be a serious one, and it is doubtful whether human nature alone--at 

least in any but rare cases,--would be able to gain the victory; but, 

in addition to his own inherent tendencies to evil, man is assailed 

at every point by unseen agencies that seek to drag him down and spoil 

his soul with lust. These fiendish influences are only felt, not seen, 

from which some argue that they do not exist. Such casuists must find 

enormous depths for human depravity. But who has not felt the cruel 

power of these unseen foes? Against them, there is but one safe, 

successful weapon, "the blood of Christ which cleanseth from all sin." 

The struggling soul, beset with evil thoughts, will find in prayer a 

salvation which all his force of will, and dieting, and exercising, 

will not, alone, insure him. Yet prayer alone will not avail. Faith 

and works must always be associated. All that one can do to work out 

his own salvation, he must do; then he can safely trust in God to do 

the rest, even though the struggle seems almost a useless one; for when 

the soul has been long in bondage to concupiscence, the mind a hold 

of foul and lustful thoughts, a panorama of unchaste imagery, these 

hateful phantoms will even intrude themselves upon the sanctity of 

prayer and make their victim mentally unchaste upon his knees. But 

Christ can pity even such; and even these degraded minds may yet be 

pure if with the psalmist they continue to cry, with a true purpose 

and unwavering trust, "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew 

a right spirit within me." "Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; 

wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow." 

At the first suggestion of an evil thought, send up a mental prayer 

to Him whose ear is always open. Prayer and impurity are as incompatible 

as oil and water. The pure thoughts that sincere prayer will bring, 

displace the evil promptings of excited passion. But the desire for 

aid must be sincere. Prayer will be of no avail while the mind is half 

consenting to the evil thought. The evil must be loathed, spurned, 

detested. 

It would seem almost unnecessary to suggest the impropriety of 

resorting to prayer alone when sexual excitability has arisen from a 

culpable neglect to remove the physical conditions of local excitement 

by the means already mentioned. Such physical causes must be well looked 

after, or every attempt to reform will be fruitless. God requires of 

every individual to do for himself all that he is capable of doing; 

to employ every available means for alleviating his sufferings.