JUSTICE HERE AND THERE

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Aug 23, 1899

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 25, No. 34.

JUSTICE HERE AND THERE.

A NEW YORK evening paper points a striking contrast in the administration of “justice” in two cases recently before the courts in that city. We greatly condense.

Drama No. 1: William J. Everett, a clerk in a bakery; not strong; a small salary, hardly sufficient to eke out a living; found short in his account $534; brought before the court; coldly sentenced to nine months in the penitentiary; a sharp cry from the wife, quickly suppressed by the police; hustled across the bridge of sighs to the Tombs, with no opportunity to bid his wife good-by; spending one night there, and then into the Black Maria, sent to the penitentiary.

Drama No. 2: Another man, George M. Valentine; with large salary in a bank; stole right and left from the bank to the extent of $208,000; sentence placed at low limit six years; conveyed in a carriage as a gentleman to Trenton, N. J.; flowers and delicacies bestowed upon him by sympathizing friends who visited with him; given a clerical position in the prison, and exempted from wearing the stripes.

The first, a poor man, $534 short in his accounts; the other, a gambler who stole $208,000.

How truly spoke the wise man as he compared human justice with the justice of God! “I saw under the sun, in the place of judgment, that wickedness was there; and in the place of righteousness, that wickedness was there. I said in mine heart, God shall judge the righteous and the wicked; for there is a time there [in God’s court] for every purpose and for every work.” Eccl. 3:16, 17.

Yet, thank God, human justice is not always thus. There are just judges; but such pictures as the above are becoming common. So declared the prophet that it would be when Christ was about to come, when from what should be the courts and temple of justice, personified “Judgment is turned away backward, and Righteousness standeth afar off; for Truth is fallen in the street, and Uprightness can not enter. . . . And the Lord saw it, and it displeased Him that there was no judgment. . . . According to their deeds, accordingly He will repay.” Isa. 59:14-20, R. V.

In God’s judgment there will be no partiality, no mistakes, no iniquity; but with “righteousness shall He judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth; and He shall smite the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips shall He slay the wicked. And righteousness shall be the girdle of His loins, and faithfulness the girdle of His reins.” Isa. 11:4, 5. Riches will not buy His favor, nor will He be deceived by the arts or devices of those educated to make a lie seem truth. The true man can safely rest his case in the hands of Jesus Christ.

“THE REIGN OF LAWLESSNESS.”

THE San Francisco Call, under the above heading, comments on the labor troubles, the race problem in the South, etc., and sees dangers ahead, but takes what is called the “optimistic view.” It thinks that there is “a balance in our institutions and a self-adjusting element in our people” that “will most likely be adequate to control existing and new complications.”

The Call says, further, that it sees that “the situation, however, is dangerous and perplexing. . . . Contempt for the law has enormously increased.”

Now, is it true optimism when the “situation is dangerous and perplexing,” and when “contempt for the law has enormously increased,” calmly to say that the American people have always come out of every difficulty all right, and therefore there is no cause to be alarmed?

If it was America alone that was confronted with these perplexities the outlook would not be so fraught with danger. But the whole world is in like condition. Such difficulties and such evils have never confronted any people in any time. There is no asylum to-day that this whole world has to offer, no place in the world to which to flee. The dark shadows of riotings and strikes and murders and wars, etc., are lifting their ugly forms in every clime and among every people.

But there is indeed a true optimistic outlook. The Lord Jesus, our Saviour, is soon to come, and every one may find shelter in Him now, and at His coming may receive Him with exceeding joy. T.

THE CLOSE OF THE PEACE CONFERENCE.

THE Peace Conference has adjourned, and well may one ask, What has been accomplished? It is true, as noted in last week’s SIGNS, that certain conventions and declarations were agreed upon, but what was really done in the direct line for which the convention was called?

The czar felt the crushing weight of increasing armaments, and asked that the Powers unite in putting an end to it. The Peace Conference has been a total failure in this respect.

