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

advantages in education, trained by wise and God-fearing parents to strictly
temperate habits, will generally be found trustworthy. They learn to bear the
yoke in their youth.
The sons of Aaron although especially honored of God by being placed
in important positions, were unfaithful. The yielding disposition of Aaron to
indulgence of his children had given them characters that were inclined to
self-gratification. They failed where they should have been strong. These
men did not understand their own weakness and made a fatal mistake in the
indulgence of appetite. The highest incentive was presented before them to
develop firmness and principle, and strictly temperate habits, that they might
have a continual sense of the sacredness of the work which was given them.
God was testing their character to bring into exercise the highest powers of
the mind. But the habits of self-indulgence had a firmer hold on them than
they had any idea of. It seemed a trifle to them to put the intoxicating draught
to their lips; they had done it again and again until force of habit controlled
them; and then elevation to responsible position did not have sufficient
influence upon them to make them break a sinful custom. Had these sons
been educated to courageous resolution, to self-control, they would have
resisted the growing power of vicious habits. There is not a virtue nor a vice,
not an act of body, nor of mind, to which we may not be chained down by
the force of habit. Many promising young men have ruined themselves by
one false step at the commencement of life in the formation of habits of
intemperance. Here the neglect of parents is seen in the formation of the
characters of their children. Notwithstanding the father had failed to do his
duty, God would bring these sons in close connection with himself that he
might instruct them as to his will and his way; but the reverence they had
failed to give the father, led them to disregard the positive requirements of
God.
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