UNCHASTITY 



T 



^'^ I ^HOU Shalt not commit adultery." ''Whoso- 

 ever looketh on a woman to lust after her 

 hath committed adultery with her already in 

 his heart." 



In these two scriptures, we have a complete defini- 

 tion of uncliastity. The seventh commandment, with 

 the Saviour's commentary upon it, places clearly be- 

 fore us the fact that chastity requires purity of thought 

 as well as of outward acts. Impure thoughts and 

 unchaste- acts are alike violations of the seventh com- 

 mandment. As we shall see, also, unchastity of the 

 mind is a violation of nature's law as well as of moral 

 law, and is visited with physical punishment com- 

 mensurate to the transgression. 



Mental Unchastity.— It is vain for a man to sup- 

 pose himself chaste who allows his imagination to run 

 riot amid scenes of amorous associations. The man 

 whose lips delight in tales of licentiousness, whose eyes 

 feast upon obscene pictures, who is ever ready to per- 

 vert the meaning of a harmless word or act into un- 

 cleanness, who finds delight in reading vivid portrayals 

 of acts of lewdness,— such a one is not a virtuous man. 

 Though he may never have committed an overt act of 

 unchastity, if he cannot pass a handsome female in 

 the street without, in imagination, approaching the 

 secrets of her person, he is but one grade above the 

 open libertine, and is as truly unchaste as the veriest 

 debauchee. 



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