Chapter 26
Self-Abuse.--Secret vice, masturbation, and self-pollution are other names applied to this same awful sin against nature and against God. We shall not explain here the exact nature of the sin, as very few boys are so ignorant or so innocent as to be unacquainted with it. To this sin and its awful consequences we now wish to call the attention of all who may read these lines.
A Dreadful Sin.--The sin of self-pollution is one of the vilest, the basest, and the most degrading that a human being can commit. It is worse than beastly. Those who commit it place themselves far below the meanest brute that breathes. The most loathsome reptile, rolling in the slush and slime of its stagnant pool, would not bemean itself thus. It is true that monkeys sometimes have the habit, but only when they have been taught it by vile men or boys. A boy who is thus guilty ought to be ashamed to look into the eyes of an honest dog. Such a boy naturally shuns the company of those who are pure and innocent. He cannot look with assurance into his mother's face. It is difficult for any one to catch his eye, even for a few seconds. He feels his guilt and acts it out, thus making it known to every one. Let such a boy think how he must appear in the eyes of the Almighty. Let him only think of the angels, pure, innocent, and holy, who are eye-witnesses of his shameful practices. Is not the thought appalling? Would he dare commit such a sin in the presence of his father, his mother, or his sisters? No, indeed. How, then, will he dare to defile himself in the presence of Him from whose all-seeing eye nothing is hid?
The Bible utters the most solemn warnings against sexual sins. The inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed by fire and brimstone for such transgressions. Onan was struck dead in the act of committing a vileness of this sort. For similar vices the wicked inhabitants of Palestine were destroyed, and their lands given to the Hebrews. For a single violation of the seventh commandment, one of the most notable Bible characters, David, suffered to the day of his death. Those who imagine that this sin is not a transgression of the seventh commandment may be assured that this most heinous, revolting, and unnatural vice is in every respect more pernicious, more debasing, and more immoral than what is generally considered as violation of the commandment which says, "Thou shalt not commit adultery," and is itself a most flagrant violation of the same commandment.
Those who imagine that they "have a right to do as they please with themselves," so long as no one else is immediately affected, must learn that we are not our own masters; we belong to our Creator, and are accountable to God not only for the manner in which we treat our fellow-men, but for how we treat ourselves, for the manner in which we use the bodies which he has given us. The man who commits suicide, who takes his own life, is a murderer as much as he who kills a fellow-man. So, also, he who pollutes himself in the manner we are considering, violates the seventh commandment, although the crime is in both cases committed against himself. Think of this, ye youth who defile yourselves in secret and seek to escape the punishment of sin. In Heaven a faithful record of your vile commandment-breaking is kept, and you must meet it by-and-by. You are fixing your fate for eternity; and each daily act in some degree determines what it shall be. Are you a victim of this fascinating vice, stop, repent, reform, before you are forever ruined, a mental, moral, and physical wreck.
Self-Murderers.--Of all the vices to which human beings are addicted, no other so rapidly undermines the constitution and so certainly makes a complete wreck of an individual as this, especially when the habit is begun at an early age. It wastes the most precious part of the blood, uses up the vital forces, and finally leaves the poor victim a most utterly ruined and loathsome object. If a boy should be deprived of both hands and feet and should lose his eyesight, he would still be infinitely better off than the boy who for years gives himself up to the gratification of lust in secret vice. For such a boy to become a strong, vigorous man is just as impossible as it would be to make a mammoth tree out of a currant bush. Such a man will necessarily be short-lived. He will always suffer from the effects of his folly, even though he shall marry. If he has children--he may become incapable--they will be quite certain to be puny, weak, scrofulous, consumptive, rickety, nervous, depraved in body and mind, or otherwise deprived of the happiness which grows out of the possession of "a sound mind in a sound body."
Let us notice a little more closely the terrible effects resulting from this most unnatural and abominable vice.
What Makes Boys Dwarfs.--How many times have we seen boys who were born with good constitutions, with force and stamina sufficient to develop them into large, vigorous men, become puny dwarfs. At the time when they ought to begin to grow and develop more rapidly than ever before, their growth is checked and they cease to develop. They are, in fact, stunted, dwarfed, like a plant which has a canker-worm eating away at its roots. Indeed, there is a veritable canker-worm sapping their vitality, undermining their constitutions, and destroying their prospects for time and for eternity. Anxious friends may attribute the unhappy change to overwork, overstudy, or some similar cause; but from a somewhat extended observation we are thoroughly convinced that the very vice which we are considering is the viper which blights the prospects and poisons the existence of many of these promising boys.
