Testimonies for the Church, Volume 2 - Ellen G. White

compunctions of conscience for this great sin. My
confidence in the Christian experience of such is
very small. They seem to be insensible to the
influence of the Spirit of God. The sacred and
common are alike to them. The common practice
of a vice so degrading as the polluting of their own
bodies has not led to bitter tears and heartfelt
repentance. They feel that their sin is against
themselves alone. Here they mistake. Are they
diseased in body or mind, others are made to feel,
others suffer. The imagination is at fault, the
memory is deficient, mistakes are made, and there
is a deficiency everywhere which seriously affects
those with whom they live and who associate with
them. Mortification and regret are felt because
these things are known by others.
I have mentioned these cases to illustrate the
power of this soul-and-body-destroying vice. The
entire mind is given up to low passion. The moral
and intellectual faculties are over-borne by the
baser powers. The body is enervated, the brain
weakened. The material deposited there to nourish
the system is squandered. The drain upon the
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