Crime and Sin.- by G.

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, Cal. · Dec 6, 1905

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 31, No. 49.

Crime and Sin.—

By G.

When statistics show a decrease in the percentage of crime in any given region, it does not follow that there is any decrease of sin. Such statistics are sometimes made up from the number of arrests made in a given time, but arrests are not a fair gauge of criminality. There are certain classes of secret law-breakers who are not arrested at all. Sometimes the number of convictions are taken into account, but the ways of escaping conviction are on the increase. But crime is one thing, while sin is another. Sin is the transgression of the law of God; crime is the transgression of human law. Sometimes these laws conflict, when, as the scripture informs us, "we ought to obey God rather than men."

When men enact and undertake to enforce religious laws, these laws always conflict in some principle with the law of God. So the obedience of them is sin; to disobey them is crime. Many "reformers," in pursuit of what they call "civic righteousness," really induce men to commit sin, while they imagine that they are working wonders in reducing crime.

The statistics of crime may be reduced by ignoring some laws, or overlooking their violation; but God keeps the statistics of sin and sinners, and He makes no mistakes; the day of reckoning will surely come. It is possible for crime to be materially reduced in appearance, while sin is greatly increased. Sin is so deceptive, that men of wide reputation for morality may be the worst of sinners—“workers of iniquity.” G.