A boy who gives himself up to the practice of secret vice at an early age, say as early as seven to ten years of age, is certain to make himself a wreck. Instead of having a healthy, vigorous body, with strong muscles and a hardy constitution, he will be weak, scrawny, sickly, always complaining, never well, and will never know anything about that joyous exuberance of life and animal spirits which the young antelope feels as it bounds over the plain, or the vigorous young colt as it frisks about its pasture, and which every youth ought to feel.
Scrawny, Hollow-Eyed Boys.--Boys ought to be fresh and vigorous as little lambs. They ought to be plump, rosy, bright-eyed, and sprightly. A boy who is pale, scrawny, hollow-eyed, dull, listless, has something the matter with him. Self-abuse makes thousands of just such boys every year; and it is just such boys that make vicious, shiftless, haggard, unhappy men. This horrible vice steals away the health and vitality which are needed to develop the body and the mind; and the lad that ought to make his mark in the world, that ought to become a distinguished statesman, orator, clergyman, physician, or author, becomes little more than a living animal, a mere shadow of what he ought to have been.
Old Boys.--Often have we felt sad when we have heard fond mothers speaking in glowing terms of the old ways of their sons, and rather glorying that they looked so much older than they were. In nine cases out of ten these old-looking boys owe their appearance to this vile habit; for it is exceedingly common, and its dreadful effects in shriveling and dwarfing and destroying the human form are too plainly perceptible, when present, to be mistaken. Oh! this dreadful curse! Why will so many of our bright, innocent boys pollute themselves with it!
What Makes Idiots.--Reader, have you ever seen an idiot? If you have, the hideous picture will never be dissipated from your memory. The vacant stare, the drooping, drooling mouth, the unsteady gait, the sensual look, the emptiness of mind,--all these you will well remember. Did you ever stop to think how idiots are made? It is by this very vice that the ranks of these poor daft mortals are being recruited every day. Every visitor to an insane asylum sees scores of them; ruined in mind and body, only the semblance of a human being, bereft of sense, lower than a beast in many respects, a human being hopelessly lost to himself and to the world!--oh, most terrible thought!--yet once pure, intelligent, active, perhaps the hope of a fond mother, the pride of a doting father, and possibly possessed of natural ability to become greatly distinguished in some of the many noble and useful walks of life; now sunk below the brute through the degrading, destroying influence of a lustful gratification.
Boys, are you guilty of this terrible sin? have you even once in this way yielded to the tempter's voice? Stop, consider, think of the awful results, repent, confess to God, reform. Another step in that direction and you may be lost, soul and body. You cannot dally with the tempter. You must escape now or never. Don't delay.
Young Dyspeptics.--If we leave out of the consideration the effects of bad food and worse cookery, there is in our estimation no other cause so active in occasioning the early breaking down of the digestive organs of our American boys. A boy of ten or twelve years of age ought to have a stomach capable of digesting anything not absolutely indigestible; but there are to-day thousands and thousands of boys of that age whose stomachs are so impaired as to be incapable of digesting any but the most simple food. The digestion being ruined, the teeth soon follow suit. Hardly one boy in a dozen has perfectly sound teeth. With a bad stomach and bad teeth, a foundation for disease is laid which is sure to result in early decay of the whole body.
In this awful vice do we find a cause, too, for the thousands of cases of consumption in young men. At the very time when they ought to be in their prime, they break down in health and become helpless invalids for life, or speedily sink into an early grave.
Upon their tombstones might justly be graven, "Here lies a self-murderer." Providence is not to blame; nor is climate, weather, overwork, overstudy, or any other even seemingly plausible cause, to be blamed. Their own sins have sunk them in mental, moral, and physical perdition. Such a victim literally dies by his own hand, a veritable suicide. Appalling thought! It is a grand thing to die for one's principles, a martyr to his love of right and truth. One may die blameless who is the victim of some dire contagious malady which he could not avoid; even the poor, downcast misanthrope whose hopes are blighted and whose sorrows multiplied, may possibly be in some degree excused for wishing to end his misery with his life; but the wretched being who sheds his life-blood by the disgusting maneuvers of self-pollution--what can be said to extenuate _his_ guilt? His is a double crime. Let him pass from the memory of his fellow-men. He will perish, overwhelmed with his own vileness. Let him die, and return to the dust from which he sprang.
The Race Ruined by Boys.--The human race is growing steadily weaker year by year. The boys of to-day would be no match in physical strength for the sturdy youths of a century ago who are now their grandparents. An immense amount of skillful training enables now and then one to accomplish some wonderful feat of walking, rowing, or swimming, but we hear very little of remarkable feats of labor accomplished by our modern boys. Even the country boys of to-day cannot endure the hard work which their fathers accomplished at the same age; and we doubt not that this growing physical weakness is one of the reasons why so large a share of the boys whose fathers are farmers, and who have been reared on farms, are unwilling to follow the occupation of their fathers for a livelihood. They are too weakly to do the work required by an agricultural life, even by the aid of the numerous labor-saving inventions of the age.
