The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1917-01-25
Tie PEOPLES FORUM.
The Serpent in the Birds Nest.

1bo NiANNbo III NV al mig AllC
physical development and growth, in
lessening the dignity, manliuess and
nobleness, efficiency and aspiration,
while it shows itself in yulgarity and in
delicacy. 1t DESTROYS selfrespect and
leaves them disheartened and humbled
dronish and subdued manners, as if
they would beg your pardon for their
existence. 1t is asserted that this vice
becomes the great cause of celibacy, by
depreciating the opposite sex. Is it
any wonder that the offspring of those
addicted to this evil feel its effects by
being weakened. Let the dictates Of
nature and the voice of reason be heard
remember the case of young man,
who was living example of its evils.
OF average brightness he could have
made something of himself, but the
snare caught him; he became idiotic and
about all he could think of was the vile
practice and his words were reeking
with vulgarity.
Riding with physician one day we
met poor weak minded specimen of
humanity, for whom | expressed sym
pathy. Yes, said the doctor that's the
result of the secret vice. What l said!
Yes, that's the result of self abuse. 1t
was an extreme case but it showed the
result of abuse. 1t engenders all sorts
of diseases. Cold hands and feet we
are told are symptoms and these induce
colds which in turn cause disease. BY
impeding digestion it weakens the
stomach, produces headache, loss of
memory and power of application. One
man says that forty years of close ap-
plicatlon compels the belief that this
vice causes a large proportion Of these
fashionable ailments indigestion, sour
stomach, heart burn, hatulence and
consequent lassitude, weakness and
melancholy. Nor are we liable to over
estimate the effects on the mind.
1t impairs its faculties, makes its
victim wretched, blue and moody while
one doctor atta- many years of expert
ence says, 1T causes more nervous all
ments and mental alterations than all
else combined" Some are frigid stoical
or fail to appreciate their condition, are
vacant minded, dull of comprehension,
eXcitable, confused and over sensitive
Like a fire in a city where house
after house falls before it, so one
physical organ after another succumbs
TO this passion. Victims of this evil
are impairing their personality because
they are destroying their entity, The
report of an insane hospital rates this
as second in the prolific cause of in
sanity. Another report, two years
= later, in the same state places it first,
stating the fact that there was a frac-
ton less than 10 per cent. of the whole
number brought there by this wee.
In another institution the ratio is
given as almost 25 per cent. The
superintendent of a French lunatic
asylum says, it is more frequently this
than is imagined, the cause OF insanity,
particularly among the rich.
1t is alarming the power this odious
vice has over minds. 1t so pollutes 1t
that it is incapacitsted for INDUCING
good thoughts to any extent.
Even amidst the pleasantest sur
roundings and in hottest places it fills
the mind with phantoms of evil. 1t
inLrLdes into the hottest of holes,
when on0e it has taken possession of
the heart. Where the victim is sup
posed to be engaged in acts OF religion
il fills his mind with denominations and
they are transported with lustful con-
ceptions and desires to the exclusion
of every thing pure and good. 1t even
invades the ranks of the married. Ex-
cesses prevail, schemes are devised to
thwart nature and not unfrequently
they are guilty of the sin of Oman,
which so provoked God that He slew
him.
DR.. Adam Clark speaking of the
consequences says, ''if thou hast entered
into the snare, flee from the destruction,
both of body and mind that awaits thee,
God only can save thee from an evil
which has in its issue the destruction
of thy body and the final perdltion of
thy soul"
The Bible condemns most decidedly all
sexual sins. Many one would con-
denim themselves for lndulging this
passion with opposite sex, would blush
to be guilty of fornlcation would feel
disgraced for adultry; yet will practice
this secret vice as lesser evil. 1t may
be less in degree yet it is guilt in God S
sight. Conscience, or fear will not
allow them to violate the literal law of
chastity, yet they seek in secret the
same qualification that constitutes
sensuality. 1t is as debasing to the
soul as RIGHTEOUSNESS and creates
shame, self-abhorrence, vulgarity, de-
ranges the nerves, drains the system of
energy, wastes the vitality and robs
every faculty of body and mind of the