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Mind, Character, and Personality Volume 1
Do they feel that they are appreciated? Is there harmony in their
married life? And thus the unsuspecting woman is led on by these
ensnaring questions to open her secret life, her disappointments, her
little trials and grievances, to a stranger as the Catholics do to their
priests.
Then this sympathizing pastor puts in a chapter of his own experi-
ence; that his wife was not the woman of his choice; that there is no
real affinity between them. He does not love his wife. She does not
meet his expectations. The barrier is thus broken down, and women are
seduced. They believe their life is one great disappointment, and this
shepherd has great sympathy for his flock. Lovesick sentimentalism is
encouraged, and the mind and soul is spoiled of its purity, if this kind
of work does not result in the breaking of the seventh commandment.
Polluted thoughts harbored become habit, and the soul is scarred
and defiled. Once do a wrong action and a blot is made which nothing
can heal but the blood of Christ; and if the habit is not turned from
with firm determination, the soul is corrupted and the streams flowing
from this defiling fountain corrupt others. His influence is a curse.
God will certainly destroy all those who continue this work....
We must be elevated, ennobled, sanctified. We may have strength
in Jesus to overcome; but when the character is lacking in purity, when
sin has become a part of the character, it has a bewitching power that
is equal to the intoxicating glass of liquor. The power of self-control
and reason is overborne by practices that defile the whole being; and
if these sinful practices are continued, the brain is enfeebled, diseased,
and loses its balance.—
Letter 26d, 1887
.
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Men, Women, and Youth Involved in Moral Depravity—The
moral dangers to which all, both old and young, are exposed are daily
increasing. Moral derangement, which we call depravity, finds ample
room to work, and an influence is exerted by men, women, and youth
professing to be Christians that is low, sensual, devilish.—
Letter 26d,
1887
.
Satan is making masterly efforts to involve married men and
women and children and youth in impure practices. His temptations
find acceptance in many hearts, because they have not been elevated,
purified, refined, and ennobled by the sacred truth which they claim
to believe. Not a few have been low and vile in thought and common
in talk and deportment so that when Satan’s temptations come, they