Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1898-04-07

with the current, from what il is to
swim against the current, rs some of
you have, no doubt, found in your sum
in an ancestral current, where there is
good blood flowing smoothly from gen.
Grafton to generation, it is not very
great credit to him If he turns out good.
and honest, and pure, and noble. He
could hardly help it. But suppose
Ne is born in an ancestral line, in an
/ ereditary line, where the influences
as We been bad, and there has been .
&C, ling down over q moral declevity,
K tNe man surrender to the Influences
ae " III go down under the overmaster-
.Gg aviation unless some supernat-
1rs! be afforded him. Now, such q
9sracr deserves not your eNcoriatlon,
Dirt y"n pity. Do not sit with the lip
ccsla& :. scorn, and with an assumed
ar OK cas- lie innocence looking down
upon C@e!: moral precipitation. You
ARd be;tez get down on your knees
and arst pray Almighty God for their
rescue, aa6 nsvt thank the Lord that
..Tou heys not Eeen thrown under the
heels Of that j,ggernaut.
Ia Great Britain and in the United
Sta ga, in every y 'neration, there are
tenI Of thousands persons who are
fully developed ninals and incar-
ceratt /. I say l., very generation.
Then i Suppose ,'e5s are tens of thou
sands per2j.,s as. und out in their
criminal ". IL u-,.,-,, ITO these there
are tens thousands - persons who,
not positiv ,ty ne.@.1 'iminals, new
ertheless ~ cg;D,,' tendency.
Any one of il sh>- Ne ,nds by the
grace of God ,,5J a-,c]an Christian,
and resist the .acc5.I&l 80, 80, snce, and
open new chapter OF b>havior;
but the vast l. ajority CT thcla w.
not, and it becomes all uon, p-ofoSr
sional unprofess;onal, ministers of re-
ligion, judges OF courts, philanthro-
pists, and Christian workers, to recog.
nize the fact that there are these At
lantic and Pacific surges Of hereditary
evil rolling On through the centuries.
l say, of courrs, n man can resist this
tendency, just rs in the ancestral limo
mentioned in >he arst chapter of Mat.
thew. You see &c same !:-s L.,
which there was I'D heao3ocr-.
and desperate T"e .t',, y, - ..iuer-
ward came q piouA ,.,ifA a glori-
GUS Christ. But, my Ids, you must
recognize the fact chat these influ-
ences go on from generation to genera
ton. l am glad to know, however,
that river which has produced moth.
ing but miasma for 100 miles, may,
after awhile, turn the wheels of fac
tories and help support Industrious
and virtuous populations; and there are
family lines which were poisoned that
are benediction now. AT the last
day it will be found out that there are
men who have gone clear over into all
forms of iniquity and plunged into
utter abandonment, who, before they
yielded to the first temptation, resisted
more evil than many man who has
been moral and upright all his life.
But, supposing now, that in this age,
when there are so many good people,
that come down into this audience
and select the verybest man in it. do
not mean the man who would style
himself the best, for probably he is a
hypocrite; but l mean the man who be-
fore God is really the best. will
take you out from all your Christian
surroundings. l will take you back
to boyhood. / will put you in a
depraved home. will put you in
cradle of iniquity. Who is
bending over that cradle? An in.
toxicated mother. WHO is that
swearing in the next room? Your
father. The neighbors come in and
talk, and their jokes are unclean.
There is not in the house Bible or a
moral treatise, but only a few scraps
of an old pictorial.
After awhile you arc old enough to
get out of the cradle, and you are
struck across the head for naughtiness
but never in any kindly manner repri-
manded. After awhile you are old
enough to go abroad, and you are sent
out with il basket to steal. If you
come home without any spoil you are
whipped until the blood comes. At Is
years Vi dSc you 20 out W nRht your
own battles in this world, which seems
to care no more for you than the
dog that has died of fit under the
fence. You are kicked and
cuffed and buheted. Some day, rally.
ing your courage, you resent some
wrong. man says: WHO are you?
| know who you are. Your father had
free lodgings at Sing Sing Your
mother. she was up for drunkenness at
the criminal court. Get ont of my
way, you iow-lived wretch!, My broth
err, suppose that had been the history
of your advent. and the history OF you,
earlier surroundings, would yo. have
been the Christian man you are to-day
seated in this Christian assembly?
tell you nay You would have been q
vagabond. an outlaw, a murderer or
the scaffold atonng for your crime
All these considerations ought to make
US merciful in our dealings with the
wandering and the lost.
Opposition to knicKerbockers,
said the golden-haired dreamer. "is
simply evidence Of narrowness Of
mind