Chapter 156—Good Judgment and Self-Control in
Marriage
Those professing to be Christians should not enter the marriage
relation until the matter has been carefully and prayerfully considered
from an elevated standpoint, to see if God can be glorified by the
union. Then they should duly consider the result of every privilege of
the marriage relation, and sanctified principle should be the basis of
every action.
Looking Ahead
Before increasing their family, they should take into consideration
whether God would be glorified or dishonored by their bringing chil-
dren into the world. They should seek to glorify God by their union
from the first, and during every year of their married life. They should
calmly consider what provision can be made for their children. They
have no right to bring children into the world to be a burden to others.
Have they a business that they can rely upon to sustain a family, so
that they need not become a burden to others? If they have not, they
commit a crime in bringing children into the world to suffer for want
of proper care, food, and clothing.
The Domination of Passion
In this fast, corrupt age these things are not considered. Lustful
passion bears away, and will not submit to control, although feebleness,
misery, and death are the result of its reign. Women are forced to a life
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of hardship, pain, and suffering, because of the uncontrollable passions
of men who bear the name of husband—more rightly could they be
called brutes. Mothers drag out a miserable existence, with children in
their arms nearly all the time, managing every way to put bread into
their mouths and clothes upon their backs. Such accumulated misery
fills the world.
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