Basic HTML Version
338
Testimonies for the Church Volume 2
endured his being conscience for her and tried to feel that it was for
the best. But outraged nature could not be so easily subdued. Her
demands were earnest. The cravings of nature for something more
nourishing led her to use entreaty, but without effect. Her wants
were few, but they were not considered. Two children have been
sacrificed to his blind errors and ignorant bigotry. Should men of
intelligent minds treat dumb animals as he has treated his wife in
regard to food, the community would take the matter into their own
hands and bring them to justice.
In the first place, B should not have committed so great a crime
as to bring into being children that reason must teach him would
be diseased because they must receive a miserable legacy from
their parents. They must have a bad inheritance transmitted to them.
Their blood must be filled with scrofulous humors from both parents,
especially the father, whose habits have been such as to corrupt the
blood and enervate his whole system. Not only must these poor
children receive a scrofulous tendency in a double sense, but what
is worse, they will bear the mental and moral deficiencies of the
father, and the lack of noble independence, moral courage, and
force in the mother. The world is already cursed by the increase of
persons of this stamp, who must fall lower in the scale of physical,
[380]
mental, and moral strength than their parents; for their condition
and surroundings are not even as favorable as were those of their
parents.
B is not capable of taking care of a family. He cannot sustain
one as it ought to be sustained, and should never have had one. His
marriage was all a mistake. He has made a life of misery for his
wife, and has accumulated misery by having children born to them.
Some of them exist, and that is about all.
Those professing to be Christians should not enter the marriage
relation until the matter has been carefully and prayerfully consid-
ered 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. Before increasing their family, they should take into
consideration whether God would be glorified or dishonored by their
bringing children into the world. They should seek to glorify God by
their union from the first, and during every year of their married life.