THE STRENGTH OF A MOB by T.

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Sep 20, 1899

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 25, No. 38.

THE STRENGTH OF A MOB.

By T.

A DESPATCH to the Chicago Times-Herald is authority for the statement that a mob took charge of a court in Johnson Springs, Va., and compelled the plaintiff in the case to withdraw his suit. A Mormon elder had been assaulted in the vicinity by a number of persons and fatally injured. His brother Mormon elder, who was with him, brought suit against a farmer who was the leader in the assault. But as soon as the farmer was arraigned for trial, a mob of 200 mounted and armed men surrounded the courtroom, and detailed a committee to notify the court that the proceedings must stop. A second committee was sent to the Mormon elder, to tell him that if he did not withdraw the proceedings and leave the country they would lynch him then and there. Fearing that they would carry out their threats, the Mormon complied with their demands.

There is no one that can speak too strongly against the great plague of Mormonism, that is sweeping over this country, and from here extending to all parts of the world. Certainly any fair-minded person who is not contaminated with the evil, will be ready to raise the warning and exert his influence against the cunning deceptions of this pernicious doctrine.

But is any evil so great that it ever becomes right to take charge of courts and undertake to dispense justice through the medium of mobs? Mob law, however, is usually brought into vogue in new countries and anywhere else when courts are hard to reach, or when they are slow in action, or subject to corruption by bribes, etc. And it is come to be the prevailing opinion over all the land that

courts and juries can be bought by any one who has the money to do it, and so men are apt to take things in their own hands. But, while the mob may sometimes mete out justice to a culprit, yet it is likely to take the innocent much oftener than it does the guilty. And once mob violence is set fully to working, there can be no conjecture as to where it will end.

Mobs are becoming more and more frequent and violent. The Lord has told us that "as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man." Luke 17:26. The condition of things in the days of Noah is very fully described in the sixth chapter of Genesis. Verse 11 says, "The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence."

It became necessary for the Lord to overthrow the world in Noah's time, because of its "violence" and "corruption." How long can a just and true God endure the violence and corruption of these times before He raises the arm of justice to strike the blow that will end in the world's destruction? These are indeed times that are weighted with serious import. T.