Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1885-07-20
temperance.
THE LAW OF HEREDITY.

When / 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
twisting the iniquities of the fathers
upon the children, unto the third and
fourth generation of them that hate
me-" etc., and it read like a form of
punishment, that not only were pa
rents punished themselves, but their
children also suffered the penalty of
sin, as it were by direct infliction.
But we have learned that this is not
the full meaning; it is not by direct
lnfiction as you would whip or 9TH
erwlse punish child for wilful DISC
bedience. 1t is rather by so ordering
things, the course of nature, that the
penalty of sin-of wrong doing
| follows as a consequences. The laws
of God are plain and clear, not only
this moral law, thou shalt, and thou
shalt not, but all that are connected
with our being. We break the law
| of health and suffer sickness, we mis-
use our eyes or any of the useful or
gans of our bodies, and they give
out or break down. A wise man
said he did not exactly consider it
"a sin to be sick,'' but when he was
ill he always repented of the sin of
neglect which had disabled him, and
then he did his best to get we'll.
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 deli
cacy of the work which goes to make
up the structure, should be so care
less in its management. The it's
sues of veins and fibres are so intri-
cately wrought, so easily disarrang-
| ed. 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, nerves, and fibres.
There are certain poisons called
narcotics and stimulants, which act
very directly upon the nervous sys-
tsm, and to greater or less degree,
according to the amount used, and
the strength of the application. First
they excite and then deaden and stu
pefy. The process is but too familiar
to us.
There is also a remarkable fact
that the nerves can by degrees be
made to accustom themselves to
these influences, so that a quantity
which is overpowering at first can
afterwards be taken without much
apparent effort. The habit grows.
There was a 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 i'm
paired, weakened. Gods law must
not be broken with IMMUNITY. Thus
the weakness of the nerves becomes
a matter of inheritance and craving
which the parent could have resisted
becomes 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 or smoke to excess, or show
some weakness of will. A woman
takes opium, and her children or her
grandchildren drink. A man is in
temperate, or takes good deal with
out being called incorporate, and
his children drink to excess, or fall
into other vices, or become insane.
A very large proportion of idiots are
the children of drinking parents.
l Indeed most of the crime and vice
which make mp so much of our his
tory, till to read daily paper is to
get heartache, comes directly and
indirectly from SO breaking the laws
of God that the sins of parents are
visited on their children. No won.
der that SO many of the letters OF
Paul and his brothers are made ar
of very plain lessons in daily life
and warnings against vicious indul.
gence. They knew not only of the
present evil of sin, but the divine
law visiting the ''iniquilies of tn.
parents upon the children, unto til,
third and fourth generation" The
law of heredity is as old as the Law
of Moses, as old as the human race.
A TEMPERANCE RECITATION
FOR OUR BOYS.