, 1875-03-07
| RELIGIOUS NEWS,
The Sins Of the Fathers Shall Be
Visited upon the Chill
dren.
How the Lay Preacher Re-
CARDS the Text,
What Dr.. De Koven's Friends
Think of His Chances.
Why Iowa Voted for Him...An
Illinois Precedent.
The Rev. DR.. Rudder on the
Personal Qualifications
Of Bishops.
Reply to the Letter Of DIR.
Gush1na1i on Dr.
Fnn KDVerp.
Election of Presbyterian Ed.
ers for Limited
Terms.
Hammond, the ReyiValist, at Work
Among tho Children.
The Religious Press on Divine and
Worldly Affairs.
Notes and Personals at Home and
Abroad.
SUNDAY Services.
Notes and Personals at Home and
Abroad.


THE LAY PREACHER.
SEVENTH DISCOURSE
FOR the Lord thy God nm jealous God, whiting
tho niquity Of the fathers upon the children to tho
third and fourth gencrstion Of them that hate me-"
No man liVeth to himself, and the law Of en-
tailment which is expressed in our text is as in
evitable as the law OF gravitation. and none Of
US can evade it, or prevent the consequences Of
our sins being visited upon our descendants.
''The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the
children's teeth are set on edge" is = truth
which re see demonstrated Oh every hand, but
ike many other TRUTHS it is susceptible Of distor
ton and uisinterrretation, and, with all due
respect to the opinions Of the fathers
and some theotogians Of the present day, we
1u1stxhol1y dissent from ths construction TINT
the passages quoted teach the doctrine Of infant
darnna.ion,-A doctrine 80 abhorrent that We
question very much whether anybody ever really
believes it, notwithstanding it VAS 10 long one
of the tests Of orthodoxy, as it used to be for
believers to deelare that they were perfectly
willing to bo damned eteFnally, II it was tor the
glory Of God, No doubt the persons who made
this declaration we're. after ce1tain manner,
sincere; but it is questionable if they un-
derstood fully what they subscribed to
In An old New England Church. founded
by m ancestor Of the Lay Preacher, for more
than fifty years every candidate for admission
Was asked, and answered afirmativoly, this ques-
ton: II it is for the glory Of God, are you
willing to be damned forever and eyer?" It
would be hardly polite TO say that every one Of
the scores and hundreds who during that halt
century were admitted to tho fellowship and
communion Of that Church lied. They did not.
They were honest and sincere; and, having been
taught from childhood that the chief
end of man Was to gloriry God, they
naturally accepted the proposition that,
if they could accomplish this great OBJ
ject by submitting to everlasting torture,
they should cheelfally do SO. And 30 they said
yes without oomprehending the full import Of
the fearful answer. And we venture the opinion
that no Puritan mother, who ever saw = loved
child pass away, believed the doctrine Of infant
damnatiou. The true maternal instinct will out
weigh all the crecda that have ever been fofnu-
lated, and Jet it ia true that the sins OF the
fathers are visited upon the children to the third
and fourth generation not only, but much longer,
but not in the sense which Was formerly almost
universally, and now exceptionally understood
We do not apprehend that the declaration that
tho penalty for the fathers transgressions being
visited upon the children means that if we bias,
pheme or lie, steal, or violate any or all, tho
commands Of the decalogue, our children's
children wil be held morally accountable for tho
Sin, or that they will be affected by il, except in
80 far as they inherit our moral deformities. It
is welt-esrablished fact that moral, as veil
as physical characteristics, are transmitted to
succeeding generations. Like beeets like is
not always as palpable as in a physical seuse.
And Jet we think there was never greater falsi-
ty expressed in few words than in the old ortho-
dox coup1et-
We sluned MI;
and, however much We may regret or suffer from
the results Of that unfortunate apple transaction
of our il1ustrious ancestors, we do not believe
that ne are to be held morally accountable for
if, Te haye heard staunch old Puritans stoutly
maintain that every child Of Adam waa equally
guilty with him, and that it Was aa much
our duty to repent Of that first Sin
~ it is that ne repent our own individual t1ana-
gressions. No man is responsible for the acc-
dent Of his BIRTH; that is = matter upon which
none of us we're consulted or exercised any
choice. The children Of + drunka1d, con-
sumptive, or a lunatic may have lifelong oc-
casion to regret their unfortunate parentage.
aud it is just here that ne find the illustration
Of the truth of our text: The parent, by pur-
suing vicious course Of life, contracts disease,
which is transmitted to his poster1ty. They Buf-
fer from the consequences OF their ancestor sins,
but are neither culpable OF responsible morally.
It is their misfortune, and not their fault that
they po:sess diseased bodies and DEPRIVED sp- |
petltes-
One OF the most marked instances Of the Truth |
Of Our text is to be found in the history Of the
Sandwich 1slauds whose Sovereign was recently !
the guest Of Chicago. When Capt. Cook dis
covered the Hawaiian group the population was
and is rapidly dwindliDg and intelligent OBJ
servers predict that IL fifty years there
will not be 1000 pure Kaoakas left.
Tho cause is we'll understood. The SAILORS Of
Cook, in their un1estrained intercourse With the
native women, introduced syphilis, andit is
fact that the small remnant left
are almost without exception suffering from the |
effects Of the poison communicated to their an
cestors. Scrofula. consumption, or leprosy ia
erations vii close tbs history Of that rice. Mod
ern history does not furnish u more pal
paple instance Of the inevitable. IN
chsneeable. lam that. the Sins of the |
fa...:u ays visited upon the children. |