Signs of the Times, Book 1 - Ellen G. White

The law of Nature is the law of God; and the penalty of its transgression
is visited alike upon men and women. It is not customary to hold fathers
equally responsible with mothers for the training of their children. How
many sermons are preached, and how much is written concerning the
mother's responsibility; while the father is apparently relieved from all the
burden. We would appeal to fathers, in the hope of arousing them to a sense
of their God given responsibility in regard to their children. We would say,
Guard yourselves from cherishing any pernicious habit which, by its
influence, might have a direct or indirect tendency to weaken the moral
susceptibilities of your children.
While the mother may be doing her whole duty in educating her children
to purity of life, the father too frequently, by his own example, may be
opening the door of temptation to his children. His indulgence in wine and
tobacco, and other sinful practices, lessen the hideousness of sin in their
eyes. In keeping with this immoral course, is the talk that many fathers
indulge in before their children, to the effect that the law of God is no longer
binding upon man; that it was only for the government of the Israelites; or
that it was abrogated at the death of Christ. Intelligent youth are not long in
comprehending that where there is no law there is no transgression. The
wholesome fear of breaking the commandments of God, grows weaker and
weaker in their minds, until the moral perceptions which have been carefully
trained by the mother, grow to be in harmony with the father's sentiments.
If men strictly and conscientiously kept the law of God, there would be
no drunkards, no tobacco inebriates, no distress, penury, and crime. Liquor
saloons would be closed for want of patronage, and nine-tenths of all misery
existing in the world would come to an end. Young men would walk forth
with erect and noble forms, free and elastic step, clear eye, and healthy
complexions.
When ministers, from their pulpits, make loyalty to the law of God
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