p. 269 | The Taint of Impurity

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jun 15, 1882

The Taint of Impurity

THERE is one peculiarity about deeds, and thoughts, and words of impurity. It is the loathsome and stirring tenacity with which they cling to the mind. The vindictive man may become meek, and not a trace of the vengeful spirit remain. Thus it was with Paul, who, originally ireful and revengeful, learned to say, "Most gladly will I spend and be spent for you, though the more ardently I love you, the less I be loved." Unhallowed ambition may be replaced by the deepest humility. But unclean thoughts once harbored, never leave the soul empty and swept and garnished. There is always a taint. The gospel converts all sorts of men. But we believe that the impure man is the hardest to convert; and we believe that even when converted, there remains in his nature a rankness of odor, a coarseness of grain.—Sel.