Let us realize distinctly and vividly what our true nature is. 1 Alfred S. Dyer.
ST. LUKE XVII. 20, 21 377
Our deepest nature is not animal or fiendish, but Divine ; it there- fore brings with it the obligation to high conduct, and competence for such conduct. " Being then the offspring of God, we ought not. . . ." What negatives arise out of that relationship ! The offspring of God ought not to change the glory of the incorruptible One into the likeness of an image of corruptible man, and of beasts and creeping things. Blind passion, wilfulness, inordinate desire, dishonouring of the body, and degradation of the mind, utterly misbecome creatures made in the image of the Divine spirituality, infinity, and immortality. " Being then the offspring of God, we ought. . . ." What positives are implied in that rela- tionship ! The offspring of the wise, righteous, loving God, of Him who is light and in whom there is no darkness at all, ought only to be great and pure. Instead of levelling down to the beasts which perish, we ought diligently and joyously to level ourselves up to the Holiest in the height. " Ye therefore shall be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect." " To the end that ye should walk worthily of God, who calleth you into his own kingdom and glory." "Children of God without blemish." "Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called children of God : and such we are." " Beloved, now are we children of God, and it is not yet made manifest what we shall be." These are the royal thoughts we ought to ponder, such the pride of long descent which ought to ennoble us and to constrain to the Christ-like life. It may be true that we were preceded by men and women of infirmity ; that, however, need not dishearten us. Some in the line of Joseph were far from being perfect; but the righteous God is at one end of the pedigree, and a just man at the other ; because the first link is gold, the last link may be gold also, however equivocal some of the intermediate links may be.
Heredity, in the deeper meaning, is not destructive but con- structive. It works for the conservation and transmission of what is favourable to an organism. It makes for health, life, perpetuation ; not for disease, disorder and destruction. It tends to neutralize and eliminate the unhealthy elements w^hich have invaded the system. But, without being in the least instructed or definite in his thinking, the average man reckons the law of inheritance as being entirely against him, and he freely imputes
378 THE KINGDOM THAT IS WITHIN
his faults to its working. This popular conception of heredity is practically most mischievous, and wholly false. The degrading notion has taken possession of us that we are dominated by the " dead hand," and by it coerced to dark ways and deeds, with which we have no sympathy. Let us utterly renounce this superstition.
^ I believe more deeply to-day than ever that the man endowed with grace can triumph over every infirmity, and bias, and lust of our animal self. There is not a bitter man who can not go out sweet. There is not a mean man but may become magnanimous. There is not a man who has yielded to passion who may not become sober and rational. There is not a man, however subject to the flesh and the world, who may not go out and walk with raiment whiter than any bleaching on earth can make it ; and I assure you that in those very moments when you have not been master of yourself, if when you have ever fallen a victim to your impulses and passions and temptations, you seek but the hand of Christ, you shall go forth in this great city and " the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet." 1
^ With all our belief in Heredity, the transmission from generation to generation of characteristic traits, virtues, vices, habits, tendencies, etc., we must not ignore the factor of freewill, which cannot but modify and restrict the fact and limitations of Heredity. I am always reminded, when I hear the remark alluded to made, of quaint Fuller, in his Good Thoughts for Bad Times. " Lord ! I find the genealogy of my Saviour strangely chequered. Eoboam begat Abia — i.e., a bad father begat a bad son. Abia begat Asa, a good father and a good son. Asa begat Jehoshaphat, a good father and a bad son. Jehoshaphat begat Josiah, a good father and a good son. I see, Lord, from hence that my father's piety cannot be entailed : that is bad news for me. But I see also that actual impiety is not always hereditary : that is good news for my son." ^
(2) Enmronment. — When some of us were young the "en- vironment " was not discovered. We used to call it circumstance, but enough years of progress are registered in the change of the name. And every schoolboy to-day loves to talk about the environment, and for some of us the environment proves most useful. What splendid people we should be if it were not for