CHAPTER XXII

FATHER’S SECOND TALK--PERFECT BOYS MAKE PERFECT MEN

=Why we are given sexual organs.=--You have learned God’s beautiful and sacred plan of bringing into this world baby plants, fish, birds, animals and human beings. You learned from the stories of the plants and animals that God provided them with organs of sex, for the purpose of increasing their kind. When little children are born they have organs of sex. A boy’s sexual organs have several important uses. They are as important to a boy as his mouth, ears, eyes or heart. They are just as pure as any other organs of his body. These organs are very sacred. It is through their proper use that men and women obey God’s command to “be fruitful and multiply.” Without sexual organs, new plants, animals and human beings could not come into the world.

=They are not sinful.=--We should never think of these organs as being sinful. They are not. The true names of these organs are as pure as the words baby, home, mother, Bible, heaven, angels, God, so far as a word is concerned. The true names of these organs are found in the dictionary. Your sister and mother can find these words in the dictionary and just what they mean. They are placed in the dictionary because they are clean words and are a part of our language.

=The names of these organs are pure.=--Unfortunately, almost all boys have received their first information about sex from the vicious. Such teachers are ignorant for they do not know the true names of these organs or their true purposes. They are vicious because their teaching is largely false and they fill the minds of boys with impure thoughts and ideas. Let twenty boys write down on paper all the names of their sexual organs that they have ever learned and not less than thirty names would be found among them. Now go to the dictionary and look for these names. One out of every five cannot be found, for the reason that it is not a part of our language. The other words do not, even remotely, refer in meaning to the sexual organs. This is a sample of the ignorance of such men and boys who are always ready to tell a boy something that he is not to tell his parents. Such teaching is a very great evil. It has poisoned the minds and hearts of thousands of boys and started them on the road to ruin. It is very important that you fix the thought in your mind that these organs are as pure as any other organ in the body and that their names are just as pure as any other word in the language. There are many reasons why we should not expose these organs or talk about them, except when it is right or necessary for us to do so. We should learn all we can about our lungs, hearts, brains and other organs of the body. When we can see these organs or pictures of them, they help to make many things plain to us that would be difficult for us to understand. For this reason we have placed the cut of a boy’s body in this book, showing the urinary and sexual organs.

=The urinary organs.=--The urinary system consists of the following organs: Two (1) kidneys, only one can be shown in the cut. The kidneys are located just above the small of the back and in front of the spinal column, or backbone. The kidneys take up water, waste matter and impurities from the blood. In this way the kidneys help to keep the blood pure. This liquid mixture is called urine. The use of tobacco and strong drink injures the kidneys, and prevents them from doing all the work that they need to do in order to keep the blood pure and the body healthy and strong. As fast as the kidneys form the urine it is carried by two ducts, called the (2) ureters, one leading from each kidney, and emptied into the (3) bladder. Here it is stored until we wish to discharge it from our bodies. The urine is discharged from the body by a duct that leads through the external sexual organ, and this duct is called the (4) urethra. This process of discharging the urine is called urinating. This is a perfectly natural act. There is no more sin in urinating than in shedding a tear. Because of unfortunate training, many boys think of this act as sinful. The words and expressions they have learned for this act have been associated for years with low thoughts. It is for this reason that you should cease to use those false words and expressions and learn to say, “I desire to urinate,” or “I have urinated.”

=The sexual organs.=--Some of the sexual organs are on the outside of the body and some are on the inside of the body. Those on the outside of the body are perfectly familiar to all boys. The external organ through which the (4) urethra passes is called the (5) penis. This organ is not shown in the cut, its position being shown by the figure (5). At the end of this organ is a sheath of loose skin, called the prepuce or foreskin. In some boys the prepuce is quite long and tight. When the boys of the Jewish race are eight days old they are circumcised. This act consists in cutting off that portion of the prepuce that extends beyond the head of the penis. The act is performed with a sharp knife and causes but little pain. Ninety millions of Mohammedans practice circumcision. This

should be performed on many boys in this country when they are only a few days old. There are a number of reasons for this. Underneath the folds of the prepuce are hundreds of little glands that secrete a substance that should be removed daily with water, or a wet rag. When the prepuce will not glide back over the head of the penis, it cannot be kept clean. In such cases the secretion becomes white and hard and causes irritation. Boys in this condition will often scratch this organ. In many cases, these boys do not get along well in school, they are nervous, have fits and spasms, and this scratching often leads to a bad habit.

