ung persons poison their bodies and
corrupt their minds with vicious courses, no lapse of time, after a
reform, is likely to restore them to physical soundness and the soul
purity of their earlier days."

There is one idea concerning purity which should never have been
conceived, and, having been conceived, should be, once and forever,
eternally exploded. It is that purity is different in the different
sexes.

It would be loosening the foundations of virtue to countenance the
notion that, because of a difference in sex, men are at liberty to set
morality at defiance, and to do with impunity that which, if done by a
woman, would stain her character for life. To maintain a pure and
virtuous condition of society, therefore, man as well as woman must be
virtuous and pure, both alike shunning all acts infringing on the
heart, character, and conscience,--shunning them as poison, which, once
imbibed, can never be entirely thrown out again.

Is there any reason why a man should have any license to drag his
thoughts through the mud and filth any more than a woman? Is there any
sex in principle? Isn't a stain a blot upon a boy's character just as
bad as upon a girl's? If purity is so refining and elevating for one
sex, why should it not be for the other?

It is incredible that a man should be socially ostracized for
comparatively minor offenses, yet be rotten with immorality and be
received into the best homes. But, if a woman makes the least false
step in this direction, she is not only ostracized but treated with the
utmost contempt, while the man who was the chief sinner in causing a
woman's downfall, society will pardon.

To put it on the very lowest ground, I am certain that if young men
knew and realized the fearful risks to health that they take by
indulging in gross impurities they would put them by with a shudder of
disgust and aversion. It may very easily happen--it very often
actually does happen--that one single step from the path of purity
clouds a man's whole life with misery and unspeakable suffering; and
not only that, but even entails lifelong disease on children yet unborn.

To return to its Maker at the close of life the marvelous body which He
gave us, scarred by a heedless life, with the heart rotten with
impurity, the imagination filled with vicious images, the character
honeycombed with vice, is a most ungrateful return for the priceless
life of opportunity.

A mind retaining all the dew and