That was the happiest day of his life. As he rode along the street of the village, all the boys and girls, men and women, seemed to be out on purpose to look at him. He could almost hear them saying, “Yonder goes —— to mill this morning. See what a big man he is.” That boy never felt more like a man in his life than he did that morning. What do you suppose happened as he went back home? It was the saddest experience that boy ever had up to that time. His sack fell off. Then he cried like a boy. He felt like a boy. He acted like a boy. He knew that he was only a little boy. For several weeks he was willing to be only a little boy.

Use of profanity.—It is perfectly natural for a boy to long to be a man. So, it was not long before that boy again wanted to be a man. This time, a boy, some three years older than he, was visiting his home. His friend was some three inches taller, twenty pounds heavier and a few grades higher in school than he. As these boys rambled over the fields, climbed trees, and played together, my little friend had to listen to a constant stream of oaths, pouring from the lips of his visitor. He had been taught that swearing was a very great sin. Had he heard a little dirty street waif, or an old bloated, swaggering drunkard swearing, it would have been disgusting. But this time, swearing did not sound so badly. His friend wore fine clothes, his family had wealth and culture and this seemed to change the nature of swearing in this case. Before that day was over our little friend had decided that the only difference between him and his friend was, that his visitor could swear and he could not. He felt, that, if he could only swear, instantly he would grow six inches taller, twenty pounds heavier and a great deal smarter. He finally decided to try it. While they were walking by the back porch, he made the effort of his life and out came a big ugly oath. His heart hurt him. His conscience condemned him. He was sure that God heard him. He had dishonored his father and mother. He had insulted God. He wondered if his mother was not near. Glancing quickly over his shoulder, he saw his mother on the porch, and the expression on her face showed that she was much grieved. When the visitor had returned home and our little friend had danced at the end of a peach tree switch for some moments, he decided that swearing would not make a man. This was his first, last and only oath. He has never ceased to thank and love his mother for her faithful training.

Almost all men and boys who swear started where he did. They thought swearing would make them taller, heavier, wealthier, and smarter. This sin has never helped a boy to become a man. If a boy can swear and be manly, his mother and sister can swear and be perfectly ladylike. No man or boy can give a good reason why he swears. Intelligent people are supposed to understand and mean what they talk about. Idiots do not. Not one man or boy in a hundred, who swears, understands and means what he says. The words that he uses make him call upon God to send something or someone to hell. He does not understand or mean this. Idiots would be excusable for swearing; sensible men and boys are not. The kind of clothing a boy wears, the house he lives in, and the carriage he rides in, do not make his swearing manly.

Use of tobacco.—Months went by. This boy’s noble father had crossed over the river into heaven. He and his widowed mother were visiting among their relatives who lived in a rough country, many miles from their home. One night, after making a long journey on horseback, he slept so well that he did not wake until the sun was an hour high. On arising, he found that his cousin, a boy fifteen years old, had been out in the woods and had killed a number of squirrels before breakfast. In his estimation, his cousin was a hero, a great man.

Breakfast over, they rambled over a large tobacco farm. They became very chummy. At length they came to a large tobacco barn. His cousin pulled off a leaf of tobacco, rolled up a shapely cigar, lighted it and began smoking. As our friend stood and watched those dense clouds of smoke pour from the mouth and nose of his cousin, he whispered to himself, “Now I know why you can kill a mess of squirrels before breakfast. If I could smoke, I could do the same thing.” Once more he decided he would try to be a man. He selected the largest leaf that he could find. When he had finished making his first cigar, it resembled a saw log about as much as it did a first-class Havana. His cousin noticed that he could not get it into his mouth, and said, “You take my cigar and keep it going for a few minutes and I will make you one.” He kept it going for a few minutes, then it kept him going for about three hours. He lost little less than ten pounds of his former weight in a hurry. He was soon so weak that he could scarcely walk back to the house. His mother and friends were greatly frightened. His cousin’s face was as pale as a sheet. There was not a doctor in ten miles of the place. Many remedies were thought of and used. None did any good. Finally, his uncle’s father, quite an old man, suggested that the best remedy, ever used in those parts of Kentucky for sick stomach, was a sweetened toddy. This boy had been taught that the use of tobacco was a great sin and that the use of whisky was a still greater sin. He had acted very much like a fool and felt like one. He understood his case better than they did. He reasoned like this: “if whisky is worse than tobacco, the remedy they want me to take will kill me.” But, he was between two fires. If he confessed what he had done, he would get a switching, and if he took the remedy they were offering, he would die. What do you suppose that boy did? He was determined to keep his secret and he did not want to die, so, for convenience, he became a Christian Scientist, denied that he was sick and got well. This was his first, last and only experience in the use of tobacco.