Perhaps the most notable event in connection with the last days of the conference was the reading of the queen of Holland’s letter addressed to the pope, and calling upon him to give his moral support to the conference. It will be remembered that the pope had taken offense because Italy had objected to his sending a delegate to the conference, and at first he was inclined to have nothing to do with it. But the pope’s response to Wilhelmina’s letter reminds her that he has ever stood as an arbitrator, and, regardless of his present relation to the conference, he would seek the advancement of civilization.

Concerning the opposition that the delegates from England and the United States offered against doing away with the dum dum bullets, a leading paper in Germany says:— “The nations that boasted loudest of their humanity made the stoutest resistance to really practical humanitarian propositions.”

The German press quite generally has expressed disappointment at the results of the conference, and many of the papers express themselves in a way to clearly show that they are not in harmony with the ends for which the meeting was called.

The mere calling of such a conference will give many people a text from which they will argue that the peace of the whole world is right at hand. But we need to have our eyes wide open to facts and conditions, and we will see that the olive branch of peace has departed. There will always be plenty of peace talk, but in view of the millions of men who are trained and training to-day for the world’s armies and navies we may expect nothing else but wars and rumors of wars until the great battle of Armageddon is reached in that not distant day. T.

POLITICS IN THE CHURCH.

POLITICS in the church is revealed in what is said by the New York Sun concerning the late Bishop John Philip Newman. He first endeavored to secure his election as bishop in 1886. He failed. Then he became a Congregationalist. The Sun says: “In 1888 Dr. Newman made another effort to obtain a bishopric in the church to which he had returned after his misadventure with Congregationalism. At the General Conference of the Methodist Church, held in the Metropolitan Opera House in this city, Dr. Newman at last got his prize. His success was the result of long and well-directed efforts. Nothing that could aid him was neglected. Social influence, the influence of the Grand Army of the Republic, the influence of a well-directed lobby, the influence of a house packed with applauding friends; all these were used by the man who wanted to be a bishop. The bishops of the church disapproved Dr. Newman. It was reported that fraudulent ballots were found in the boxes, though the tellers never disclosed the real facts. But the candidate’s power was too great; nothing had been left undone, and Dr. Newman was elected. The Reverend Doctor had directed his campaign from a box in the opera house, where his lieutenants on the floor and in the galleries reported to him constantly; and after the announcement of success on the fourteenth ballot, the new bishop received his admirers as a triumphant general.”

With such things allowed in the church, is it to be wondered at that similar methods exist in the world, or that the church is more and more adopting worldly methods and plans, not alone for the world’s work, but for her own work?

COLONIALISM.

THE London National Review points out that Germany’s future expansion must be colonial. France has similar interests. England is, of course, a great colonial power.

Colonial expansion is perfectly in harmony with monarchy, and leads to despotism sooner or later. And since the United States has adopted her colonial policy, it is now perfectly clear that all the world is marching backward to the down beat of tyranny and oppression. Of course the oppression is not so visible now on the surface, but he has read history to no purpose who does not see its ugly form arising.

It should ever be kept before the mind that just as America, a hundred years ago, was leading the world upward to freedom and democracy, even so is she now leading the world downward to despotism, oppression and ruin. And let it not be forgotten that when divine justice is measured out to this great nation for her apostasy, it will be to cast her along with all the rest of the world into the final abyss of destruction. T.

NOVELTY AND SUPERFICIALITY.

THE very tendency of the age is to destroy the reflection faculties, and hence to weaken character and destroy the soul. This is so well expressed by a recent writer (Rev. B. H. Dement) that we reprint it:—

“We live in an age of electricity and bulletins. Speed and novelty are the goal. The things of yesterday are forgotten in the wild rush after the news of to-day. Too many lives are hemmed in by the bars of a single day. Hope and memory are fettered. When an event is passed it has but little power over the mind, which with each setting sun bids adieu to all the scenes of the fleeting day. Men have no time to hold communion with the past, for it is gone forever, and they sever all connection with its richest treasures.

