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Power of Example
69
when his very breath is offensive, laden with the odor of liquor or
tobacco?
While disordering his nerves and clouding his brain by the use
of narcotic poisons, how can one be true to the trust reposed in him
as a skillful physician? How impossible for him to discern quickly
or to execute with precision!
If he does not observe the laws that govern his own being, if
he chooses selfish gratification above soundness of mind and body,
does he not thereby declare himself unfit to be entrusted with the
responsibility of human lives?—
The Ministry of Healing, 133, 134
.
Father Disqualified for Parental Responsibilities
—Fathers,
the golden hours which you might spend in getting a thorough
knowledge of the temperament and character of your children, and
the best method of dealing with their young minds, are too precious
to be squandered in the pernicious habit of smoking, or in lounging
about the dramshop.
The indulgence of this poisonous stimulant disqualifies the father
to bring up his children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
The directions given by God to the children of Israel were that the
fathers should teach their children the statutes and precepts of His
law, when they rose up, and when they sat down, when they went
out, and when they came in.
This commandment of God is too little heeded; for Satan,
through his temptations, has chained many fathers in the slavery
of gross habits, and hurtful appetites. Their physical, mental, and
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moral powers are so paralyzed by these means that it is impossible
for them to do their duty toward their families. Their minds are so
besotted by the stupefying influences of tobacco or liquor that they
do not realize their responsibility to train their children so that they
may have moral power to resist temptation, to control appetite, to
stand for the right, not to be influenced to evil, but to yield a strong
influence for good.
Parents by a sinful indulgence of perverted appetite often place
themselves in a condition of nervous excitability or exhaustion,
where they are unable to discriminate between right and wrong, to
manage their children wisely, and to judge correctly their motives
and actions. They are in danger of magnifying little matters to moun-
tains in their minds, while they pass lightly over grave sins. The