A CHAPTER FOR YOUNG MEN 415 



another chapter. The facts there stated, need not here 

 be recapitulated. 



It is important, however, to emphasize the fact that 

 at this period the natural development of the sexual 

 organs renders them peculiarly liable to excitement, 

 and hence those who have up to this time been so for- 

 tunate as to escape the acquirement of any evil prac- 

 tice, are now liable to make the fatal discovery, which, 

 may be the means of causing their physical and moral 

 ruin. Hence it is important for parents to set about 

 their boys at this time the most careful safeguards, 

 to warn them of the evils they are likely to encounter, 

 and by good counsel to fortify them against the tempta- 

 tions they are sure to meet. It is also important for 

 young men who are passing through this dangerous 

 epoch of life to appreciate, as they are very apt not 

 to do, the dangers which threaten them, and the impor- 

 tance of receiving and implicitly obeying the good 

 counsel of parents and wise friends, which superior 

 experience is capable of imparting. 



Pure Manners. —One of the greatest safeguards 

 against the dangers surrounding this critical period is 

 that sensitiveness to grossness and vulgarity which, is 

 the result of the cultivation, from earliest childliood, of 

 purity of manners. A boy who has been accustomed 

 to indulge in vulgar, gross, obscene, or profane lan- 

 guage is very likely to fall into evil practices; while 

 a boy who has always cultivated gentlemanly manners, 

 purity of speech, etc., will, on the other hand, be very 

 unlikely to yield to the temptations which are thrown 

 about him. 



Irreligion.— The lad who scoffs at religion, who 

 presumes to mock at piety, who has no interest in the 

 Sabbath-school, and who attends church only when 



