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     him and joyfully called upon him to admire it, he said:      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  				   -5-            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!     Then pointing to a rose he said:       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     and said:      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  				   -6-            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