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Appeal to the Church
423
their seats, it may be, with their parents, but more frequently back in
the congregation. They are in the habit of making an excuse to leave
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the house. Boys understand this, and go out before or after the exit
of the girls, and then, as the meeting closes, they accompany them
home. Parents are none the wiser for this. Again, excuses are made
to walk, and boys and girls assemble in the fair grounds, or some
other secluded place, and there play and have a regular high time,
with no experienced eye upon them to caution them. They imitate
men and women of advanced age.
This is a fast age. Little boys and girls commence paying atten-
tions to one another when they should both be in the nursery, taking
lessons in modesty of deportment. What is the effect of this common
mixing up? Does it increase chastity in the youth who thus gather
together? No, indeed! it increases the first lustful passions; after
such meetings the youth are crazed by the devil and give themselves
up to their vile practices.
Parents are asleep and know not that Satan has planted his hellish
banner right in their households. What, I was led to inquire, will
become of the youth in this corrupt age? I repeat, Parents are asleep.
The children are infatuated with a lovesick sentimentalism, and the
truth has no power to correct the wrong. What can be done to stay
the tide of evil? Parents can do much if they will. If a young girl
just entering her teens is accosted with familiarity by a boy of her
own age, or older, she should be taught to so resent this that no such
advances will ever be repeated. When a girl’s company is frequently
sought by boys or young men, something is wrong. That young girl
needs a mother to show her her place, to restrain her, and teach her
what belongs to a girl of her age.
The corrupting doctrine which has prevailed, that, as viewed
from a health standpoint, the sexes must mingle together, has done its
mischievous work. When parents and guardians manifest one tithe
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of the shrewdness which Satan possesses, then can this association
of sexes be nearer harmless. As it is, Satan is most successful in his
effort to bewitch the minds of the youth; and the mingling of boys
and girls only increases the evil twentyfold. Let boys and girls be
kept employed in useful labor. If they are tired, they will have less
inclination to corrupt their own bodies. There is nothing to be hoped
for in the case of the young, unless there is an entire change in the