The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1885-07-22
Temperance.
More About the Law OF Heredity.

When l used to read the command
ments and think upon them, as much as
we are able to think of things which
have been perfectly familiar to us from
childhood, / read that "visiting the
iniquities of the fathers upon the chill
dren unto the third and fourth genera
ton of them that hate me-" ETC., and
it read like form of punishment; that
not only were parents punished them
selves, but their children also suffered
the penalty of sin, as if it were by di-
rect infection. But we have learned
that this is not the full meaning; it is
not by direct inhiction as you would
whip, or otherwise punish child, for
wilful disobedience. 1t is rather by so
ordering things, the course of nature,
that the penalty of sin-of wrong
doing--follows as consequence. The
laws of God are plain and clear-not
only this moral law, thou shalt and
thou shalt not, but all that are con-
nected with our being. We break
the law of health and suffer sickness,
we misuse our eyes or any of the use
full organs of our bodies, and they give
out or break down. A wise man said
he did not exactly consider it " sin to
be sick" but when he was i'll he al
ways repented of the sin or neglect
which had disabled him, and then he
did his best to get well.
And it is true of our bodies that they
are " fearfully and wonderfully made"
and it is strange that even those who
know the exceeding delicacy of the work
which goes to make up the structure
should be so careless in its manage
ment. The tissues of veins and fibres
are so intricately wrought, so easily dis
arranged. Any one who has seen the
brain, even of an animal, can have some
idea of what the structure of our brain
must be; and yet how we abuse brain,
and nerves, and fibres.
There are certain poisOns called mar
cotics and stimulants which act very
directly upon the nervous system, and
to a greater or less degree, according to
the amount used and the strength of
the application. First, they excite and
then deaden and stupefy. The process
is but too familiar to us.
There is also remarkable fact, that
the nerves can by degrees be made to
accustom themselves to these influences
so that quantity which is overpower-
ing at first can afterward be taken
without much apparent effort. The
habit grows. There was man once
who lived to be old who took opium
enough every day to kill ten men who
were not accustomed to it. But then
he did nothing else; for years he was
of no earthly use; he just lived
Men and women can do these things
but the whole system is impaired anC
weakened. Gods laws cannot be
broken with impunity. Thus the weak.
ness of the nerves becomes a matter
of inheritance, and a craving which
the parent could have resisted be.
comes an irresistible impulse in the
child; the appetite is stronger and the
will weaker In some way the wrong
to the nerves is avenged. A man uses
tobacco and his children drink OF
smoke to excess, or show some weak
ness of will. A woman takes opium
and her children or her grandchildren
drink. A man is Incorporate, or take
good deal without being called intern
perate, and his children drink to excess
or fall into other vices, or become in
sane. A very large proportion o
idiots are the children of drinking pa
rents.
Indeed, most of the crime and vic
which make up 50 much of our history
till to read daily paper is to get
heartache, comes directly and indi
rectly from so breaking the laws o
God that the sins of parents are visiteC
on their children. No wonder that s.
many of the letters of Paul and hi
brothers are made up of very plail
lessons in daily life, and warning
against vicious indulgence. They knew
not only of the present evil of sin, Blu
the divine law visiting the g iniquitie
of the parents upon the children unit
the third and fourth generation" TIL
law of heredity is as old as the law c
Moses, as old as the human race.