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The Adventist Home
Evils of Intemperance Are Perpetuated—Luxurious living and
the use of wine corrupt the blood, inflame the passions, and produce
diseases of every kind. But the evil does not end here. Parents leave
maladies as a legacy to their children. As a rule, every intemperate
man who rears children transmits his inclinations and evil tendencies
to his offspring; he gives them disease from his own inflamed and cor-
rupted blood. Licentiousness, disease, and imbecility are transmitted
as an inheritance of woe from father to son and from generation to
generation, and this brings anguish and suffering into the world and is
no less than a repetition of the fall of man....
And yet with scarcely a thought or care, men and women of the
present generation indulge intemperance by surfeiting and drunken-
ness and thereby leave, as a legacy for the next generation, disease,
enfeebled intellects, and polluted morals
There Is Reason for Double Understanding and Patience—
Fathers and mothers may study their own character in their children.
They may often read humiliating lessons as they see their own im-
perfections reproduced in their sons and daughters. While seeking
to repress and correct in their children hereditary tendencies to evil,
parents should call to their aid double patience, perseverance, and
love
[174]
When a child reveals the wrong traits which it has inherited from
its parents, shall they storm over this reproduction of their own defects?
No, no! Let parents keep a careful watch over themselves, guarding
against all coarseness and roughness, lest these defects be seen once
more in their children
Manifest the meekness and gentleness of Christ in dealing with the
wayward little ones. Always bear in mind that they have received their
perversity as an inheritance from the father or mother. Then bear with
the children who have inherited your own trait of character
Parents must trust implicitly in the power of Christ to transform the
tendencies to wrong which have been transmitted to their children
4
Testimonies For The Church 4, 30, 31
.
5
The Review and Herald, August 30, 1881
.
6
The Signs of the Times, September 25, 1901
.
7
Manuscript 142, 1898
.
8
Manuscript 79, 1901
.