“I presume not, and many who are older than you have no thoughts of sex but those which are low and vile. But when you consider how the same principle reaches through all nature, and upon it depends so much that is beautiful and charming you cannot believe that is in itself vile and unholy, can you? If we are to think God’s thoughts after him we must come to look upon sex as something to be thought of and spoken of only with reverence, never to be jested about or debased in any way. You begin to see that more is involved in the 11 coming into manhood than you had supposed. But we have not gone over the whole matter yet. You have read the first chapter of Genesis how that God made man in his own image, and out of the dust of the earth. We do not suppose that he made him out of dirt and water, as a child makes mud-pies, but we may accept this as a statement of the scientific fact that in man are found the same elements as in the earth, such as iron, soda, lime, etc. What we want to think of now is the statement that God created man by his direct power. Then we are told he made woman also. These are the first living human beings of whom we have record. Who is the third?”
“Cain.”
“And who made Cain?”
“God,” answered Carl glibly, as if that must be the only orthodox answer.
“In the same way that he made Adam and Eve?”
Carl blushed and was silent.
“You were not embarrassed when I spoke of the creation of Adam and Eve, you have no reason to be embarrassed when I speak of the creation of Cain. All was in accordance with the divine will, and must therefore be right. We cannot say positively that God thought this or that, but we have a right to judge from his acts what his purposes were. We have a right to suppose that he created the earth intending to people it with human beings. Of course every possible plan for doing this was open to him. He might have created each individual as he did Adam, but what would have been the result? We should have stood, each one alone, in 12 selfish solitariness, like a lot of ten-pins, able to knock each other down but not to help each other up. Each one would have been thinking only of himself and his own selfish interests. This plan could not commend itself to a compassionate Creator, and we can imagine that he would say to himself: ‘That would never do. I must put these, my children, in such relation to each other that they will have love for each other; that they will be bound by ties so strong that nothing can break them; they must be created in such a way that they will also understand their relation to me and love me as their life-giver. To do this I will share with them my greatest power, that of creation. I will let them help me people the world. By this creative power they shall come to understand how I, their heavenly Father, love them, and yearn over them, and by their dependence as children upon their parents they shall learn to depend upon and trust me.’ From the plan God adopted for peopling the earth we may suppose this to have been his process of thought. So you see that sex comes as a wondrous gift from God, a gift endowed with a marvelous power, and therefore to be held most sacred. When I spoke of you as being almost a man it was with the thought that now is being conferred upon you this gift of sex.”
Carl looked up with some surprise. “Why, I have always been a boy.”
“True. And a boy is a being who will become a man. But he is not endowed with the functions of sex until he is about fourteen years old. Then sex begins to make itself felt in his whole being. He grows taller rapidly; he gains in breadth; he 13 begins to see the long-looked-for mustache; he notices the growth of the special organs of sex; he begins to feel more manly; to enjoy the society of girls as never before; and desires to treat them with more attention. This is a time when, if he is wrongly taught, he may fall into great wrong-doing and injure himself, and not that alone, but those who are to come after him. I have not yet told you of the great responsibilities that come with this gift of sex.”
Dr. Barrett rose and, bringing a book from the shelves, opened it and showed Carl an illustration, saying; “Did you ever see such a picture as this?”