She’s such a little helping thing The mother’d say; And is my very wine of life From day to day. Such children: what a load of love Their coming brings: But oh the grief when parents fail To give them wings. CHAPTER IX. PREPARATION FOR FATHERHOOD. 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 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?