98
Testimonies on Sexual Behavior, Adultery, and Divorce
very ones who should be awakened, so as to have any just sense of
the power which Satan holds over minds. They are not aware of the
corruption teeming all around them. Satan has blinded their minds,
and lulled them to carnal security.
The failures in our efforts to bring others up to understand the great
dangers that beset souls, have sometimes led me to fear that my ideas
of the depravity of the human heart were exaggerated. But when facts
are brought to us showing the sad deformity of one who has dared to
minister in sacred things while corrupt at heart, one whose sin-stained
hands have profaned the vessels of the Lord, I am sure that I have not
drawn the picture any too strong.—
The Review and Herald, September
26, 1899
. [
The two Review and Herald Articles of September 19 and
26, carried the general title, “Christianity in the Marriage Relation.”
]
Abuse of Sexual Privileges—Let the husband and wife in their
married life prove a help and a blessing to one another. Let them
[115]
consider the cost of every indulgence in intemperance and sensualism.
These indulgences do not increase love, nor ennoble and elevate. Those
who will indulge the animal passions and gratify lust will surely stamp
upon their offspring the debasing practices, the grossness of their own
physical and moral defilement.—
Manuscript 3, 1897
.
It is carrying that which is lawful to excess that makes it a grievous
sin.—
Testimonies for the Church 4:505
.
Those professing to be Christians ... should duly consider the result
of every privilege of the marriage relation, and sanctified principle
should be the basis of every action.—
Testimonies for the Church
2:380
.
Vital Importance of a Good Example—The animal passions,
cherished and indulged, become very strong in this age, and untold
evils in the marriage life are the sure results. In the place of the mind
being developed and having the controlling power, the animal propen-
sities rule over the higher and nobler powers until they are brought into
subjection to the animal propensities. What is the result? Women’s
delicate organs are worn out and become diseased; childbearing is no
more safe; sexual privileges are abused. Men are corrupting their own
bodies; and the wife has become a bedservant to their inordinate, base
lusts, until there is no fear of God before their eyes....
Nothing but the truth of God can either make man savingly wise
or keep him so. If there is an immortal life to be obtained, if a pure