Personal Purity

The earnest and repeated prayers of any Christian young man or young woman for a pure heart and for strength to withstand temptations will never remain unanswered by our God, who has promised never to permit us to be confronted with temptations which we cannot withstand.

1922 Walter A. Maier Walther League Messenger

The following article by Walter A. Maier is taken from the June 1922 issue of the Walther League Messenger, volume 30, pages 440-441.

In the throbbing and pulsating years of youth and growing maturity young men and young women are assailed by fiercer passions and confronted with greater temptations than at any other period of their lives. The devil works overtime with young people, and because he knows that their fatal weakness is the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes , and the pride of life, he leaves nothing undone that would appeal to this weakness and lead to sins of impurity and unchastity. It is the sixth commandment probably more than all other commandments that suffers from serious and repeated transgressions on the part of young men and young women, for by thought, word, and deed , the baser impulses of human nature often find sad expression in the lives of young people who are otherwise sincere and determined to lead a Christian life.

The Powerful Forces of Impurity Today

It will require little explanation to show that conditions today are gradually making personal purity more impossible than ever before. Immoral pictures with their lewd exhibitions, that have been diabolically planned to arouse sinful desires and unclean impulses, are tearing down the morals of our country and contributing to the spirit of depravity and lawlessness which is characterizing our age. Free love, easy divorce, rewarded immorality, lascivious scenes of the most sensuous nature are portrayed with calculated allurement and exhibited to millions who faithfully wend their way to the "movies" two or three times every week.

Then there is the theatre. The most suggestive and immoral pieces run not months but years in our larger cities, and night after night uncounted masses pay two or three dollars to behold the most indecent plots, situations, and actions which perverted minds can invent and exhibit. The strange law of our country punishes those who steal and destroy another's property, but sometimes it almost seems to put a premium on the theft of public morality and the slow destruction of modesty, virtue, and purity, which occurs behind the footlights.

All this is re-echoed on the printed page. Magazines which have become notorious for their entire disregard of morals and conventions, their impure sex stories, their unabashed discussion of subjects which a father should tell his son and a mother her daughter in the holy fear of the Lord, are feeding their millions of readers—for the most part young people—a slow poison that is killing off the nobler impulses, pardoning impurity, and making immodesty an accomplishment to be desired. And the newspapers carry this spirit into our homes every day, and especially on Sunday when the entire effect of an inspiring sermon is often lost in the contemplation of the magazine or pictorial supplements, where the whole catalogue of sins against the sixth commandment is glorified and modesty ridiculed as old - fashioned and out of date. The devil himself could hardly work more destructively and make more people ready to sin against their bodies and their souls than some of the writers and editors whom he has drafted into his service.

And thus literature, the spoken and pictured drama, yes, even art and music, in themselves noble expressions of human emotions, have been prostituted and made to serve destructive and pernicious ends. Immorality has been made attractive and immodesty is passed by unrebuked.

The Result

ll this is helping to raise a generation of sophisticated young people, for whom there are few mysteries and who know far too much about the intimate questions of life . Loose immorality and brazen immodesty, together with the absence of clean-cut manhood and chaste virginity are alarming, but frequent, signs of the times. For, how else can we explain the over-crowded dance halls that are robbing our American girls of their innocence; or, the immodest dress flaunted before our eyes every day to make a very direct appeal to the fire that smolders beneath every human breast; or the mid-night "joy-rides," which far too often become sorrow rides, both for the young people and for the indulgent or indifferent parents who are too soft or too preoccupied to watch over their children and to rear them in the fear and admonition of the Lord ; or, the worldly-wise actions of young men with old men's thoughts and habits; or, in general, any of the all too evident impurities of this day and hour; how, we repeat, are we to account for all this , unless we realize that our times, perhaps no more, but certainly no less than any previous age, have distorted and depraved ideas as to what constitutes real manhood and genuine womanhood?

Failing Remedies

Now it is in this world that the young people of our Church find themselves, clothed in weak flesh and surrounded by strong temptations, faltering when they should stand fast, giving in when their conscience tells them to resist. It is therefore of paramount importance that each one of our young people realize fully the one great power which is able to meet and to repel the temptations of our flesh. Much, indeed, has been said and written on this subject, but far too much has missed its goal and brought discouragement and despair. Wild passions can as little be tamed by good advice or by dire warnings as a roaring lion can be subdued by a soft voice or a harsh threat. Lecturers and writers may plead for chastity because it is good and virtuous and most to be desired; but in the depth of its sin the human heart laughs at this counsel and hurries on from the satisfaction of one carnal desire to the pursuit of another sinful lust. Physicians and scientists may predict with certainty all the terrible consequences of sin against self and others which certainly follow in the wake of this impurity and moral leprosy, sapping, as it does, the energy, draining the vitality, and wrecking more lives than any scourge of war and pestilence ; but such warning falls on deaf ears, and, as long as these consequences are not seen or felt, will be cast to the winds heedlessly . Books claiming to show "What a Young Man Should Know," or to contain "What every Young Woman Should Realize" often fall far short of their mark by omitting entirely one thing that is needful for all young people who would lead more chaste and godly lives. Men have tried to educate people to view sins against the sixth commandment as something to be feared and avoided; but they have been forced to admit that educated people sin just as often and just as grievously as others. They have tried legislation; but experience has shown that the more laws there are, the more are broken, and that something else is necessary to bring about a change in heart and life.

