The Command to “Replenish the Earth.”—Preparation for Motherhood More Written About than Preparation for Fatherhood.—Questions Which Would Test the Fitness of Young Men for Marriage.—Parents Should Know the Character of Young Men Who Desire Their Daughters in Marriage.—Many Young Men of Startling Worth.—The Improving of a Good Heritage.—Effects of Bad Morals and Wayward Habits.—Effects of Tobacco and Alcoholics.—How Young Women Help to Contribute Bad Habits in Young Men.—The Years of Rooting and Weeding Necessary.—Attaining the Best.—The Father Reproduced in His Children.

“Be fruitful, multiply and replenish the earth.”

Webster defines “Replenish”: To stock abundantly, to make complete or perfect.

“It is a sad fact that many persons assume the responsibility of parents without any clear appreciation of its obligations. To provide a shelter from the storm, a proper amount of rations, and an irregular and spasmodic administration of discipline, chiefly[114] regulated by the nervous susceptibility of the parents, rather than by the deserts of the child, is their idea of parental duty.”

Far more has been written in these latter days concerning the preparation for motherhood, than the preparation for fatherhood. One would almost conclude that no especial fitting were needed to prepare young men to become parents. Because of the lack of strong public sentiment along these lines, the many sons come to marriage with no adequate idea of the duties and responsibilities before them, with no thought or knowledge of what they have, or should have, to give to the next generation.

Suppose a set of questions something like the following were handed to young men the week before their marriage, what think you would be their answers?

Do you bring to your bride the same purity that you expect from her?

What in your life and habits have you hidden, and would you still hide from her?

What mental reservation do you make in respect to your liberties after marriage, to indulge these habits?

What companions have you, whom you would not care to bring to your home or introduce to your wife?
 

What “wild oats” have you sown that have left their seeds in your constitution to be transmitted to your children, and they in turn to their children down through the generations?

How many hours of thought have you given to the wise, earnest fitting for good fatherhood?

Do you, in the sight of God, consider yourself fit to become the husband, which all this close relation involves, of a pure, sweet, true woman?

These questions are simple questions, and should in every allowable marriage, admit of but one answer. No father or mother should ever give their consent to companionship, much less to marriage of their daughters, with men whom they have any reason to suppose could not answer these questions unblushingly, and with honest eyes, in the presence of the woman they seek as wife.

Dear young woman, you should know, as you value your peace of mind, what the young man really is to whom you plight your troth. What he may seem to be to you, what you have idealized him to be, is not sufficient. You owe it to yourself and to your unborn children, to know what he really is; and if he resents the questioning[116] of your parents, say the “no,” now, rather than live it, in agony, all your after life.

Much that might have been said in this chapter I have already said in the chapter on the choice of a husband, and we will not repeat.

That there are many young men, noble, true, conscientious and pure in their sterling manhood we know; and for such as these the warnings in this chapter are not written. That there are parents who fully realize the necessity of training their children for parenthood, and have all the way along given line upon line, precept upon precept, toward this training, we all know; but that the number is not greater, we sadly deplore.

Young men need to realize that sowing wild oats will never bring a harvest of wheat; and that a bed of thistles will never yield a garland of flowers. Like will produce like, as long as the world stands, and we can never change it.

In preparation for fatherhood there is much that the best among young men would wish to change in their lives, and they have this to comfort them; that by painstaking perseverance any resolute person can do very much toward eradicating inborn tendencies, and hereditary evils. Poor soil well enriched and carefully tended, watered with the dew of God’s grace, will bring a marvelous harvest of good things, and transform all future products; while the best of fields, with the wisest of care and tillage in the years past, may grow to weeds and wastefulness in this generation, if neglected. Therefore, while we have much to be grateful for in a good heritage, and that we have a name which, unlike poor little Patsy’s, will wash, yet too much dependence cannot be placed upon this............