What is it that is undermining the health of the race and sapping the constitutions of our American men? No doubt much may be attributed to the unnatural refinements of civilization in several directions; but there can be no doubt that vice is the most active cause of all. Secret sin and its kindred vices yearly ruin more constitutions than hard work, severe study, hunger, cold, privation, and disease combined.
Boys, the destiny of the race is in your hands. You can do more than all the doctors, all the scientists and most eminent political men in the world, to secure the prosperity and future greatness of the nation, by taking care of yourselves, by being pure, noble, true to yourselves and to the demands of high moral principle.
Cases Illustrating the Effects of Self-Abuse.--The land is full of poor human wrecks who have dashed in pieces their hopes for this world, and too often for the next also, against this hideous rock which lies hidden in the pathway of every young man who starts out upon life's stormy voyage. Gladly would we draw the veil and cover them with all their dreadful deformities with the mantle of charity from the gaze of their fellow-beings; but their number is so great that this could scarcely be done, and the lesson to be learned from their sad fate is such a grave one, and so needful for the good of the generation of young men who are just encountering the same dangers, that we cannot resist the promptings of duty to present a few examples of the effects of vice in men and boys that have fallen under our own observation. We have seen hundreds of cases of this sort; have treated many scores of persons for the effects of the terrible crime which we are seeking to sound a warning against, and the number of cases we might describe would fill a volume; but we will select only a very few.
Two Young Wrecks.--Charles and Oscar B---- were the sons of a farmer in a Western State, aged respectively ten and twelve years. They possessed well-formed heads, and once had beautiful faces, and were as bright and sprightly as any little boys of their age to be found anywhere. Their father was proud of them, and their fond mother took great pleasure in building bright prospects for her darling sons when they should attain maturity and become competent to fill useful and honorable positions in the world. Living in a rapidly-growing Western community, they had every prospect of growing up to honorable usefulness, a comfort to their parents, a blessing to the world, and capable of enjoying life in the highest degree.
But suddenly certain manifestations appeared which gave rise to grave apprehensions on the part of the parents. It was observed that the elder of the little boys no longer played about with that nimbleness which he had formerly shown, but seemed slow and stiff in his movements. Sometimes, indeed, he would stagger a little when he walked. Soon, also, his speech became affected in some degree; he mumbled his words and could not speak distinctly. In spite of all that could be done, the disease continued, increasing slowly in all its symptoms from week to week. Soon the hands, also, became affected, so that the little boy could not feed himself. The mind now began to fail. The bright eyes became vacant and expressionless. Instead of the merry light which used to shine in them, there was a blank, idiotic stare.
Imagine the grief and anguish of the poor mother! No one but a mother who has been called to pass through a similar trial could know how to sympathize with such a one. Her darling son she saw daily becoming a prey to a strange, incurable malady, with no power even to stay the progress of the terrible disease.
But there was still greater grief in store for her. Within a year or two the younger son began to show symptoms of the same character, and in spite of all that was done, rapidly sank into the same helpless state as his brother. As a last resort, the mother took her boys and came a long journey to place her sons under our care. At that time they were both nearly helpless. Neither could walk but a few steps. They reeled and staggered about like drunken men, falling down upon each other and going through the most agonizing contortions in their attempts to work their way from one chair to another and thus about the room. Their heads were no longer erect, but drooped like wilted flowers. On their faces was a blank, imbecile expression, with a few traces of former intelligence still left. The mouth was open, from the drooping of the lower jaw, and the saliva constantly dribbled upon the clothing. Altogether, it was a spectacle which one does not care to meet every day; the impression made was too harrowing to be pleasant even from its interest from a scientific point of view.
We at once set to work to discover the cause of this dreadful condition, saying to ourselves that such an awful punishment should certainly be the result of some gross violation of nature's laws somewhere. The most careful scrutiny of the history of the parents of the unfortunate lads gave us no clue to anything of an hereditary character, both parents having come of good families, and having been always of sober, temperate habits. The father had used neither liquor nor tobacco in any form. The mother could give no light on the matter, and we were obliged to rest for the time being upon the conviction which fastened itself upon us that the cases before us were most marked illustrations of the results of self-abuse begun at a very early age. The mother thought it impossible that our suspicions could be correct, saying that she had watched her sons with jealous care from earliest infancy and had seen no indications of any error of the sort. But we had not long to wait for confirmation of our view of the case, as they were soon caught in the act, to which it was found that they were greatly addicted, and the mystery was wholly solved.
