easily that things are not right, and in many cases there is good reason for the suspicion.
Another evil that follows is frequently a desecration of the sacraments. Full and open confessions of guilt are frequently not made; a feeling of shame keeps the couple from declaring their sins as they should. -Such confessions are sacrilegious and so also is the communion which follows. Or, if they confess their sins, they are not willing to remove the proximate occasion of sin; they go from one confessor to another; they leave his admonition unheeded, give a half-hearted promise to avoid the occasion, without a firm will to do so. The absolution is nothing but empty words that can never remit sin. Thus the sacraments are profaned for years, and the mysteries of the Faith are abused in the most shameful manner.
2. Intimacies of this kind cause many tears. Sins are always a source of sorrow, but this is especially true of sins of impurity. They bring with them evils not only in the matter of eternal salvation, but even in a temporal way. Disgrace often falls upon those persons guilty of such sins. As the man grows older, he looks back with deep regret at the years spent in contempt of the law of God. On his death-bed they become a source of anguish and fear.
Not unfrequently such young men die suddenly, and have no time for repentance; they have filled the measure of iniquity, and are called to give an account of their doings. Others become hardened in vice and never repent. They are plunged into the abyss, and mourn their sins for all eternity.
These dangerous intimacies bring on consequences bitter as the sting of a serpent; they