Why boys are tempted.—Perhaps the average boy has no greater temptation than to use tobacco. He sees merchants, lawyers, doctors, occasionally a minister, and often his father using it. He does not see the expense side of the habit, because prosperous business men use it. He does not see the filthy side of it, because nicely dressed men use it. He does not see the injury to body and mind, for doctors use it. He does not see the wrong in the use of it, for good men use it. He does not see that thousands of children are in rags, live in rented cabins, go hungry and are deprived of many comforts and pleasures because the father has spent $50 a year for one or two score years on tobacco. He does not quite understand that doctors and sometimes ministers, like other men, die of a tobacco heart. He does not desire to imitate the dirty, ragged, stupid tobacco using wag on the street corner. He wants to be like the man dressed in broadcloth, wearing a fine beaver hat, twirling a golden-headed cane, with sparkling diamond ring and shirt studs and smoking a twenty-five cent cigar.

The cigarette habit.—The worst form of the tobacco habit is the use of the cigarette. When a boy falls into this habit, at the age of ten to fourteen, he never develops properly in his body or mind. You will understand this statement better, when it is referred to in another chapter. The boy who uses tobacco does not progress well in his studies. This has been tested in nearly all our military and naval schools as well as in other schools and colleges. Boys who use tobacco will gradually lose respect and courtesy for ladies. It is claimed by those who have studied the effects of the cigarette habit that it causes the boy to become dishonest. It is for these reasons that many business men will not employ a boy who is guilty of this habit.

There are many other wrongs that boys are tempted to engage in, that if yielded to will result in habits that prevent boys from becoming perfect men. It is hard for boys to see the injury that dishonesty and gambling, disobedience to parents and breaking the Sabbath will do for them. Some boys take pleasure in doing wrong and leading other boys to do wrong. If you keep company with them, do as they do, you will get a wrong start in life and find it a hard struggle later in life, when you would like to be a real man.

The kind of boys who make men.—Someone has said, “A dead fish can float down stream, but it takes a live one to swim up stream.” Any kind of a boy can float down the stream of life, have what he calls a good time in the world, live and die and never be missed. It takes a boy with a strong, healthy body, a sound mind, a pure heart and clean life, brave, determined and true to make a perfect man. You will need more than a strong will and the help of true friends, if you would resist the many temptations that are sure to come, be a perfect boy and become a perfect man. Christ alone can purify the heart and help you to live a clean life.

CHAPTER XXII

FATHER’S SECOND TALK—PERFECT BOYS MAKE PERFECT MEN

They are not sinful.—We should never think of these organs as being sinful. They are not. The true names of these organs are as pure as the words baby, home, mother, Bible, heaven, angels, God, so far as a word is concerned. The true names of these organs are found in the dictionary. Your sister and mother can find these words in the dictionary and just what they mean. They are placed in the dictionary because they are clean words and are a part of our language.

The names of these organs are pure.—Unfortunately, almost all boys have received their first information about sex from the vicious. Such teachers are ignorant for they do not know the true names of these organs or their true purposes. They are vicious because their teaching is largely false and they fill the minds of boys with impure thoughts and ideas. Let twenty boys write down on paper all the names of their sexual organs that they have ever learned and not less than thirty names would be found among them. Now go to the dictionary and look for these names. One out of every five cannot be found, for the reason that it is not a part of our language. The other words do not, even remotely, refer in meaning to the sexual organs. This is a sample of the ignorance of such men and boys who are always ready to tell a boy something that he is not to tell his parents. Such teaching is a very great evil. It has poisoned the minds and hearts of thousands of boys and started them on the road to ruin. It is very important that you fix the thought in your mind that these organs are as pure as any other organ in the body and that their names are just as pure as any other word in the language. There are many reasons why we should not expose these organs or talk about them, except when it is right or necessary for us to do so. We should learn all we can about our lungs, hearts, brains and other organs of the body. When we can see these organs or pictures of them, they help to make many things plain to us that would be difficult for us to understand. For this reason we have placed the cut of a boy’s body in this book, showing the urinary and sexual organs.

