The county record. [volume] (Kingstree, S.C.) 1885-1975, 1902-10-02

new testament CudDlSl III "H4Nh NH'
Lord is represented as having power over
devils. disease and death. Over devils
when He cast out the evil spirits from the
man in the tombs, finding enough ~ hun
to fill q herd Of swine. and enough SWINE
to FIJI the sea. as an Old preacher I'd to
say: over disease when He healed tbs
woman who had faith enough to touch
His garments hem. and power over death
when He stands at the home of Jalrus and
commands his little daughter 70 awake
and restores her to her weeping parents:
1t is a comforting chapter in the light OF
the fact that He is the same yesterday, to-
day and forever.
In speaking OF "the sinfuiness or sin l
desire to present it at this time IN Its ef-
feet ufon the mind. Insanity has been de
scribed as a chronic disease OF the brain
inducing chronic disorder of the mental
condition. yet there is a sense in which the
fevered patient in his deiirlum and the
.drunkar6 in his excitement or stupor Is
insane. There are two kinds of insanity.
first. c~oagcnital, or that which is inherited
where brain DEVELOPMENT Is arrested. Sec
ond. acquired. OF 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.
piicating it s~ecoudariiy. In our treatment
OF this theme I 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,
while in the second we behold an eXhibi-
ton Of that insanity of sin which is due
to individual excuses or the breaking OF
Gods laws. The Bible is full of illustra-
tions.
1t is not necessary that l should go TO
an institution to find men who are insane.
I,tnrn to the pages of this old book and
FAD the story OF Nebuchadnezzar. the
bins Now YOU see him on his hands and
Knees eating grass, and his nails are ike
:, BIRDS claws and his hair ike eagles fcath-
ers. Yet as we read we find he lifted his
ewes to heaven and God set him free.
There is rot less for 4 man in this City Of
New York-no matter what his bondage
If he viii but lift his eyes up he may be
free.
Then we turn to |. Samuel. second chap-
ter, and we see the nan who wrote the
Twenty-th:rd Psalm. David paying the
fool before the mar Of whom he was
afraid. ~crouching upon The sides o. the
door posts and becoming disgusting.
In the tenth chapter of Exodus we read
the story o. the man who was the king
whose FACE 7 had the privilege OF seeing as
q mummy in Egypt-the man who said.
81 will let the people go now If You viii
take away the swarm OF fies-if YOU will
take away the frogs" And the frogs
were taken away. and the flies. and he
did not let them go. for God hardened his
heart-an insane man. but not more in
since he was a child that he would be 4
Christian ard give up sin, and is still its
slave.
Turn to the New Testament. and here
we md the picture IF the prodigal. When
he came to himself-when he was not him
self he was satisfied with swine, so long
as 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,
with the memory of a sweet mother back
in Ohio. who has stepped into the evil Of
sin in New York and turned his face
away from Christ. he is insane. 1t is the
hope of the minister and the PRAYER Of at
least one hundred people in this church
that during this series OF meetings some
of these Young men may come to them.
selves, and then come 10 Christ.
I have been going through the institu.
tions, where | have had the privilege of
looking upon the insane people confined
there, and | have found oil the following:
First, many people are insane because
nnof the sins OF their parents. Results OF
crime on future generations.
AT the recent meeting OF the Congress
OF Criminal Anthropo!ogy at Geneva,
SA4tserland, DR.. Legrain, physician-in-
chief of the asylum OF Nille-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:
how in such soil the seeds OF crime and
madness develop and ripen in the last gem
Grafton into sterile idiocy and the extinc.
ton 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-
abe symptoms OF degeneracy; siyty-three
cases Of mild insanity; lightweight were
mentally uiisound; forty-ive at times dan
gerously insane; many of the children
were weaklings 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-
manned were all feeble minded and had
epiieptic fits and a prey to evil instincts.
Thirty-nine families found commissions:
epilepsy in ffty-two: hysteria in sixteen:
meningitis in FIVE; LOS families out OF the
2l5 counted one out of every two individ-
uals victims of periodical alcoholic deli
rum; LOG families OF the 2l5 insanity had
developed.
Second Generation.
N~inety-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, UNI
timely births, extraordinary mortality
and hereditary diseases caused the children
to die in appalling numbers. At this stage
fathers and mothers had become common
drunkards with but eight exceptions. In
forty-two families be found chronic cases
OF commissions, and epilepsy in forty. In
twenty-three families insanity exists.
Third Generation.
Seven observations, or families. gave
him a total of seventeen children; all
were mentally unsound and physically
Istunted: two were insane, four subject to
sonvuisions. two Ell depsy, two hysteria,
one meningitis, three s~crofula.
Summing up the Sl4 cases found in the
2l5 families he found 1922 per cent. were
alcoholics, 500 per cent. are degenerates,
1879 per cent. morally irresponsible, 22.7