The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-11-09
INFLUENCE OF HEREDITY
ITS RELATION TO SIN DISCUSSED By
REV. ALBERT HURLSTONE.
The Sins of the Fathers Are Visited
on the Children-An Interest,"
ing Discourse.

| Park Methodist Episcopal Church last
night the first of series of sermons on the
| Making of Manhood" Text: John iii, 8:
THAT which is born of the flesh is flesh;
| and that which is born of the spirit is
spirit He said:
1.-The problem of heredity is illustrated in
nature. recognized in revelation and grap-
| pied with in experience. The teachings or
science upon this subject have reinforced
! the teaching of the Bible. The question OF
the transmission of physical and mental
| peculiarities. qualities o. disease from
| parent TO offspring. is of such vast impor-
lance that may profitably glance first
at the facts and then consider their bearing
upon our moral responsibility.
| 1.-The doctrine of science is that there is
as much heredity in crime as in consump-
| ton, cancer or insanity, so we are reminded
that what Scripture speaks of as the
| inquity of the fathers, and biography
parental influences, biology would call
| 'heredity.' Darwin says: 1t is remarkable
| that all the evils coming from alcoholism
can pass from father to son, even to the
| third generation, and they become worse
If the use of alcohol is continued until they
| result in sterility.' An eminent medical
! authority in France has said the indelible
effects produced by heredity are not to be
remedied. Alcoholic descendants are often
inferior beings. a notable proportion coming
under the categories of idiots. imbeciles
| and debilitated. The morbid influence of
| parents is maximum when conception has
taken place at the time of drunkenness of
one or both parties. Those with heredity
| alcoholism show tendency to excess; half
| or them become alcoholics. A large num-
Der or cases of neurosis have their prin-
| cipal cause in heredity. The larger part
| of the sons of alcoholics have commissions
| In early infancy. Epilepsy is almost char
acteristic CT the alcoholism Of parents.
| Joseph Cook speaks of seven laws of hered-
itary descent, direct heredity being the
usual action of the laws of descent. Re-
versional heredity occurs when the child
redity when the child resembles uncle or
aunt Coequal heredity is that law by
which, in the large average, the members
of the two sexes are mysteriously pre-
served In substantial equality. A form of
| heredity called pre-marital is seen when
the child OF second or third marriage
resembles the husband in previous mar
riage. Pre-nat tai heredity is observed where
good or bad, fortunate unfortunate, in
huences which have powerfully affected the
mother as such are exhibited in good or
the life of the child
1T is said that the mother of Napoleon
literature. and that her moods of mind were
transferred to her son. The seventh law
or initial heredity refers to the temporary
mood, good or bad, fortunate or unfortu-
nate, OF parents when they become such.
These are simple statements of the facts
as observed in nature. Darwin says: The
laws governing inheritance are for the most
part unknown. No one can say why the
the same popularity in different indvidu-
ais or the same species, or in different
species, is sometimes inherited and some
times not so. why the child often reverts
In certain characteristics TO its grandfather
or grandmother or more remote ancestor;
4 G n fen fra Sr,ortf tod fro,
one sex to both sexes, or TO one sex alone
more commonly but not exclusively to the
IKE sex; 1t is fact of some Importance
males or our domestic breeds are often
transmitted either exclusively in a much
| greater degree to the males alone much
more important rule, which | think NAV
be trusted. Is that, at whatever period of
life popularity first appears, it tends to
| reappear In the offspring at a correspond
ing age, though sometimes earlier
MORAL TREATMENT OF QUESTION.
"Of Importance to us in the moral treat
ment of this question is the fact illustrated
by medical writer's, of the convertibiity of
disease. The constitutional defect appear
ing In family In one generation is not
necessarily transmitted in that exact form
to succeeding generations. What appears
at one time as insanity will reveal itself at
another as epilepsy paralysis; convul-
sions will reassert themselves as hysteria
or insanity; insanity is converted into a
tendency to suicide, the suicidal tendency
Will become mania for drinking; what is
ne9faigia In the father may be melancholia
ton may be apoplexy in the next. In an
afflicted family the constitutional defect
| has curious qualifications and underooes
strange metamorphoses.'
AS with physical defects and deformities
SO II h is with mora moral imRerfections The past
tendencies are transmitted from generation
to generation. Our physical. intellectual
and moral characteristics are an inher-
itance. Men are born liars, drunkards
thieves. murderers, as others are born
truth-loving and tender-hearted. 1t is one
of the proverbs in all literature that men
are born poets orators, warriors
Revelation recognizes this great law In
the second commandment God is said to
visit the iniquities of the fathers upon the
children unto the third and fourth genera
ton. The facts Of hereditary were so
we'll observed by the Israelites that IL be-
came proverb. The fathers have eaten
sour grapes and the children's teeth are
set on edge Paul recognized the brighter
side of this great doctrine in his letter to
timothy; When L call to remembrance
dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and
thy mother Eunice. When the Jews cried
out before Plate; HIS blood be on US and
prayer which embodied this great truth
The Master himself said: That which is
born of the flesh is flesh and that which Is
born of the spirit is spirit There can he
but little doubt that blood counts and that
the education of the child should be begun
hundred years before its BIRTH Emerson
! was the product of seven generations of
clergymen. President Dwight said: Let
him who would be great select the right
parents
Experience comedies with nature and
revelation. We find this terrible law at
work. The infant, which has done no evil.
may inherit evil. We often bring with us
most terrific predispositions. such as infiict
upon us unhappiness throughout life We
find, too, all evils are one in root and
essence. Lying passes into thievins thiev-
ing into drunkenness, drunkenness into
lust. lust into hate, hate into murder AS
diseases are convertible. so are vices There
may be constitutional bodily defect and
the unhappy harvest will be deformity. in
sanity, dipsomania, epilepsy, paralysis an
oplexy, the hereditary law may deter
! mine So moral defect may issue In a
long catalogue of sins. Lust when IL ha IN
conceived beareth sins; and the sin when
it Is full grown, bringeth forth death
Consider the bearing of these facts upon
our moral responsibility. Does the teach
ing OF science concerning the powers of
heredty destroy our idea of sin? Certainly
not. The facts are not new. If the modern
theories of heredity are true they simply
tell US how we have come to be what we