202 HEREDITY AND CHRISTIAN PROBLEMS 



Those children, with weaker wills, and stronger 

 tendencies than he had originally to intemperance 

 and other vices, have to face the same tempta- 

 tions. Manifestly they will fall far more easily, 

 unless new and spiritually healthful forces super- 

 vene. When one of them in intoxication is borne 

 from the gin palace, who are to be held culpable 

 for his downfall ? He himself, because he did 

 not use the will he had. His parents, because 

 they indulged in courses which brought him into 

 the world morally and physically infirm ; those also, 

 certainly, who first led his parents into wrong ; 

 and those, too, who consent that the deadly forces 

 of degeneration shall continue to work. Thus 

 disregard of physical and moral law, the con- 

 sequences of which are hardly seen at first, in 

 following generations blossoms into vice and vio- 

 lence. The unity of the race is terribly real. 

 Diseases that no facts in the individual life can 

 account for point gaunt fingers of blame from one 

 generation to another. Not a murderer is hung, 

 not a daughter starts on the downward way, but 

 a great company, like those who were present at 

 the stoning of Stephen, stand by consenting to 

 the ruin. This is what gives point to the 

 appeals of those who plead for purity, for tem- 

 perance, for the observance of the laws of health ; 



