DIFFICULTY OF MAINTAINING CHASTITY.
I, in connection with many of our best and wisest men who have given the subject a lifetime's most earnest consideration, hold that for a young man whose early education has been carefully looked to, and consequently, whose mind has not been debased by vile practices, it is no more impossible mentally, or injurious physically, to preserve his chastity than to refrain from yielding to any other of the innumerable temptations with which his life is beset. And every year of voluntary chastity renders the task easier by mere force of habit. I wish to be clearly understood in this matter.
So long as a young man remains chaste in thought and deed, he will not suffer any bad effects from his continence. It is the semicontinent, the man who knows the right but pursues the wrong, who suffers! Patients frequently complain that enforced continence makes them restless, irritable, unfit for mental application of any sort, &c. Sexual intercourse is then indulged in, and presto: for the time being, what a welcome change. The now unclogged mind grasps with vigor any subject presented to it, the spirits are exuberant and the physical frame buoyant. But, is the trouble cured, is it permanently eradicated from the system? No! In a short time the symptoms reappear and the same remedy is again sought. The more the sexual feelings are indulged the more frequent will be their recurrence, and the result need not be written; every candid mind can easily see it. To their shame and confusion be it said, there are many physicians who, when consulted by their patients for medical assistance in such trials, “deliberately encourage the early indulgence of the passions, on the false and wicked ground that self-restraint is incompatible with health. What abhorrence can be too deep for a doctrine so destructive, or for the teachers who thus, before the eyes of those whose youthful ignorance, whose sore natural temptation, rather call for the wisest and tenderest guidance and encouragement, put darkness for light, evil for good, and bitter for sweet.”[E]
I declare emphatically that no symptoms of sexual suffering, no matter how feelingly described or cunningly insinuated, should ever lead a physician to prescribe for a young man that fatal remedy, illicit intercourse. Medically as a physician, morally as a Christian, and sympathizingly as a fellow being, I record a solemn protest against such false treatment. It is better for a youth to live a continent life. The strictly chaste suffer comparatively little sexual irritability; but the incontinent, at recurring periods are sure to be troubled in one or other of the ways spoken of; and the remedy of indulgence, if effective, requires repetition as often as the inconvenience returns. No! When thus consulted, let the physician prescribe the proper medicament, if one be necessary; and let him direct a plain, nourishing, non-stimulating diet, physical exertion of any kind carried to exhaustion, and SELF CONTROL.
Would any young man in his senses listen to a physician, who, for lowness of spirits, mental despondency, &c., should tell him to drink plentifully of brandy or eat hasheesh? On the same principle then let a youth shun the physician, who, for sexual excitement, prescribes sexual indulgence.
Again, such complaints coming from young men are very often specious, and are mere subterfuges—overdrawn pictures of their sufferings—which are presented as an excuse for indulging the sensual emotions, instead of manfully and righteously struggling to overcome them. And further, “if anyone wishes to really experience the acutest sexual suffering, he can adopt no more certain method than to be incontinent with the intention of becoming continent again, when he has ‘sown his wild oats.’ The agony of breaking off a habit which so rapidly entwines itself with every fibre of the human frame (as sexual indulgence) is such that it would not be too much to say in the Wise Man's words, ‘None that go to her return again, neither take they hold on the paths of life.’”
“The sin, of all, most sure to blight—
The sin, of all, that the soul's light
Is soonest lost, extinguished in.”
Remember then that sexual suffering comes to the incontinent man, and that it is far easier, even for the fully developed vigorous adult, to continue in control of these feelings, than when they have been once excited and indulged.
One single impure connection may entail a whole life of syphilitic suffering on the unhappy transgressor. Would this “pay?”
No inducement could persuade me to assume the awful responsibilities of advising illicit intercourse. Apart from Christian principle, I know that there is no necessity, physiological, pathological or any other, that can excuse any physician for saying that the Seventh Commandment may ever be broken. My sentiments on the physiological side of the question are so admirably expressed by Acton,[F] that I will here quote from him.