How, then, shall all this be worked out in Bible class and through-the-week activity?  The missionary lesson must not be just fact, but related fact.  The through-the-week meeting that contemplates the deepening of interest in other lands must be recreational and social.  The contacts must be real, vital, and individual—­expressed in the concrete interests of the now.  This is the principle.  The method must be the work of the lesson writer and the missionary expert, and, until this is achieved, missions must still be but two uninteresting facts for the teen age boy—­Heathen and Collection.

BIBLIOGRAPHY ON THE TEEN BOY AND MISSIONS

Fahs.—­Uganda’s White Man of Work (.50).

Hall.—­Children at Play in Many Lands (.75).

Johnston.—­Famine and the Bread ($1.00).

Matthews.—­Livingstone, the Pathfinder (.50).

Speer.—­Servants of the King (.50).

Steiner.—­On the Trail of the Immigrant ($1.50).

XVII

TEMPERANCE AND THE TEEN AGE

Temperance embraces the abstaining from everything that challenges self-control.  The two deadliest foes of young life today are admittedly alcoholic drinks and the cigarette, and any crusade against these for the conservation of the boy in his teens should be welcomed.  It is well, however, to keep in mind that profane language, the suggestive story, undue sex familiarity, athletic overindulgence, excessive attendance at the moving picture shows, or entertainment places, the public dance, and other things of like ilk in the community, exert a doubtful influence on boy life.

Liquor is the greatest plague in a community, and does more to curse the community than any other one thing.  It breaks up homes, causes divorces, deprives children of their legitimate sustenance, ruins the life of the drinker, increases taxation, lowers the tone and morals of the community, and is a detriment to our American life.  Cigarette smoking is bad for anybody.  It harms the growing tissue, dulls the conscience, stunts the growth, and steals the brainpower of growing boys.  In dealing with these facts in the Sunday school let us recognize then, that they exist, that they are true; and then let us cease merely to rehearse them from time to time.

The day of exhortation is past.  Temperance education today consists in the presentation of absolute, scientific fact.  Sentimentality and the multiplication of words no longer mean anything.  In dealing with the teen age boy, spare your words, but pile up the scientific, concrete, “seeing-is-believing” data.  By proved experiment let him discover through the investigation of himself and others—­through books, pictures, slides, etc.—­that everything we take for granted is scientific truth.  You do not need today to prove to a boy that liquor is bad.  Physiology in the public school and the