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Chapter 51—Moral Pollution
I have been shown that we live amid the perils of the last days.
Because iniquity abounds, the love of many waxes cold. The word
“many” refers to the professed followers of Christ. They are affected
by the prevailing iniquity and backslide from God, but it is not nec-
essary that they should be thus affected. The cause of this declension
is that they do not stand clear from this iniquity. The fact that their
love to God is waxing cold because iniquity abounds shows that they
are, in some sense, partakers in this iniquity, or it would not affect
their love for God and their zeal and fervor in His cause.
A terrible picture of the condition of the world has been presented
before me. Immorality abounds everywhere. Licentiousness is the
special sin of this age. Never did vice lift its deformed head with
such boldness as now. The people seem to be benumbed, and the
lovers of virtue and true goodness are nearly discouraged by its
boldness, strength, and prevalence. The iniquity which abounds is
not merely confined to the unbeliever and the scoffer. Would that this
were the case, but it is not. Many men and women who profess the
religion of Christ are guilty. Even some who profess to be looking
for His appearing are no more prepared for that event than Satan
himself. They are not cleansing themselves from all pollution. They
have so long served their lust that it is natural for their thoughts to be
impure and their imaginations corrupt. It is as impossible to cause
their minds to dwell upon pure and holy things as it would be to turn
the course of Niagara and send its waters pouring up the falls.
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Youth and children of both sexes engage in moral pollution,
and practice this disgusting, soul-and-body-destroying vice. Many
professed Christians are so benumbed by the same practice that their
moral sensibilities cannot be aroused to understand that it is sin, and
that if continued its sure results will be utter shipwreck of body and
mind. Man, the noblest being upon the earth, formed in the image of
God, transforms himself into a beast! He makes himself gross and
corrupt. Every Christian will have to learn to restrain his passions
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