and I want to tell you that the highest thrones in heaven and the
mightiest triumphs and the brightest crowns will be for those who had
evil parentage, but who by the grace of God conquered. As useful, as
splendid a gentleman as I know of to-day had for father a man who died
blaspheming God until the neighbors had to put their fingers in their
ears to shut out the horror. One of the most consecrated and useful
Christian ministers of to-day was born of a drunken horse-jockey. Tide
of evil tremendous in some families. It is like Niagara Rapids, and
yet men have clung to a rock and been rescued.
There is a family in New York whose wealth has rolled up into many
millions that was founded by a man who, after he had vast estate sent
back a paper of tacks because they were two cents more than he
expected. Grip and grind and gouge in the fourth generation--I suppose
it will be grip and grind and gouge in the twentieth generation. The
thirst for intoxicants has burned down through the arteries of a
hundred and fifty years. Pugnacity or combativeness characterize other
families. Sometimes one form of evil, sometimes another form of evil.
But