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

Children read the countenance of the mother; they
understand whether love or dislike is there
expressed. You know not the work you are doing.
Does not the little sad face, the heaving sigh
welling up from a pressed heart in its yearning call
for love, awaken pity? No, not in you. It places the
child at a still greater distance from you and
increases your dislike.
I saw that the father had not taken the course
that a father should. God is not pleased with his
position. Another has stolen the father's heart from
the blood of his blood and bone of his bone.
Brother G, you have been very deficient in
discernment. As the head of the house, you should
have taken your position and not permitted things
to go as they have gone. You have seen that things
were not right and have sometimes felt anxious, but
fear of displeasing your present wife and making
unhappy discord in your family has led you to
remain silent when you should have spoken. You
are not clear in the matter. Your children have no
mother to plead for them, to shelter them from
censure by her judicious words.
88