When the prepuce of a boy will not glide back, becomes red, sore and swollen, he should ask his father to have a doctor treat him. The doctor will know how to enlarge the opening, break up the adhesion and glide it back.

Underneath the penis is a sack, called the (6) scrotum, in which are suspended two glands, called the (7) testicles. The (7) indicates where these glands would be if placed in the cut. Leading off from the (8) descending artery are two small arteries, called the (9) spermatic arteries. They carry pure blood to the testicles. Leading back from the testicles are two small veins that separate from the spermatic arteries and are called the (10) spermatic veins.

Connected with each testicle is a duct, called the (11) vas deferens that passes up through the loins and over the bladder and becomes enlarged into a small vessel called the (12) ampulla. The ampullae open into the urethra. Near the ampullae, and behind them, are two larger vessels, called the (13) seminal vessels. These vessels connect with the urethra by a small duct, at the point where the ampullae do. Surrounding the neck of the bladder, the lower portion of the ampullae, the seminal vessels and the deep urethra is a very important gland, called the (14) prostate gland. Connected with the urethra and only a short distance from the prostate, are two small glands, called the (15) Cowper’s glands. These glands and vessels are all very tender. They are protected by being placed on the inside of the body. Because of bad habits connected with the organs on the outside, many men suffer much pain from diseased conditions of the organs on the inside.

=Puberty.=--When a boy is born, he has all these organs. The testicles and the glands on the inside are inactive until he reaches the age of fourteen and a half. Until this time he has been only a boy. At about this age the glands become active and begin to slowly form from the blood a fluid called semen. This period in a boy’s life is called puberty. It is at this time that he starts toward manhood. We shall find later that he will not be a perfect man until he is twenty-four. During these ten years he will be changing gradually into a man. There is no way by which a boy can come suddenly to manhood.

=Some things hasten puberty.=--There are some things that will hasten puberty. Several thousand miles South, puberty comes on a boy a few months sooner than it does here. Several thousand miles North, puberty comes later than here. Thus we see that a warm climate tends to hasten the arrival of puberty, and a cold climate will tend to retard it. This is the main reason why puberty, in the colored race, comes a few months sooner than it does in the white race. For centuries the negro lived in the hot climates of Africa. In this country he has lived largely in the South. Vulgar language, impure thoughts and the cigarette habit will tend to hasten puberty. These bad habits arouse passion and lead to the formation of semen before the body is prepared to absorb it. This leads to the habit of wasting this energy from the body. It will be noticed by you that the cigarette smoking and vulgar boys grow up to have a pale or a dark complexion and many are stunted and ugly. Using cigarettes before you are fifteen will do you more harm than to use them after that age.

=The nature and value of the creative life.=--The wisest doctors tell us that one drop of semen is worth twenty drops of blood; one ounce is worth twenty ounces of the purest blood. If a discharge of this energy were taken from the body of a healthy, strong man, twenty-five years old, and placed in a small glass test-tube and allowed to settle for ten hours, it would divide itself into two unequal parts. The upper and smaller portion would be thin, clear and slightly oily. It would look just like joint water. The lower and larger portion would be thick and milkish in color, with many little (16) sperm cells. These cells can be seen only under the microscope. They are in the shape of a tadpole, except they are longer in proportion. They are very active at first, but when the fluid becomes chilled they soon die. They are formed from the blood and contain life.

=The condition of an unwell man.=--If a discharge is removed from a man that is in poor health, a man who drinks liquor, uses much tobacco, or wastes this energy from his body, it will be found that the amount, as a rule, is much smaller, the parts reversed, sperm cells fewer in number, smaller in size, slower in movements, than in the discharge taken from a healthy man. This illustration shows how bad habits injure the blood and rob a man of his energy.

