The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1891-09-28
Sins OF TEE FATHERS
Visited Upon the Children
Unto the Third and
Fourth Generation.
DR.. sCUDDER'S SOCIAL SERMON.
Would Have Laws by Which the
Evils of Heredity May be
Controlled and Finally
Eliminated.
DR.. scUDDER'S SOCIAL SERMON.


Rev. John L. Scudder last night for his
discourse
There was an unusual gathering in
the house of Elizabeth and Zachariah of
Judea one day." said Mr.. Scudder.
Relatives and friends were pouring in
with faces wreathed in smiles and lips
overflowing with congratulations. What
was the occasion of this extraordinary
demonstration, do you ask The same
old story, l answer; old as the race and
yet even new. They had come TO see the
new baby. They took it up in their
arms, examined it, talked baby talk to it,
and declared 1t to be perfectly lovely.
Some maintained that it looked like the
mother, others that it was the exact i'm
age Of the father; although at that early
stage Of it's existence, il resembled
neither of them and looked only like its
own dear self.
''The name of this particular child was
John, and give you the answer to their
parting question, What manner of child
shall this be, when / add that he was
none other than John the Baptist, the
greatest among the Old Testament
prophets and the forerunner of Christ.
II said this was a great event, and so it
and at all times.
ONE SECOND.
''The birth of single child so far as
the great mass of humanity is concern ed
is a very insignificant event, for children
are born on this globe at the rate OF one
every second. Men come and 40 like the
leaves of the forest, and yet to each
father and mother the birth of their child
Is a prodigious happiness. A new born
babe is pretty small affair, admit, and
yet his advent represents a great occa-
sion in the domestic circle. have seen
father SO joyously disturbed over the
birth Of son that he could not attend o
business properly. He would infor m
every acquaintance of the new arrival.
I'm establishing this series Of dis
courses on domestic problems ! have
commenced witt. tile baby not only be-
cause he Is first III order, but because as
matter of tact be constitutes the most
important problem OF existence. Elim-
mate the baby and In 100 years you wipe
out the human race. Babyhecd is the
starting point of everything human.
LEGAL RESTRICTIONS.
"The question Of the text, What man.
ner of child shall this be- is of such mo-
mentous nature that it ought to be asked
and answered by every father and
mother both before and after birth; botn
on account of the health and happiness OF
And in order to effect this. the State
should put certain restrictions about
marriage and see that they are rigidly en-
forced. The baby mentioned in the text
developed into a noble, vigorous man
and became an honor to his parents and
most useful member of society. This
glorious outcome was the result of well
defined conditions.
1.-THE character of Jchn the Baptist was
determined by the heredity of his parents |;
by their physical struggle and moral
principle; by the education be received at
home and the environments of his earlier
years, l wish to affirm and substant1ate
that the existence, the health and the
moral nature Of the child.are determined
Co very large extent by the father and
mother.
TALKING COMMON SENSE.
"Now you will excuse me II proceed at
once to talk common sense. claim that
unless child has fair prospect of pos
sessing strong physical constitution and
thus becoming a comfort to itself and
capable of earning livelihood in tho
great struggle OF existence, il has no right
to exist. BY this. OF course, do not
mean that all sickly children should be
put out of the way as soon as they are
born, as was the custom among the
SparJans, who probably produced the
finest class of men, physically
speaking, the world has ever seen, and is
practiced in various parts of the earth
today among semi-civiiized people, who
although guilty of infanticide. do never
theiess, save vast amount of suffering by
this heroic treatment 1t so happens.
however, that we are not savages and do
not believe in child murder even to avert
a life long misery. We can arrive at the
same results without any infraction OF
the moral law. To destroy life once in
avicfouna 10 a OriavOna ain. bnt tn de-
termine that haman being shall not
exist unless it can be provided with q
healthy body and a sound mind, Is SOL
emn duty which every rational creature
should heed and practice.
.We are intelligent beings and God
has put the power OF foreordination in
our hands. We can determine whether
coming generations shall be weak or
strong There are multitudes Of people
in this world today who ought never to
have been born. They never had a fair
start. They have been terribly handi-
capped by the weaknesses. vices and
diseases of their progenltors; and rightly
enough they curse the day they were ever
born. They were not consulted as TO th Q
propriety and probable happiness or their
own existence. In the nature of the
case they could not have been consulted,
but nevertheless they had lights which
ought to have been taken into considera-
ton. The rights OF unborn generations.
by the way, is branch of ethics which
has been overlooked this far. but ought
to form part of our moral PHILOSOPHERS
without delay.
HEREDITY'S POISON.
"If a man has no right to poison his
child by pouring strychnine down its
throat he has no right to bring it into
the world with the poison of hereditary
disease in its veins. confess l stand
amazed before the monumental Ignorance
of fathers and mothers concerning COM
mon physiological principles with which
every parent should be familiar, and the
equal or greater amount OF Indifference
in society respecting the well
fare OF coming generations. One half of
all who are born to this world die before
their fourteenth birthday. OF the great
majority of this number it must be ad-
mitted that their heredity, their environ
lnents or the ignorance of their parents
was against them Who ever heard of
kittens, puppies, calves or colts dying off,
one half of them. before they reach ma
turitys But man, who is supposed to know
more than all Of them put together,
his ignorance aud folly allows
half of his progeny to die off before the
of the children born IN the Mulberry dis
trict In New York die before they are five
years old. | know not what you call
such terrible infant mortality, but 1 call
it murder.
ADM0NITIoN NEEDED.
'How many parents think of these
things? How could they be expected to
think Of them, when they have received