FARMEKS' IiNSTIiUTES. 145 



CONSECRATED PARENTAGE. 



MRS. BELLE M. PERRY, CHARLOTTE. 



This address appeared in the Institute Bulletin for last year, taut the theme is so worthy 

 attention, the treatment of it here so noble, it seemed wise to reprint it, especially for 

 the thousands of new members of the Institute Societies. 



Perhaps the greatest address given at that notable congress of mothers 

 in Washington two years ago, was the one by Professor Elmer Gates on 

 consecrated parentage; and I wish you could all get a copy of the pro- 

 ceedings of that congress, where you will find this address in full, and 

 would read it again and again till these vital truths are built into the fibre 

 of your being. I give a paragraph from it: 



'^Oh, the great and glorious task of parentage! It seems to me the most 

 responsible position in which a man and a woman can be placed is that 

 of begetting and rearing a child. * * * It seems to me that the religion 

 of the future will center closely around the conjugal life and the cradle, 

 and that science, art, and philosophy will be content to bring their fairest 

 gifts to the hymeneal altar. The mother must be enthroned not merely 

 in our love, but she must sit enthroned over the weal of the incoming- 

 generation. * * * I believe no possible training after the child is 

 born can equal in importance what can be done before birth. * * * 

 The incoming generation looks to 3'ou to be well born. It is seen to be 

 a fearful responsibility to bring into* the world a human being when we 

 realize that we have it in our power to direct for weal or for woe the 

 intellective and emotive character and moral disposition of the child 

 yet unborn and uncreated. * * * j^ wife's love is something for which 

 a man will strive; therefore let the wife give her creative love only when 

 a man is worthy of it, only when he has for some months at least been 

 leading a noble, courageous, and unselfish life. * * * A wife can con- 

 trol this fountain of life; she can grant her privileges only for worthy 

 motives, and any man worthy of them will lead such a life as to deserve 

 them. To produce great persons is the divine task of parentage." 



I am glad we have so many noble men enlisted in 



THIS GREAT WORK OF ENLIGHTENMENT. 



In oar own State today a consecrated man is going about and reaching 

 thousands who have gathered from his addresses their first knowledge 

 of the fearful responsibility of parentage, the sacredness of the creative 

 functions, and the appalling heritage of crime and disease which we 

 ignorantly bequeath our children. At a Sunday afternoon meeting in our 

 town fully four hundred of our leading men arose as one man and pledged 

 themselves to a higher manhood and received the pledge card of the 

 Knights of the Twentieth Century, whose motto is : "One code of morals, 

 temperance, and jjurity for men and women." On this same pledge card 

 were ten rules of conduct, one of which was this: 



"Thou shalt not excite or indulge the reproductive functions — whether 

 married or single — except for the divine purpose of creating a new life." 



I know that to the majority this is a new interpretation of 



