A CHAPTER FOR BOYS 391 



We never saw a more thoroughly unhappy creature. 

 He is fully conscious of his condition. He sees himself 

 to be a wreck, in mind, in body, and knows that he is 

 doomed to suffer still more in consequence of his vices. 

 He has no hope for this world or the next. His mother 

 gave him earnest, pious instructions, which he has 

 never forgotten, though he has long tried to smother 

 them. He now looks forward with terror to the fate 

 which he well knows awaits all evil-doers, and shud- 

 ders at the thought, but seems powerless to enter the 

 only avenue which affords a chance of escape. He is 

 so tormented with the pains and diseased conditions 

 which he has brought upon himself by vice, that he 

 often looks to self-destruction as a grateful means of 

 escape ; but then comes the awful foreboding of future 

 punishment, and his hand is stayed. Ashamed to meet 

 his friends, afraid to meet his Maker, he wanders about, 

 an exile, an outcast, a hopeless wreck. 



Young man, youth, have you taken the first step on 

 this evil road? If so, take warning by the fate of this 

 young man. At once "cease to do evil and learn to 

 do well," before, like him, you lose the power to do 

 right, before your will is paralyzed by sin so that 

 when you desire to do right, to reform, your will and 

 power to execute your good determinations fail to 

 support your effort. 



Barely Escaped.— L. R., of H , a young man 



about twenty-five years of age, presented himself for 

 treatment, a few years ago, for the consequences of 

 self -abuse. Having been taught the habit by evil com- 

 panions when just merging into manhood, he had in- 

 dulged his passions without restraint for several years, 

 not knowing the evil consequences until he began to 

 suffer the effects of sin. Then, being warned by his 



