p. 15 | THE PERIL OF FLIRTING

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, Cal. · Jul 26, 1905

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 31, No. 30.

THE PERIL OF FLIRTING.

A FRIEND asked an inmate of an asylum for homeless women what started her in an evil life, and she replied without hesitation, "Flirting. When I was a child I flirted with boys who visited my brothers. I thought it fun, and never dreamed of harm. As I grew older I continued to flirt. I lost the respect of the men and boys of my acquaintance, and before I realized my position I had a stain upon my name." One can not make sport of a heaven-given passion and hope for safety. A girl casts away her dignity and protection with the first glance, the first whisper, of mock love. Flirting breeds disrespect, disrespect familiarity, familiarity contempt and ruin. Flirting hardens the heart, blunts the sensibilities, and encourages a deceitful and trifling disposition. Our girls forget that a man has no friendship, no respect nor love for a flirt. No matter how desperate he may be himself, a man uses the coquette as a play-thing for an idle moment, that is all.

"Yes, I have great admiration for Miss B.," I heard one young man say to another. "All the fellows honor and respect her. She never flirts."

When that young man married, he chose for a life partner the girl who was open and above board, Miss B., who never flirted.

Many girls start flirtations on the impulse of the moment. They are gay and full of life, and think not of the consequences. Permit me to give a word of advice: Pray every day, that when you are tempted to flirt, you may remember that such a practise is profanity against the very name of God, for He is love.—Christian Work.