Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-05-08

a very bad father. Handicapped by his
immediate heredity. he reached back
through a long line of ancestry and
made his model the first and nOblest
figure of the whole royal line. He
walked in the way of David his father.
He has to go back about 400 years
before he could find a worthy father
whose example he could emulate in
trying to do what was right in the eyes
of Jehovah his God. There is a saving
fact about heredity that there is so
much of it. 1t is a complex tide of
life that flows in our veins: in each
of us there may live. q multitude of
possible personalities. seeds sOwn by
the immemoriai past.
"Dr. Holmes. asked at what age
should begin the education of a child,
replied: A hundred years before he is
born! Josiah did better than that /;
his training took its start 400 years
back in the splendid career in the
founder of his line. While we are not
given the privilege of choosing our par
entage. it may be possible to select
from the co%ntending strains of inherit
ed tendency within us what legacy of
the years shall live in our lives and
be transmitted to the future. Which
of our fOrbearers shall we resemble?
This spiritual selection. more potent
for character building than all natura'
selection, is mostly made early in life.
How came Josiah to know anything
about David. or David's God? We
may well imagine that his early boy
hood was not unCtr the care of his
wicked father. Anon. but from the
loving lips of Jedidah, the beloved of
Jehovah. his mother and from the in
@ ,,f. af II;fI-,,I 2la I;nl ,n,n,t
he learned the lays OF the hero-king
and the story OF his deeds.
Environment SURPRISES Heredity
Environment SURPRISES heredity in
character building. If one could be sure
of the right kind of training, it would
be safer to be the son of a healthy
burglar. than Of a constructive bishop.
Guarded from the ways of the wicked
world. from the perils of power, the
of evil counsel, and the con-
of a licentious court: out of
the sacred past the shadowy hands of
holy help were attached over him in
benediction and influence. and in the
of his spirit he sought and fol-
lowed the most sacred suggestions Of
Hebrew history.
Childhood is the everlasting chance
to remake the world. The nearer we
are to the cradle the nearer we are to
Christ. Some day the church and
nations will learn this lesson. and in
a single generation will largely cancel
the curse of depraved descent in the
of our higher heredity from
God. Josiah was, in the best sense
Of the phrase, an old-fashioned young
man. Doubtless there were many Of
The pagan, antiprophetic party who re-
him as quite behind the times. !
! puritanic, righteous fogy. One of the
strangest Illusions Of sensual world
ings is that they are UP to date, and
hose who reverence the past arc be-
ated back numbers. 1t is SO easy to
forget that sin is the one unchanging
md antiquated thing in the world, the
me dreary monotopy of history. Moth
ng is so unoriginal and unprogressive
Is sensual license. Josiah did not real
y 90 backward, but upward; his in
'piration came not from David, but
rom David's God. The so-cailed spirit
# the times passes, but the eternal
lbides. The fashions of heaven are
never out Of style. No electric lamp Of
Invention shall ever supersede
he sunlight. Every great reform of
in which our humanity has made
swift and sure advance, has been led
y souls who, divining the meaning of
he good old times, have broken the
Of evil custom an set free the