“This is the lesson for the young men of today. If evil in life is to be overcome, the fight must be made at the beginning and not at the end. The way to resist temptation is to meet it at the door and not wait until it has crossed the threshold and domiciled itself in our hearts and lives. Evil begins first in thought and ends in action. Avoid the evil thought and the problem is solved. The man who can control the citadel of his own mind is secure from all attacks from without. Withstand the beginnings. That is the surest and safest way.”
– Charles A. Callis, Southern States Mission President, 1913
I wonder what evil Brother Callis was warning young men against?
ji, he mentioned no particular evil. It was a general exhortation to set your feet on the right path in life and never turn aside. These lines fall just after a recitation of the story of Daniel, whom he shows as resisting evil in the Babylonian court from his childhood.
Liahona, 1 July 1913, p. 1-2, if you’d like to look it up — that’s a cumbersome system that will download the issue rather than letting you open it in your browser, but it’s doable.
I sometimes hear speakers in church talk like this. They don’t want to give too much information on what the evil is for fear that some of their audience may no longer see a connection to their own private evil.