The Studs Lonigan Trilogy - James T. Farrell [231]
“Remember these words! Years ahead, I want you, when you’re my age, and I’m dead, to pause and think, to remember what Father Shannon said in his missions at St. Patrick’s. And I want you to remember this statement particularly... Sin doesn’t pay.
“And I am willing to bet anyone here a hundred dollars that then you’ll nod your head, and think that, yes, Father Shannon told you the truth. And of all sins, that which pays the least, is a sin of the flesh. Ah, you boys and girls, you don’t want to ruin yourself, body and soul. You don’t want to disease your body so that a decent person will shun you as he would a leper. Your bodies are young and strong now. You don’t want to wreck them with disease and over-indulgence. There is nothing as fine as the sight of a good strong boy or girl, whose body and mind are clean, pure, decent. And the ideal of retaining such a body and such a mind is both noble and practical. It isn’t as hard as sin. I know, because I’ve seen hospitals where people were rotting away with disease as the result of their sins. One day, my young friends, they had bodies like you had, and the chance that you still possess. And they forsook that ideal. You want to remember the words of Thomas a Kempis: `For they that follow their sensuality, do stain their own con-science, and lose the favor of God.’
“When the devil tempts you, as he tempted such people, you want to say to him: `Satan, No! No! No! you cannot have my body and my soul!’ You young fellows, you don’t want to be fools, and go skulking, like thieves in the night, into brothels, consorting with the lowest kind of human beings, exposing yourself to diseases that can ruin your lives, and blast the chances of a successful and happy marriage with that sweet little girl whom you love. Ah, no, you don’t want to do that. Because it doesn’t last! And it doesn’t pay. It’s not pleasure. It’s not fine. It’s not decent! It’s not manly. You don’t want to be that kind of a fellow. If you do, you’re not choosing the brave course. You’re being a coward and a fool.
“And you girls! I know many of you. I know your fathers, mothers and brothers. And, yes, some of your sweethearts too. I know that I’ve never met finer girls than you anywhere. That’s why I’m saying that you don’t want to be riding around in automobiles with fast young fellows, petting and necking, drinking, smoking cigarettes. You want to preserve that fine chastity you have, those fine, beautiful bodies God has given you, and later on when you marry that decent boy you love, you’ll go to him clean and honorable. Worthy of the love he offers you, worthy to be the mother of his children, just as your own mothers were worthy of Dad.”
He paused.
“And there’s one thing all of you should not do, if you want to avoid these evils. That’s drink. Once does hurt. Once starts you off, and you’re in grave danger. Drink destroys character and will power, and stultifies the voice of conscience. It is the precursor of all sins. It poisons the body. Today in this country there are scores and hundreds of young people in every city whose hearts, livers, stomachs, vital organs have been ruined by drink. They are dying in their prime. Why? Because they didn’t believe that once would hurt. You know what Shakespeare, the greatest genius who ever lived, said of drink: ‘Oh, God, that men should put an enemy into their mouths, to steal away their brains.’
“You don’t want to do that. Because it is you, your kind, your class, to which America looks. And if America is to avoid that drastic, terrible fate which befell the proud and mighty empire of Rome, it is you, and others like you, who will have achieved the victory. I can’t save America. My generation cannot. But yours can. That is why Mother Church counts on you. She knows that today she must fight one of the greatest battles she has ever fought. She faces a world where materialism drives out the laws and will of God and Nature, where sin is rampant, where money is poured into the coffers of vice, making it rich and powerful, where great industries are built up only