UNCHASTITY 209 



Man may not see these mental adulteries, he may 

 not perceive these filthy imaginings; but One sees and 

 notes them. They leave their hideous scars upon the 

 soul. They soil and mar the mind; and as the record 

 of each day of life is photographed upon the books 

 of heaven, they each appear in bold relief, in all their 

 innate hideousness. 



One turns with sadness from the thought that hu- 

 man ''forms divine" have sunk so low. The standard 

 of virtue is trailing in the dust. Men laugh at vice, 

 and sneer at purity. The bawdy laugh, the ribald jest, 

 the sensual glance, the obscene song, the filthy tale, 

 salute the eyes and ears at every street corner, in the 

 horse-car, on the railroad train, in the bar-room, the 

 lecture hall, the workshop. 



Foul thoughts, once allowed to enter the mind, stick 

 like the leprosy. They corrode, contaminate, and infect 

 like the pestilence; naught but Almighty power can 

 deliver from the bondage of concupiscence a soul once 

 infected by this foul blight, this mortal contagion. 



Mental Uncleanness.— It is a wide-spread and 

 deadly error that only outward acts are harmful; that 

 only physical transgression of the laws of chastity 

 will produce disease. We have seen all the effects of 

 physical abuse resulting from mental sin alone. 



''I have traced serious affections and very great 

 suffering to this cause. The cases may occur at any 

 period of life. We meet with them frequently among 

 such as are usually called, or think themselves, conti- 

 nent young men. There are large classes of persons 

 who seem to think that they may, without moral guilt, 

 excite their own feelings or those of others by loose or 

 libidinous conversation in society, provided such im- 

 pure thoughts or acts are not followed by masturba- 



