When we recall the fact that one hundred thousand men fall into drunkard’s graves every year, we are appalled at the thought of that vast army marching on to death and destruction. As we listen, we can, in fancy, almost hear the tramp, tramp of that “mighty host advancing, Satan leading on.” In the front rank comes the one hundred thousand men who shall fall into drunkard’s graves this year, and behind them the one hundred thousand men who are to fall next year. They come with sound of revelry and song, and close beside them press a crowd of weeping wives and mothers and little children, starved, crippled, and murdered, who are to be fellow victims with the drunkard. Not very far back from the front row come one hundred thousand young men in the very prime of young, vigorous life, just beginning to drink their first glass of wine or beer, with no intention of ever standing in that front row, yet having started on the way. Back of them, one hundred little school boys who think it manly to ape the follies of their predecessors. Back of them, one hundred thousand little toddlers whose feet stagger in their innocent helplessness. Back of them, one hundred thousand mothers with babies 35 in their arms. Oh, how sweetly those baby eyes look up into the loving eyes that are brooding over them. Is it possible those baby brows will ever lie low in the gutter, those sweet lips be stained by oath or glass; those crumpled rose-leaf fingers ever strike the murderous blow incited by alcohol? It must be, if that front rank of one hundred thousand drunkards is to be recruited, for the drunkards of the future are to-day babies in their mother’s arms. Do you who read these words intend to join this vast army of prospective drunkards, or will you belong to the cold-water army that is marching on accompanied by health, vigor, industry, prosperity, success and long life?
We must not be so interested in the inheritance of evil qualities as to forget the transmission of good. We read in Exodus, twentieth chapter, that the sins of the fathers are to be visited upon the children unto the third and fourth generations of them that hate the Lord, but mercy will be shown to thousands of generations of them that love Him and keep his commandments. As we have seen the sins of the fathers are visited upon the children in transmission of diseased bodies, perverted moral natures and weakened wills, and realize that the promise is being fulfilled in the visitation of the sins of the fathers upon the children, let us see if the other promise is being fulfilled also, in the mercy shown to thousands of them that love the Lord and keep His commandments.
An English specialist in children’s diseases has carefully noted the difference between twelve families of drinkers and twelve families of sober parents during a period of twelve years.
INTEMPERATE. TEMPERATE. Produced 57 children; 25 died in the first week of life. These deaths due to convulsions, or œdema of brain and membranes. 2 were idiots. 5 dwarfs. 5 epileptics. 1 had chorea. 5 were deformed. 2 became drunkards. This leaves only 10 who showed during the whole of life a normal disposition and development of body and mind. Produced 61 children; 6 died in first week, of weakness. 4 had curable diseases. 2 showed inherited nervous defects. This leaves 50 who were in every way normal, sound in body and mind.
| INTEMPERATE. | TEMPERATE. |
| Produced 57 children; 25 died in the first week of life. These deaths due to convulsions, or œdema of brain and membranes. 2 were idiots. 5 dwarfs. 5 epileptics. 1 had chorea. 5 were deformed. 2 became drunkards. This leaves only 10 who showed during the whole of life a normal disposition and development of body and mind. | Produced 61 children; 6 died in first week, of weakness. 4 had curable diseases. 2 showed inherited nervous defects. This leaves 50 who were in every way normal, sound in body and mind. |
If it were not a fact that health, purity, integrity, intellect and virtue were being transmitted to a far greater extent than sin and vice, there would be little good in the world, but the transmission of these good qualities is so extended, so like the air and the sunshine and the water, a common thing, that we almost forget to recognize it. When we turn our thoughts to the investigation of this phase of the subject, we find that vigorous parents have healthful children, that powers of intellect are transmitted, and that honesty and uprightness in the father warrants us in expecting the same in the son. We recognize the transmission of powers of intellect in the fact that where the parents have a peculiar talent, we very generally find the same talent in their children. We are acquainted with musical families, mathematical families, artistic families, and in the study of renowned people of the world we find evidences of this transmission of intellect. We also learn that the effects of education are transmissible, and if the parents are educated along a certain line the children receive education 37 along that line much more readily. This fact becomes a wonderful incentive to us to build up all that is best in our own natures in order that through us the world may receive an impetus towards higher and better things.
Sometimes when your faults and defects press upon you with tremendous force and you find it so very hard to overcome them, you may be tempted to lay the blame on your ancestry who gave you such a dower, who by their lives handicapped you in your life-struggle. You may feel inclined to say with some writer, to me unknown, who says:
HEREDITY.
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“Your strictures are unmerited, Our follies are inherited, Directly from our gran-pas they all came; Our defects have been transmitted, And we should be acquitted Of all responsibility and blame. We are not depraved beginners, But hereditary sinners, For our fathers never acted as they should; ’Tis the folly of our gran-pas That continually hampers–– What a pity that our gran-pas weren’t good! Yes, we’d all be reverend senators, If our depraved progenitors Had all been prudent, studious and wise; But they were quite terrestial, Or we would be celestial, Yes, we’d all be proper tenants for the skies. If we’re not all blameless sages, And beacons to the ages, And fit for principalities and powers; If we do not guide and man it, And engineer the planet, ’Tis the folly of our forefathers––not ours.” |