Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-09-01
EATING SOUR GRAPES
Sure to Set the Teeth of Ones Chill
dren on Edge for All Time.
THE SINS OF THE FATHERS
Visited on the Heads Of the Children, to the
Fourth Generation.
A LESSON TAUGHT TO ALL PARENTS
THE SINS OF THE FATHERS
A LESSON TAUGHT TO ALL PARENTS
rwR1rrEN For THE DISPATCH,


chldren's teeth are set on edge
The Hebrews got good deal of comfort
out of this homely proverb. 1t is always a
comfort when things are going wrong to be
able to put the blame on somebody else.
And in the days of Jeremiah and Ezekiel,
when this proyerb was most popular, things
were going very wrong indeed. The great
Kingdom of David and Solomon, shorn OF
its splendor, weakened by rebellion and
division, weakened still more by wide
spread corruption and. i6olatry, assailed by
strong enemies, was being broken into
pieces, and carried off into captivity. The
people were conscious of their own weak
ness. That is never a pleasant conscious
ness They wanted to explain it, somehow.
They wanted to make apologies to their
pride. So they said that they simply could
not helpit. 1t was their hard fate They were
born So They laid the blame on their fathers.
They transferred the responsibility. 1.-THE
fathers they said, "have eaten sour
grapes, and the children's teeth are set on
edge" And, no doubt, as 1 say, they got
some small comfort QUO of that.
There is a good deal of truth in this
proverb. The character of a man does de-
pend in large measure upon his father. We
are all heirs TO something. The features of
the face and the gestures of the hand go
down from father to son, and the features
of the mind and the motion OF the will, no
doubt, 60 with them.
HARD TO DETERMINE.
1t can never, of course, be accurately de-
termined how much of the character of q
child OF ) wears is due to instinct and how
much TO imitation. The influences of he
redity and or environment are incapable of
perfect determination, so that one may say
this was born with the child and that grew.
Still, whatever the degree may be, there is
undoubtedly an inheritance of character.
The father eats sour grapes, and the chill
dren's teeth are set on edge"
Somehow, the emphasis of the proverb
which is upon the bad side of character,
seems to be borne out by experience. The
bad seems longer-lived than the good, and
easier of transmission. The bad is certainly
easier of imitation; it seems also to make
the stronger impression upon instinct We
do not need to go to the theologian to learn
that there is such fact in the world as
original sin. We see that in ourselves and
in everybody else. 1t makes little differ
ence how far back we go for the beginning
OF it. Whether we trace it with John Cal
win to Adam, or whether we go with John
Fiske farther back, and find it our brute In
heritance that which still remains in us of
the nature of faraway animal ancestors, it
makes small difference. The one important
fact is that wherever it comes from, here it is.
No child is born perfect. Every child
is burdened from the start with an inherit
ance of evil, handed down from his father
and his grandfather. Original sin-the sin
of our origin-the sin which comes with the
gift of human life, is fact. There is no
escaping it.
The fact is a very serious one for both the
fathers and the children. 1t means for the
fathers that no man lives nor dies unto him
self 1t means responsibility. There is
usually recognition of the responsibility
of parents for the bringing up of their chill.
dren, that they shall be properly in
structed and disciplined. taught the differ
ence between right and wrong and made to
follow the leadings of right,
KEPT FROM BAD COMPANIONS
and from forming evil habits This respon-
sibility, say, is pretty generally realized.
But the text teaches a responsibility of
parents for their own character. The char
acter of the children depends not only
Upon what the parents say and do,
but upon what they are. The education of
a child ought to begin, some say, hundred
years before he is born. And plainly it does
begin, for good or bad,-a good many years
before that event. When you educate
your children you are educating your
grandchildren. In your children you will
see yourself
You know there is chain of cause and
effect stretching through all life. Every act |
and word and thought, itself an effect, be- |
comes In turn cause. And no cause fails |
of Its effect. All sowing is followed by |
some kind OF reaping. l knew a man of |
good family, whose reprobate soa sprang at |
him one day with knife, to kill him. Ali |
the evil OF that mans character had re- |
produced itself in that son. 1t was like |
the 'Strange Case of Dr. Jekvll and |
Mr.. Hyde. When that murderous as
sault was made it was as if all the
black side of the mans past life, all his own
strong passion and his ungoverned temper
had suddenly became embodied in human
shape, and had clutched him by the throat
The lesson of the text is not always printed
IN such large type as that, but it comes out
in some shape inevitably, and every time.
No sin In tnis world ever escapes pun
lshment. Sometimes the punishment comes
IN one way, sometimes in another, Some
times the sins of the parents are punished
by being visited upon their children. Thus
ELS slnot easy-gOing, good-natured neglect
Drought Its punishment when the news of
the battle came, and his sons were slain,
and the ark OF God was taken. 1t was Ellis
sin that smote him there, SO that he fell off
the bench backward and broke his neck.
30, too, came Samuel's punishment for a
similar sin. Straight out from the defect
In the Iather's character grew a manifesta-
tion of thar defect in the character of his
sons, and that was punishment enough.
BOUND TO APPEAR AGAIN
Your past life, the evil habits of it the
defects of it, the failures of it, will appear
again in some shape in the person of your
son: Ii You have wasted your strength he
viii be delicate sicklv child, in conse-
luence. If you have wasted your time he
viii have SLOW brain and an idle arm. like
Tours. To-day, as he is growing up beside
Tou, 1t is your character which is helping
o form his. The most potent influence in
he shaping OF life is an ideal YOU NAV
lever have formulated; the ideal of your
ife; your son has certainly never formn-
ated it, nevertheless you have an ideal and
our son knows it.
There are three kinds of people in this
vorld. Some are bent upon getting: some
Ipon doing; some upon being, To some the
'est thing in life is money; to others ,
to others, character. You are |
n one OF the three classes. Your son will I
robably be In the same class after Won.
,ou Will put him there by being what YOU l
re. :
We are greatly affected py other neonIe,s
yays of looking at things. The attitude | (
-hich people take toward certain onest;ons :
1huence and TO some extent determine onr {
ttitude. There is no argument so ner- !
1asive as attitude. The persistent position
one whom we respect in regard 10 ,nr