I once heard a person say that one of his acquaintances, whom he
named, had no moral right to have a child. Why was this harsh
judgment uttered? Because he was hereditarily scrofulous, and
would necessarily entail upon his offspring the family taint. If
there were even a show of justice in this, what must be said of a
parent who does not possess a single moral quality, that even he,
in the selfishness of his parental love, would desire to see
implanted in his child? How many homes are scattered over
Christendom in which no good seed is sown! How many selfish,
niggardly, vicious parents are there, who, producing after their
kind, by generation and by influence, are filling the world with
selfish, niggardly, and vicious children! How many homes are there
in which the gentle words of love are never heard; in which the
tender graces of a Christian heart are never unfolded; in which a
prayer is never uttered! How many fathers are there whose lips are
black with profanity and foul with obscenity, and whose lives are
mean and unwholesome! How many mothers are there whose tongues are
nimble with scandal and bitter with scolding, and whose brains are
busy with vanities and jealousies! Ah! if there be any man or
woman in this world who has no moral right to have a child, it is
one who has not a single trait of character desirable to be
reproduced in a child. Scrofula may be bad, but sin is worse.
Bodily taint may be terrible, but spiritual taint is horrible.

It is a general truth, under the law that every thing produces
after its kind, that children become what their parents are. A
simple people, virtuous and healthy, will produce virtuous,
healthy, and true-hearted children, A luxurious people--lazy,
sensual, wasteful--will produce children like themselves. If we go
through the vicious quarters of a great city, where licentiousness