mb; nor that which considers every sexual act as
essentially sinful, and asceticism as man's salvation. It is not
religious education of such a kind that will have any good effect in the
matter of sexual education; but that religious education only which is
in complete accord with our ideas of morality, and which is based, not
so much upon the historical and material contents of the Bible, as upon
the internal and everlasting truths of religion.

The sexual dangers of the Bible have often been pointed out. But this
work would be incomplete, if I omitted making a fresh reference to the
matter. In the Bible, sexual processes are repeatedly mentioned. In the
mind of the child a conflict inevitably arises when, on the one hand, he
finds that everything of a sexual nature is diligently concealed from
him, and, on the other, in the Holy Book which is put before him as the
basis of his moral instruction, he finds that so much attention is paid
to sexual things. It is not the actual accounts of sexual things in the
Bible which constitute the danger, but the contrast between the plain
speaking of the Bible in these matters, and the general affectation of
secrecy outside its pages. An additional point of importance is the fact
that in the Bible sexual topics are handled in a way which is by no
means always delicate. I may recall the frequency with which the idea of
the _whore_ is employed for purposes of comparison; and I may refer also
to the occasional use of strongly erotic language, as, for example, in
the Song of Solomon. A further danger lies in the fact that the Bible
contains descriptions of customs which are no longer in harmony with
modern ideas; it suffices to mention the accounts of polygamy in the Old
Testament. Unless the distinction between what is historical and what is
truly religious is carefully explained to the child, the latter's moral
ideas will very readily become confused.

In this connexion, I must also refer to the Catholic confessional, about
which of late years a good deal has been written. I may recall the
disquisitions on the moral teaching of Liguori. The father confessors
have to read books in which are discussed the questions of casuistry
with which they have to deal, in order to learn what authoritative
decisions have been given regarding the concrete cases on which they are
asked to pass judgment. In these books, sexual misconduct plays a
leading part. This is also true of the confessional manua