The Bulletin. 39 



"We make anothoi* fatal mistake wlien we fail to keep before our boys the 

 same hish staiulard of social j)urity that we set for our Rirls; and what I 

 Lave said about taking our sous into our confidence applies equally to our 

 girls. In bis earliest years, the mother can perform that duty for her boy as 

 well as the father. As he grows, however, and matures, that boy is rich 

 indeed whose father will unfold to him the wonders of this book. Alas! 

 there is not one father in a hundred — -I had almost said in one thousand — 

 who is willing to undertake this difficult mission. So, if the father tmll not, 

 the mother iiiiist! Hard as it is, she should do it, rather than let it be done 

 In an impure way by some one else. If you, mother, feel that your knowledge 

 is too limited to tell your boy all he should know, you might ask your family 

 physician— provided he is a pure Christian man — to supplement what you have 

 said. But you know enough to open the liook yourself for him, and do you 

 do it, even if you let your physician carry your boy deeper into its wonders. 



At what age should this book be opened? For myself, I have always felt 

 that I would rather be two years too early than one day too late ! I would 

 say, then, let your surroundings aud your child's associates decide that ; but 

 do not be so foolish as to believe that some child or cook or laborer will fail 

 to do what you ax-e unwilling to undertake. As to surroundings, there is that 

 about farm life that gives the child such suggestions of these mysteries that, 

 if he is at all inquiring, make it wise to open the subject for him at, if any- 

 thing, an earlier age even than for his town cousin. He almost unavoidably 

 sees things that naturally cause his wide-awake mind to ask "Why?" and 

 "How?" Unless, therefore, you deliberately break down that wall of reserve, 

 he will almost inevitably ask these questions of the wrong persons. Strange 

 propensity? Yes, but true. 



A mother I know unfolded the first pages of this book to her oldest child 

 when he was only four years old. She was led to this course because the 

 child had early shown a desire to know the why and wherefore of everything, 

 and because there were other children iu the same boarding-house, and one of 

 them had a colored girl for a nurse. The mother took her little lad into her 

 confidence, and told him that these things were to be "kept as secrets between 

 Jesus and him and her." If he ever violated her confidence, even by a glance, 

 she never had the least occasion to suspect it. The questions with wliich he 

 would come to her, when he could steal a quiet time alone with her, proved 

 that she was his only source of information. The next child had an entirely 

 different kind of mind ; although to protect him from impure information from 

 farm hands, she had opened the book of wonders quite eaiiy. Unlike his 

 brother, he showed no curiosity, no interest even, in these things. So the 

 book was gently closed, with the loving assurance that it would be opened at 

 any future time the boy might wish. From time to time she touched gently 

 on the subject, only to find that there seemed to be no interest whatever in 

 those things. Always she assured him of an earnest desire that he should 

 come to her with any question he might, at any time, wish answered. She 

 always assured him, too, that she would never turn him away with a "crumb 

 of knowledge when he wanted a slice or, later, a loaf for his mental food. 

 Years passed on, and that mother began to wonder if it had been in vain that 

 she had so determinedly forestalled all other instructors on mox-al questions; 

 and if it were possible that he had gained that information from other sources. 

 She had many misgivings, until he was quite in his teens, and unusually late 

 for entering puberty. Then for a whole winter he sought opportunities for 

 confidential chats with her, and plied her with questions so deep and so 

 numerous as to convince her that his mind was only then just waking up to 

 that subject, and that it was a clean page on which she was privileged to 

 paint, and give it any hue she chose. 



If it has seemed to you that this talk has been in too serious a vein, it is 

 because parents' shortcomings and the subject demand it. I have not intended 

 to preach, but only to discuss with you our duties as parents, and the dangers 

 and failures and burdens which are ours, in spite of the fact that no joys can 



