Between the quiet unfolding of childhood and the full development of maturity, there lies a period so fraught with danger and so filled with opportunity, that it is rightly considered life's crisis. A mistake at this point is more disastrous than at any other, while wisdom in dealing with the soul never has such rich reward.

In a general way, this period, known as Adolescence, extends with boys from about twelve to twenty-four, and with girls from about eleven to twenty-one, or from the beginning of manhood and womanhood to full maturing.

A study of the conditions that obtain during these years clearly reveals the reason for their crucial character.

  1. It is an awakening time of new possibilities, physical, mental, moral and spiritual.
  2. We are already familiar with the peril and opportunity that attend the first stages of any development, because the future direction and strength of the possibility are then so largely determined. When we realize that the highest possibilities of the soul, as well as some of the lowest, are now unfolding, the gravity of the period is apparent.
  3. The changes that come with the soul's awakening are so great, that often the youth becomes a stranger to those who know him best. Ideals, ambitions, feelings, thoughts and power only dimly, if ever, recognized in childhood take possession of the life. A new conception of God is born and a larger sense of responsibility to Him, to the neighbor and to the world. In these awakening possibilities are heard the siren voices of passion, society, wealth and fame and the clear call of self-sacrifice and duty, and the soul is bewildered, not knowing which to heed. Surely nurture is needed, for the choices of Adolescence are in all probability the choices of eternity.
  4. These are the years of the greatest susceptibility to influence.
  5. Everything that comes to the life now has an impelling force that it did not have in childhood. Life is in a state of unstable equilibrium, and a touch may move it. The influence of one book, of one friend, of one hasty word of criticism or passing word of encouragement may determine the future of a soul.
    1. First. The greatest number of first commitments occur from twelve to sixteen.
    2. Second. The greatest spiritual awakenings occur between twelve and sixteen.
    3. Third. "Girls are most susceptible to influence for good or evil between eleven to seventeen, with the climax about fourteen, and boys from twelve to nineteen, with the climax about sixteen." Is not the work of nurture plain?
  6. During this period habits become permanent.
  7. The pathways traced through childhood and adolescence become settled, the cells gradually lose power to change, and by the close of Adolescence, character is practically determined, unless a Divine power "makes all things new."
  8. The influence of heredity is strongly felt during the early part of Adolescence.
  9. A child may be defrauded of his inheritance in stocks and bonds and estates, but the bequest of tendencies to which his parents and grandparents and the long line back have made him heir, can not be diverted.
  10. There is danger of over-emphasizing the doctrine of heredity and lessening the sense of personal responsibility for conduct. There is also danger of minimizing it, and consequently failing to give the help that many a life needs in its effort to overcome an evil inheritance.
  11. Heredity means simply a pull upon the life in a certain direction, because of the way those before have lived. It is easier to climb upward, if "the hands of twenty generations are reached down from the heights to help, than as if they reached up from below to drag down." But whatever the inherited tendencies, any life may have the "antithetic heredity," which is a part of its glorious inheritance in Jesus Christ.
  12. This period contains the largest number of first commitments for crime.
  13. Three coincident facts demand serious and careful consideration.
  14. During the early part of this period, by far the heaviest losses from church and Sunday School occur.
  15. "While thy servant was busy here and there, he was gone." Who was gone? A soul in its crisis, making eternal choices, easily influenced by a word, a look or a touch, in the grip of fierce temptations, but catching sight of Divine possibilities, needing help as at no time before or later, this is the soul that slipped away, in all probability, not to be brought back. You who let it slip, "How will you go up to your Father and the lad be not with you?"

In turning to a more detailed consideration of Adolescence, we find the wealth of material so far exceeding the limitations of our space, that the study must be selective, not analytic. Only those conditions in the life, therefore, which seem most imperative in their demands upon nurture will be chosen for discussion.

EARLY ADOLESCENCE

The first period of Adolescence covers about four years, approximately from twelve to sixteen with boys and eleven to fifteen with girls, and is perhaps the most trying of all to deal with.

The crisis in these years is a physical one, arising in connection with the functioning of new physical powers. Coincident with this the passions are born, bringing to many lives the severest of temptations. If ever a close intimacy is needed between father and son and mother and daughter, it is at this time of mystery and question, when the life does not understand itself nor the meaning of what God now gives it. The sacred confidence between parent and child is infinitely better than the best intended book upon the subject, which arouses further curiosity and kindles the imagination. When the home fails in nurture at this point, the Sunday School teacher must earnestly consider what of responsibility falls upon him.

The rapid physical growth of these years is often accompanied by awkwardness, due to the fact that the muscles are developing faster than the bones, making delicate adjustment impossible. There is painful sensitiveness over this, especially with boys, as hands and feet must be in the open, and they will easily construe any criticism or ridicule into a desire to be rid of their presence.

" ... And what if their feet,
Sent out of houses, sent into the street,
Should step round the corner and pause at the door
Where other boys' feet have paused often before;
Should pass through the gateway of glittering light,
Where jokes that are merry and songs that are bright
Ring out a warm welcome with flattering voice,
And temptingly say, 'Here's a place for the boys!'
Ah, what if they should! What if your boy or mine
Should cross o'er the threshold which marks out the line
'Twixt virtue and vice, 'twixt pureness and sin,
And leave all his innocent boyhood within?
Ah, what if they should, because you and I,
While the days and the months and the years hurry by,
Are too busy with cares and with life's fleeting toys
To make round our hearthstone a place for the boys."