50
A Solemn Appeal
dignified, virtuous womanhood, and give unmistakable evidence that
a low, brutal passion has been suffered to remain in your heart.
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As I have seen the dangers of, and the sins among, those who
profess better things—a class who are not suspected of being in any
danger from these polluting sins—I have been led to inquire, Who, O
Lord, shall stand when thou appearest? Only those who have clean
hands and pure hearts shall abide the day of his coming.
I feel impelled by the Spirit of the Lord to urge my sisters who
profess godliness to cherish modesty of deportment and a becoming
reserve, with shamefacedness and sobriety. The liberties taken in
this age of corruption should be no criterion for Christ’s followers.
These fashionable exhibitions of familiarity should not exist among
Christians fitting for immortality. If lasciviousness, pollution, adultery,
crime, and murder, are the order of the day among those who know
not the truth, and who refuse to be controlled by the principles of
God’s word, how important that those who profess to be followers of
Christ and closely allied to God and angels, should show them a better
and nobler way. How important that their chastity and virtue stand
in marked contrast with that of the class who are controlled by brute
passions.
I have inquired, When will the youthful sisters act with propriety?
But I know there will not be any decided change for the better until
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parents feel the importance of greater carefulness in educating their
children correctly. They should teach them to act with reserve and
modesty. They should educate them for usefulness, to be helps, to
minister to others, rather than to be waited upon and ministered unto.
Satan has the control of the minds of the youth generally. Fond parents,
your daughters are not always taught self-denial and self-control. They
are petted, and their pride is fostered. They are allowed to have their
own way until they become headstrong and self-willed, and you are
put to your wits’ end to know what course to pursue, to save them
from ruin. Satan is leading them on to be a proverb in the mouths of
unbelievers, because of their boldness, their lack of reserve and want
of female modesty.
The young boys are likewise left to have their own way. They have
scarcely entered their teens before they are by the side of little girls
about their own age, accompanying them home, and making love to
them. And the parents are so completely in bondage through their own