418 PLAIN FACTS FOR OLD AND YOUNG 



course that a single act of sin may costhim a life of 

 wretchedness, morally and physically. Every physi- 

 cian of experience has seen plenty of cases in which 

 the first act of sexual indulgence was the means of the 

 contraction of some horrible disease which resulted in 

 the total blighting for life of all prospects for hap- 

 piness. 



The mental, moral, and physical scars accompany- 

 ing a fast life, even though continued but a short time, 

 are often ineradicable, and are carried by the patient 

 through a life of bitter repentance. 



Another fact for the benefit of those who think 

 lightly on this subject: Steps taken in the direction 

 of a sensual life are not easily retraced. The libertine, 

 after he has once started in a career of vice, frequently 

 forgets his resolutions to reform after a brief period 

 of self-indulgence, and plunges deeper and deeper into 

 vice, until all desire for reformation has been dissi- 

 pated, or until the power to reform is at last totally 

 paralyzed. No truer words were ever uttered than those 

 of the wise man: *'As for him that wanteth under- 

 standing, she saith to him: stolen waters are sweet, 

 and bread eaten in secret is pleasant. But he knoweth 

 not that the dead are there; and that her guests are 

 in the depths of helL" 



Getting Married.— The majority of young women 

 expect, sooner or later, to marry. Many are in too 

 much of a hurry to consummate the most important 

 of all the acts of their lives, and rush into matrimony 

 as though it were a matter of the most trifling conse- 

 quence. Marriage is not regarded with that respect 

 which the sacredness of this Heaven-born institution 

 properly demands. The ease by which divorces can be 

 obtained has undoubtedly contributed much to the hasty 



