MARCH 15, 1913 



195 



Our Homes 



A. I. ROOT 



For I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting 

 God. — Matt. 5:8. 



God hath said. Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall 

 ye to7ich it, lest ye die. — Gen. 3:3. 



For the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting 

 the iniquities of the fathers upon the children unto 

 the third and fourth generations of them that hate 

 me. — E.x. 20:5. 



I want to talk this morning particularly 

 to the young men and young women who 

 are in the habit of reading these Home 

 talks. My talk will also be to the middle- 

 aged ; and, before I close, I shall have 

 something to say to the elderly ones, the 

 ones whose hairs are beginning to get gray. 

 I suppose most boys and girls, especially 

 as they reach maturity, begin to think of 

 this matter of getting married. It is some- 

 times true that the girls especially talk so 

 much about getting married that they don't 

 have room or time for any thing else. This 

 is not just the right and jDroper thing to 

 do ; but it is true that both boys and girls 

 should consider that God gave each one of 

 us a human life to live with tlie thought in 

 view that we should be " fiiiitful, and mul- 

 tiply, and replenish the earth;" and, in 

 fact, I have touched upon this matter sev- 

 eral times in these Home papers, of the 

 damage that can be done to humanity by 

 the offspring that, in the course of years, 

 come from a single pair of men and women 

 who are viciously inclined. On the other 

 hand, we have many instances of how the 

 world has been greatly blessed by a long 

 line of people who feared God and loved 

 liumanity, and who have handed down their 

 lifework to children and gTandchiklren until 

 the world will scarcely ever know how much 

 benetit has been conferred on humanity by 

 the fact that they not only lived a good life 

 but reared up boys and girls to follow after 

 them along in the same line. Now let us 

 take it for granted that most boys and 

 gills expect to get married some time; that 

 they expect, God permitting, to have a fam- 

 ily of children. Now, my young friends, 

 what sort of children do you expect to rear 

 up and bless (or curse) humanity'? I need 

 not tell you how much time is being de- 

 vuted now, especially in our agricultural 

 papers, to this matter of selecting and 

 rearing improved stock and planting good 

 seed, Avhich is along in the same line. Take 

 the poultry industry, for example. How 

 much time and money are being expended 

 in getting a good strain of fowls whose 

 eggs can be sold for not only a dollar 

 apiece, but ten dollars apiece, and some- 

 times even more than that? In order to get 

 a good parentage to start, no stone is left 



unturned. On page 605 of Gleanings for 

 September 15 we had a vivid illustration of 

 how mucli pains the government of the 

 United States is taking to stamp out in- 

 jurious insects and things of that sort; and 

 our attention is now called to the fact of 

 how little is being done to improve the race 

 of boys and girls and men and women. 



Sometimes in talking with hardened crim- 

 inals in our jails I have asked the question, 

 '' Would you want to see a boy of yours 

 doing exactly as you have done?" The 

 answer invariably comes, " God forbid." 

 Even a hardened criminal has some scruples 

 about seeing a child of his follow in the 

 footsteps of crime. Now, my young friend, 

 let us get back once more and ask the ques- 

 tion, " What kind of boys and girls do you 

 l^ropose to give the world?" The Bible 

 says, and our agricultural and poultry pa- 

 pers say, that like produces like. If you 

 give way to vicious and impure thoughts, 

 your boys and girls will be likely to do the 

 same. The Bible tells us that this work 

 must go on until the third and fourth gen- 

 eration. By the way, I have at different 

 times heard critics find fault most severely 

 with this passage in the Bible. It is re- 

 peated four times in the Old Testament, if 

 not more. They ask what justice there is 

 in punishing innocent children for what the 

 parents did before they were born? My 

 good friends, let me call your attention to 

 the fact that God does not do this punish- 

 ing. The father and mother do it them- 

 selves, and with the plain statements of the 

 Scriptures before them; they do it with 

 their eyes open; they do it deliberately and 

 willingly. I once knew of a man who was 

 an illegitimate child and part negro. He 

 inlierited his father's intellectual abilities 

 and became quite a scholar. When he was 

 grown up he said something like this : " My 

 father deliberately cursed every single day 

 of my life by giving way to a low, beastly 

 imiDulse and passion. He did that almost 

 in a single moment of time that has blasted 

 every hour and almost every minute of my 

 whole life." 



Listen to this: A good mother, a good 

 and wise mother, whom I know full well, 

 once went along with her boy while a 

 party were visiting the county infirmary. 

 After they got home this bright boy, who 

 had already begun to inquire into " cause 

 and effect," asked his mother the question 

 how it came that tliere were such a lot of 

 people who were imbeciles and idiots. How 

 does it come about we have such fearful 



