But this vision will lose its distortion as you live on; you will then see matters in their true light. Have you ever looked down through clear water and seen rocks, even fishes, appearing queer and out of shape? When you dive down to the bottom and open your eyes, how different the true outlines of these things look to you. You first saw them through distorted rays; a false vision. It is just so with the truths of life: you have to dive down into your heart and mind to see their real shape and meaning.
I believe that every man is better for going through all the phases of doubt, irreligion, and becoming worldly wise; for when he does reach the point of seeing right he thinks right. This state causes him to be a true man to himself and to the Power which controls him.
Get all sides of a question and then think for yourself. And don’t forget that every question has FOUR sides: the right, wrong, inside and outside. When you have decided, be true to your convictions and at the same time keep looking around and INTO yourself.
We can all see the marvels of nature around us, but we can never understand until we also see the things IN us.
Deep within ourselves lie our powers. Getting them out is what brings success. These are the forces which every young man must study for himself. There are no rules we know that can be laid down for the governing or control of that thing we call conscience, soul, or whatever you care to call it. It is the vital principle—it is the power within us to DO. It varies in all men, its force, direction and application directed rightly will bring man up to marvelous deeds. No matter what your impulses are, if they are for good living and helping along the progress of man, go at them and win out. If they make for evil, or the working of injurious suggestion; go at them also, but to give them the count. Put them down and out. The first victory will be a hard one; but as the pugilist gains confidence after winning his first fight, and then goes on easily winning, so you all can in this matter of fighting wrong impulses.
Yes; it is this vital principle in us to Do, that makes life worth fighting—that is, knocking out the bad. It is also from this wonderful source that comes the vital force in the seed of males and the eggs of females, which, when united, brings forth life—flowers or man. It is with the laws governing this uniting of the two sexes we shall now, in easily understood explanations and words, chat about.
If I explain to you that the yellow or grey dust coming from flowers is the male seed, and that by wind, insects or birds it is deposited in the female flower’s womb to grow into little flowers, you certainly do not see anything to laugh at; nothing wrong to talk about, nothing in the wonderful arrangement of nature to sniggle over or to go behind the house or barn and whisper to other boys. Certainly not. Neither will you, when you understand all those marvelous laws which enabled your good mother to give YOU life.
I want you all to take a hammer-lock upon this fact—the holiest, most wonderful and everlasting laws of nature will bring you to a state of reverence and pure thoughts when you see them from the inside; as you shall, as every boy and girl ought to see them.
It is your birthright to know yourself and the living brothers and sisters around you; to realize that a mother dog with her little puppies has gone through dog troubles and pain to be able to give birth to her babies and to nurse them just as your mother did for you. That you owe to the mother dog the same kind words you always owe your mother and sister will be plain to you.
Everything during the course of reproduction—and this is the only way the world is kept alive—suffers pain, trouble, but in the end gains happiness. We are bound, if we are true boys and men, to remember this fact and act accordingly. You can no more bruise a flower in the spring without killing some little life than you can kick a mother dog without running the risk of killing her unborn puppies.