38 The Bulletin. 



lesson of the sacredness, the modesty, of the person should commence with 

 the babe in arms. How? By making it an inviolable rule that even these 

 babes be clothed in such a manner that, if they were old enough to Icnow, they 

 would have nothing to blush for. They should always wear diapers. This is 

 more than a'ciuestion of convenience, of cleanliness. In their first months, to 

 be sure, they are too young to be influenced by such a matter as clothing. Not 

 so their brothers and sisters and the young of the neighborhood, whose ideals, 

 high or low, we are thus helping to form ! 



I know many parents who have striven to inculcate obedience and truthful- 

 ness, and yet have let the question of purity take care of itself. The neglect 

 of mothers in this matter is most dangerous. I have talked with some 

 mothers, urging them to tell their children what they should know, and be 

 met with the reply, "Oh, I want my girl, or my boy, to be innocent." I tell 

 you that innocence that comes of ignorance is not safe, and will likely last 

 only until tested ! 



There is a God-implanted desire in every child to know the facts, the laws 

 regarding our existence, and our bodies ; and a mother who keeps these from 

 her children is wronging them as seriously as if she withheld from them the 

 bread they crave. 



If you are candid with yotirself. you will acknowledge that when a girl, you 

 longed to know the mysteries of life — -sex relation and such things ; and. if you 

 escaped the foulness of knowledge obtained from impure sources, you have 

 only God to thank for it. You know, too. that among your associates you 

 could count on the fingers, likely, of one hand the girls who did not discuss 

 these subjects and pry into these mysteries. It is foolish, it is foolhardy, 

 then, to hope and believe that just because that girl is yours, she will prove a 

 wonderful exception and be so pure, forsooth, as to escape the contamination 

 of such information, received from impure sources. 



The view a child has of the mysteries of life depends upon the manner in 

 and the source from which she receives information concerning them. If they 

 are first told to her in a pure, reverent manner, showing her that all these 

 facts and laws came from God, who is purity as well as love, it will be well- 

 nigh impossible for her ever to associate with them any ideas of vulgarity 

 and impurity. 



If you mothers value your sacred privilege of being the first to communicate 

 this knowledge, and so jealously guard your right and art on it, your child 

 will always associate it with you. who should be to your daughter the embodi- 

 ment of purity. If. however, you let her find out these things for herself, she 

 will, almost inevitably, seek the information from some wiser but inipnrer 

 girl, or, worse still, from your colored cook or washwoman, most likely steeped 

 in sin. I do marvel at any mother for so undervaluing the hiuh oflice of 

 motherhood as thus to relinquish her privilege in favor of any dirty-mouthed, 

 impure-minded woman or girl who, as Satan's instrument, is only too glad 

 to usurp that power over your child's future that you so carelessly, cowardly 

 spurn. Ah! because your girl does not dare to break through the barrier that 

 you have, by your silence, erected, you think she does not discuss these things 

 with others? Then you have much to learn! 



Do you say that yon "just can't talk about these things to your child"? It 

 is hard, at first, I admit; but if you truly desire and ask for Divine guidance 

 in the matter, and earnestly and reverently approacli the subject, striving to 

 divest your mind of the false modesty that has surrounded it. you can do your 

 duty. When, with your daughter in your lap or at your knee, and your loving 

 mother arms around her. you have opened up to her the mysteries of her life 

 and body, you will find that in the performance of that duty you and your 

 daughter have grown tenfold nearer and dearer to each other. After that 

 sweet confidence, accompanied by the assurance that every question she can 

 bring to you shall be candidly answered, to the best of your ability, do you 

 believe she can allow any companion to pour into her ear a garhaged. filthy 

 version of tlie wonders of God's laws? She would resent any suggestion of 

 the kind as she would the first breath of slander against you. I can only 

 add. Mothers, try it! 