“Hope, too, has lost her pinions. ‘What is the news of to-day?’ is the all-absorbing question. Rarely do they ask, What lesson has yesterday which to most men is time deceased and buried, and to-morrow is yet unborn. Man’s real life is narrowed by the whirling scenes of the news-filled day. He takes not time to reach out, strike down, look up and think. This at least is the tendency of our furious nineteenth century.

“Such being the characteristic of our age, never did novelty meet with a warmer reception than at present. Error, as old as Satan’s effort to ruin man, has but to put on brilliant costume, made from a nineteenth century fashion-plate, to receive a cordial welcome. But a thief may wear broadcloth, and even a demon may smile.

“Under the guise of higher education and liberal thinking, myriads of false ideas are marshaling themselves on the field of thought, and are seeking by fiendish diplomacy to make peace with everlasting truth.”

It is true. The only source of true help and strength and stay is God’s Word.

Waning Faith.—This is manifest in Protestantism in (1) a lack of faith in the Scriptures; and (2) in the preaching. Formerly men gave reverence to both. Now the pulpit, the criticism of the Bible, the misinterpretation of the Word, has destroyed the faith of the people in both preacher and Word. Upon this, as eminent a man as Dr. Richard Salter Storrs, in recent issues of the Independent, has this to say:—

“No more deference is now paid to the preacher’s teaching than there seems to be reason for in the listening mind; and that is often very little. Some of his affirmations of what to him are fact and truth may be accepted, while others are held in abeyance or scornfully rejected. Except as long habit or personal affection may incline men toward the preacher, the doubtful or critical attitude of mind toward him and his words is more common than the receptive and acquiescent. This is a fact to be recognized, whether or not it agrees with what we or others might prefer. We have to face it, and adjust ourselves to it.”

Of regard for the Bible, note this:— “It must also be remembered that recent criticism of the Scriptures, though perfectly legitimate in its place, has left an impression on multitudes of minds that all Scripture is at least uncertain in authority, so that the closest grip of the Biblical words easily slips from the unwelcoming mind. ‘Thus saith the Lord,’ which commanded our fathers’ immediate assent, now means to many, ‘Thus saith somebody, nobody

knows exactly who, reported by somebody else, of the correctness of whose report we can in nowise be certain.’”

And all of this the careful, candid observer knows to be perfectly true. And yet, reader, God’s Word will stand. The “pulpit” may deny it, or, in their imagination, mutilate it with the carving knife of “Higher Criticism,” but it lives, and will in the judgment stand to condemn or acquit the children of men.

A FEUD IN EDUCATION.

THE trial of Professor Arens, lecturer on physics in Berlin University, serves to emphasize the fact that the great institutions of learning in all parts of the world are in the iron grasp of imperialism and plutocracy. Doctor Arens has well-defined political views that are at variance with Emperor William’s, and although his university teaching has none of the element of politics in it, yet it has been decided that he must go. The professor has friends, however, who are not willing that his abilities as a teacher shall be sacrificed because of his personal views in regard to matters of State, and so the question is undergoing a controversy, and the end is not yet. In the midnight of the Dark Ages the schools were not places to stimulate thought. They were simply the machines for grinding the dogmas of priests and kings and despotic nobles into the minds of servile young men. The mercy of God led Him to make the promise of sending His Son the second time. This is the one bright light before us that plants the certain hope that these present tendencies will not be allowed to drag the world into another age of grosser midnight than she has yet ever known.

THE BOYCOTT WEAPON.

IN the big strike that is progressing in Cleveland the boycott is set in operation on a most extensive scale.

The strikers have agents in all parts of the city who promptly report any one who rides on the cars of the Consolidated Street Railway Company, the corporation against which the strike is aimed. President Harry Bryan, of the strikers, said:— “I was kept busy all day yesterday and to-day listening to people who said that they had been boycotted. Some said they could not buy groceries or meat, and one man could not get water to drink.”

The William & Rodgers Co., one of the biggest department stores in Cleveland, was notified that one of its employees had been riding on a big Consolidated car. The company responded by issuing an order that their help should not ride on the black-listed cars.

