Why did God limit his first statement to the third and fourth generation? Because there is no fifth generation of continuous and unbroken iniquity. Here are two modern proofs of the truthfulness of this ancient text.
A modern proof.—Two thousand erring girls were interrogated with reference to the sobriety of their parents. Seventy per cent. had either drunken fathers or drunken mothers, or both. In one state penitentiary the author found seventy-two per cent. of the inmates had either drunken fathers or drunken mothers, or both. Recent investigations in one of the state reformatories for women show eighty-five per cent, had either drunken fathers or mothers, or both. Twenty-two per cent. of the feeble-minded, the insane and the epileptic had the initials of their lives to take place during a drunken debauch.
Here is a husband and wife; both are habitually under the influence of alcohol. Suppose their children follow their example and marry companions addicted to strong drink, and the children of the next generation follow the example of their parents and marry companions addicted to strong drink, and this is continued, what will be the result? There will be no fifth generation. In the first generation might have been found a daughter in the house of shame, a son in the chain gang of crime, a feeble-minded child, an epileptic, or one or more alcoholics. As a result of four generations of consecutive drunkenness, degeneracy would become so great as to result in complete sterility.
Another proof.—In every institution for the feeble-minded are to be found inmates who have the “Hotchinson notched teeth,” “crowfoot tracts” in the palate and throat, certain marks on the body—scientific proofs that such are congenital syphilitics. Some ancestor, two or three generations gone by, lived an immoral life, became infected with a vicious disease and transmitted the degenerative influences down the line to where it ended in complete degeneracy.
Who is responsible?—Is this a punishment from God upon innocent, helpless children? No. God is in no sense responsible for it. Is nature? No. Who is responsible? Men who sow their wild oats and boast of their “personal liberty” to do as they please. Have God and nature any part in this? Yes. God and nature in infinite interest, mercy and love for the unborn millions who would be blighted with inconceivable degeneracy and suffering, should they be born of such degenerate parents, say, “We have given these descendants four generations in which to prevent further degeneracy by marrying into pure and sober families, by reformation or by redemption,” and since they have not availed themselves of these restorative and redemptive means, reproduction must cease.
Morbid heredity and bad environment.—Bad environment and bad heredity explain the presence of every convict in our penal institutions and every inmate in the asylums. Laws and political administration that tolerate, regulate and encourage strong drink and social immorality, the two chief causes of degeneracy, and the parents who indulged in these iniquities, are largely responsible for these thousands of defective and delinquent beings who are crowding our asylums and penal institutions to a dangerous and unsanitary overflowing.
Father, son and grand-son, uncles and cousins galore crowd these institutions. Much of their mail is from relatives and bears the postmark of a similar institution, showing that crime and insanity run in families.
Man’s development originally under two agencies.—It is evident that God originally placed man’s development under the intelligent control of heredity and environment. If man had as wisely applied these agencies to his own improvement as he now does to the improvement of the vegetable and animal kingdoms, he would have developed to the highest possible physical, mental and moral attainments.
His fall.—Man’s present condition of hereditary and acquired degeneracy clearly reveals that somewhere in human history he has thrown himself out of harmony with physical, mental and moral laws governing his well-being. The record of man’s fall as given in Genesis is at least the figure of a great fact in human history. Man’s fall involved the violation of some law or laws vitally related to his physical, mental and moral natures.
Need of a third agency.—The results of his fall were transmissible. In his fallen state he was not able to use heredity and environment to their normal capacity. His fall resulted in abnormal heredity and environment. Without an additional agency fallen man was incapable of recovery. Hence his need of redemption and the Redeemer. Now man has at his command his intelligence, his will and the grace of God, by which he may improve himself, improve his environment, and as a result of his improved physical, mental and moral condition, he may transmit to his posterity the possibilities of manhood and womanhood superior to what he himself inherited. Just to the extent that man has received a good or a bad heredity, keeps or violates law, accepts or rejects the grace of God, just to that extent does he recover or degenerate, create a good or a bad environment, and will transmit a good or a bad heredity to his posterity.