Democratic messenger. [volume] (Snow Hill, Md.) 1869-1973, 1902-10-04
INSANE FROM SIN"
Sunday Discourse By DR.. Chapman, the
Noted Pastor Evangelist.
The Effect Of Wrong Doing Upon the Mind
Self indulgence Ruins Men,
Sell Denial Makes Them.

pulpit orators. mas never preached more
dramatic and powerful sermon than the
following one, entitled Insane From Sin"
1t is founded on the text. In the tombs,
CRYING. and cutting himself with stones"
Mark 5: ).
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 cast out the evil spirits from the
man in the tombs, finding enough in him
TO NIL 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 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 sinfulness OF sin" I
desire to present it at this time in its eff
feet upon the mind. Insanity has been de-
scribed as a chronic disease OF the brain
inducing chronic disorder OF the mental
condition. vet there is a sense in which the
fevered patient in his delirium and the
drunkard in his excitement or stuDor 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 IL primarily,
diseased states OF the general system i'm
plicating 1t 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,
while in the second we behold an exhibi.
ton OF tina. insanity OF sin which is due
TO individual excuses or the breaking of
Gods laws. The Bible is full of illustra.
tions.
It is not necessary that should go to
an institution to find men who are insane.
turn to the pages of this old book and
read the story of Nebuchadnezzar, the
king. Now You see him on his hands and
knees eating grass. and his nails are like
birds Claws and his hair like eagles feath.
ers. Yet as we read we find he lifted his
ewes to heaven and God set him free.
There is not less for a 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 I. Samuel. second chap.
ter, and we see the man who wrote the
Twenty-third Psalm. David playing the
TOOL 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
whose face / had the privilege of seeing "a
n mummy in Esypt-the man who said,
Il will let the people go now if you will
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.
sane than the man who has promised ever
since he was a child that he would be a
Christian and give up sin, and is still its
slave
TURF, to the New Testament. and here
we ind the picture Of the Drodigal. When
dc 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. An. 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 to Christ.
I have been going through the institu.
tioss, where / have had the privilege OF
looking upon the insane people confined
there, and i have found out the following:
FIRST, many. people are insane because
OF the sins of their parents. Results OF
crime on future generations.
AT the recent meeting of the Congress
OF Criminal Anthropology at Geneva,
Switzerland, DIR. 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
: "a daana=n s&-1
drunken father to appetite ensiaved 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.
able symptoms OF degeneracy; sixty-three
cases OF mild insanity; lightweight were
mentally unsound; forty-five at times dam
gerously insane; many of the children
were weddings 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.
NAMED were all feeble minded and had
epileptic fits and prey to evil instincts.
ThIrty-nine families found commissions;
epilepsy IN fifty-two; hysteria in sixteen:
meningitis in FIVE; los families out of the
2l5 counted one out of every two indiyid-
uals victims OF periodical alcoholic deli
rum; lO6 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 and mothers had become common
drunkards with but eight exceptions. In
forty-two families he found chronic cases
OF commissions, and epilepsy in forty. In
iwenty-three families insanity exists.
Third Generation.
seven observations, or families, gave
aim total of seventeen children: all
acre mentally unsound and physically
fsunted; two were insane, four subject to
commissions. two. epilepsy, two hysteria,
cne meningitis, three serofula.
Summing up the sl4 cases found in the
rs families he found 322 per cent. were
alcoholics, 6O.9 per cent. are degenerates,
1873 per cent. morally irresponsible, 22.7
per cent. have commissions, nineteen Der
rent. are incurably insane; ia disap-
peared from this world before or almost be-
fore having drawn their first breath; nsie-
ty-thr=e cases of tuberculosis, which bring
the total OF those who died from heredit-
AIRY alcoholism up to one-third.
There - no fifth generation, for the last
zine Is micrccephalous idiot. Thus
Moses was right. as proven by science.
when he said, God visits the iniauities
OF the parents unto the third and fourth
generation of them that hate Him." There
is no fifth.
Sin is an awful thing. If could uncover
IL so that some of yeu could see it you
III nI- 1.a "a II