The Monitor-register., 1897-05-28
The White Shield Pledge.
A Word for the Boys.
SYLvANUs STALL, D. D.

Be a little patient with the boy. When
you were at his age you needed that
others should be patient with you. By
patience we do not mean that you should
De Indifferent to his %follies, or negligent
of your duty to guard and guide him
with the utmost fidelity, but what we do
mean is that you should so thoroughly
understand and heartily sympathize
with him in his trials, such as come to
al healthy boys between the ages of
fourteen to twenty, that in all your
discipline and counsel he should in that
hdefinable way discover and feel that
lis parents and teachers are full of
enderness and sympathy for him.
To a boy during these years, while
passing from boyhood into manhood, life
fs full of strangeness and mystery. In
this earlier years he thought he understood
himself, and so he doubtless did; but now
nature is putting away childish things, old
conditions and experiences are passing
away, and behold, all things are becom.
ling new, The boy who was once com
tesed, o5edient, tractable, is now discon-
oer'6d5 irritable and often refract ory.
Hsivoicetbreaks, he feels embarrassed and
~ at ease in the minis of surroundings
where formerly he felt perfectly at home.
Inc boy who never expressed a doubt,
nov, under the surgings of new sensa.
tons and under the trial of new temnta.
ions, is given to strong q~uestionings.
Whis is the tim when the strength of
Earlier teachings is of the utmost value.
Formerly he did right because he felt no
impulse to do wrong; but now he feels a
new impulse, and the question is whether.
atGer all, he may not have been mistaken
in what he previously accepted as true
and right. If he does not understand
something of the changes by which God
is lifting him eventually to take his place
as a perfected link in the endless chain of
transmission, then 10 his Ignorance of the
wonderful mysteries of life and being. he
Will go wandering in the darkness. ex.
posed to all the pitfalls and all the forms
OF physical and moral ruin which enpulf
so many.
Ihink backward to the time when you
were where he is. Recall your own mis-
givings in the midst of your strange per.
plexities. The wise counsel and carefu,
guidance that you then needed is wbat
Your own son in his present situation
most needs and will most heartily appre-
ciate. He wants a competent guide to
interpret the strange language and OK.
plain the strange seem of the strange
land through which he is passing to reach
bis W inheritance in the land of a
mature and perfect Christian manhood.
In this period, which the Germans call
the period of storm and Stress" which
is the most critical in the entire life of the
coming man, you annot afford to leave
your son to the polluting influences of the
degraded and vicious upon the street
These "blind leaders of the blind' will
bring him to the same ditch and dirt into
which they are destined to fall. He needs
tne wise guidance of an intelligent and
thoughtful Christian father, and in this
matter there rests Upon you a r~espons:.
bility which you can neither dismiss
nor evade. If you are not equal to the
of the task, you should at
least be wise and Intelligent enough to
call to your aid the wisdom and help of
such pure Christian people who are
of assuming and %discharging
your responsible duties at this important
period in the life of your child. When
your son asks bread or a fish, do not
suffer others to deceive and wrong him
with a stone or a serpent, but see to IT,
that his moral and bodily
integrity are preserved by purity and
truth. Displace darkness by light,
ignorance by knowledge, vice by virtue,
by health, and guide your son
through the years of ''storm and stress"
into a matured and pure Christian man
hood at twenty-five.-Lutberan Observer.
After the discussion which followed
I essia's naDar the lsdiaa sann NTH ruob