The Home and Juvenile Criminality
On a recent day in San Francisco nine boys were arrested for robbing a store. In these days we have juvenile courts, and we have schools for correcting these juveniles, and we have all sorts of theories as to how the growing criminality among children may be stayed. Might we not get an authoritative statement from the words of Paul in the third chapter of his second letter to Timothy? He affirms that the "last days" shall be made "perilous" because, among other things, there shall be a lack of natural affection, and also disobedience to parents. When the club, and the pleasure resort, and unhallowed affections, rob the home of its power, it may be expected that the children who are in consequence left to drift may readily develop into criminals. Criminals, either young or old, very rarely come from the home where the true principles of affection are regarded, and where order and morality are maintained. Solomon stated a divine principle when he said, "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it." Prov. 22:6.