OCTOBER 15, 1912 



673 



I have more fear of the designing mothers 

 back of the young girls than 1 have of 

 young girls fourteen or fifteen. "We should 

 each and all of us, especially we men folks, 

 pray constantly' for grace and strength and 

 wisdom to treat all young girls, whei'ever 

 we see them, exactly as we would have all 

 men treat our own daughters. This is 

 sometimes a hard thing to do, I know, es- 

 pecially if all men are created much after 

 the same pattern as myself. But you 

 know the promise in God's word, "My 

 grace is sufficient for you," and, again, 

 "He will not suffer you to be tempted 

 above what ye are able to bear." 



Now comes in one more thought, and 

 it is a most important matter. Old men 

 and perhaps young men are in this present 

 daj- and age, many of them, employing 

 bright young girls as stenogTaj^hers ; and 

 oftentimes these stenographers are shut 

 up with the emi^loyer in his office away 

 up many stories high. I would not have it. 

 May be you will think I am old-fashioned 

 and over cautious, but I l-now whereof I 

 speak. Granting, if you choose, that there 

 are hundreds and thousands of good girls 

 earning their bread in tliis way, the fact 

 still remains they are making a precedent 

 and at the same time setting a bad exam- 

 ple. A nephew of mine is a skillful physi- 

 cian. When girls go to his office for coun- 

 sel he tells them that they must bring their 

 mothers along; or if that is not convenient 

 his good wife is called into the room, and 

 she remains there until whatever must be 

 said and done is ended; and may God be 

 praised that I do know of one such family 

 doctor. Now let us have society so framed 

 that it will be generally understood that 

 it is not exactly the thing for a man and 

 woman who are not related to each other 

 to be kept much together. As a rule I 

 deprecate gossip; but my good pastor, 

 Rev. A. T. Reed, years ago, said that, 

 when things of this kind are going on, 

 people ought to talk, and he said he was 

 often glad that they did. 



Xot vei-y long ago a banker with whom 

 T am acquainted was talking about getting 



life. My friend took particular pains to have us 

 t-n-o become acquainted. During my stay of two 

 or three days we became so well acquainted -that 

 mv friend suggested to his sister something like 

 this: 



"Sister, I trust you will not forget that ilr. 

 Root is a married man while he and you seem to 

 be having such a good time together." 



I shall always remember her quick repnrtee — 

 "Dear mel do "you think I would carry on in this 

 way with anybody wlio was not a married man?" 



Her philosophy" (and I think it was reasonably 

 sound) was like this: Every man who has a wife 

 (and especially if he has a baby too) at home, is 

 e-xpected to be manly in the best sense of the word, 

 no matter where he is nor what the circumstances 

 may be. "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they 

 shall see God." 



a divorce from his wife, or, rather, she was 

 going to get the divorce — it does not mat- 

 ter particularly. The reason was the em- 

 ployment of a lady book-keeper. The wife 

 wanted this woman dismissed. But the 

 banker said that would mean ruin to his 

 business to dismiss that faithful and com- 

 petent woman. In discussing the matter 

 with a Congregational minister of that 

 town, this minister declared that this wife 

 was unreasonable. But I said, "No, no, 

 no! Let the banking business be ruined 

 or even wrecked; but do not wreck or 

 ruin the sacred relation between this man 

 and wife." Some of you may suggest that 

 sometimes women are unreasonably jealous. 

 There may be a few of that kind, but I 

 do not believe it occurs very often. I do 

 remember one case where a man was 

 jealous of his wife where there was not a 

 shadow of reason for it ; but this man was 

 very soon after pronounced hopelessly in- 

 sane. 



I like to see warm and intimate friend- 

 ships, and I like to see friendship between 

 the young and old; but I always feel wor- 

 ried and troubled when too intimate 

 friendships exist between old men and 

 young girls. Beekeeping and poultry- 

 keeping, greenhouses, gardening, flowers, 

 high-pressure gardening, the study of bot- 

 an}-, microscopy, and even astronomy, of- 

 ten bring together intimate relations be- 

 tween people in various parts of life. If 

 some bright young woman is skillful with 

 chickens, and you enjoy paying her fre- 

 quent visits, go right ahead; but take your 

 wife along, even if said wife does not care 

 much for the chickens. If you have no 

 wife, get one; and if this exjDert poultry- 

 woman has no husband, get her by all 

 means; and if you can not get her, do a 

 good job in trying; and after you have 

 once gotten her (so you can call her your 

 own), so live that all men may know you 

 are remembering that solemn vow you 

 took: "What God hath joined together, 

 let not man put asunder." 



I have spoken of young girls full of health 

 and buoyancy of spirits who oftentimes 

 innocently attract the attention not only of 

 old men but men of all ages. Now, when 

 these girls need a guiding hand from the 

 father as well as from the mother, what 

 do you think of the wretch in human form 

 who deliberately waylays these children 

 (for that is what they are), and brings 

 them down to ruin? The dear Savior con- 

 temi^lated this, I think, when he said, "It 

 were better for such a man that a millstone 

 were hung about his neck, and he were cast 

 into the depths of thp sea," 