Every possible remedy was used to check the terrible disease which was preying upon the unfortunate boys, but in vain. At times the symptoms would be somewhat mitigated, and the most sanguine hopes of the fond, watching mother would be excited, but in vain. The improvement always proved to be but temporary, and the poor sufferers would speedily relapse into the same dreadful condition again, and gradually grew worse. At last, the poor mother was obliged to give up all hope, in utter despair watching the daily advances of the awful malady which inch by inch destroyed the life, the humanity, the very mind and soul of her once promising sons. Sadly she took them back to her Western home, there to see them suffer, perhaps for years before death should kindly release them, the terrible penalty of sin committed almost before they had arrived at years of responsibility.
How these mere infants learned the vice we were never able to determine. We have no doubt that opportunities sufficient were presented them, as the parents seemed to have very little appreciation of danger from this source. Had greater vigilance been exercised, we doubt not that the discovery of the vice at the beginning would have resulted in the salvation of these two beautiful boys, who were sacrificed upon the altar of concupiscence. Two or three years after we first saw the cases, we heard from them, and though still alive, their condition was almost too horrible for description. Three or four similar cases have come to our knowledge.
Boys, are you guilty? Think of the fearful fate of these boys, once as joyous and healthy as you. When you are tempted to sin, think of the fearful picture of the effects of sin which they present. Have you ever once dared to commit this awful sin? Stop, never dare to do the thing again. Take a solemn vow before God to be pure. Your fate may be as sad, your punishment as terrible. No one can tell what the results may be. Absolute purity is the only safe course.
A Prodigal Youth.--A. M., son of a gentleman of wealth in Ohio, early acquired the evil practice which has ruined so many bright lads. He was naturally an intelligent and prepossessing lad, and his father gave him as good an education as he could be induced to acquire, affording him most excellent opportunities for study and improvement. But the vile habit which had been acquired at an early age speedily began its blighting influence. It destroyed his taste for study and culture. His mind dwelt upon low and vile subjects. He grew restless of home restraint and surroundings, and finally left the parental roof. Wandering from city to city he grew rapidly worse, sinking into deeper depths of vice, until finally he became a base, besotted, wretched creature. Broken down in health by his sins, he could no longer enjoy even the worst sensual pleasures, and with no taste for or capability of appreciating anything higher he was most wretched indeed. The poor fellow now fell into the hands of quacks. His kind father sent him money in answer to his pitiful appeals for help, and he went anxiously from one to another of the wretched villains who promise relief to such sufferers but only rob them of their money and leave them worse than before.
At last, in total despair of everything else, the poor fellow came to us. He seemed quite broken-hearted and penitent for his sins, and really appeared to want to lead a better life if he could only be made well again. We faithfully pointed out to him the dreadful wickedness of his course, and the fact that a cure could only be effected by the most implicit obedience to all of nature's laws during his whole future life. Indeed, we were obliged to inform him of the sad fact that he could never be as well as before, that he must always suffer in consequence of his dreadful course of transgression. We gave him a most earnest exhortation to begin the work of reform where alone it could be effectual, by reforming his heart, and the tears which coursed down his sin-scarred cheeks seemed to indicate true penitence and a real desire to return to the paths of purity and peace.
Earnestly we labored for this young man, for months, employing every means in our power to lift him from the slough of sin and vice upon the solid pathway of virtue and purity again. Gradually the hard lines on his face seemed to lessen in intensity. The traces of vice and crime seemed to be fading out by degrees. We began to entertain hopes of his ultimate recovery. But alas! in an evil moment, through the influence of bad companions, he fell, and for some time we lost sight of him. A long time afterward we caught a glimpse of his bloated, sin-stained face, just as he was turning to skulk away to avoid recognition. Where this poor human wreck is now leading his miserable existence we cannot say, but have no doubt he is haunting the dens of iniquity and sin in the cities, seeking to find a little momentary pleasure in the gratification of his appetites and passions. A hopeless wreck, with the lines of vice and crime drawn all over his tell-tale countenance, he dares not go home, for he fears to meet the reproachful glance of his doting mother, and the scornful looks of his brothers and sisters. We never saw a more thoroughly unhappy creature. He is fully conscious of his condition; he sees himself to be a wreck, in mind, in body, and knows that he is doomed to suffer still more in consequence of his vices. He has no hope for this world or the next. His mother gave him earnest, pious instructions, which he has never forgotten, though he has long tried to smother them. He now looks forward with terror to the fate which he well knows awaits all evil-doers, and shudders at the thought, but seems powerless to enter the only avenue which affords a chance of escape. He is so tormented with the pains and diseased conditions which he has brought upon himself by vice that he often looks to self-destruction as a grateful means of escape; but then comes the awful foreboding of future punishment, and his hand is stayed. Ashamed to meet his friends, afraid to meet his Maker, he wanders about, an exile, an outcast, a hopeless wreck.