The case of Decker & Co., dry goods merchants, serves to illustrate numerous similar cases. Members of this firm persisted in riding upon the street-cars, so it was reported, and the result was that their trade suddenly dropped to almost nothing. Mr. Decker sent $100 to the strikers’ executive board, asking them to raise the boycott, and at the same time placed a two-column “adv.” in the strikers’ daily paper.

During the night a party went through a suburb of Cleveland with a can of red paint and wrote the word “scab” in large letters across the front of the residences of those who had patronized the Consolidated Street-car Company.

Delivery-wagon drivers have been met by strikers’ sympathizers when about to enter houses with goods and asked not to deliver anything more there because the inmates have patronized the Consolidated cars. Merchants say that, carried out on the lines upon which it is proceeding, there seems to be no end to the far-reaching effects of the boycott.

The past year has been the most remarkable of all history in the combining of business into trusts. And the present situation in Cleveland most forcibly marks the strong feelings that are but feebly smothered in the breasts of the laboring class. Capital is arrogant, wanton, and aggressive. And labor, on the other hand, feels that it is being crowded down, burdened and oppressed. The conflict that has been talked of for so long is here, and who knows what the end will be. God has taken pains to tell us the meaning of these things in His Word. Are we wise enough to be faithfully studying it?

When we say that the struggle is on, that the conflict has actually begun, we speak advisedly. Do not be lulled by the suggestion that these difficulties will soon blow over. The whole earth is in a regular ferment of strife, and you can not be in this world and not be painfully aware of it. Present conditions will grow worse and worse all through the remaining years that this world has to stand.

But the Saviour is soon to come to save every waiting, hoping, trusting soul from this abyss of ruin. Is your hope safely anchored in Him? Do you really and personally know Him? If so, you are perfectly secure, even tho the very hills about you, as well as the foundations of society, be crumbling to their dissolution. T.

Increase of Madness.—The San Francisco Chronicle of August 6, contains the following significant despatch in regard to the increase of lunacy in Great Britain:—

“LONDON, August 5.—The fifty-third report of the commissioners in lunacy is unpleasant reading. It shows an appalling increase of madness. In England and Wales the lunatics, on January 1 of the present year, totalled 105,086, an increase of 3,114 over 1898, the largest increase yet recorded. An analysis shows that this spread of lunacy is not confined to any one class, altho naturally the largest increase is among paupers. The situation is regarded as so alarming that an early official inquiry is demanded into the causes and the best means of combating them.”

MUCH space has been given in the German papers of late to calling attention to the large increase in the American navy. It is pointed out that this government is now building forty-six war vessels, and that twelve more were ordered by the last Congress. The German Government makes this a pretext to urge another large increase in their navy. Every one should use his utmost influence in these times to discourage this passion for war and to promote peace. And at the same time our eyes must not be blinded to the fact that, despite all the best efforts of all the good men and women in the land, the military fever is rising higher and higher every succeeding day. Is it not perfectly apparent that an unseen force is working from beneath to embroil the world in a universal strife? The Word of God has predicted it for these times, and we see that it is literally so.

THE people of San Francisco, Oakland, and vicinity propose to spend about fifty thousand dollars in a great celebration when the California soldiers arrive from Manila. Most of this money will go into that kind of demonstration that will perish with the using, a large item, of course, being gunpowder, of which the heroes have already had a surfeit. Judging from the suffering condition of those who have preceded the Californians in their home coming, and the pecuniary sacrifice many of them have made, and the further fact that most of them will be about penniless when discharged, there is no doubt that they would all appreciate a pro rata of the cash expended far more than the noisy display. But that would hardly be up-to-date patriotism, of which gunpowder and politics and alcohol form such prominent ingredients.

CONSUL-GENERAL HOLLOWAY sends the following despatch from St. Petersburg: “The Russian Government has, after many years’ discussion, determined to abandon the old-style or Julian-Greek calendar, which is twelve days behind the now universal system of the Gregorian cycle, and which has been a source of annoyance to Russians doing business with other countries, who were compelled to use both dates, as well as to foreigners trading with Russia. The St. Petersburg astronomical society has taken the matter in hand, and with the co-operation of the Ministers will appoint a commission to be composed of sixteen persons, nine of whom are to be members of the astronomical society, who will arrange all details. It is expected that the new style calendar will go into effect in 1901.”

