The national peril in the mal-administration of justice.
This subject is illustrated by the rebellion of Absalom. That rebellion would not have been possible if the confidence of the people had not been lost by David's neglect of the judgment seat. Absalom gained favour by craftily saying, "Oh that I were made judge in the land, that every man which hath any suit or cause might come unto me, and I would do him justice!" (2 Samuel 15:4). Those who search into the causes of great national revolutions find they have always to take account of the influence on the people of unfaithfulness in the judges, and lost public confidence that the right can be obtained. This is true of Western nations, but it is more true of Eastern nations, who know of justice as the decision of an official, rather than as the execution of a recognized and written law. Solomon gained public confidence by a wise and quick-witted judgment. He in part lost public confidence by high-handed dealing with the people's complaints. The prophets, in their complaints of the special evils of their times, give prominence to the injustice of the judges, and their neglect of the causes of the poor. Still no crimes are supposed to undermine more swiftly the public confidence, and produce more social mischief, than those committed by mercenary judges, who give decisions in view of their own interests, rather than on the basis of what is just and right.
1. Men look for a standard of righteousness higher than they can reach themselves. They are taught to look for that standard in the impartial public judges and magistrates. If they find themselves disappointed in them, they readily get the feeling that there is no standard right, and then they lose the check upon their own wilful, self-pleasing doings. Public justice is found to be the necessary foundation and buttress of public morality.
2. National life loses its inspiring example when the king, the magistrate, and the official are found to do unjust things. Nations, as well as individuals, must make their ideals, and realize them, or think they realize them, in some individuals. Kings ought to be to their people realized ideals, and so living examples. And in the more limited spheres, so should the judges be. A man easily goes to ruin when he finds his realized ideal fail him. And so does a nation. There seems to be no right when there is no public right; no right in its high places. Nations are rightly severe on all judges who dishonour the seat of judgment.—R.T.