Reversing the Law

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Mar 30, 1904

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 30, No. 13.

Reversing the Law.

A recent sermon declares as to man's good: "Upon the welfare of the whole of which he is a part, depends his own individual welfare." Now that seems good, but it is sophistical and delusive, and doubtless deceived its author. It has been demonstrated in every phase of social life that the statement is not true. There are thousands of individuals who have prospered financially when all around them were poor; and yet their prosperity did not come from their fellows. There are thousands who have acquired knowledge, when all around them were ignorant. There are many who have developed a righteous character through God's grace when their fellows on all sides were selfish and wicked. In political life, the only true way to conserve the rights of all is to guard the rights of the individual. The only eternal salvation to the race comes by saving the individuals. All this talk of elevating the race as a whole, all effort to do it, while passing by the individual, will prove utterly futile.