The urinary organs.—The urinary system consists of the following organs: Two (1) kidneys, only one can be shown in the cut. The kidneys are located just above the small of the back and in front of the spinal column, or backbone. The kidneys take up water, waste matter and impurities from the blood. In this way the kidneys help to keep the blood pure. This liquid mixture is called urine. The use of tobacco and strong drink injures the kidneys, and prevents them from doing all the work that they need to do in order to keep the blood pure and the body healthy and strong. As fast as the kidneys form the urine it is carried by two ducts, called the (2) ureters, one leading from each kidney, and emptied into the (3) bladder. Here it is stored until we wish to discharge it from our bodies. The urine is discharged from the body by a duct that leads through the external sexual organ, and this duct is called the (4) urethra. This process of discharging the urine is called urinating. This is a perfectly natural act. There is no more sin in urinating than in shedding a tear. Because of unfortunate training, many boys think of this act as sinful. The words and expressions they have learned for this act have been associated for years with low thoughts. It is for this reason that you should cease to use those false words and expressions and learn to say, “I desire to urinate,” or “I have urinated.”

The sexual organs.—Some of the sexual organs are on the outside of the body and some are on the inside of the body. Those on the outside of the body are perfectly familiar to all boys. The external organ through which the (4) urethra passes is called the (5) penis. This organ is not shown in the cut, its position being shown by the figure (5). At the end of this organ is a sheath of loose skin, called the prepuce or foreskin. In some boys the prepuce is quite long and tight. When the boys of the Jewish race are eight days old they are circumcised. This act consists in cutting off that portion of the prepuce that extends beyond the head of the penis. The act is performed with a sharp knife and causes but little pain. Ninety millions of Mohammedans practice circumcision. This

should be performed on many boys in this country when they are only a few days old. There are a number of reasons for this. Underneath the folds of the prepuce are hundreds of little glands that secrete a substance that should be removed daily with water, or a wet rag. When the prepuce will not glide back over the head of the penis, it cannot be kept clean. In such cases the secretion becomes white and hard and causes irritation. Boys in this condition will often scratch this organ. In many cases, these boys do not get along well in school, they are nervous, have fits and spasms, and this scratching often leads to a bad habit.

When the prepuce of a boy will not glide back, becomes red, sore and swollen, he should ask his father to have a doctor treat him. The doctor will know how to enlarge the opening, break up the adhesion and glide it back.

Underneath the penis is a sack, called the (6) scrotum, in which are suspended two glands, called the (7) testicles. The (7) indicates where these glands would be if placed in the cut. Leading off from the (8) descending artery are two small arteries, called the (9) spermatic arteries. They carry pure blood to the testicles. Leading back from the testicles are two small veins that separate from the spermatic arteries and are called the (10) spermatic veins.

Connected with each testicle is a duct, called the (11) vas deferens that passes up through the loins and over the bladder and becomes enlarged into a small vessel called the (12) ampulla. The ampullae open into the urethra. Near the ampullae, and behind them, are two larger vessels, called the (13) seminal vessels. These vessels connect with the urethra by a small duct, at the point where the ampullae do. Surrounding the neck of the bladder, the lower portion of the ampullae, the seminal vessels and the deep urethra is a very important gland, called the (14) prostate gland. Connected with the urethra and only a short distance from the prostate, are two small glands, called the (15) Cowper’s glands. These glands and vessels are all very tender. They are protected by being placed on the inside of the body. Because of bad habits connected with the organs on the outside, many men suffer much pain from diseased conditions of the organs on the inside.

Puberty.—When a boy is born, he has all these organs. The testicles and the glands on the inside are inactive until he reaches the age of fourteen and a half. Until this time he has been only a boy. At about this age the glands become active and begin to slowly form from the blood a fluid called semen. This period in a boy’s life is called puberty. It is at this time that he starts toward manhood. We shall find later that he will not be a perfect man until he is twenty-four. During these ten years he will be changing gradually into a man. There is no way by which a boy can come suddenly to manhood.

