The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1902-10-15
A SERMON FOR SUNDAY
AN ELOQUENT DISCOURSE ENTITLED
INSANE FROM SIM"

fhc Rev. DR.. J.wilbur Chapman Presents
In n Vivid Way tho Effect OF Wrong
Doing Upon the ulgence
Ruin. Men. se,f.Denlal Makes Them.
New YORK CITY.-The Rev. Dr. VIII
bur Chapman. the most popular OF our
pulpit orators. has never preached more
dramatic and powerful sermon than the
It is founded on the text, I'm the tombs,:
crvinc and cutting himself with stones.
Mark 5: s..
You a.e doubtless familiar with this
New Testament chapter in which our
Lord is represented as having power over
!, devils. disease and death. Over devils
when He cas-. out the evil spirits from the
man in the tombs. finding enough in him
to FIJI herd OF swine. and enough swine
to fill the sea, as an old preacher used to
say: over disease when He healed the
woman who had faith enough to touch
His garments hem, and power over death
when He stands at the home OF Jairus and
commands his little daughter to awake
and restores h q to her weeping parents.
It is a comforting chapter in the light OF
the fact that He is the same yesterday, to-
day and forever.
In speaking of "the sinfulness of sin" I
desire to present it at this time in its ef-
| feet upon the mind. Insanity has been de-
scribed as chronic disease of the brain
inducing chronic disorder OF the mental
condition, yet there is a sense in which the
| fevered patient in his delirium and the
drunkard in his excitement or stupor is
| insane There are two kinds OF insanity.
first. congenital. or that which is inherited
where brain DEVELOPMENT is arrested. Sec.
ond. acquired. or that in which the brain
is born healthy, but has suffered from
morbid processes affecting it primarily,
diseased states Of the general system i'm.
plicating it secondarily. In our treatment
OF this theme have to do with both OF
these for in the first We see how the sins
of the fathers are visited upon the children
unto the third and fourth generations,
tion Of that insanity of sin which is due
to individual excesses or the breaking of
Gods laws The Bible is full Of illustra.
tions.
It is not necessary that should 80 to
an institution to find men who are insane.
I turn to the pages OF this old book and
read the story Of Nebuchadnezzar. the
king. Now you sec him on his hands and
knees eating grass, ard his nails are like
birds claws and his hair like eagles feath.
ers. Yet as we read we find he lifted his
eyes to heaven and God set him free:
There is not less for man in this City Of
| New York-no matter what his bondage
il he win but lift his eyes up he may be
| FREE.
Then we turn to I. Samuel. second chap
| ter, and We see the m:n who wrote the
Twenty.third Psalm. David playing the
| fool before the man OF whom he was
afraid, crouching upon the sides Of the
door posts and becoming disgusting. =.
In the tenth chapter Of Exodus we read
the story of the man who was the king
0 mummy in Egypt-the man who said.
az will let the people 90 now il you will
take away the Swarm Of Aies-if you will
take away the frogs" And the frogs
were taken away, and the flies, and be
did not let them 60. for God hardened his
heart-an insane man, but not more in
sane than the man who has promised ever
since he was a child that he would be q
Christian and give up sin, and is still its
slave.
Turn to the New Testament. and here
we find the picture Of the prodigal. When
| he came to himself-when he was not him
self he was satisfied with swine, 50 long
rs he had forgotten his father and his
| mother, whom tradition says he killed.
he was satisfied. but when he came to
himself he was not All, the young man,
vith the memory Of a sweet mother back
in Ohio, who has stepped into the evil Of
sin in New York and turned his foce
away from Christ. he is insane. It is the
hope of the minister and the prayer of at
least one hundred people in this church
OF these young men may come to them
selves, and then come to Christ.
have been going through the institu.
tions, where have had the privilege Of
| there, and have found out the following:
First, many people are insane because
| Of the sims OF their parents. Results Of
crime on future generations.
At the recent meeting Of the Congress
| Of Criminal Anthropology at Geneva,
Switzerland, Dr.. Legrain. physician.in.
chief Of the asylum Of Ville-Evrard, gave
the results Of his investigation, which ex.
tended over a period OF years and showed
how sin, like disease. is transmitted from
drunken father to appetite ens!aved son I:
| madness develop and ripen in the last yen.
GRAFTON into sterile idiocy and the extihc-
| tion of the race.
First Generation.
| He traced the course OF four generations
| of drinkers in 2l5 families. One hundred
and sixty.eight families showed unmistak-
able symptoms OF degeneracy; sixty-three
cases Of mild insanity; eighty-eight were
mentally unsound; forty.five at times dan.
gerously insane; many OF the children
were weakhngs and died at an early age,
six out of eight in one case, ten out of six
teen in another: These six latter who re-
mained were oil feeble minded and had
epileptic its and prey to evil instincts.
Thirty.nine families found convulsions;
epilepsy in ffty.two; hysteria in sixteen !;
meningitis in FIVE; l0S families out of the
us counted one out of every two individ-
uals victims of periodical alcoholic deli.
rum; l06 families Of the 2l5 insanity had
developed.
Second Generation.
| Ninety-eight observations gave the fol-
lowing: Fifty.four families had one or
more members who were imbeciles or
idiots; twenty-three families there were
those who were morally irresponsible, un-
Timely births, extraordinary mortality
and hereditary diseases caused the children
to die in appalling numbers. At this stage
fathers End mothers had become common
drunkards with but eight exceptions. In
forty-two families he found chronic cases
OF convulsions, and epilepsy in forty. In
twenty.three families insanity exists.
| Third Generation.
| seven oDservatlonS, or famliles, gave
him total Of seventeen children; all
were mentally unsound and physically
stunted; two were insane, four subject to
convulsions. two epilepsy. two hysteria,
one meningitis, three scrofula.
| Summing up the Sli cases found in the
us families he found 322 per cent. were
alcoholics, coo per cent. are degenerates.
1879 per cent. morally irresponsible, 227
per cent. have convulsions, nineteen per
cent are incurably insane; Ia disap.
| ,,o,ra1 frorn 49,, ,,orlJ bar,ra -, .l,.o.. -