nd down the
nave. Yet a church is, after all, only a poor earthly building, built by
human hands. But there is one temple which God has built for Himself,
the temple of man's body; and of that the terrible words are written,
and ever fulfilled, "If any man defile that temple, him will God
destroy." God's great gift of speech is not to be defiled by dirty talk,
by profane language, by lies, or evil speaking. The organs which are
given us for its sustenance are not to be denied by gluttony and
piggishness, either in food or drink. The boy is not to use any part of
his body in defiling ways which he would be ashamed for his own mother
to know of. To do so is not only to defile, but--with the double meaning
of the Greek word, which we cannot render into English--to destroy; to
weaken his brain-power, which he wants for his work in life, to weaken
his nervous system, lessening his strength thereby and rendering him
less able to excel in athletics, and often, if carried to excess, in
after-life bringing results which are the very embodiment of the
terrible words, "Him will God destroy." The full force and bearing of
this teaching he may not apprehend. I have already said that with a
young boy the lower appeal never to do anything that is low and dirty
and blackguardly will have far more practical weight, and will also
avoid laying undue stress on the religious emotions. But I am quite sure
that the Christian teaching of the sanctity of the body must be laid
deep and strong with all the force of early impression in a boy's inmost
being, in order that it may lie ready for future use when Nature has
developed those instincts of manhood which will teach him its full
significance.

If you are an Episcopalian, you will of course find the time of your
boy's confirmation simply invaluable as one of those turning-points
which will enable you to speak, or possibly write, more unreservedly
than is possible on more ordinary occasions. I would earnestly ask you
to give him a little White Cross confirmation paper called _Purity the
Guard of Manhood_, a paper which an Eton master pronounced the best
thing he had met with of the kind, and which has been widely used. Do
not rest content with merely giving the paper in a perfunctory way, but
follow it up with a few living, earnest words of your own.

Of course I should do a wrong to your womanly instincts if I were to
think it necessary to say that the inculcation of purity must be always
in