Some things hasten puberty.—There are some things that will hasten puberty. Several thousand miles South, puberty comes on a boy a few months sooner than it does here. Several thousand miles North, puberty comes later than here. Thus we see that a warm climate tends to hasten the arrival of puberty, and a cold climate will tend to retard it. This is the main reason why puberty, in the colored race, comes a few months sooner than it does in the white race. For centuries the negro lived in the hot climates of Africa. In this country he has lived largely in the South. Vulgar language, impure thoughts and the cigarette habit will tend to hasten puberty. These bad habits arouse passion and lead to the formation of semen before the body is prepared to absorb it. This leads to the habit of wasting this energy from the body. It will be noticed by you that the cigarette smoking and vulgar boys grow up to have a pale or a dark complexion and many are stunted and ugly. Using cigarettes before you are fifteen will do you more harm than to use them after that age.

The nature and value of the creative life.—The wisest doctors tell us that one drop of semen is worth twenty drops of blood; one ounce is worth twenty ounces of the purest blood. If a discharge of this energy were taken from the body of a healthy, strong man, twenty-five years old, and placed in a small glass test-tube and allowed to settle for ten hours, it would divide itself into two unequal parts. The upper and smaller portion would be thin, clear and slightly oily. It would look just like joint water. The lower and larger portion would be thick and milkish in color, with many little (16) sperm cells. These cells can be seen only under the microscope. They are in the shape of a tadpole, except they are longer in proportion. They are very active at first, but when the fluid becomes chilled they soon die. They are formed from the blood and contain life.

The condition of an unwell man.—If a discharge is removed from a man that is in poor health, a man who drinks liquor, uses much tobacco, or wastes this energy from his body, it will be found that the amount, as a rule, is much smaller, the parts reversed, sperm cells fewer in number, smaller in size, slower in movements, than in the discharge taken from a healthy man. This illustration shows how bad habits injure the blood and rob a man of his energy.

How sex helps to change a boy into a man.—We are now able to study how this new life, this vital force, changes a perfect boy into a perfect man. We find that this energy is formed from the blood and contains life. These sperm cells contain physical, mental and soul life. This will be made plain to you, when you learn, that, when one of these sperm cells of a father unites with the cell of a mother, under proper conditions, the result will be a child having physical, mental and soul life. A boy has physical, mental and soul life when he is born, but he has not as much as he will have when he is grown. If he grows up to be a man, he will need more of this energy and life. This is the work of the sexual glands. They form, by the help of the blood, this energy. This energy is absorbed by the body and carried by the blood to every part of his being. It is in this way that this energy helps the body to grow, and the mind and soul to develop.

Two full brother colts.—The use of this fluid can be illustrated in several ways. If two brother colts grow up side by side, they will look much alike when grown. If one of them be castrated when young, he will not develop as well as the other one. The castrated horse is called a gelding. The other one is called a stallion. The stallion has a high arched neck, dilated nostrils, sparkling eyes, a heavy thick mane and tail, broad, deep hip and chest muscles and an elastic bearing. He commands the attention and admiration of all beholders. A boy can’t manage him. It takes a strong man to control him. Turn him out in the field with one hundred geldings and he will rule all of them. The only difference between these horses was that one had had his testicles removed and the other had not. The gelding could not form from his blood any of this valuable energy. This energy was formed by the stallion and absorbed by his body where it gave him perfect development, an elastic bearing, fiery eyes, strong muscles and lots of vitality.

Two full brother chickens.—Take two full brother chickens, put them in the same pen, give them the same food and shelter and when they are grown they will look very much alike. Suppose that when these roosters were small one of them had been caponized, that is, his glands had been removed, what would have been the result? The one not caponized would grow a large red comb, ear lobes and wattles, long glossy neck and tail feathers and long, strong spurs. In the case of the other bird, his comb, ear lobes and wattles, neck and tail feathers and legs would resemble an old hen that had not laid an egg for months. If food is scarce, the first bird will scratch for worms and catch insects for a living; the other one will starve. If food is thrown down for the old hen and her brood of chickens, the first bird will step up and pick up a bit of the food with his beak, drop it, then step back, point his beak at the food, glance up at the old hen, look down at the chickens and cluck to them to come up and eat the food. When they are through, if some food is left, he will eat it. If not, he goes out and finds him a meal. The capon will rush up to the food, with one foot crushing the life out of a chicken and the other crushing the life out of another chicken; he hurriedly eats the food and does not offer any to the old hen and her chickens. If an old hawk or owl comes to catch the chickens, the first bird will fight the enemy until the hen and chickens find shelter. The capon sneaks under the floor.

