Testimonies for the Church, Volume 2 - Ellen G. White

children sink still lower in the scale? The parents
give the stamp of character to their children.
Therefore children that are born of these parents
inherit from them qualities of mind which are of a
low, base order. And Satan nourishes anything
tending to corruption. The matter now to be settled
is: Shall the wife feel bound to yield implicitly to
the demands of her husband, when she sees that
nothing but base passions control him, and when
her reason and judgment are convinced that she
does it to the injury of her body, which God has
enjoined upon her to possess in sanctification and
honor, to preserve as a living sacrifice to God?
It is not pure, holy love which leads the wife to
gratify the animal propensities of her husband at
the expense of health and life. If she possesses true
love and wisdom, she will seek to divert his mind
from the gratification of lustful passions to high
and spiritual themes by dwelling upon interesting
spiritual subjects. It may be necessary to humbly
and affectionately urge, even at the risk of his
displeasure, that she cannot debase her body by
yielding to sexual excess. She should, in a tender,
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