Love and Sexuality in the Human Experience
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only medium through which Heaven can communicate to man and
affect his inmost life.
Whatever disturbs the circulation of the electric currents in the
nervous system lessens the strength of the vital powers, and the result
is a deadening of the sensibilities of the mind.—
Testimonies for the
Church 2:347
(1870).
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Some children begin to practice self-pollution in their infancy; and
as they increase in years the lustful passions grow with their growth and
strengthen with their strength. Their minds are not at rest. Girls desire
the society of boys, and boys that of the girls. Their deportment is not
reserved and modest. They are bold and forward and take indecent
liberties. The habit of self-abuse has debased their minds and tainted
their souls.—
Testimonies for the Church 2:481
(1870).
Sexual Activity Before Marriage (counsel to a Seventh-day
Adventist youth)—Few temptations are more dangerous or more
fatal to young men than the temptation to sensuality, and none if
yielded to will prove so decidedly ruinous to soul and body for time
and eternity....
You were shown me in her [N’s] society hours of the night; you
know best in what manner these hours were spent. You called on me
to speak whether you had broken God’s commandments. I ask you,
Have you not broken them?
How was your time employed hours together night after night?
Were your position, your attitude, your affections such that you would
want them all registered in the ledger of heaven? I saw, I heard things
that would make angels blush.... No young man should do as you have
done to N, unless married to her; and I was much surprised to see that
you did not sense this matter more keenly.
Why I write now is to implore you for your soul’s sake to dally
with temptation no longer. Make short work in breaking this spell that
like a fearful nightmare has brooded over you. Cut yourself loose now
and forever, if you have any desire for the favor of God....
You have spent hours of the night in her company because you
were both infatuated.... In the name of the Lord, cease your attention
to N or marry her.... You might as well marry her as to be in her
society and conduct yourselves as only man and wife should conduct
themselves toward each other....
If through the period of your life you wish to enjoy the society of
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