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Testimonies for the Church Volume 2
Purity of life and a character molded after the divine Pattern are
not obtained without earnest effort and fixed principles. A vacillating
person will not succeed in attaining Christian perfection. Such will
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be weighed in the balances and found wanting. Like a roaring
lion, Satan is seeking for his prey. He tries his wiles upon every
unsuspecting youth; there is safety only in Christ. It is through His
grace alone that Satan can be successfully repulsed. Satan tells the
young that there is time enough yet, that they may indulge in sin and
vice this once and never again; but that one indulgence will poison
their whole life. Do not once venture on forbidden ground. In this
perilous day of evil, when allurements to vice and corruption are on
every hand, let the earnest, heartfelt cry of the young be raised to
heaven: “Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way?” And
may his ears be open and his heart inclined to obey the instruction
given in the answer: “By taking heed thereto according to Thy word.”
The only safety for the youth in this age of pollution is to make God
their trust. Without divine help they will be unable to control human
passions and appetites. In Christ is the very help needed, but how
few will come to Him for that help. Said Jesus when upon the earth:
“Ye will not come to Me, that ye might have life.” In Christ all can
conquer. You can say with the apostle: “Nay, in all these things we
are more than conquerors through Him that loved us.” Again: “But I
keep under my body, and bring it into subjection.”
I have written out quite fully the case of Brother E and family
because this one illustrates the true state of many families, and God
would have these families take this as though written specially for
their benefit. There are many more cases I might designate, but I
have named enough already. Young girls are not as a general thing
clear of the crime of self-abuse. They practice it, and, as the result,
their constitutions are being ruined. Some who are just entering
womanhood are in danger of paralysis of the brain. Already the
moral and intellectual powers are weakened and benumbed, while
the animal passions are gaining the ascendancy and corrupting body
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and soul. The youth, whether male or female, cannot be Christians
unless they entirely cease to practice this hellish, soul-and-body-
destroying vice.
Many of the young are eager for books. They read everything
they can obtain. Exciting love stories and impure pictures have a