THUS THEY WEAVE IT TOGETHER.
By Editor
A CORRESPONDENT of Green Bay, Wisconsin, sends us the following striking statement, relative to the condition of things in that city:— "This city holds the distinction of re-electing one of its aldermen who is a self-confessed bribe-taker, and another one who stands with ten indictments against him by the grand jury for receiving boodle money. I thought this might make an item." It is more than an item. It is the lifting of a great curtain which lets in the light upon the chief cause of the corruption of these times. A great portion of the people are consenting to the evils that are prevalent to-day. In the notorious trial of the one-time mayor of Minneapolis and his following many of the "respectable" people of that great city would rather have seen the whole matter hushed up and the continuance of the iniquity permitted than to have the trial go on and the culprits punished. It has come to be the case that people expect a certain amount of iniquity in the officials whom they elect, a certain amount of bribe-taking and bribe-giving, a certain amount of collusion for personal ends, a certain amount of law-breaking by law-makers, that they may pile up wealth or throw money-making opportunities into the hands of men who have helped them in their election campaigns. The aldermen above referred to were put back into their old position, in spite of their known corruption, their known malfeasance in office. Who is responsible but the people? Who will be responsible for their continued depredations in office but the people who put them there, knowing what they had done and what they would continue to do? And in re-electing such men, the people condone the crimes they have committed and encourage them to the commission of others. And what is true of Green Bay is true of practically every city in the land. This brings forcibly to mind the prophecy of Micah concerning the times just prior to the second advent. He says: "The godly man is perished out of the earth, and there is none upright among men; they all lie in wait for blood; they hunt every man his brother with a net. Their hands are upon that which is evil to do it diligently; the prince asketh, and the judge is ready for a reward [bribe]; and the great man, he uttereth the evil desire of his soul; thus they weave it together." Micah 7:2, 3. This shows how the legislative and judicial systems would work iniquity in collusion, taking bribes for decisions rendered without reference to the merits of the case; passing laws for the benefit of those who are willing to pay large sums for their passage, so that they may "hunt every man his brother with a net," and exploit him for their own benefit. That is the condition which the prophet saw would be in the day of God's "visitation" (verses 4-7); and this is the condition which we find existing now. We are bound to conclude that we are nearing the time when the "visitation" of divine justice upon sin and sinners will take place. Men have lived in pleasure upon the earth and been wanton. They are doing it to-day as in no age of the past. Judges and law-makers have wrought wickedly in the past; but to-day the great legislative and judicial systems are considered the legitimate "game preserves" of a great mass of those who wear the legislative toga and the judicial ermine. Sins in the social realm there have been from ancient times; but the great social evil of to-day is a system and a science, grinding its fortunes out of the lives and souls of the innocent and depraved alike. "Shall I not visit for these things? saith Jehovah."