338
Child Guidance
practicing secret vice nearly every day of their lives. They have not
refrained from this terrible sin even while most solemn meetings have
been in session. They have listened to the most solemn, impressive
discourses upon the judgment, which seemed to bring them before
the tribunal of God, causing them to fear and quake; yet hardly an
[443]
hour would elapse before they would be engaged in their favorite,
bewitching sin, polluting their own bodies. They were such slaves
to this awful crime that they seemed devoid of power to control their
passions. We have labored for some earnestly, we have entreated, we
have wept and prayed over them; yet we have known that right amid
all our earnest effort and distress, the force of sinful habit has obtained
the mastery, and these sins have been committed
Knowledge of Vice Is Spread by Its Victims—Those who have
become fully established in this soul-and-body-destroying vice can
seldom rest until their burden of secret evil is imparted to those with
whom they associate. Curiosity is at once aroused, and the knowledge
of vice is passed from youth to youth, from child to child, until there
is scarcely one to be found ignorant of the practice of this degrading
sin
One corrupt mind can sow more evil seed in a short period of time
than many can root out in a whole lifetime
[444]
12
Testimonies For The Church 2:468, 469
.
13
Testimonies For The Church 2:392
.
14
Testimonies For The Church 2:403
.