"That's it, Will. To be always manly, and to do only what is right. Now, boys, do you know that you are very apt to confuse these two things, and by forming mistaken notions as to what constitutes the first, you fail to do the second? Many boys think that it is manly to swear, to use tobacco, to be out late at night hanging round the street corners, and so they do all these things, although they are not right things to do. Have they the right ideas of manliness, boys?"
"No, sir; no, sir," answered the thoroughly interested class, in full chorus.
"No, indeed, boys, they have not," continued Mr. Silver. "There is over a hundred times more manliness in refusing to form those bad habits than in yielding to them. And that is just the kind of manliness I want all the boys of my class to have. 'Quit you like men,' boys, and then, 'be strong.' What does that mean?"
"To keep up your muscle," spoke out Frank, much to the surprise of everybody, for, although he listened attentively enough, he very rarely opened his mouth in the class.
Mr. Silver smiled. It was not just the answer he wanted, but he would not discourage Frank by saying so.
"That's part of the answer, but not quite the whole of it," he said, after a pause. "It's a good thing for boys to keep up their muscle. God wants what is best in this world, and we can often serve Him with our muscle as well as with our minds. If Samson and Gideon and David had not been men of muscle, they could not have done such grand work for God as they did. I like to see a boy with legs and arms 'as hard as nails,' as they say. But the words 'be strong' here mean more than that, don't they, Bert?"
"They mean to be strong in resisting temptation, don't they, Mr. Silver?" replied Bert.
"Yes; that's just it. Quit you like men—be manly, and be strong to resist temptation. Now, boys, some people think that young chaps like you don't have many temptations. That you have to wait until you grow up for that. But it's a tremendous mistake, isn't it? You all have your temptations, and lots of them, too. And they are not all alike, by any means, either. Every boy has his own peculiar difficulties, and finds his own obstacles in the way of right doing. But the cure is the same in all cases. It is to be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might. That is the best way of all in which to be strong, boys. When the Philistines were hard pressed by the Israelites, they said one to another, 'Be strong and quit yourselves like men ... quit yourselves like men, and fight.' And they fought so well that Israel was smitten before them, and the ark of God was taken. And so, boys, whenever, at home, at school, or at play, you feel tempted to do what is wrong, I ask you to remember these words, 'Quit yourselves like men, be strong, and fight.' If you do, so sure as there is a God in heaven who loves you all, you will come off conquerors."
Mr. Silver's words made a deep impression upon Bert. The great ambition of his boyish heart was to be esteemed manly. Nor was he entirely free from the mistaken notions about manliness to which his teacher had referred. He had more than once been sneered at, by some of the boys at Mr. Garrison's, for refusing to do what seemed to him wrong. They had called him "Softy," and hinted at his being tied to his mother's apron-strings. Then, big, coarse Bob Brandon, always on the look-out to vent his spite, had nicknamed him "Sugar-mouth" one day, because he had exclaimed to one of the boys who was pouring out oaths:
"Oh, Tom! how can you swear so? Don't you know how wicked it is to take God's name in vain?"