November 1, 1872

Degeneracy—Education

EGW

The book of Genesis gives quite a definite account of social and individual life, and yet we have no record of an infant being born blind, deaf, crippled, deformed, or imbecile. There is not an instance upon record in that book, covering the period of twenty-five hundred years, of a natural death in infancy, childhood, or early manhood. There is no account of men and women dying of disease. Obituary notices in the book of Genesis run thus: “And all the days of Adam were nine hundred and thirty years, and he died.” “And all the days of Seth were nine hundred and twelve years, and he died” Concerning others, the record states: “He lived to a good old age, and he died.” It was so rare for a son to die before the father that such an occurrence was considered worthy of record: “And Haran died before his father Terah.” Haran was a father of children before his death.HR November 1, 1872, par. 1

God endowed man with so great vital force that he has withstood the accumulation of disease, brought upon the race in consequence of perverted habits, and he has continued for six thousand years. This fact of itself is enough to evidence to us the strength and electrical energy God gave to man at his creation. It took more than two thousand years of crime and indulgence of base passions to bring bodily disease upon the race to any great extent. If Adam, at his creation, had not been endowed with twenty times as much vital force as men now have, the race, with present habits of living in violation of natural law, would have become extinct. At the period of the first advent of Christ, so rapidly had the race degenerated that an accumulation of disease pressed upon that generation, bringing in a tide of woe and weight of misery inexpressible.HR November 1, 1872, par. 2

God did not create the race in its present feeble condition. This state of things is not the work of Providence, but the work of man, brought about by wrong habits and abuses, by violating the laws God has made to govern his existence. Through the temptation of appetite, Adam and Eve first fell from their high, holy, and happy estate. Through the same temptation have the race become enfeebled. They have permitted appetite and passion to take the throne, and to bring into subjection reason and intellect.HR November 1, 1872, par. 3

So long has the violation of physical law, and human suffering as the consequence, prevailed that men and women look upon the present state of sickness, suffering, debility, and premature death, as the appointed lot of humanity. Man came from the hand of his Creator perfect and beautiful in form, and so filled with vital force that it was more than two thousand years before the general violation of physical law was sensibly felt upon the race. More recent generations have been feeling the pressure of infirmity and disease still more heavily with every generation. The vital forces have been greatly weakened by indulgence of appetite and lustful passion.HR November 1, 1872, par. 4

The patriarchs from Adam to Noah, with but few exceptions, lived nearly a thousand years. Since the days of Noah, the length of life has been tapering. Those suffering with disease were brought to Christ for him to heal from every town, city, and village; for they were afflicted with all manner of diseases. And disease has been steadily on the increase through successive generations since that period. Because of the continued violation of the laws of life, mortality has increased to a fearful extent. The years of man have been shortened, so that the present generation pass off to the grave even before the generations that lived the first few thousand years after the creation came upon the stage of action.HR November 1, 1872, par. 5

Disease has been transmitted from parents to children, from generation to generation. Infants in their cradle are miserably afflicted because of the sins of their parents, which have lessened their vital force. Their wrong habits of eating and dressing, and their general dissipation, are transmitted, as an inheritance to their children. Many are born insane, deformed, blind, deaf, and a very large class deficient in intellect. The strange absence of principle which characterizes this generation, in disregarding the laws of life and health, is astonishing. Ignorance prevails upon this subject, while light is shining all around them. With the majority, their principal anxiety is, What shall I eat? what shall I drink? and wherewithal shall I be clothed? Notwithstanding all that is said and written with regard to how we should treat our bodies, appetite is the great law which governs men and women generally.HR November 1, 1872, par. 6

The moral powers are beclouded, because men and women will not live in obedience to the laws of health, and make this great subject a personal duty. Parents bequeath to their offspring their own perverted habits, and loathsome diseases corrupt the blood and enervate the brain. The majority of men and women remain in ignorance of the laws of their being, and indulge appetite and passion at the expense of intellect and morals, and seem willing to remain in ignorance of the result of their violation of nature's laws. They indulge the depraved appetite in the use of slow poisons which corrupt the blood and undermine the nervous forces, and in consequence bring upon themselves sickness and death. Their friends call the result of their own course the dispensation of Providence. In this, they insult Heaven. They rebelled against the laws of nature, and suffered the penalty. Suffering and mortality now prevail everywhere, especially among the children. How great is the contrast between this generation and those who lived during the first two thousand years!HR November 1, 1872, par. 7

I am led to inquire if this tide of woe cannot be prevented, and something be done to save the youth of this generation from the ruin which threatens them. One great cause of the existing deplorable state of things is, that parents do not feel under obligation to bring up their children to conform to physical law. Mothers love their children with an idolatrous love, and they indulge their appetite when they know that it will injure the health of the children, and thereby bring upon them disease and unhappiness. This cruel kindness is carried out to a great extent in the present generation. The desires of children are gratified at the expense of health and happy tempers, because it is easier for the mother, for the time being, to gratify than to withhold that which her children clamor for.HR November 1, 1872, par. 8

Thus mothers are sowing the seed that will spring up and bear fruit. The children are not educated to deny the appetite, and restrict their desires. And they become selfish, exacting, disobedient, unthankful, and unholy. Mothers who are doing this work of sowing will reap with bitterness the seed they have sown. They have sinned against Heaven and against their children, and God will hold them accountable.HR November 1, 1872, par. 9

Had the system of education generations back been conducted upon altogether a different plan, the youth of this generation would not now be so depraved and worthless. The managers and teachers of schools should have been those who understood physiology, and who had an interest, not only to educate youth in the sciences, but to teach them how to preserve health, in order to use their knowledge to the best account, after they had obtained it. There should have been in connection with the schools establishments for various branches of labor, that the students might have employment and necessary exercise out of school hours.HR November 1, 1872, par. 10

The students’ employment and amusements should have been regulated in reference to physical law, and adapted to preserve to them the healthy tone of all the powers of the body and mind. Then their education in practical business could have been obtained while their literary progress was being secured. Students at school should have had their moral sensibilities aroused to see and feel that society had claims upon them, and that they should so live in obedience to natural law that they could, by their existence and influence, by precept and example, be an advantage and blessing to society. It should be impressed upon youth that all have an influence that is constantly telling upon society, to improve and elevate, or to lower and debase. The first study of youth should be to know themselves and how to keep their bodies in health.HR November 1, 1872, par. 11

Many parents have kept their children at school nearly the year round. These children have gone through the routine of study mechanically, and they have not retained that which they learned. Many of these constant students seem almost destitute of intellectual life. The monotony of continual study wearies the mind, and they have but little interest in their lessons, and to many the application to books becomes painful. They had not an inward love of thought, and ambition to acquire knowledge. They did not encourage in themselves reflection, and investigation of objects and things.HR November 1, 1872, par. 12

Children are in great need of proper education, in order that their lives should be of use in the world. But any effort that exalts intellectual culture above moral training is misdirected. Instructing, cultivating, polishing, and refining youth and children should be the main burden with both parents and teachers. Close reasoners and logical thinkers are few; for the reason that false influences have checked the development of the intellect. The supposition of parents and teachers that continual study would strengthen the intellect has proved erroneous; for it has had in many cases the opposite effect.HR November 1, 1872, par. 13

E. G. W.