=How sex helps to change a boy into a man.=--We are now able to study how this new life, this vital force, changes a perfect boy into a perfect man. We find that this energy is formed from the blood and contains life. These sperm cells contain physical, mental and soul life. This will be made plain to you, when you learn, that, when one of these sperm cells of a father unites with the cell of a mother, under proper conditions, the result will be a child having physical, mental and soul life. A boy has physical, mental and soul life when he is born, but he has not as much as he will have when he is grown. If he grows up to be a man, he will need more of this energy and life. This is the work of the sexual glands. They form, by the help of the blood, this energy. This energy is absorbed by the body and carried by the blood to every part of his being. It is in this way that this energy helps the body to grow, and the mind and soul to develop.

=Two full brother colts.=--The use of this fluid can be illustrated in several ways. If two brother colts grow up side by side, they will look much alike when grown. If one of them be castrated when young, he will not develop as well as the other one. The castrated horse is called a gelding. The other one is called a stallion. The stallion has a high arched neck, dilated nostrils, sparkling eyes, a heavy thick mane and tail, broad, deep hip and chest muscles and an elastic bearing. He commands the attention and admiration of all beholders. A boy can’t manage him. It takes a strong man to control him. Turn him out in the field with one hundred geldings and he will rule all of them. The only difference between these horses was that one had had his testicles removed and the other had not. The gelding could not form from his blood any of this valuable energy. This energy was formed by the stallion and absorbed by his body where it gave him perfect development, an elastic bearing, fiery eyes, strong muscles and lots of vitality.

=Two full brother chickens.=--Take two full brother chickens, put them in the same pen, give them the same food and shelter and when they are grown they will look very much alike. Suppose that when these roosters were small one of them had been caponized, that is, his glands had been removed, what would have been the result? The one not caponized would grow a large red comb, ear lobes and wattles, long glossy neck and tail feathers and long, strong spurs. In the case of the other bird, his comb, ear lobes and wattles, neck and tail feathers and legs would resemble an old hen that had not laid an egg for months. If food is scarce, the first bird will scratch for worms and catch insects for a living; the other one will starve. If food is thrown down for the old hen and her brood of chickens, the first bird will step up and pick up a bit of the food with his beak, drop it, then step back, point his beak at the food, glance up at the old hen, look down at the chickens and cluck to them to come up and eat the food. When they are through, if some food is left, he will eat it. If not, he goes out and finds him a meal. The capon will rush up to the food, with one foot crushing the life out of a chicken and the other crushing the life out of another chicken; he hurriedly eats the food and does not offer any to the old hen and her chickens. If an old hawk or owl comes to catch the chickens, the first bird will fight the enemy until the hen and chickens find shelter. The capon sneaks under the floor.

The first bird retained his glands, formed that vital energy, absorbed it back into his body; this made him industrious, gallant and brave. The capon formed none of this energy, and he could not develop a perfect body, be industrious, gallant and brave.

=Eunuchs.=--Long years ago, men would select some boys that they wanted to be slaves and remove their sexual glands when they were quite young. Such boys were called eunuchs. When they were twenty-five years old they differed much from other men. They grew only a few scattering short hairs on their faces; their vocal organs never developed so as to produce a deep base voice; their shoulders never became broad and square; being cowardly they were never sent to the battlefield, they did not care to own property and had no desire for an education. Now, compare in your mind, the manly man with the eunuch. This energy gives him his beard, square shoulders, bass voice, brilliant mind, snap and vim, push and enterprise, bravery and attractive manliness.

=If you would be a perfect man.=--While it is now very rare for a boy to be made a eunuch, yet it is very common to see young men who are dull and stupid, lifeless and lazy, stunted and ugly. In most cases this is due to their having wasted this energy.

From these illustrations we see that the sexual energy strengthens and develops every organ of the body, faculty of the mind and power of the soul. If a boy would have a strong, healthy and perfect body, this energy must be kept in the body and built into the muscles. If he would have a strong and brilliant mind, this energy must be directed to the brain. If he would be strong in moral character, he must learn how to use it in his moral nature. In the chapter on how to live a pure life this will all be made plain to you.