T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
January, 1934
14
none its place at the pinnacle of man’s civilization. It boasted the moral leadership of the world. Today, unpreju diced observers are telling us that it is the most lawless nation on earth. How can it be otherwise when officialdom leads the way? Why did the “noble experiment” of pro hibition fail ? It failed because of lawlessness at the foun tainhead of our government. Less than a week ago, Sheilah Graham, newspaper correspondent, interviewed Mrs. Lewis Douglas, wife of the director of our national budget. She told him that, while the Eighteenth Amend ment was yet a part of the Constitution, and intoxicating liquor was still an outlaw, it was served at an official func tion attended by the members of the cabinet and diplo matic service! She said: Every one at this function was delighted that at last the nonsense of secret drinking was over. I, myself, always for the seven years I have been in Washington, have served zmne and liquor at my private parties, partly as a protest against prohibition, but chiefly because it is im possible to entertain without it. Before every state or official function, private parties were held, and most of the guests came there first. What a fine example for the wife of the director of the national budget of the United States to set! And in the light of her words, what are we to think of the lawless men who have been guiding our ship of state? The boot legging gangster, who goes sneaking down dark alleys with his wares, is a model of citizenry, beside these hypocritical official gangsters who take solemn oath to uphold the law and are given the great trust by the people, and who then proceed to violate the confidence of a nation by trampling the constitutional law of the nation under foot. If they will do it in the matter of a liquor law, they will do it in the matter of any other law, if lawlessness serves their lusts. Imagine the condition of our nation should every citizen start to “protest” against every law he does not like, by breaking that law ! O ur C alifornia G overnor Finally, it is left for our own California governor to cap the climax of official lawlessness—to show that our nation, even as other nations of earth, is rotting in law lessness. Two vicious young criminals kidnapped and foully murdered a young man in San Jose, Calif. They were arrested and imprisoned, awaiting trial. It is prob able that, even in these days of chicken-hearted judges, shyster lawyers, and sob-sister juries, these young men, by process of law, would have gone speedily to the gallows to .expiate their crime. But, behold! our governor, James Rolph, Jr., who solemnly took oath that he would uphold the law of the state, deliberately encouraged and offered his protection to the howling mob that tore the garments from these two young criminals, beat them into a mass1 of bruises, and hung them up in their nakedness before 6,000 spectators in a city park. In a day when disrespect for law and order threatens the very existence of civilization—for all civilization is based on the annihila tion of violence—the governor of one of the greatest com monwealths on earth, not only refused to use the power at his command to uphold law and order, but also made alli ance with the lawless mob by saying: This is the best lesson that the State has ever given to the country. . . . If any one is arrested for the good job, I’ll pardon them all. . . . I have asked the wardens of San Quentin and Folsom for the names of those serv ing sentences for violent kidnapping. I am thinking of paroling these prisoners to citizens of San Jose who know how to handle such a situation. What law-abiding citizen of California will not hang his head in shame as he reads those words ? One would think that a responsible governor must have had his mind tern-
T hrough L awlessness , th e S piritual K ingdom of I srael F ell “Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold, and said, I t was necessary that the word of Cod should first have been , spoken to you : but seeing ye put it from you , . . lo, we turn to the Gentiles’’ (Acts 13:46). “On them which fell, severity . . (Rom. 11:22). The Lord of glory never would have suffered a shame ful death on the cross, had law and order prevailed. Only a mob could have put Him to death. Yelling as the madmen of mobs do, thirsting for blood as mob murderers do, the cfy went u p : “Crucify! Crucify!” What mattered it that a just ruler of the Jews should plead: “Doth our law judge any man, before it hear him” (John 7:51) ? What mattered it that a Roman governor, examining Him, “found ho fault” ? The mob had sniffed blood. Before the mob, a spineless governor quailed. (His progeny still lives!) When “Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but that rather a tumult was made, he took water, and”—coward that he was !•—“washed his hands” of the whole affair. Whereupon the mob, frothing at the mouth and howling with delight, proceeded to mangle the Lord of glory, lash ing His cheeks with reeds and slashing His back with thongs, ripping His garments from His quivering form, and hanging His lacerated body in bloody nakedness upon a tree. The mob finally departed, feeling it had done its duty; for, had not a blasphemer been done to death? But, Son of God, or, blasphemer out of the pit, that did not change the fact that Israel had departed from the guidance of her great lawgiver, and law and order were crucified that day! “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest . . . and stonest!” When the dust of her mobs cleared away, Titus, the Roman, was at her walls! Lawlessness ended the age! T hrough L awlessness , G entile D om in ion W ill F all “I make a full end o f all the nations” (Jer. 30:11). “Tell us, . . . what shall be the sign of . . . the end of the world? And Jesus answered and said . . . iniquity [ lawlessness ] shall abound” (Matt. 24:3, 4, 12). “The mystery of lawlessness doth alrepdy work: only there is one that restraineth now, until he be taken out of the way. And then shall be revealed the lawless one, whom the Lord Jesus shall slay with the breath of his mouth, and bring to nought by the manifestation of his coming” (2 Thess. 2:7, 8, R.V.; cf. Rev. 19:11-20). Comment is unnecessary. The- leaven of lawlessness was working in the days of the apostles. A lawless mob crucified the Lord of glory. A lawless mob stoned Stephen to death. Lawless mobs camped continually on the trail of Paul. For centuries, the leaven has been fermenting, and fomentation will come to its fullness at the close of our age. The spirit of lawlessness will find its consumma tion in the “lawless one”—even that “man of sin,” the Antichrist. L awlessness H as I ts R oots in th e H ome The sad part of it is that the rampant lawlessness of our age has its roots in the home. The laws of God estab lishing the divine relation between husband and wife are scorned. Lawless mothers breed lawless children. And that is almost the whole story. Not so long ago, before fathers abdicated the throne'of the home to their infants, the average age of criminals was over forty. Today it is less than twenty! When children should still be roosting a t home, they are roosting in ja il! L awlessness T hreatens th e D estruction of the S tate Hut a few short years ago, the United States yielded to
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