22
A Solemn Appeal
least qualified to get along in the world, generally fill their houses with
children; while men who have ability to acquire property, generally
have no more children than they can well provide for. Those who are
not qualified to take care of themselves, should not have children. It
has been the case that the numerous offspring of these poor calculators
[104]
are left to come up like the brutes. They are not suitably fed or clothed,
and do not receive physical or mental training, and there is nothing
sacred in the word home, to either parents or children.
The marriage institution was designed of Heaven to be a blessing
to man; but, in a general sense, it has been abused in such a manner as
to make it a dreadful curse. Most of men and women have acted, in
entering the marriage relation, as though the only question for them to
settle was, whether they loved each other. But they should realize that a
responsibility rests upon them in the marriage relation farther than this.
They should consider whether their offspring will possess physical
health, and mental and moral strength. But few have moved with high
motives, and with elevated considerations which they could not lightly
throw off—that society had claims upon them, that the weight of their
family’s influence would tell in the upward or downward scale.
Society is composed of families; and heads of families are re-
sponsible for the molding of society. If those who choose to enter
the marriage relation without due consideration were alone to be the
sufferers, then the evil would not be so great, and their sin would be
comparatively small. But the misery arising from unhappy marriages
[105]
is felt by the offspring of such unions. They have entailed upon them a
life of living misery; and, though innocent, suffer the consequences of
their parents’ inconsiderate course. Men and women have no right to
follow impulse, or blind passion, in their marriage relation, and then
bring innocent children into the world to realize from various causes
that life has but little joy, but little happiness, and is therefore a burden.
Children generally inherit the peculiar traits of character which the
parents possess; and in addition to all this, many come up without any
redeeming influence around them. They are too frequently huddled
together in poverty and filth. With such surroundings and examples,
what can be expected of the children when they come upon the stage
of action, but that they will sink lower in the scale of moral worth than
their parents, and their deficiencies, in every respect, be more apparent
than theirs? Thus have this class perpetuated their deficiencies, and