THE DEEPER SIGNIFICANCE OF SEX
You are now old enough to be exposed to all of the temptations and
dangers incident to your approaching and rapidly developing manhood.
Previously, we have referred to many things in an elementary way, which
you should now have more fully explained. There are a number of
practical and vital facts connected with the sexual organs and their
separate and combined functions of which you should have a thorough
knowledge.
=The nature of the sexual life.=--The child resembles the father
physically, mentally and morally, because the sperm cell formed from the
father’s blood, that took part in the initial of the child’s life, had
in it the essence of the father’s life, physical, mental and moral. For
the same reason the child resembles the mother in these three ways. When
the males of the domestic animals are deprived of their generative
glands they are not able to develop the peculiar physical masculine
characteristics that distinguish them from the females. They are also
less independent, more inactive and show less rudimentary manifestations
of intelligence. If man be made an eunuch, when he is a boy, he never
fully develops masculine characteristics, and he develops little mental
and moral tone. Similar results would follow in the female, if her
generative glands were removed in childhood. It is quite noticeable that
any form of sexual dissipation usually underminds the physical health,
weakens the mental faculties and leads to loss in moral tone. It is
equally noticeable that the intelligent retention of this energy leads
to physical improvement, intellectual brilliancy and soul enlargement.
These illustrations reveal that the creative life has other uses than
selfish gratification and unselfish reproduction. It is vitally related
to the psychic life, health and happiness of the individual.
=Other purposes of sex.=--The primary purpose of sex is that of
reproduction. There are many reasons why the reproductive function of
sex should be limited to a period of twenty-five years--from twenty-five
to fifty years of age. Statistics show that this is man’s period of
greatest reproductive possibility. Children born to men of younger or
older age do not receive as favorable heredity as children born within
the period mentioned. The sexual organs, like all other organs, require
activity. Two boys are made eunuchs; one at six months of age and the
other just before puberty. The last mentioned develops much better in
physical, mental and moral tone. This shows that these glands are
active, that they generate energy, even before puberty, which is
essential to their health and the development of every part of the boy.
But even the boy, made an eunuch at fourteen, will be a very defective
man at twenty-five. This indicates that the sexual glands are generating
a creative energy, during this period of adolescence, that is needed to
prepare him for the period of largest possibilities of fatherhood. As a
general rule, until he is twenty-four, this sex life should never be
expressed for reproductive purposes. The young man has other needs for
it. When he arrives at his fiftieth milestone, if he has conserved this
energy, in youth, he will thus have added thirty or more years to the
fifty already lived. The old men who wear a halo of health, energy,
nobility, happiness and purity (there are but few), are men, who in
youth, young manhood and middle life, conserved the energy of manhood.
=Man is hereditarily degenerate.=--Man cannot understand, why his hardest
battles are not with enemies on the outside, but with his own inherent
inclinations to do wrong; why he makes such slow progress; why the mass
of his fellow men are so indifferent to the development of ideal
manhood, until he gets a vision of the real cause of human degeneracy.
The one basic cause of all degeneracy in the past and present has been
and is the dissipation of the creative life. It is possible and highly
probable that the original cause of the origin of degeneracy involved
the violation of the laws of sex. All practical and independent students
of sociology are rapidly recognizing that this is the chief cause of the
present day degeneracy. They are recognizing that most children are the
products of uncontrolled desire, that their prenatal rights were not
respected, that many were not warmly welcomed at birth, and but few are
properly instructed in regard to the laws of sex and the importance of
purity. They see that the hope of the nation and the human race is to
come back to nature, be natural, not to substitute artificial laws for
nature’s laws, but to intelligently study and apply the laws of nature.
They see that the initial of every child’s life should be intelligently
and prayerfully planned, prenatally protected, also the birth warmly
welcomed, environment safeguarded and education natural and wise.
=The sexual system has two functions.=--Take three brothers who have
received good heredity and give them the best environment. We will make
this difference between these boys; the first is made an eunuch when
one year old, the second when he is fourteen, the third is permitted to
grow up normal. When they reach maturity, we find they have developed
differently. The first has grown only a few scattering short hairs on
his face, his voice is like a girl, his shoulders are round and drooped;
he is cowardly, without capacity for business, with but very little
mental capacity and wholly without mental ambition. The second one has
slight but noticeable improvements in all of these particulars. The
third is normal. These facts show that the sexual organs have two
functions, and that the organs of a small boy are not wholly inactive as
believed by most people. Before puberty these glands are generating an
energy of great value to the boy that cannot be chemicalized and ejected
from the body. When puberty dawns, the sexual organs become more
noticeably active and a part of this energy, at least, becomes
chemicalized into a fluid containing active cell life which may be
absorbed by the body or ejected from the body. Before puberty this sex
life helps to change the baby into a perfect boy. From fourteen to
twenty-four this sex life helps to change the perfect boy into a perfect
man. In these two periods the sex life has the one special mission,
making a perfect man. In the latter “teens” and early “twenties” it
would be possible to force this sex life into the function of
reproduction. But this is not its natural mission during these early
years. He now enters the period of greatest reproductive possibilities.
