Chapter 33—Moral Maladies
General Statements
923. Immorality abounds everywhere. Licentiousness is the special
sin of the age. Never did vice lift its deformed head with such boldness
as now.—
Testimonies for the Church 2:346
.
924. A lethargy of unconscious sensualism, through indulgence
of a perverted appetite, a constant submitting of soul and body and
spirit to moral defilement, is upon the people.... And these lustful
appetites, with their destroying power, have been transmitted from
parents to children, and so intensified that the names of those who bear
them are recorded in the books of heaven as transgressors of God’s
law.—
Unpublished Testimonies, January 2, 1897
.
925. Moral pollution has done more than every other evil to cause
the race to degenerate. It is practised to an alarming extent, and brings
on disease of almost every description. Even very small children,
infants, being born with natural irritability of the sexual organs, find
momentary relief in handling them, which only increases the irrita-
tion, and leads to a repetition of the act, until as habit is established
which increases with their growth. These children, generally puny and
dwarfed, are prescribed for by physicians, and drugged; but the evil
[217]
is not removed. The cause still exists.—
Testimonies for the Church
2:391
.
926. Many might have been saved if they had been carefully
instructed in regard to the influence of this practise upon their health.
They were ignorant of the fact that they were bringing much suffering
upon themselves.—
A Solemn Appeal, 55
.
Diet
Inducing Causes of Immorality
927. If ever there was a time that the diet should be of the most
simple kind, it is now. Meat should not be placed before our children.
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