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Show C Tldl!s Hon Every normal person has to contend with the temptations of the flesh but it is unwise to assume that man is essentially evil. The original purpose of the Seventh Commandment, "Thou shalt not commit adultery," was to preserve the sanctity of family life and this cannot be preserved if the individuals who establish the family are guilty of impure living, which impairs the moral integrity of the individual, injures in-jures the life of the family and saps the strength of the community. com-munity. There is a close connection between be-tween a person's inner life and his outward acts. The Psalmist declared, "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." Our Golden! Text also affirms this statement, "Keep thy heart with all diligence; dili-gence; for out of it are the issues of life." The attempt to live a life of personal purity in an unchristian un-christian social order calls for continuous struggle. It is not an easy task because one is ever conscious of the tension between what we are and what we ought to be. There are two ways, or paths: the path of the wicked and the path of the righteous. In the words of the poet, John Oxen-ham, Oxen-ham, "The high soul takes the high road, while the low soul gropes the low." If it were only a matter of choice, however, the task would not be difficult, but as it is ,as suggested in our reference re-ference from Proverbs, the wicked wick-ed are not content in their wickedness, but are ever seeking to persuade others to join them. Jesus stated the ideal of personal per-sonal purity before marriage and of absolute fidelity after marriage, mar-riage, when he declared, "Whosoever "Who-soever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her in his heart." (Matthew 5:28). He condemned the impure in thought and the outward act. He knew that the lustful imagination is the real spring of an unclean life. If everyone would remember that, as Paul declared, "Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit (I Cor. 6:19), there would be fewer who would be willing to desecrate that temple by impure im-pure living. Nor should anyone forget the warning, "The wages of sin is death" and "As ye sow, bo shall ye reap." The excuse for impure living, particularly among young people is that a young man must "sow his wild oats" before settling down to the humdrum routine of adult life. This reminds us of a statement in the Youth's Companion, Com-panion, "Wild oats takes something some-thing out of the soil of a man's life that no system of crop rotation ro-tation can restore." It is unfair to one's own personality and to the unborn generations for a man to do anything that would in any way adversely affect himself him-self or those who will come after him. A clean mind is essential to a good life, for the influence of the mind over the body is very pow-erfuL pow-erfuL Fill the mind with noble thoughts and the foundation of character is strengthened, A clean mind and a pure heart enable en-able a person to be sincere and upright in word and deed and surely the world needs such citizens citi-zens today. |
