Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1896-08-04

Jockey. Tide OF evil tremendous IA
some families. 1t is like Niagara Rap.
ids, AMI yet men have chung to a rock
and been rescued. There is a family
in New York, whose wealth has rolled
up into many millions, that was found
ed by man who after he had vast
estate sent back a paper of tacks be-
cause they were two cents more than
he expected Grip and grind and gouge
in the fourth generation-I suppose il
will be grip and grind and gouge in the
twentieth generation. The thirst of in
toxicants has burned down through
the arteries of hundred and fifty
years. Pugnacity or combativeness
characterizes other families. Some.
times one form of evil, sometimes am
other form of evil. But it may be re.
sisted. it has been resisted. If the fam.
lily frailty be avarice, cultivate unset
fishness and charity, and teach your
children never to eat an apple without
Offering somebody else half of it. Is
the family frailty combativeness, keep
out of the company of quick-tempered
people, and never answer an imperti-
nent question until you have counted
hundred both ways. and after you
have written an angry letter, keep 1t a
week before you send it, and then burn
it up. Is the family frailty timidity
and cowardice, cultivate backbone;
read the biography of brave men like
Joshua or Paul and see if you cannot
get a little iron in your blood. Find
out what the family frailty is, and set
body, mind, and soul In battle array.
Conquer you will. l think the genoa
logical table was put in the first chap
ter of the New Testament not only to
show our Lords pedigree, but to show
that man may rise up in an ancestral
line and beat back successfully all the
influences of bad heredity. See in that
genealogical table that good King Asa
was born of vile King Abba. See in
that genealogical table that Joseph and
Mary and the most illustrious Being
that ever touched our world, or ever
will touch it, had in their ancestral
line scandalous Rehoboam and Rahab
and Thamar and Bathsheba II this
world is ever to be Edenized-and II
will be-all the infected families of tho
earth are to be regenerated and there
will some one arise in each family line
and open new genealogical table.
There will be some Joseph to arise in
the line and reverse the evil influence
OF Rehoboam, and there will be some
Mary to arise in the line and reverse
the evil influence of Bathsheba Per-
haps the star Of hope may point down
to your manger Perhaps you are to
be the hero or the heroine that is to
put down the brakes and stop that long
line of genealogical tendencies and
switch it off on another track from that
on which it has been running for a
century. You do that and will prom
Use you as fine a place as the architects
of heaven can build the archway in
scribed with the words: More than
conqueror." But whatever your hered-
ity, let me say you may be sons and
daughters of the Lord God Almighty.
Estranged children from the home
stead, come back through the open gate
of adoption. There is royal blood in
our veins, there are crowns on our es-
cutcheon, our Father is King, our
Brother is King. We may be kings and
queens unto God forever. Come and sit
down on the ivory bench of the palace.
Come and wash in the fountains that
fall into the basins of crystal and
alabaster. Come and look out of the
upholstered window upon gardens OF
aZalea and amarantb. Hear the full
burst of the orchestra while you ban
quet with potentates and victors. Oh!
when the text sweeps backward, let il
not stop at the cradle that rocked your
infancy, but at the cradle that rocked
the first world, and when the text
sweeps forward, let it not stop at your
grave. but at the throne on which you
may reign, forever and ever. Whose
son art thou, thou young man." Son
of God! Heir OF immortality! Take
your inheritance!