The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-01-28
MINISTER'S SONS.
They Are Far Better Than They Are
Represented to Be.

Represented to Be.
The French scientist and skeptic, De
Candolle, has been making some original
investigations, which disclose results in
teresting and inspiring This noted sa-
want conclusively shows that science and
learning are especially indebted TO the
sons of clergymen. More than this, he
makes strong argument against the
celibacy of the clergy. AS he claims, lin
clerical families, their manner of life,
their quiet regularity, their residence
largely in the country, their counsels to
their children, the absence of various
causes of dissipation, the habitual vigil
lance of tne father and his do
nestle example Of study, surpass-
ing the advantages of other families, give
all the greater force to the transmission
of faculties appropriate to cultivation Of
the sciences" Good testimony from an
independent source and a keen observer.
De CandOlle further afiirms that the sons
of clergymen have actually outnumbered
for 200 years in their contributions to the
roll of eminent scientists, any other class
of families, not excepting those of the di-
rectly scientific professions phy Sicians,
surgeons and chemists Among the sons
of pastors he enumerates, who were
distinguished as scientists and scholars,
are Agassiz, Berzelius, Boerhaave,
Encke, Euler, Linnaus, Oilers and host
of others. Among historians and philoso-
pliers, he cites Hallam, Hobbies, Emerson,
Sismondi and long list of equally great
names The opportunity for sons to fol-
low their fathers calling, he claims,
makes divinity cOnspicuously hereditary,
in such noteworthy pulpit lights and
writers as Jonathan Edwards, Arch bishop
Whately, Robert Hall, Lightfoot, the
Wesleys, Lowth, Stillingaeet, the
Beechers and Spurgeons. This list
might be indefinitely extended, as is
well known to all familiar with the an
nails of clergymen. Among the emf
ment sons of ministers De Cardolle
names, of poets, Young, Cowper Thorn
son, COleridge, Montgomery, Heber,
Tennyson, Lowell and others. Then, as
to distinguished lights in intellectual
philosophy, there are such sons as Dugald
Stewart, Cudworth, Reid, Brown, ,Aber-
crombie and Bentham In the field of
literature ministers sons have been num-
erous and notable, as witness Swift, Lock
hart, Macaulay, Sterne, Hazlitt, Thack-
cray, Bancroft, Emerson, Holmes, King
sley and Mathew Arnold.
There may be included as architects
Sir Christopher Wren; as artists. Sir
Joshua Reynolds, and among heroic
characters, Lord Nelson. Nor are the
daughters of clergymen overlooked, since
in this list are mentioned Madam Trollope,
Mrs. Barbauld, Jane Taylor, Elizabeth
Carter, the Brontes and Mrs. Stowe.
This would not exhaust the showing, but,
as the finding Of De Candolle will COM
mand attention on both sides of the water,
we could add that the ranks of the clergy
are largely recruited from the sons of the
clergy Ministers and missionaries, the
world over, are to great extent the sons
OF clergymen. The papers and critics
which have delighted in giving currency
TO the exploded SANDER that the sons Of
ministers turn out badly, will find some
Wholesome information in this learned
Frenchman's discoveries The Advance
The above clipping from The Advance
refutes an old charge that is often exult-
ingly used to the discredit of religion
that the sons of men eminent for piety
are worse than others. With many a
preachers son is the synonym of wicked
ness. But careful examination of sta
tistics shows that the proportion of chill
dren of pious parents who become reli-
gious men and women as related to those
who do not is more than five to one. For
a number of years we were connected
with the board of education of one of our
most prominent southern colleges; and
the ministerial students who were the
sons of ministers greatly outnum bered
the others. There We're few, if any,
from ungOdly families. The design
of God in the constitution of the Chris
tian family is to make it the foundation
of virtue and the citadel of piety. The
church is indebted to the Christian
household for the greater part of her
membership, and TO the families of
preachers for some of the most
brilliant ornaments that adorn the
pulpit But it is fact that
deserves our serious consideration that
when the children of pious parents do
break away from the restraints of re-
ligious education they do become worse
than the average of wicked men, for the
resistance which they overcome
is greater a steel spring re-
coils in exact proportion to the
force with which it has been bent
in the opposite direction. Similar is
the law of character. The child of
religious parents when he does be-
com Il reprobate, goes further in wicked
ness than the child of the irreligious,
because the restraining force that held
him back was greater, aud his depravity
Will be in exact ratio to the resistance
overcome There is only one man, whose
history is recorded in the Bible, who
broke away from the restraints and the
example of a religious father, who was
reclaimed by the grace of God and brought
to repentance. Any youth incurs fear
full risk who is unfaithful to a godly an
cestry. $. A. GOODWIN.