Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1898-11-18
LAWS OF HEREDITY.
Rev. DR.. Talmage Discourses Upon
Parental Influence.
The Laws of Heredity Apply to the Moral
as Well MS to the Physical Being
Good or bad Influences
VIII Tell.

In the following discourse Rev. T..
Dewitt Talmage pictures parental in
fluence and its effect on chidren's
children. The text is; The unfeigned
faith that is in thee, which dwelt first
in thy grandmother Lois.-lI. Tim
9th, l.. 8.
In this pastoral letter which Paul,
the old minister, is writing to limo
thy, the young minister, the family
record is brought out. Paul practical
ly says; "Timothy, what u good
grandmother you had! You ought to
be better than most folks, because not
only was your mother good, but your
grandmother was also good. Two pre-
ceding generations of piety ought to
give you mighty push in the right
direction. THE fact was that limo
thy needed encouragement. He was
in poor health, having weak stom-
ach, and was dyspcptic, and Paul
prescribed for him a tonic, "a little
wine for thy stomach's sake"-not
much wine; but little wine, and only
as medicine. And If the wine then
had been rs much adulterated with
logwood and strychnine rs our modern
wines, he would not have prescribed
any.
But Timothy, not strong physically,
is encouraged spiritually by the re-
cital of grandmotherly excellence,
Paul limiting TO him, as hint this day
to you, that God sometimes gathers up
as in reservoir, away back OF the
active generations Of to-day, goodly
influence, and then, in response to
prayer, let's down the power upon
children and grandchildren and
at-grandchildren. The world is
woefully in want OF table of stats
tics in regard to what is the protract-
edness and immcnsity of influence OF
one good woman in the church and
world. We have accounts OF how
much evil has been wrought by n
woman who lived nearly 100 years ago,
aud of how many criminals her de-
scendants furnished the pcnitentlary
and the gallows, and how many hun
dreds of thousands of dollars they cost
our country in their arraignment and
prison support, as well as in the prop
erty they burglarized and destroyed,
will not some one come out with brain
comprehensive enough, and heart
warm enough, and pen keen enough
| TO give us the facts in regard to some
good woman of 100 years ago, and let
us know how many Christian men and
women and reformers and useful peo'
pie have been found among her de-
scendants, and how many asylums
and colleges and churches they built
and how many millions of dollars they
contributed for humanitarian ant
Christian purposes?
| The good women whose tombstones
were planted in the eighteenth cen
fury are more alive for good in the
nineteenth century than they were be
fore, as the good women of this nine
teenth century will be more alive TO
good in the twentieth century thar
now. Mark YOU. have no idea tina
the grandmothers were any bette
than their granddaughter. You cal
not get very old people to talk mucl
about how things were when the,
were boys and girls. They have re
thence and non-committalism whicl
mikes me think they feel themselve
TO be the custodians Of the reputation
of their early comrades. While on
lies of the present, if we put them OF
the witness stand and cross-examin,
them as to how things were 20 year
ago. the silence becomes oppressive.
The celebrated Frcnchman, Volncy
visited this country in 1896 and he say
OF woman's diet IN those times: "If
premium was offered for regimen
most destructive to health, none coul,
be devised more efiicacious for thes
ends than that in use among these pee
Pile THAT eclipscs our lobster salad n
midnight. Everybody talks about tn
dissipation of modern society and HOY
wonanly health goes down under ii
but it was worse 100 years ago, for tn
chaplain OF Il French regiment in GU
revolutionary war wrote in 1882, in hi
Book of American Women" saying
They are tall and well proportional
their features are generally regular
their complications are generally fai
and without color. AT 20 years of ag
the women have no longer the fresh
ness OF youth. At 80 or 40 theey ar
dccrepit." In 1912 u foreign consu
wrote u book entitled, "A Sketch Of tn
United States at the Commencement G
the Present Century" and he says c
the women of those times: AT tn
age of 80 all their charms have disaI
peared." One glance at the portrait
Of the women 100 years ago and thei
style OF dress makes us wonder no,
they ever got their breath. All thi
makes me think that the express ra
train is no more Of an improvement
on the old canal boat, or the telegrap
no more an improvement on the ole
time saddlebags, than the women c
our day are an improvement on tn
women of the last century.
But still, Notwithstanding that thos
times were so much worse than our
there was a glorious race Of goodl
women, 70 and 100 years ago, VIII
held the world back from sin and lif
ed it toward virtue, and without thei
exalted and sanctified influence befoI
this the last good influence woul
have persisted from the earth. lndee'
all over this land there are seated t.
day-not so much in churches, fo
many of them are too feeble to come
"a great many aged grandmother
They sometimes feel that the worl
has gone past them, and they have u
idea that they are of little accoun