Children

 

“God cannot cover iniquity, even in children.  He cannot love unruly children who manifest passion, and He cannot save them in the time of trouble.  Will you suffer your children to be lost through your neglect?  Unfaithful parents, their blood will be upon you, and is not your salvation doubtful with the blood of your children upon you?” (RH 3-28-1893).

“Children born to parents who are controlled by corrupt passions are worthless.  What can be expected of such children but that they will sink lower in the scale than their parents?  What can be expected of the rising generation?  Thousands are devoid of principle.  These very ones are transmitting to their offspring their own miserable, corrupt passions” (2T 351-352).


“I have been shown the danger of families that are of an excitable temperament, the animal predominating.  Their children should not be allowed to make eggs their diet, for this kind of food–eggs and animal flesh–feeds and inflames the animal passions.  This makes it very difficult for them to overcome the temptation to indulge in the sinful practice of self-abuse, which in this age is almost universally practiced.  This practice weakens the physical, mental, and moral powers and bars the way to everlasting life” (MS 5, 1881, in 2 MR 106).

“In the first place, B should not have committed so great a crime as to bring into being children that reason must teach him would be diseased because they must receive a miserable legacy from their parents.  They must have a bad inheritance transmitted to them.  Their blood must be filled with scrofulous humors from both parents, especially the father, whose habits have been such as to corrupt the blood and enervate his whole system.  Not only must these poor children receive a scrofulous tendency in a double sense, but what is worse, they will bear the mental and moral deficiencies of the father, and the lack of noble independence, moral courage, and force in the mother.  The world is already cursed by the increase of persons of this stamp, who must fall lower in the scale of physical, mental, and moral strength than their parents....” (2T 379-380).

“Even very small children, infants, being born with a natural irritability of [certain] organs, find momentary relief in handling them, which only increases the irritation, and leads to a repetition of the act, until a habit is established which increases with their growth.  These children [are] generally puny and dwarfed....” (2T 391).

“Every indulgence [read between the lines here] of children who have attained their growth is a terrible evil and will produce terrible results, enervating the system and weakening the intellect.  But in those who engage in this corrupting vice before attaining their growth, the evil effects are more plainly marked, and recovery from its effects is more nearly hopeless.  The frame is weak and stunted; the muscles are flabby; the eyes become small, and appear at times swollen; the memory is treacherous, and becomes sievelike....” (2T 402).