Another condition of great import to nurture appears in the increasing power of the social feelings over the life.  Society begins to fascinate, and the problem of a High School education is complicated with the problem of secret societies and school dances.  Friends are chosen not so much for real worth as for clothes, position, attractive features or, where there is no interchange of confidences between parents and children, for sympathetic understanding.  The longing for companionship is God given and must be fostered, else the youth will enter maturity a recluse and self-occupied, but nurture must carefully deal with it while life is in a state of flux.  The only course to be at all considered is a substitutive, not prohibitory one, giving opportunity for social intercourse under proper conditions.

The development of the affectional side of the life during this period must be briefly noted.

Hero love and worship are more passionate than before.  The object of admiration is usually some one outside of the home, often a favorite teacher who understands the heart of a boy and a girl.  The patterning of the life after its ideal is most seriously undertaken, even to imitation of personal mannerisms.  The privilege and responsibility of being the lode star of an unresisting, unpoised life is tremendous, for this influence overpowers all others at the time.

Strange manifestations of that which will later be love, holy and beautiful, between man and woman characterize these years.  At first there is a mutual repulsion between the sexes.  The boys are “so rough and horrid,” and as for the girls—­the masculine sentiment concerning them was voiced by one young cavalier in the words, “Oh, mush!” when his Sunday School class was asked if they would like to invite their “lady friends” to the coming class party.

But this stage does not continue, and soon nurture must deal with notes written by foolish maidens and the first glamour of the great passion, “sicklied o’er” with callowness and sentimentality.  There is no more perplexing problem in Adolescence than how to handle wisely this vernal manifestation of love.

Blessed is the home where there are congenial and sympathetic brothers and sisters, and wholesome and absorbing occupations.  It is the vacuous, roaming soul which is a prey to the multi-temptations of this period.  If the tastes and wishes of the young people can be satisfied in the home, and a hearty and natural companionship of the sexes be welcomed in this healthy environment, nurture will be bringing sanest measures to bear upon the situation.

Against this complex background, the necessity of a personal acquaintance with the Lord Jesus Christ stands out in startling relief.  Though God comes to a soul in a marked way during Adolescence, nurture is taking a dangerous and often fatal risk in allowing life, as far as human effort can go, to enter its crisis without Him.  The spiritual awakening of this period (to be considered in the succeeding chapter) would seem to be God’s call to larger service, rather than His first summons to “Follow Me.”