Feeding of Children
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you have been doing this, Satan has been gaining a march upon you,
[59]
and, as is generally the case, has frustrated your efforts every time.
Some of you fathers have taken your children to the physician
to see what was the matter with them. I could have told you in two
minutes what was the trouble. Your children are corrupt. Satan has
obtained control of them. He has come right in past you, while you,
who are as God to them, to guard them, were at ease, stupefied, and
asleep. God has commanded you to bring them up in the fear and
nurture of the Lord. But Satan has passed right in before you and has
woven strong bands around them. And yet you sleep on. May Heaven
pity you and your children, for every one of you needs His pity.
Had you taken your position upon the health reform; had you
added to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, and to knowledge
temperance, things might have been different. But you have been only
partially aroused by the iniquity and corruption that is in your houses.
You have opened your eyes a little, and then composed yourself to
sleep again. Do you think angels can come into your dwellings? Do
you think your children are susceptible of holy influences with these
things among you? I can count family after family that are almost
entirely under the control of Satan. I know these things are true, and I
want the people to arouse before it shall be eternally too late, and the
blood of souls, even the blood of the souls of their own children, be
found upon their garments.
The minds of some of these children are so weakened that they
have but one-half or one-third of the brilliancy of intellect that they
might have had, had they been virtuous and pure. They have thrown it
away in self-abuse. Right here in this church, corruption is teeming
on every hand. Now and then there is a sing, or some gathering for
pleasure. Every time I hear of these, I feel like clothing myself in
sackcloth. “Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of
tears.” “Spare thy people, O Lord.” I feel distressed. I have an agony
of soul that is beyond anything that I can describe to you. You are
asleep. Would the lightning and thunder of Sinai arouse this church?
Would they arouse you, fathers and mothers, to commence the work
of reformation in your own houses? You should be teaching your
children. You should be instructing them how to shun the vices and
corruptions of this age. Instead of this, many are studying how to get
something good to eat. You place upon your tables butter, eggs and