4.  Our boys and girls are growing faster than we think.  The world moves; we can no longer put off our children with the old nurses’ tales; even MacDonald’s beautiful statement,

  “Out of the everywhere into the there”,

does not satisfy them when they reverse his question and ask, “Where did I come from?”

5.  They must be answered.  If we put them off, they may be tempted to go elsewhere for information, and hear half-truths, or whole truths so distorted, so mingled with what is low and impure that, struggle against it as they may in later years, their minds will always retain these early impressions.

6.  It is not so hard if you begin early.  The very flowers are object lessons.  The wonderful mystery of life is wrapped in one flower, with its stamens, pistils and ovaries.  Every child knows how an egg came in the nest, and takes it as a matter of course; why not go one step farther with them and teach the wonder, the beauty, the holiness that surrounds maternity anywhere?  Why, centuries ago the Romans honored, and taught their boys to honor, the women in whose safety was bound up the future of their existence as a nation!  Why should we do less?

7.  Your sons and mine, your daughters and mine, need to be wisely taught and guarded just along these lines, if your sons and mine, your daughters and mine, are to grow up into a pure, healthy, Christian manhood and womanhood.

[Illustration]

8.[Footnote:  This quotation is an appeal to mothers by Mrs. P.B.  Saur, M.D.] “How grand is the boy who has kept himself undefiled!  His complexion clear, his muscles firm, his movements vigorous, his manner frank, his courage undaunted, his brain active, his will firm, his self-control perfect, his body and mind unfolding day by day.  His life should be one song of praise and thanksgiving.  If you want your boy to be such a one, train him, my dear woman, to-day, and his to-morrow will take care of itself.

9.  “Think you that good seed sown will bring forth bitter fruit?  A thousand times, No!  As we sow, so shall we reap.  Train your boys in morality, temperance and virtue.  Teach them to embrace good and shun evil.  Teach them the true from the false; the light from the dark.  Teach them that when they take a thing that is not their own, they commit a sin.  Teach them that sin means disobedience of God’s laws of every kind.

10.  “God made every organ of our body with the intention that it should perform a certain work.  If we wish to see, we use our eyes; if we want to hear, our ears are called into use.  In fact, nature teaches us the proper use of all our organs.  I say to you, mother, and oh, so earnestly:  ’Go teach your boy that which you may never be ashamed to do, about these organs that make him specially a boy.’

11.  “Teach him they are called sexual organs; that they are not impure, but of special importance, and made by God for a definite purpose.  Teach him that there are impurities taken from the system in fluid form called urine, and that it passes through the sexual organs, but that nature takes care of that.  Teach him that these organs are given as a sacred trust, that in maturer years he may be the means of giving life to those who shall live forever.