Ezekiel 18:14 - Homiletics.

The breach of heredity.

It is possible for the son of the sinner not to tread in his father's evil footsteps. Here we have the door of escape from the odious proverb of the sour grapes ( Ezekiel 18:2 ).

I. A FATHER 'S SIN IS A SHAMEFUL SIGHT FOR HIS SON . The verse before us presents a distressing picture, though one with bright features in it. The father should be an example to his children, and they should be able to look up to him with reverence. Indeed, very little children naturally regard those who have charge of them as good. When first a child discovers that one who has directed his conduct is doing wrong, the revelation comes upon him with a painful shock of surprise. How sad that this should become a familiar sight! The very centre of authority in the home is then degraded. The child may still obey from a sense of fear, from a feeling of duty, or from mere force of habit. But all reverence is gone, and contempt is beginning to take its place. There must be something sadly wrong when a right-minded child is forced to despise his father or his mother. Surely such a prospect should be a warning to parents when personal considerations fail to influence them.

II. A SON MAY BE SAVED FROM SHARING HIS FATHER 'S SIN BY ITS VERY SHAMEFULNESS . There is an influence which is just the contrary of heredity in sin. Unconsciously, by force of physical constitution, and by the influence of example no doubt, a child is drawn towards his father's sin. But when he reflects upon it and exercises his own judgment, he has miserable opportunities for witnessing its shamefulness which are not accorded to the happily guarded children of purer homes. The child of the drunkard knows the evil of strong drink only toe well. Thus if he "considereth" he has an ever present warning. Do we not see children who have turned with loathing from the habits of disgraceful parents, shunning the first approaches to the evil which has wrought such havoc in their homes, when other children who have not been to so painful a school toy with it in the confidence of ignorance?

III. IT IS THE DUTY OF CHRISTIANS TO RESCUE THE CHILDREN OF WICKED PARENTS . The problem furnished by the wreck of broken down character among the degraded creatures who haunt the slums of great cities is well nigh insoluble, because so many of those hopeless beings refuse to be reclaimed. If they are removed to decent dwellings and supplied with the means of conducting respectable lives, they sink back to their old stats of degradation. Emigration alone will not cure this disease of dissoluteness. We could only burden America and our colonies with useless paupers by sending its victims across the sea. They have neither the moral nor the physical strength to begin s new life. It would seem that the best thing we could do for them would be to shut them up in a hospital for incurables, where at least they might be prevented from spreading moral contagion. They have reached moral imbecility. But we can save their children. It is with the children that the hope of recovery is most encouraging. Good work already done in rescuing the little waifs of the streets points to a much more extensive effort in that direction. For the price of an ironclad we might save the children of the slums of a whole city! It is here that the solution of our great social problem will begin.