MENTAL PURITY.

White Ribbon, Volume 17, Issue 194, 17 August 1911, Page 7

MENTAL PURITY.

(A Paper read by Jib* f jrahatn, President U inborn? UnionJ. Wen* I so tall to reach the Pole, Or grasp the ocean with my span, I must b«* ineasund by my soul : The mind s the standanl of the man. —JPMts. The mind rules the body, therefore the importance of maintaining purity of mind. “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he."’ Persons who are impure in mind will soon be impure in their actions. Let a person cultivate purity of mind, chastity of thought, and abhorrence of vileness and impurity, then the character will be ennobled and the power of resistance to sin strengthened. Purity of thought aud action iu the married state should surely be the chief aim of all Christians. To produce children better than ourselves is the duty of of duties. To transmit life both mentally and physically strong to our children's children is the chief end of man and of woman ; and herein we glorify God, when we plan for the welfare of the yet unborn, and w'oe be to those paients who by their uncontrolled passions injure their offspring, for theirm may be the sin of sins. The promise unto Abraham was that if he lived aright, his seed should be as the stars of heaven for multitude; and Christ our Master taught us the greut love of God for humanity, when He said : “ See that ye hurt not one of these little ones, for their angels do always behold the face of My Father.” The sexual function is necessary only for the propagation of the race—Divinely ordered so —and not for the health or the

appetite of the individual. And there is also a limited time to this Divine order, when the wife reaches that period of life when she ceases to bear children. Too often, both husband and wife fall into bad health by undue sensuality, and

hundreds have set oq record that lust buries love.

Happiness may be perfect in the married state without the passionate embrace. Happy indeed are the husband and wife who have so disciplined their minds and so trained their bodies that they are able to hold within natural bounds the promptings of their lower nature, and may at will suppress them altogether. When we consider the groat increase of dmeases among women, we are justified in saying that young people should be taught self-control from their earliest days. There are thousrnds sulleriog today who have never learnt tlio importance of self-control.

Hanish lust from the married state, and subject the passions to the severe rule of reason, and half the trials of married life will disappear, and our race will I>e purer mentally and physically. The family institution, divinely set up by God, will rise to a higher plane. What is the present state of things ? Are we preventing the evils that so easily beset our race ?

Is not the uncontrolled sexual passion the author of this black list of sins ? Prostitution, abortion, prevention, sex diseases, divorce, defective parenthood, race-suicide, inability to nurse, and an increased death rate.

What shall we say to these things ? Are they not the unpardonable sins crying out upon the house-tops? Salvation from these evils can only come by education in the divine laws of God, when the young shall be taught that their bodies are the living temples of God, in Whom we live and move and have our being. Teach them that character is property —it is the noblest possession. “ Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life.” An honest man is the noblest work of (rod.

The so-called higher education will not keep men pure. We have on record of men of the highest education liaving fallen to the lowest depths of impurity.

It is the education of the heart we need. They who lea/e out Christ must fail. Reformers fail, when they reject Christianity, and Christians will fail if they reject reform. “ Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye have done it unto Me. ' To make the homo happy, and the children mentally, morally, and physically pure, is the greatest object men are permitted to achieve, and this is doubly true of women. Finally, preserve the family, and you preserve ail,