The first bird retained his glands, formed that vital energy, absorbed it back into his body; this made him industrious, gallant and brave. The capon formed none of this energy, and he could not develop a perfect body, be industrious, gallant and brave.

Eunuchs.—Long years ago, men would select some boys that they wanted to be slaves and remove their sexual glands when they were quite young. Such boys were called eunuchs. When they were twenty-five years old they differed much from other men. They grew only a few scattering short hairs on their faces; their vocal organs never developed so as to produce a deep base voice; their shoulders never became broad and square; being cowardly they were never sent to the battlefield, they did not care to own property and had no desire for an education. Now, compare in your mind, the manly man with the eunuch. This energy gives him his beard, square shoulders, bass voice, brilliant mind, snap and vim, push and enterprise, bravery and attractive manliness.

If you would be a perfect man.—While it is now very rare for a boy to be made a eunuch, yet it is very common to see young men who are dull and stupid, lifeless and lazy, stunted and ugly. In most cases this is due to their having wasted this energy.

From these illustrations we see that the sexual energy strengthens and develops every organ of the body, faculty of the mind and power of the soul. If a boy would have a strong, healthy and perfect body, this energy must be kept in the body and built into the muscles. If he would have a strong and brilliant mind, this energy must be directed to the brain. If he would be strong in moral character, he must learn how to use it in his moral nature. In the chapter on how to live a pure life this will all be made plain to you.

CHAPTER XXIII

FATHER’S THIRD TALK—IMPERFECT BOYS BECOME IMPERFECT MEN

Boys may injure themselves.—There are many ways by which a boy may injure himself physically, mentally and morally and prevent perfection in his manhood. We have learned that when the mind is kept pure and no bad habits are formed, that the sexual life will gradually change a boy into a perfect man. Now we are to study the bad effects of wasting this energy. Why are there so many men with defective bodies? When we study the lower animals in their wild state, or when the domestic animals have been well kept by their owners, we find nearly all of them to be perfect. This is due to the fact that the lower animals have not violated the laws of sex. They do not waste their sexual energy.

Many defective men.—If you were to visit some of the insane asylums and look into the faces of from one to two thousand of the unfortunates, you would see some who do not possess a sign of intelligence. Many of them were born of parents who had violated these laws. Many are personally guilty and have brought on their own ruin. In the penitentiaries and hospitals we find that many are there because they have been guilty of the same wrongs. If many of these poor people had read the book you are reading, they would now be well and happy.

The following story is told by an author:

Robbing a vine of its life.—“When I was only a small boy, one lovely spring morning, I stepped up to a vigorous young grapevine, at the time the sap was rising and flowing out the branches to every bursting bud and cluster of blooms. I had watched my father bore holes in the sugar maple trees, a century old, and we would use the sap to make syrup and maple sugar. I did not know that this really injured the old trees and that tapping them when ten or twenty years old would have very seriously injured them. So, with my knife, I cut a hole in the vine some two feet from the ground. At once the sap flowed as freely as from an old sugar tree. I stood by proudly and watched the sap flow out. Soon a puddle of sap had formed at the foot of the vine and the ground became damp all around. An hour passed and still the sap flowed. I became frightened. I wondered whether, at that rate, the vine would not disappear after a while. With mud, made from the sap and soil, I tried to stop up the wound and stop the flow. Quickly the flowing sap dissolved the mud and washed it down. After repeated failures, I ran to the house and got some rags and strings and tried to stop the flow, but soon the rags would get damp and the sap flowed as before.

“I decided to leave the vine to its own fate. The next morning I ventured out to see what had occurred. The vine looked as it did the day before. I found that kind nature had formed a reddish substance and had filled the wound and stopped the flow. That day I cut another hole in the vine. Again the sap flowed but not so freely as the day before. Day after day I repeated this for ten days. Will you be surprised when I tell you that the buds never matured into full size leaves, the clusters of blooms never matured into large clusters of grapes, and that the vine did not live many years? I had robbed the vine of its very life.”

