I believe that all the misery in the world sprung from Adam's
disobedience and falling from God. "By one man sin entered the
world, and death by sin, and so death passed on all men, even on
those who had not sinned after the likeness of Adam's transgression."
So says the Bible, and I believe it says so truly. For this is the
law of the earth, God's law which He proclaimed in the text. He does
visit the sins of the fathers upon the children unto the third and
fourth generation of those who hate Him. It is so. You see it
around you daily. No one can deny it. Just as death and misery
entered into the world by one man, so we see death and misery
entering into many a family. A man or woman is a drunkard, or a
rogue, or a swearer: how often their children grow up like them! We
have all seen that, God knows, in this very parish. How much more in
great cities, where boys and girls by thousands--oh, shame that it
should be so in a Christian land!--grow up thieves from the breast,
and harlots from the cradle. And why? Why are there, as they say,
and I am afraid say too truly, in London alone upwards of 10,000
children under sixteen who live by theft and harlotry? Because the
parents of these children are as bad as themselves--drunkards,
thieves, and worse--and they bring up their children to follow their
crimes.
Pages:
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186