sin of impurity can be learned clearly from these punishments.
Besides these punishments by which God showed His judgment of impurity, He has also connected certain chastisements directly with the indulgence of sensuality. These are terrible as they affect the body. Holy Scripture describes them when it says of the impure: "Rottenness and worms shall inherit them" (Ecclus. xix. 3). Debauchery often brings most loathesome diseases in its train. Many a one goes about with pallid countenance, an unsteady gait, a living corpse, on account of his sins. Many a one is a mere wreck of humanity on account of sins of impurity committed in his youth. In the hospitals of the larger towns sights may be seen too revolting to describe here, men of whom the doctors can tell you that the seeds of their present condition were laid in their youth by an impure life. "The Nazarites were whiter than snow, purer than milk. Their face is now made blacker than coals, their skin hath stuck to their bones, it is withered, and is become like wood" (Lam. iv. 7, 8). Not unfrequently the libertine is carried to an early grave by reason of his sins.
Still more terrible are the consequences of sensuality as they affect the soul. The curse of heaven is poured out upon the soul of the sinner. Sins of impurity inflict a deep wound upon the soul and awaken the terrors of conscience in the breast of the sinner. If persevered in, impurity blinds the sinner and renders him indifferent to his state, it draws him farther and farther from God and produces obduracy of heart, which resists conversion and penance Sensuality is the parent of impenitence.