Some boys and men sap their life.—Now there is an act that is performed by many boys and men by which they waste the vital fluid from their bodies. This act soon becomes a habit. It has the same effect upon them that we found in the vine. Instead of their eyes glowing with luster, they become dull and sunken. Instead of their cheeks having the rosy look of youth and health the face becomes pale. Instead of offering a hearty warm handshake, it is lifeless and cold. Instead of muscles being hard and elastic, they are soft and weak. Instead of bright, alert minds, they are dull and listless. Instead of an elastic bearing and a straightforward step, there are the languid movements and the swaggering walk.

Boys do not know that it will hurt them.—Very early in life some boys learn to handle the sexual organs so as to produce a sense of pleasure. Not one in a hundred has been told that this habit will injure him. They have an idea that this will make them men. You will some day, if you have not already, hear boys boasting of committing this sin; or they will want to teach it to you. These poor ignorant fellows have not been taught that it is wrong and will injure them. They are to be pitied. They need a friend that will take them off, one at a time, and have a friendly talk with them. You may some time have a chance to give such advice. Where a boy will not take your advice, it is not safe to make him your companion.

The habit is often commenced early.—Many boys begin this habit before they are twelve, sometimes as early as five and six. They have watched young men and boys older than themselves. They do not know that the glands do not begin the secretion of this energy until after they are fourteen to fifteen. They try to follow the example of older boys. While there is no waste of sexual material, it injures the nerves and pollutes the mind and starts a habit that, unless stopped in the early teens, will be hard to break off from later. Usually when a boy gets to be fourteen his conscience begins to tell him that the habit is wrong. Fortunately, many boys quit at this age, some check themselves, others go recklessly on to their certain ruin. When a boy breaks from the habit at fourteen or fifteen, this new energy soon overcomes the bad effects of the habit. If he continues until he is a young man, eighteen or twenty, he will have a harder struggle to break from the habit, and it will require a longer period for nature to overcome the bad effects of the habit. Boys who go on through life practicing the habit never amount to much and in many cases shorten their lives.

How to keep from the habit.—I hope you have never formed the habit. It is not necessary to do so. It is far wiser never to commit the sin. If you will keep your hands off your sexual organs, refuse to let your mind entertain impure thoughts, your lips to speak vulgar words, your ears to listen to obscene stories, your eyes to look upon impure pictures, you can master your passions, be pure and clean.

Some effects of the habit.—Some of the effects of this sin are as follows: It injures the morals. The victim will take on a guilty look; may become irritable and cross; may avoid good company and seek the vile; may quit reading the Bible and going to church. This is one class. They are called bad boys. There is another class that are affected differently and would usually be called good boys. They are very modest, retiring fellows, rather shy of girls and would be shocked at immodest language. As the habit fastens itself more firmly, they become more sensitive, stay more alone, the presence of girls becomes more embarrassing to them, they become quite suspicious and feel that everybody knows of their guilt. In both of these cases, if the habit is continued, it will get the mastery of them and will be very difficult to quit. The latter class will feel gloomy and discouraged. They feel that everything is going wrong and that everybody is against them. This is due to the effect of the sin upon their nervous system. It is hard for them to dismiss this idea. This state of mind will unfit them for business of any kind. Unless they break from the sin and dismiss these gloomy feelings, they can’t hope to succeed.

It injures the mind and morals.—The boy who practices the secret sin will one day find that he is falling back in his classes. His memory is not as good as it once was. He cannot solve problems as easily as he once could. If a kind-hearted, wealthy man should offer to put all the young men in a town of ten thousand people through college and meet all their expenses, on the conditions that they study hard and stand their examinations, not half of them would accept his kindness. Why? They have wasted this energy and are without ambition. The young men who have been wise enough to live pure lives, have so much manly ambition that poverty will not keep them from graduating.

Many young men who die from consumption when from eighteen to thirty years old are victims of this sin. In a few cases the sin leads to epilepsy or insanity.

