Parents as Reformers
513
but that her children may have healthy constitutions and good morals.
Many mothers who deplore the intemperance which exists ev-
erywhere do not look deep enough to see the cause. They are daily
preparing a variety of dishes and highly seasoned food which tempt the
appetite and encourage overeating. The tables of our American people
are generally prepared in a manner to make drunkards. Appetite is the
ruling principle with a large class. Whoever will indulge appetite in
eating too often, and food not of a healthful quality, is weakening his
power to resist the clamors of appetite and passion in other respects in
proportion as he has strengthened the propensity to incorrect habits of
eating. Mothers need to be impressed with their obligation to God and
to the world to furnish society with children having well-developed
characters. Men and women who come upon the stage of action with
firm principles will be fitted to stand unsullied amid the moral pol-
lutions of this corrupt age. It is the duty of mothers to improve their
golden opportunities to correctly educate their children for usefulness
and duty. Their time belongs to their children in a special sense. Pre-
cious time should not be devoted to needless work upon garments
for display, but should be spent in patiently instructing and carefully
teaching their children the necessity of self-denial and self-control.
The tables of many professed Christian women are daily set with
a variety of dishes which irritate the stomach and produce a feverish
condition of the system. Flesh meats constitute the principal article
of food upon the tables of some families, until their blood is filled
with cancerous and scrofulous humors. Their bodies are composed of
what they eat. But when suffering and disease come upon them, it is
considered an affliction of Providence.
We repeat: Intemperance commences at our tables. The appetite is
indulged until its indulgence becomes second nature. By the use of
tea and coffee an appetite is formed for tobacco, and this encourages
the appetite for liquors.
[564]
Many parents, to avoid the task of patiently educating their children
to habits of self-denial and teaching them how to make a right use of
all the blessings of God, indulge them in eating and drinking whenever
they please. Appetite and selfish indulgence, unless positively re-
strained, grow with the growth and strengthen with the strength. When
these children commence life for themselves and take their place in
society, they are powerless to resist temptation. Moral impurity and