The One Purifying Power

And this something else is nothing other than the power of faith in the Savior who tells us: "Without me ye can do nothing." Until we fight against the sins of impurity and unchastity as the redeemed and regenerated warriors of Christ, we fight not in His strength but in our own sinking weakness and frailty. "Without Him, " someone has said, "we can see some of our sins and fight against them, and if they be sins that threaten our social position or our reputation we can avoid and overcome them, but sins which are hidden from men, . . . sins which lurk in the heart and make us worldly and ungodly and sensual, these gather strength in spite of all that we can do, unless we have the aid of Christ's fellowship. " And if the power of Christ's love is not the restraining and inspiring strength in our hearts and lives, then nothing else can keep us from a life that is entirely given over to sin in its veiled or open forms.

"If any man be in Christ Jesus, " says St. Paul, "he is a new creature; old things are passed away: behold, all things are become new." And the great wonder of Christian faith is this, that it takes men and women steeped in sin and wickedness, held and swayed by fleshly lusts and desires, and makes new creatures of them,—not pure and perfect, it is true, as long as we are on this earth of sin and wrong,—but nevertheless, men and women with a new purpose in life and a new spirit animating their beings. And if we habitually live in Jesus and put on the whole armor of God, we will be divinely equipped to withstand the onslaughts of evil hours. Knowing that our sins bring grief to the Savior and that our unchastity wounds Him anew, we will guard our ways and endeavor to keep our bodies God's temples, blessed with the indwelling of His Holy Spirit.

The earnest and repeated prayers of any Christian young man or young woman for a pure heart and for strength to withstand temptations will never remain unanswered by our God, who has promised never to permit us to be confronted with temptations which we cannot withstand, and who has assured us that if we call upon Him in the hour of discouragement and despair, He will lift us up from the depth of our sins and give us power to fight more bravely and successfully. If we have fallen repeatedly and given way to grievous sins of impurity in thought and words, yes, even in deeds, God's grace will still receive us and His strength will still be at our disposal, ours to have and to hold.

We must remember, however, that there is no profit in praying: "Lead us not into temptation," if we persist in seeking temptations and in going along the path which we know to be laid with pitfalls. The Lord will seldom cleanse us, if we are determined to be impure. And all who are moved by the spirit of Christ will studiously avoid all places where they will be tempted; they will not play with a fire which can burn beyond healing. Earnest Christians will not be found in the company of those who are slaves of vicious habits and who speak slurringly of some of the most intimate and sacred subjects. They will not be devotees of the modern dance, nor belong to the millions of "movie fans" who do not make any attempt to distinguish between what is morally good and bad. The library of the Christian home will be selected with care and no "Snappy Stories", "Cosmopolitan" or any similar magazines will have a place there. Even the pictures and statuary will be chosen with discrimination, and the whole will breathe an air of clean purity and wholesomeness which will stand out in sharp contrast to the many homes in which Christ has no place.

But on the other hand, young people who are endeavoring to live as Christians should enjoy purely and whole-heartedly all the recreational and social pleasures which their Lord has intended them to have. There is much truth in the old Latin proverb to the effect that a sound mind dwells in a sound body. Outdoor sports, games of skill and endurance, long walks through God's wonders in nature will help to work off much of the overflowing energy in young lives. Clean entertainments, concerts, uplifting amusements, entertaining and helpful books, all this is but part of the recreational pleasures, the fun, if you please, which every Christian may and should enjoy. And for young people there is nothing more stimulating and refining than the society of clean, full-blooded, Christian young men and women.

In such a common-sense and healthy existence, where work and play have their proportionate part, the power of Christian faith and the strength of Christian prayer will work together for a God-pleasing and clean life. There will be lapses, of course, in which our natural impulses will assert themselves; there will be sins which will cause grief and remorse; but after each such lapse and sin, there will be a greater determination to conform ourselves more closely to the Holy Christ. This we can only do through the strength of His Spirit, and that this Spirit be given to us should be the prayer and confidence of every Christian young man and young woman.

W. A. M.

Let us ever walk with Jesus,
Follow His example pure,
Flee the world, that would deceive us
And to sin our soul allure.
Ever in His footsteps treading,
Body here, yet soul above,
Full of faith and hope and love,
Let us do the Father's bidding.
Faithful Lord, abide with me,
Savior lead, I follow Thee.