It injures the sexual organs.—The sexual organs become soft and flabby, when this sin is practiced much. Sometimes they do not develop properly. The most common effect of the habit is varicocele. This often occurs at the age of eighteen. The blood vessels in the scrotum become gorged with impure blood and feel like a mass of tangled cords. There will be felt a very unpleasant dragging pain in these cords and the left gland. Soon the left gland will waste away until it is no larger than in a small boy. Sometimes both glands become affected. Passion aroused by the mind and handling the organs, even when the habit is not practiced, will cause this disease.

There are other bad effects that do not occur until the boy is a man and it is not necessary to mention them here. You have learned enough for you to know that boys should not form the habit, and, if they have, they should break away from the habit at once.

How to quit the habit.—Where a boy has commenced the habit and desires to quit, there are some things he should know and do. The feeling of sexual desire, called passion, is caused almost entirely by the mind. As long as a boy can keep his mind on something else, he will not have these desires. He will need to avoid those things that lead the mind to think about these organs. Handling and looking at the organs direct the mind to them. Looking at the pictures of partly dressed girls, reading obscene books, talking vulgarly or entertaining impure thoughts will all cause passion. All these things must be carefully avoided. You can bring your will into play and become able to say and mean it, “I will never again commit the act.” But, best of all, God can help you and offers to do so. Go often to Him in prayer. Ask Him to purify your mind and heart and give you strength to live a pure life. Ask Him to help you to keep all His laws, to be a Christian and to become a perfect man.

CHAPTER XXIV

FATHER’S FOURTH TALK—HOW TO LIVE A PURE LIFE

The adolescent period.—The first distinct period of a boy’s life is his boyhood. This closes when puberty dawns. This usually occurs when he is about fourteen and a half. This is followed by a period of ten years, called adolescence. During these years he is changing from boyhood to manhood. In his feelings, thoughts, looks and ways, he resembles the boy he was and the man he is to be. In this mixed state, he is a problem. His whole after life is to be largely determined by this period. The most important part of this period is the first three years, from fourteen to seventeen. These three years are called puberty period. During these three years his sexual nature develops rapidly. Still he is much more a boy, during this period, than he is a man. This is the most critical period of a boy’s life. He is coming into possession of powers that are new to him, he does not understand them, he is not prepared by nature to control them. He needs the advice and instruction of a wise father, teacher or book at this period of his life. If a boy is wisely trained during these three years and he follows the good advice given him, there is little danger of his going wrong in the future.

A boy can live pure.—There is an idea among boys and men, that it is not best for them to live a pure life. Some of them think that doctors teach that they should gratify themselves in some way. There is not one intelligent, honorable doctor who teaches this lie. There are a few “quack” doctors, whose practice is largely among wicked men, who teach this lie. When one of these “quacks” tells a boy this, the boy tells twenty other boys and each of them whispers it to twenty more boys, and in this way many come to believe the lie. They reason like this, “If I put my arm in a sling for a year or more, I lose the use of my arm through the non-use of it. Therefore, if I do not gratify my passions, I will lose my sexual powers.” To one, who does not understand his sexual nature, this looks like good reasoning. But it will not stand the test of a simple illustration. Here is a woman who gives birth to a child when she is twenty and nurses it perfectly at her breast. This is the first time her breasts have performed this function, though they have been capable of doing so for five years. Suppose she does not become a mother again until she is forty. Again she nurses her baby as perfectly as she did the first time. But, there were nineteen years in her life, during which these glands did not feed a child. The breasts of a woman are a part of her sexual system. These organs have a double function. One is being performed all the time, day and night; that of secreting an energy that is absorbed back into her body and that adds to her strength, health and beauty. The second function is to secrete milk for her baby when she becomes a mother. The first function helps to keep her in a condition where the second function can be performed when she becomes a mother.

The sexual organs have two functions.—Now, in the case of a boy or a man, the sexual organs have a double function. The first function is to secrete a peculiar energy that is absorbed by the body. It is this energy that makes a boy a perfect boy when he is fourteen or fifteen, that changes him from a perfect boy into a perfect man, and that keeps up his perfect manhood through life. We usually speak of a boy’s sexual glands as being wholly inactive, having nothing to do until he reaches puberty. This is not true. It is true however that what we call semen is not formed by his glands until puberty. If two boys were made eunuchs, one when only a few days old and the other when puberty came, there would be quite a difference between them at the age of twenty-five. Both would be inferior men, but the second would be in many respects superior to the first. This can be explained only on the ground that the glands of the second boy formed a vital energy before puberty, and it was this energy that made the difference between them. Now we see that this first function of our sexual nature is going on all the time. It is this function that keeps the sexual system in a condition, when at the proper age and under proper conditions, the man can become a father. These illustrations absolutely show that a boy, or a young man, does not have to gratify his passions. A boy can live as pure a life as a girl.

