e that the
developing powers of sex do have very vital relation to developing powers
of moral purpose and religious aspiration. In support of this relation we
recall the unfortunate effects upon the character of those who by chance
or the barbarity of men have been desexed in childhood. We must allow for
other factors at work here, yet the clearly established facts of the
stunting of mental and moral growth in desexed children reinforce our own
experience and observation, and indicate that the energies that are
developed with sex and maturity are largely available for moral and
religious growth. The youth with full sex consciousness and impulse is
normally the youth of abundant energy for moral and religious activity. It
seems, therefore, quite fundamental to the right understanding of sex that
we consider the body, not the enemy of the soul, but its friend; not a
clog upon the spiritual growth of boy and girl advancing into manhood and
womanhood, but an important source of energy for the upward climb.

When we turn to the second part of our discussion and ask how in matters
of sex soul helps flesh, the need and the fact are clearer and perhaps
more urgent. Dante found the souls of the lustful in the second circle of
hell, driven hither and thither by warring winds,--

"The stormy blast of hell
With restless fury drives the spirits on,
Whirled round and dashed amain with sore annoy."

Here we have clear recognition of the two great characters of sex impulse,
its violence and its fitfulness. In the one character it needs to be
subdued that it may not destroy; in the other it needs to be directed that
it may build up.

As we look back through history, and as we look abroad through our land
and through all civilized lands, one of the most conspicuous facts
concerning the powers of sex is their frightful destructiveness. The
spectacle of wasted manhood and womanhood, of depleted powers in body,
mind, and soul, is in history and in present society appalling. It is so
oppressive that it has driven many thoughtful men and women to despair.
Men otherwise hopeful and purposeful here become gloomy and fatalistic;
they have no hope that lust will ever be effectively controlled.

Such pessimism, however, contradicts the history as well as the instincts
of the race. In the face of great evils there have always been those who
would sit down in discouragement despair; every great destructive force in
h