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Mind, Character, and Personality Volume 1
from heaven to those Hebrew parents, and twice repeated in the most
explicit and solemn manner, shows how the matter is looked upon by
the Creator.—
The Signs of the Times, February 26, 1902
.
Parents’ Own Stamp Given to Children—Parents ... by indul-
gence have strengthened their animal passions. And as these have
strengthened, the moral and intellectual faculties have become weak.
The spiritual has been overborne by the brutish. Children are born
with the animal propensities largely developed, the parents’ own stamp
of character having been given to them.... The brain force is weak-
ened, and memory becomes deficient.... The sins of the parents will
be visited upon their children because the parents have given them the
stamp of their own lustful propensities.—
Testimonies for the Church
2:391
(1870).
Satan Seeks to Debase Minds—I have been shown that Satan
seeks to debase the minds of those who unite in marriage, that he may
stamp his own hateful image upon their children....
He can mold their posterity much more readily than he could the
parents, for he can so control the minds of the parents that through them
he may give his own stamp of character to their children. Thus many
children are born with the animal passions largely in the ascendancy
while the moral faculties are but feebly developed.—
Testimonies for
the Church 2:480
(1870).
Reason Should Control Number of Children—Those who in-
crease their number of children, when if they consulted reason, they
must know that physical and mental weakness must be their inheri-
tance, are transgressors of the last six precepts of God’s law.... They do
their part in increasing the degeneracy of the race and in sinking soci-
[137]
ety lower, thus injuring their neighbor. If God thus regards the rights of
neighbors, has He no care in regard to closer and more sacred relation-
ship? If not a sparrow falls to the ground without His notice, will He
be unmindful of the children born into the world, diseased physically
and mentally, suffering in a greater or less degree, all their lives? Will
He not call parents to an account, to whom He has given reasoning
powers, for putting these higher faculties in the background and be-
coming slaves to passion, when, as the result, generations must bear
the mark of their physical, mental, and moral deficiencies?—
Healthful
Living, 30, 1865
(Part 2). (
Selected Messages 2:424
.)