Heres a nice story to help explain the virtues of purity, innocence
and modesty, and their importance.



    The Most Beautiful Virtues

    This story is an excerpt taken from The  Basket  of  Flowers   by
    Johann Christoph von Schmid


    In a certain little market town, over a hundred years ago,	there
    lived  an  upright	and  intelligent man named Jacob Rede. He was
    married to a most virtuous young woman and they lived happily  in
    a  humble  home which was in the midst of a large, beautiful val-
    ley. After living many, happy years together, Jacob's wife	died,
    leaving  him alone with only one friend...his daughter Mary. Even
    as a child Mary was uncommonly pretty; but as she grew in  years,
    her piety, her innocence, her modesty and her unfeigned kindne ss
    towards all she came in contact with, gave to her beauty  a  rare
    and  peculiar  charm. Her face was lighted up with a look of such
    indescribable goodness, that  it  seemed  almost  as  though  one
    looked upon an angel.

    Mary's greatest delight was the beautiful garden and her  favour-
    ite  flowers  were the violet, the lily and the rose. Jacob loved
    to point to them as emblems of the virtues most becoming  to  her
    gender.  When	she  once, early in March brought the first violet to

    Let the modest violet, my dear Mary, be to you an image of humil-
    ity  and  of the benevolence that does good in secret. It clothes
    itself in the tender colours of modesty; it prefers to  bloom  in
    retired  grots; it fills the air with its fragrance while remain-
    ing hidden beneath the leaves.  May you also, my  dear  Mary,  be
    like  the  retiring violet, avoiding vain display, not seeking to
    attract the public	eye,  but  preferring  ever  to  do  good  in
    quietude and peace.

    One morning when the roses and lilies were in full bloom and  the
    garden appeared in its richest array, Jacob said to his daughter,
    as he pointed out a beautiful lily,  which	was  beaming  in  the
    morning sun:

    Let the lily my dear child, be to you the emblem
     of purity. Look how beautiful, how pure and fair it is! The whi-
    test  linen is as nothing compared with the purity of its petals:
    they are like the snow. Happy the maiden whose heart is  as  pure
    and as free from stain. But the purest of all colours is also the
    hardest

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    to preserve pure. Easily is the petal of the lily  soiled;	touch
    it	but carelessly or roughly and a stain is left behind.  In the
    same way, a word or a thought may stain the purity of  innocence!

     Let the rose my dear Mary, be to you an emblem of modesty.  More
    beautiful  than the colour of the rose is the blush that rises to
    the cheek of a modest girl. It is a sign that she is  still  pure
    of	heart  and  innocent in thought. Happy is the maiden whom the
    suggestion of a thought that is indelicate, will cause to  blush,
    as	she  is thus put on her guard against the approach of danger.
    The cheeks which readily blush will remain for a long  time  with
    their  roseate  hue, while those which fail to blush at the least
    indelicacy of thought will soon  become  pale  and	wan,  and  go
    before their time to the grave."




    Among the many fruit trees that adorned the garden there was  one
    that  was  prized above all the others. It was an apple tree, not
    much larger than a rose bush, and stood by itself in  the  middle
    of	the garden. Mary's father had planted it the day that she was
    born and every year it bore a number of beautiful apples. Once it
    blossomed  earlier	than  usual  and with unusual luxuriance. The
    tree was one mass of blossom. Mary was so delighted with it  that
    she went every morning as soon as she was dressed to look at
     it. Once, when it was in full bloom, she called  to  her  father

    Look father, how beautiful! Was there ever such a lovely mingling
    of	red  and  white?  The whole tree looks like one huge bunch of
    flowers!

    The next morning she hastened into the garden to feast  her  eyes
    once  more	upon the tree. But what was her grief to see that the
    frost had nipped it and destroyed all its flowers. They were  all
    become  brown  and	yellow	and  when  the	sun came forth in its
    strength they withered and fell to the ground. Mary  wept  bitter
    tears at the sight. Then said the father:

    Thus, does sinful pleasure destroy the  bloom  of  youth.  Oh  my
    child,  never  cease to remember how dreadful it is to be seduced
    from the path of right! Behold in the example of the  apple  tree
    an	image of what would happen if you were to wander from the way
    - if the hopes your conduct  hitherto  has	raised	in  my	heart
    should  vanish,  not  merely for a day or year, but for life. Ah,
    then how much more bitter would be the tears which I  would  shed
    over your lapse from virtue than those which now course down your
    cheeks! Life would have no joys for me: with tears in my eyes  I
    should

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    go down sorrowfully to my grave.

    As he spoke, the tears stood in his eyes; Mary was deeply  moved,
    and  the words he uttered made so profound an impression upon her
    mind that she never forgot them.

    Under the eyes of a father so  loving  and	wise,  and  amid  the
    flowers  of  her  garden, Mary grew daily in stature and intelli-
    gence - blooming as a rose, pure as a  lily  and  retiring	as  a
    violet, and as full of promise as a tree laden with blossom.

    Happy was the old man at all times to behold how plenteously  the
    fruits  of	his  garden  rewarded his diligent toil; but with how
    much more happiness and content did he mark the  gracious  effect
    produced  upon  the heart and mind of his beloved daughter by his
    pious teaching and example.

    Jacob plucked several roses and lilies, tied them together	in  a
    bunch and gave them to Mary with the words:

    The lily and the rose, sister flowers as they are, belong the one
    to	the  other;  both incomparable in their beauty, they are ren-
    dered still more lovely by being together. In  the	same  way  my
    dear  child  are innocence and modesty twin sisters of virtue and
    cannot be separated




    The greatest and most powerful guardian of purity is the  thought
    of the presence of God
