Love and Sexuality in the Human Experience
179
Within this circle no other person has a right to come. Let not the
husband or the wife permit another to share the confidences that belong
solely to themselves.—
The Ministry of Healing, 361
(1905).
(B) The Negative
(Words of Restraint and Caution)
Marriage Not Designed to Cover Sensuality and Base Prac-
tices—God never designed that marriage should cover the multitude
of sins that are practiced. Sensuality and base practices in a marriage
relation are educating the mind and moral taste for demoralizing prac-
tices outside the marriage relation.—
The Review and Herald, May 24,
1887
.
Sexual Excesses Endangering Health and Life—It is not pure,
holy love which leads the wife to gratify the animal propensities of
her husband at the expense of health and life....
[224]
It may be necessary to humbly and affectionately urge, even at the
risk of his displeasure, that she cannot debase her body by yielding
to sexual excess. She should, in a tender, kind manner, remind him
that God has the first and highest claim upon her entire being and that
she cannot disregard this claim, for she will be held accountable in the
great day of God.—
Testimonies for the Church 2:475
(1870).
Sexual excess will effectually destroy a love for devotional exer-
cises, will take from the brain the substance needed to nourish the
system, and will most effectively exhaust the vitality.—
Testimonies
for the Church 2:477
(1870).
Perversion of a Sacred Institution—Because they have entered
into the marriage relation, many think that they may permit themselves
to be controlled by animal passions. They are led on by Satan, who
deceives them and leads them to pervert this sacred institution. He
is well pleased with the low level which their minds take; for he has
much to gain in this direction.
He knows that if he can excite the baser passions and keep them in
the ascendancy, he has nothing to be troubled about in their Christian
experience; for the moral and intellectual faculties will be subordinate,
while the animal propensities will predominate and keep in the ascen-
dancy; and these baser passions will be strengthened by exercise, while