THE second trial of Captain Dreyfus commenced on August 7. It is hard to tell what riots may occur in France before this affair is ended. The country is strongly divided. On the one hand are those who sympathize with the army, and on the other are those who sympathize with President Loubet’s administration, and wish to see justice done. The situation contains all the elements for a general revolution. But if France was the only place where there was outbreaking discontent it would hardly be necessary to say much about it. The French can turn their eyes from their own troubles whenever they like and witness the strife and violence that is spreading like a malignant miasma over the whole world.

AMONG the unusual storms of the present time, perhaps none are more remarkable than the rain, accompanied by thunder and lightning, in the San Joaquin Valley, California, on August 3. A heavy rain is something very unusual in California at this season of the year, and thunder and lightning are of rare occurrence. But the pacific habits of nature are being laid aside in all parts of the world, and disastrous storms, cyclones, and earthquakes are the order of the day. All these things mean something. Do you know what it is?

BOTH the land and naval forces are being strengthened at Victoria, B. C., which is the Pacific Coast depot of the British army and navy. This is at least an indication that the expressions of friendship that have been so profuse between England and the United States are not based upon a foundation strong enough to preclude the possibilities of war over the Alaskan boundary dispute. And this is another one of the multitude of evidences that the spirit of this age is war and not peace.

THE number of suicides in these times is simply appalling. Just watch the papers as they come to you day by day, and see the constant stream of accounts of self-murder. This shows not only a vast amount of misery and unhappiness in the world, but also reveals the fact that the human race is rapidly degenerating. For no man with a sound mind and manly courage is at all likely to give way to the temptation to take his own life.

A DESPATCH from Rome to the New York Sun states that Italy is so strongly stirred up over the lynchings of some of her subjects in New Orleans that it is thought to be the part of wisdom to ask Admiral Dewey not to call at the Italian ports, as per his program, lest his sailors on going ashore might get into trouble. One thing after another keeps coming up to show the seething spirit of war that is in the world.

EDWARD F. CAHILL, a prominent newspaper writer, says that “all kinds of politics will grow out of the return of the volunteers from the Philippines. For one thing,” he continues, “it may be noted as an interesting fact that has not got into the papers, the boys are almost unanimous against expansion, so far as holding the Philippines is concerned.”

A NEW 4-inch naval gun has just been tested at the Indian Head Proving Grounds, and a muzzle velocity of 2,991 feet per second was obtained. The gun is 78 per cent more powerful than the type which it displaces. Almost every day brings some new invention or improvement in the already destructive implements of war.

A TROLLY car jumped the track on a high trestle at Bridgeport, Conn., on August 6, and fell fifty feet into the mud below. Of the forty-five passengers aboard, twenty-three were killed, and the remaining twenty-two are more or less seriously injured.

MUCH interest is manifested in naval circles in a new torpedo invented by a young Swede. This torpedo is guided at will either from the shore or from a man-of-war by a wireless electric apparatus, something after the plan of wireless telegraphy.

ON August 6, the gang plank of an excursion steamer at Bar Harbor, Maine, broke, and threw 200 people into the deep water below. The majority were rescued, but twenty dead bodies were taken out, and there are others still missing.

IN some recent maneuvers of the British navy, wireless telegraphy was tried as a means of communicating with the shore and also between the ships at sea. The experiments proved fully satisfactory.

A CYCLONE swept the coast of Florida August 3, completely annihilating several towns. Some fifty-five vessels are left, a mass of wreckage on the shores, and numerous lives were lost.

HEAVY rain and hail storms in the upper Mississippi Valley have greatly damaged the growing grain. In many localities the farmers think that they will not be able to save half their crops.

THE treasurer of the city of Glasgow has embezzled one million dollars. He enjoyed the confidence of every one; many women had entrusted all their property to him.

THE entire Atlantic Coast was swept by a storm on August 1, that culminated in a tornado in New Jersey.