an you make that agree with what
Ezekiel says,--"The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father." My
dear friends, I know that this is a puzzle, and always has been one.
Like the old puzzle of God's foreknowledge and our free will, which seem
to contradict each other. Like the puzzle that we must help ourselves,
and yet that God must help us, which seem to contradict each other. So
with this. I believe of it, as of the two others I just mentioned, that
there is no real contradiction between the two cases; and that some-when,
somehow, somewhere, in the world to come, we shall see them clearly
reconciled; and justify God in all His dealings, and glorify Him in all
His ways. But surely already, here, now, we may see our way somewhat
into the depths of this mystery. For Christ has come to give us light,
and in His light we may see light, even into this dark matter.

For see: God visits the sins of the fathers upon the children unto the
third and fourth generation--but of whom?--of them that hate Him. Now,
by those who hate God is meant, those who break His commandments, and are
bad men. If so, then, I say that God is not only just but merciful, in
visiting the sins of the fathers on the children.

For, consider two cases. Suppose these bad men, from father to son, and
from son to grandson, go on in the same evil ways, and are incorrigible.
Then is not God merciful to the world in punishing them, even in
destroying them out of the world, where they only do harm? The world
does not want fools, it wants wise men. The world does not want bad men,
it wants good men; and we ought to thank God, if, by His eternal laws, He
gets rid of bad men for us; and, as the saying is, civilizes them off the
face of the earth in the third or fourth generation. And God does so.
If a family, or a class, or a whole nation becomes incorrigibly
profligate, foolish, base, in three or four generations they will either
die out or vanish. They will sink to the bottom of society, and become
miserably poor, weak, and of no influence, and so unable to do harm to
any but themselves. Whole families will sink thus, I have seen it; you
may have seen it. Whole nations will sink thus; as the Jews sank in
Ezekiel's time, and again in our Lord's time; and be conquered, trampled
on, counted for nothing, because they were worth nothing.

But now suppose, again, that the children, when their father's sins are
vis