Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1886-07-26

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criticism of human conduct. 1t was to
smite that unfairness that Christ uttered
the words of the text and my sermon Will
be a re-echO of the divine sentiment In
estimating the misbehayior Of Others we
must take into consideration the pressure
of circumstances. 1t is never right to do
wrong, but there are degrees of culpabllI-
ty. When men misbehave or commit
some atrociOus wickedneSS we are disposed
indiscriminately. to tumble them all over
the bank of condemnation. Suffer they
ought and suffer they must, but in differ
ence of degrees.
In the first place, in estimating the mis-
doings of Others we must take into calcu-
latiOn
THE HEREDITARY TENDENCY.
There is such thing rs good blood and
there is such thing as bad blood. There
are families that have had u moral twist
in them for hundred years back. They
have not been careful to keep the family
record in that regard. There have been
escapades and maraudings, ScoundrellSms
and moral difficulties all the way
back, whether you call it kleptOmania or
pyromania or dipsOmania, or whether 1t be
in milder form, and amount to no mama
at all. The strong probability IS, that the
present criminal started life with nerve,
muscle, and bone contaminated. As some
start life with natural tendency to no
bility and generosity, and kindness and
truthfulneSS, there are Others VINO start
life with Just the opposite tendency, ana
they are born liars, or born malcOntenteS,
or born outlaws, OF born swindlers.
In this country we are taught by
THE DECLARATION OF AMERICAN INDE-
PENDENCE,
that all people are born equal. There never
WAS a greater Misrepresentation put III one
sentence than in that sentence, which I'M
plies that we are all born equal. You may
as well say that flowers are born equal, or
trees are born equal, or animals are born
equal. Why does one horse cost 500 anu
another horse cost $50, 900? Why does one
sheep cost SO and another sheep cost $500:
Difference in blood. We are wise enough
to recognize the difference OF blood
in horses, and cattle, and
sheen, but we are not wise enough to
make allowance for the difference in the
human blood. Now demand by the law
of eternal fairness, that you he more lenlent
in your criticism oi those who were born
wrong in whose ancestral line there was 4
hangman's knot, or who came from tree
the fruit of which for centuries has been
pnarled and worm eaten. DIR. Harris, a
reformer. gave some marvellous statistics
in his story of what he called Margaret,
the Mother of Criminals" Ninety years
ago she lived in village in upper New
York State. She was not only poor Dui
she was vicious. She was not well pro
vided for There were no almShouSeS
there. The public, however, somewhat
looked after her, but chiefly ScOffed at her,
and derided her, and pushed her farther
down in her crimes That was
ninety Years ago. There have been 62d
nersOns i'm that ancestral line, two hundred
of them criminals In one branch OF that
family there were twenty and nine of them
Who'll have been in State prison, and nearly
all of the Others have turned out badly. II
is estimated that that family cost tht
county and State Sl00, 900, to say nothing
of the property they destroyed. Are you
not willing, as sensible people, to acknOw'
LEDGE that it is fearful disaster to be borr
i'm such an ancestral line? Does 1t moi
make a great difference whether one de
scends from Margaret, the mother OF crlml
nails. OF from some mother in lsraeI
whether YOU are the son of Ahab, or th'
son of Joshua? 1t is very different thlnt
TO swim with the current, from what 1t
TO swim against the current as some of yOI
have no doubt found in your summer re
creation. If man find himself IN an an
eestral current where there is good bloot
flowing smoothly from generation to gen
GRAFTON, it is
NOT 4 VERY GREAT CREDIT
to him if he turn out good, and honest
and pure. and noble He cOuld hardly
help it. But suppose he is born in an an
cestral line, in hereditary line, wher
the influences have been bad and there ha
been coming down Oyera moral decllvlty
| If the man surrender to the influences h
will 90 down under the Overmasterini
yrayitation unless some supernatural alC
be afforded him. Now, such n person de
serves not Your excoriatiOn, but your pity
Do not sit with the lip curled in Scorn, ant
with An assumed air of angelic innocence
looking down upon such moral preciplta
ton. You had better get down on you
knees and first pray Almighty God 10
their rescue, and next thank the Lord tina
Won have not been thrown under tn
wheels of that Juggernaut.
In Great Britain and in the Unite'
States, in every generation, there are ten
of thousands of persons who are fully de
welcomed criminals and incarcerated. lSay
in every generation. Then, i suppose
there are tens of thousands OF persons no
fnupd out in their criminality. In addition
To those there are tens Of thousands of per
sons who, not positively becoming crimln
ais, nevertheless have criminal tendency
Any one of all those thousands, by tn
grace of God, may become Christians ant
resist the ancestral influence, and open
new chapter of behavior, but the vast ma
iority of them will not, and it becomes al
men-prufesSiOnal, unprofessional, minis
tiers of religion, Judges Of courts, philan
thropists and Christian wOrkers-tO recOg
nize the fact that there are these Atlanti
and Pacific surges ofhereditary evil rOllin
on through the centuries.
l say, of course, ..F.
A MAN CAN RESIST THIS TENDENCY,
lust as in the ancestral line mentioned i
the first chapter of Matthew. You see i
the same line in which there was wicke
Rehoboam and desperate Manassas ther
afterwards came pious Joseph and q glC
rious Christ. But, my friends, you mus
recognize the fact that these influences g
ON from generation to generation al
glad to know, however, that . river whic
has produced nothing but miasma for