word is spoken! Yet every impure word is abhorrent to God, and may become a mortal sin. "The venom of asps is under their lips" (Ps. cxxxix. 4). "The tongue," says St. Bernard, "is the most to be feared of all vipers; it imparts its poison in a single breath."
If God is ready to punish with eternal hellfire a mere thought, a look, a word, what must be the gravity of a sin committed in deed against the virtue of chastity. Do not imagine that you can escape the guilt by saying that it is a mere weakness of nature; do not excuse yourselves by referring to the great number of those round about you that may be guilty of these sins. No excuse will avail; God has set His law against this sin and will pronounce judgment according to His justice. Beware of this poison, watch over your thoughts and desires, guard against evil associations; for these things will lead you into the commission of such sin. Never carry the load of such a sin upon your conscience, if you should have fallen into it; the load will bear you down, even to the depths of hell.
1. God judges and punishes impurity severely in this life. This we can learn from the chastisements which in the past He has sent upon men guilty of this sin. The deluge was largely owing to this sin: " God saw that the earth was corrupted, for all flesh had corrupted its way upon earth" (Gen, vi. 12). Remember also the fate of the cities of the plain: "The cry of Sodom and Gomorrha is multiplied, and their sin is become exceeding grievous" (Gen. xviii. 20). At Settim four and twenty thousand were put to death by God's command on account of this sin (Num. xxv. 9). How God must hate the