This period should last for twenty-four to twenty-six years. During this
period this creative life has two distinct functions. The first in
importance is that of reproduction. This is the highest, noblest, purest
and most sacred function of manhood. In rare cases, such as an
unfortunate heredity, accident or disease, over which the man has had no
control, may unfit him for normal reproduction. He is to be pitied not
censured. Through the effects of bad habits, upon sexual manhood, many
men are unfit for normal reproduction. The second function of this
creative life is to maintain perfect manhood. Sexual excess in the
married life is just as much a violation of the laws of sex as sexual
vice before marriage. The fourth period in a man’s life begins when he
is forty-five to fifty-five, and includes the remainder of his life.
During this period the creative life has the one primary mission of
maintaining his manhood. While the reproductive function remains
possible it rarely would be advisable to express this energy in this
way.
=The creative life.=--Until recent years nearly all students of sexology
considered sex as essentially physical. Now the idea is growing that sex
is vitally a part of the physical, mental and soul life of the
individual. The sexual organs are simply the generators of the creative
life and mediums through which this creative life is expressed in
reproduction.
=The meaning of passion.=--The consciousness of normal sexual desire is
not an evidence of sinfulness and it is not an excuse for dissipation.
Sexual desire rightfully interpreted means that we are conscious of the
possession of creative life. This can be utilized in several ways. It
can be built into the body, into the mind, into the moral nature, it can
be used in reproducing the species, or it can be dissipated. Man must
decide the way he will use it. The disposition he makes of his sex life
will determine whether he and others are blessed or injured by the use
he makes of it.
=How to build this creative life into the body.=--On the road might be
seen a pair of strong draught horses pulling a wagon containing only an
armful of wood. Becoming interested in knowing why those horses are not
able to pull a larger load, you find, upon investigation, the wagon to
be so frail that, if you should double the load the wagon would break
down. The horses represent a strong, educated mind and the wagon a frail
body. Such a person is handicapped in the march of life. Others with
stronger bodies, but with less of mental ability, will win more honors,
receive larger remuneration and accomplish more in life. One needs a
strong healthy body in which to train the mind and achieve results. In
most cases, it is a sin and a shame not to have a sound and perfect
body.
By keeping the mind pure, taking regular, systematic physical exercise,
deep prolonged breathing and observing ordinary health laws this
creative life can be built into tissue and muscle, developing the body
of an athlete. There are examples where men, who by the secret vice,
have brought on initial stages of consumption, afterward broke from the
vice and by control of the mind and physical culture cured the disease,
restored health and developed a fine physique.
=How to build the creative life into a greater mind.=--The organs of
generation are life generators. They create life, physical, mental and
spiritual. This life is embodied in a very nutritious substance. This
valuable food material, with its essence of pure life, if not dissipated
by vice, is absorbed by the blood. Nature sends the blood most freely to
the parts most used. If physical exercise is taken and the mind
neglected, the body will be strong and the mind weak. If both the mind
and body are uniformly exercised, they will be uniformly developed.
If the mind is allowed to revel in lascivious thoughts many times as
much of this creative life will be formed as the blood can absorb. Thus
the blood is robbed of nutritious material and life that should never
have been removed. This surplus cannot be reclaimed by the body but must
be dissipated. Keeping the mind pure is of paramount importance. To do
this, the mind must constantly be engaged in some worthy activity. Keep
company with great men and women by reading their articles in magazines
and their books. Think great thoughts of your own. Be hopeful, cheerful
and determined. The prize of a great mind will be yours.
=How to build the creative life into a larger social and moral
life.=--Emotions, sentiments, feelings, hope, faith and charity are
essential elements of a man’s nature. He is not a full man, a well
rounded man, a perfect man if these elements of his nature are
neglected. These elements of his nature are fed on spiritual exercise.
Man’s degeneracy is an appalling fact. Regeneration, or Christ is a
necessity in every life. Christ loved the unlovely, inspired the
discouraged, wept with those that wept, and lifted the burdens of
struggling ones. By following this example we will build His life, our
creative life, into a larger social and moral life.