The effects of impure thinking.—The secret of living a pure life is in controlling the mind and knowing how to use this energy. The mind has the power to stimulate many of the glands of the body to greater activity. For example, suppose that you have been hard at work for six hours, then you come into the presence of some fine fruit or a table spread with good things. What happens? Your mouth begins to water. What causes this? The sight of food. Not exactly. The sight of the food caused your mind to think of the food, to long for it. You remember how the different things taste. The longer you have to wait, the more your mouth waters. Now the philosophy of it is this, your mind is stimulating the little salivary glands in your mouth and causing them to secrete the saliva rapidly. Just now you hear some one crying, Fire! Fire! Looking through the window, you see the neighbor’s building is on fire. You rush over and for one hour you try to put out the flames, save some property or someone’s life. Your mind is wholly withdrawn from all thought of food. During that hour your salivary glands secrete just enough saliva to keep your mouth moist, perhaps the heat and labor left your mouth dry. Now you return home and your attention is called back to the food. Again the saliva is formed rapidly, ten or twenty times as fast as while you were fighting the fire. Now, when a boy has impure thoughts in relation to his sexual organs, the mind stimulates passion. If he is under the age of puberty, constant passion will injure his nervous system, lead him to form the secret sin and will misdirect that energy so that he will fail to be a perfect boy, when puberty dawns. After puberty dawns, impure thinking and all impure states of the mind will so stimulate the sexual glands that they will secrete more semen than the body can absorb. What cannot be absorbed will in some way be wasted from the body. It is in this way that boys become imperfect men. Nothing that a boy can do is more important than for him to keep his mind pure. Two things will help him; a Christian life and a strong will. One is a gift; the other must be cultivated.

Ways of using up this energy.—It is very important for a boy or young man to know how to use this energy. We know that if this energy is wasted, it leaves the body weak, makes the mind stupid and hurts us morally. We have learned that when this energy is retained, our physical strength is increased, our minds are more alert and our moral natures develop better. This shows that this energy can be directed to these parts of our being. How is this to be done? Let a boy who is conscious of sexual desire, tempted to practice the secret sin, take a brisk walk for three or four miles and his passion is gone. What became of it? He directed the energy to his muscles and expressed it in labor. Here is another boy with passion, he too is tempted to waste this energy. He has a hard lesson in mathematics. Let him will to take his mind off sex and force it to solve those problems. In an hour or two passion is gone. What became of it? This time he directed it to his brain and it increased his mental power. Here is another boy. His body is healthy and strong, his mind is bright, but he is cold, unkind, unsympathetic and indifferent to the claims of the needy. He has passion and is tempted to waste his energy. What should he do? Let him spend an hour loving the unlovely, boosting the discouraged, speaking kind words and doing noble deeds and his passion will be gone. What became of it? He built his energy into his sentiments, feelings and moral nature.

The meaning of passion.—The consciousness of passion is the voice of nature telling you that you have an extra supply of creative energy on hand, that you can use in performing physical, mental and moral service. If this energy is wasted, it will unfit you to perform the service. It is for you to decide what use you will make of this energy. Would you prefer momentary pleasure? Then, you can find it in sexual gratification. But you should remember that pay-day comes later. Inferior manhood, disease, suffering, sorrow, regret and failure lie in the road of all who live in vice. Only perverted ideals and views of life would lead one to seek pleasure on the plane of an animal. Man’s highest, truest and sweetest pleasures come from the consciousness of perfect physical, mental and moral development. Self-management, self-control, self-government will keep us in harmony with nature and God and result in true happiness and success.

CHAPTER XXV

FATHER’S FIFTH TALK—THE TRUE YOUNG KNIGHT

The purpose of this chapter is to inspire you to become a true knight in your social relations with girls and ladies. The proper social relations of boys and girls, men and women, is one of the best ways of developing the social side of our lives, of improving the mind and strengthening our moral natures. God has made us social beings. He wants us to enjoy life.