Now, I say deliberately, speaking as a Christian woman, that such a statement and such a belief is blasphemy. It is blasphemy on our Creator who has brought our human nature into being, and it is the most deadly insult that has ever been offered to men. Do not accept this falsehood. I state to you as a physician, that there is no fact in physiology more clearly known than the constantly increasing power which the mind can exercise over the body either for good or evil. If you let corrupt servants injure your little children, if you allow your boys and youths to practise self-abuse and fornication at school and college, if you establish one law of divorce for a man and another for a woman, if you refuse to protect the chastity of minors, if you establish brothels, prostitutes, and procurers, you are using the power of the mind over the body for evil. You are, indeed, educating the sexual faculty, but educating it in evil. Our youth thus grows up under the powerful influence of direct education of the sexual instincts in vice; but so far, even in our so-called Christian civilization, we are ashamed to attempt direct education of those faculties for good. I have made the above remarks as bearing directly on the subject of disease, as well as to call your attention to the proper place which ‘rescue work’ must occupy in humanitarian work. As prostitution is the direct result of unbridled licentiousness, you may as well attempt to ‘mop up the ocean’ as attempt to check prostitution, unless at the same time the root of the evil--viz., licentiousness--is being attacked. Let it be distinctly understood, however, that I would encourage, not discourage, rescue work. I honour the self-denial and beneficence even of those who cannot see the source of the evil they are trying to mitigate; but I would much more strongly encourage those who, being engaged in this work, do at the same time clearly recognise that the warfare against licentiousness is the more fundamental work, and who, whilst themselves engaged in rescue work, bid God-speed and give substantial encouragement to all others who are directly engaged in the great struggle against every form of licentiousness--against every custom, institution, or law that promotes sexual vice. Such earnest rescue workers are not simply mopping up the ocean, they are also helping by their encouragement of other fundamental work to build up a strong dyke which will resist the ravages of destructive evil forces. Thus, any efforts that can be made to teach personal modesty to the little boys and girls in our Board schools all over the country form a powerful influence to prevent prostitution. Attention to sexual morality in educational establishments everywhere, in public and private schools and colleges, amongst young men and young women, is of fundamental importance. Also efforts to secure decency in the streets, in literature, in public amusements, form another series of efforts