Gospel Doctrine: Selections from the Sermons and Writings of Joseph F. SmithSmith, Joseph F. (Joseph Fielding)
Religion
Gospel Doctrine: Selections from the Sermons and Writings of Joseph F. Smith
Smith, Joseph F. (Joseph Fielding)
Latter Day Saint churches
MARRIAGE AND LARGE FAMILIES DESIRABLE. Bachelorhood and small families
carry to the superficial mind the idea that they are desirable because
they bring with them the minimum of responsibility. The spirit that
shirks responsibility shirks labor. Idleness and pleasure take the
place of industry and strenuous effort. The love of pleasure and
of an easy life in turn make demands upon young men who refuse to
look upon marriage and its consequent family enlargement as a sacred
duty. The real fault lies with the young men. The license of the age
leads them from paths of duty and responsibility to the pitfalls of a
pleasure-loving {353} world. Their sisters are the victims of neglect
and of a great social and family wrong.
Women would marry if they could, and would accept cheerfully the
responsibilities of family life. This loss to the home is a loss the
nation must feel, as years go on. Time will vindicate the laws of God
and the truth that individual human happiness is found in duty and not
in pleasure and freedom from care.
The spirit of the world is contagious. We cannot live in the midst of
such social conditions without suffering from the effects of their
allurements. Our young people will be tempted to follow the example
of the world about them. There is already a strong tendency to make
sport of the obligations to marry. Pretexts of ambition are set up as
an excuse to postpone marriage till some special object is attained.
Some of our leading young men desire to complete first a course of
study at home or abroad. Being natural leaders in society their example
is dangerous and the excuse is one of questionable propriety. It were
better far that many such young men never went to college than that
the excuse of college life be made the reason for postponing marriage
beyond the proper age.--_Juvenile Instructor,_ Vol. 40, pp. 240, 241,
April 15, 1905.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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