overlooked, while upstart 'uplifters' clamor to be heard, and climb for every office in sight.

"The blazing sun consumes the crops, and the water supplies of cities great and small are threatened. Rain refuses to fall, and vegetation is parched.

"The theaters are crowded, while the pews of the churches are empty, and religion is at the lowest ebb.

"Under what sign of the zodiac are we living?

"But God reigns, and the world will still survive."

God does reign, and God will make the wrath of men to praise Him. But this old world, in the meaning of its present arrangement, will not, nor can it, survive under present conditions. It will survive only when created anew by the power of God.