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The Adventist Home
employ her mental powers in disciplining her little ones for the society
of the angels. She should have courage to act nobly her part and to do
her work in the fear and love of God, that her children may prove a
blessing to the family and to society.
The husband and father should consider all these things lest the
wife and mother of his children be overtaxed and thus overwhelmed
with despondency. He should see to it that the mother of his children
is not placed in a position where she cannot possibly do justice to
her numerous little ones, so that they have to come up without proper
training
Parents should not increase their families any faster than they know
that their children can be well cared for and educated. A child in the
mother’s arms from year to year is great injustice to her. It lessens, and
often destroys, social enjoyment and increases domestic wretchedness.
It robs their children of that care, education, and happiness which
parents should feel it their duty to bestow upon them
Counsel to Parents of a Large Family—The question to be set-
tled by you is, “Am I raising a family of children to strengthen the
influence and swell the ranks of the powers of darkness, or am I bring-
ing up children for Christ?”
[164]
If you do not govern your children and mold their characters to
meet the requirements of God, then the fewer children there are to
suffer from your defective training the better it will be for you, their
parents, and the better it will be for society. Unless children can be
trained and disciplined from their babyhood by a wise and judicious
mother who is conscientious and intelligent, and who rules her house-
hold in the fear of the Lord, molding and shaping their characters to
meet the standard of righteousness, it is a sin to increase your family.
God has given you reason, and He requires you to use it
Fathers and mothers, when you know that you are deficient in a
knowledge of how to train your children for the Master, why do you
not learn your lessons? Why do you continue to bring children into
the world to swell the numbers in Satan’s ranks? Is God pleased with
this showing? When you see that a large family will severely tax your
resources, when you see that it is giving the mother her hands full of
4
The Review and Herald, June 24, 1890
.
5
A Solemn Appeal, 110, 111
6
Testimonies For The Church 5, 323, 324
.