LECTURE V. "I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me."— Exodus xx., 5. COMPARED WITH "The soul that sinneth it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son."-Ezekiel xviii., 20 PERHAPS there are few more profitable, and to ingenuous minds, few more interesting inquiries than those upon which we are at present intent from Sunday evening to Sunday evening. There are few more profitable, as I trust we have hitherto found. We shall, let us hope, hereafter find that what has seemed to be difficult, and in some cases apparently contradictory in the Divine Word, really consists only of different sides of the same truth. It is with the Word as it is with the world. It has many sides. Remember the celebrated ancient story of the shield, which was gold at one side and silver at the other. Two travellers coming up from different sides, one asserted the shield was gold, and the other that it was silver. It is said they fought and wounded each other. But at length one happened to catch a glimpse of the other side; and then they found that both had been right, and both had been wrong. It is exactly so with the varied forms in which truth often presents itself to the soul. If we would endeavour to see our neighbour's side; if we would endeavour not to forget what others see and try to help us to understand, we should discover that truth has more sides than one, and that each one is a supplement and a complement to the other. Probably many of the religious differences of mankind would be found to resolve themselves into the same thing. An error is often nothing but an exaggerated F truth, a statement quite right in itself, but which has probably been dwelt upon to the exclusion of many other views equally true. Thus there has been formed a contorted idea in the mind. Many things that are required in order that all may have their just proportion are shut out, and a hindrance is thus formed in the way of our advancement in truth and goodness. With this fact in view we would ask you to consider the two sides of Divine Truth presented to us in the differing declarations of the texts before us. In the first declaration we are assured that the iniquity of the father is visited upon the children to the third and fourth generation,—or, as it might be better rendered, to thirds and fourths; for you will find that the word " generation" is really not in the text, but is printed in italics. The Divine language continues, that mercy shall be visited on the thousandths of them that love the Lord. It is clear from the most general acceptance of the words how the Divine Benevolence is manifested. You see how infinitely mercy and love abound over this "visitation" of iniquity. Let us, however, attend to the language of the Divine Word more closely. In pursuing our inquiries into heavenly wisdom it is important to notice exactly what that wisdom teaches. This is illustrated in the case before us in relation to the word "iniquity." "Visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children." By a very curious transformation of mind in relation to this passage and some others, the word "iniquity" is read as if it were punishment. Visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children is understood to mean, by those who hear, and those who read very often, (because the idea unhappily got into the theological creeds of past ages,) that the Lord punishes children on account of what their fathers have done. But the passage does not say, "Visiting the " punishment but "iniquity of the fathers upon the children." Such is the Divine statement. The same thing is attendant upon another famous declaration; one that is very commonly used in relation to another very solemn subject of theology, I mean that in Isaiah liii., 5, where it is said, "The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all." This also has been understood to mean, and by a large number of individuals is still understood to mean, "The Lord hath laid on him the punishment of us all." Such a declaration, however, would be quite another thing. "The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity, of us all." And in the passage before us "the iniquity of the fathers is visited upon the children. Nothing is said about punishment. Iniquity means depravity of nature. "We are born in iniquity." Iniquity is not-equity. Thus by "iniquity" in the passage before us is meant depravity. The depravity of our nature is transmitted hereditarily from parents to children. Just as the nature of the parents is, just so it must necessarily be with the children. The fruit cannot be different form the tree, the effect cannot be otherwise than the result of the cause. And in this case the result of that degradation of our nature which is caused by evil must be exactly that which it is described to be in the Sacred Volume. The pages of Revelation, and the teachings of experience agree in this, like parents, like children. We are told, with an extreme suggestiveness, in the earliest Divine Records, that man was made in the image and likeness of God. But after the fall of man, when the children of Adam are described, it is said that Seth was made in the likeness of Adam. Adam had a son in his own likeness, (Gen. v., 3,) and so it must necessarily be. Inasmuch as God creates children through parents, how could it be otherwise than that they should partake of the character of the mould in which they are formed. This law then, unfolded in the language of our text is that sublime law of hereditary transmission that law by which all the human race are connected in one grand series of links from the beginning onwards, and will ever form one grand network of immortal beings. Each new being is formed by the Lord through the nature that has gone before; and, hence, humanity is one grand chain of being. This law is one of the most weighty character. A similar law exists in every department of creation. In the case of every plant, of every tree, of every transmission of animals, just what the seed is such will the results be. Cause and effect go through the universe. There is a regular consecutive derivation of one generation of beings from another; and so it is that the Divine creation goes on. From the operation of this law in outward nature, we find the grandest results possible. Geology enables us to trace through immense periods of millions of years, the progress of the earth. The Almighty created the worlds through the sun as their parent; and since his grand influences were crystalized and formed into worlds as the sun's children, as part of the vast family of God, He still supports them as He created them, through the sustaining sun. Each earth was a vast congeries of rocks bare and naked. But by rain, and air, and time, these rocks were pulverized, or as the word in geology is, disintegrated, and soil bare and thin was formed. In this soil the Divine Wisdom deposited seeds, from these seeds grew plants. From the decay of these plants a better soil was formed, and then more and more by repeated decay, change, and progession through indefinite ages, each stratum coming from that which was less perfect below, and becoming more perfect by the action of life, at length this glorious world of ours, as it is, was formed. Through this grand chain of existence, with the law of successive development and progression, instead of rude bare rocks a world is formed as we have it, so lovely, and so good, so capable of blessing its inhabitants. The splendid marbles that add magnificence to palaces, and adorn our homes, are the result of shells deposited myriads of ages ago. The rich harvests of to-day, all that is lovely in flower, and good in fruit, and those grand old growths which form majestic forests, come from deposits of ages long before. The materials of art, by means of which forms of beauty are multiplied are entirely the result of the workings of Providence, through ages astounding in their vast duration, but all connected together. "There is beauty o'er all this delectable world, Now, this chain through which creation has acted for an indefinite period of time, producing so noble a result, from the hand of Divine Providence, is precisely an image of what has taken place with the world of man. The Lord made man at first innocent, but ignorant; yet with this power of progression in him. There was this capability of advancement from the gentle but loving state in which he was when first produced. He was tender and inexperienced, yet with all the germs of an angelic nature in him. With this |