MH page 380

The directions given concerning the Hebrew children teach us that nothing which affects the child's physical well-being is to be neglected. Nothing is unimportant. Every influence that affects the health of the body has its bearing upon mind and character.

Physical well-being directly influences mental and moral character. It asserts a direct physiological and psychological relationship between bodily health and mental state.

Too much importance cannot be placed upon the early training of children. The lessons learned, the habits formed, during the years of infancy and childhood, have more to do with the formation of the character and the direction of the life than have all the instruction and training of after years.

Early childhood habits and lessons exert a primary influence on lifelong character. It makes a strong developmental assertion regarding the primacy of early childhood habit formation.

Parents need to consider this. They should understand the principles that underlie the care and training of children. They should be capable of rearing them in physical, mental, and moral health. Parents should study the laws of nature. They should become acquainted with the organism of the human body. They need to understand the functions of the various organs, and their relation and dependence. They should study the relation of the mental to the physical powers, and the conditions required for the healthy action of each. To assume the responsibilities of parenthood without such preparation is a sin.

Parents have a duty to study natural laws, human anatomy, and physiological relationships to properly rear children. It advises parental education in anatomy, physiology, and natural laws.

Far too little thought is given to the causes underlying the mortality, the disease and degeneracy, that exist today even in the most civilized and favored lands. The human race is deteriorating. More than one third die in infancy; [The statement concerning infant mortality was correct at the time it was written in 1905. However, modern medicine and proper child care have greatly reduced the mortality rate in infancy and childhood.—Publishers.] of those who reach manhood and womanhood, by far the greater number suffer from disease in some form, and but few reach the limit of human life.

Human physical degeneracy, disease, and infant mortality are pressing issues linked to underlying causes. It presents historical epidemiological assertions about infant mortality and disease prevalence.

Most of the evils that are bringing misery and ruin to the race might be prevented, and the power to deal with them rests to a great degree with parents. It is not a “mysterious providence” that removes the little children. God does not desire their death. He gives them to the parents to be trained for usefulness here, and for heaven hereafter. Did fathers and mothers do what they might to give their children a good inheritance, and then by right management endeavor to remedy any wrong conditions of their birth, what a change for the better the world might see!

Parents hold primary responsibility for preventing many childhood evils and ensuring the physical and moral training of their offspring. The text combines spiritual views on divine intention with empirical assertions regarding parental influence on child health and inheritance.