The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1898-10-13
ADOLESCENCE.
Or. Luther GulIck's interesting Lecture
Before the Local Woman's Club.

Before the Local Woman's Club
There was rather small gathering
in Memorial hall Wednesday afternoon,
when the Worcester Womans club in
augurated the season Of 1s9S-'99 with
an earnest and thoughtful. lecture on
the Religion Of Adolescence" by DR..
Luther Gulick, one Of the instructors
in the Y. NJ. c, A. training school in
Springfield and a travelling secretary of
the international committee of Y. M.
c. AS.
While touching upon wide range of
social and scientific questions, Dr. Gu
lick dwelt with especial emphasis upon
the characteristics in adolescence and
boyhood of the male Anglo Saxon Of
the moral temptations that beset him
and of the education, both physical and
religious, that should be given to coun-
teract those temptations.
Adolescence, said he, '1s the great
habit-forming period Of life, the time
when a boys moral and physical ma
ture blossoms and when he feels the
pulse of a new mental life. 1t is a
time of wildness, Stiffness, dreaminess,
pugnacity and bullying, of tremendous
enthusiasms and a passion for outdoor
life aud animals. If the manly attrib-
utes are to be acquired at all they
come then. 1t is time of crisis in
the moral and religious nature.
More boys are converted between the
ages of 16 and II than at any other
point of ltfe-the proportion stands as
II to l, This fact attaches a significance
to adolescence which the church has
never given 1t. Conversely, 1t holds
hat l,a 8 4r
the church are also the years Of great
est access to a life of crime. Religion,
being life rather than a philosophy,
adolescence is the time for acquiring a
basis Of good moral habits, for only
what is habitual is really ourselves,
and our only safety lies In making
righteousness habitual The full re-
suits of the wave Of physical life
which flows over the boy at this time
must be utilized for the sake of both
his muscular and his religious future,
and this is why sports and games
hold so important a place in educa-
ton.
Continuing, Dr. Gulicl6 asked what
temptations are the seveFest to young
men? The sexual temptations outrank
all others, and the attitude Of boys to
this is Of the greatest importance. I'M
purity has more connection with belief
and unbelief than Is supposed and re-
1igion would seem to be incompatible
with life of impurity. Severe muscu-
lar activity is the greatest antidate to
the savagery which is animate in the
boy.
Second to this in Importance is asso.
citation with the right kind of women
Mothers make the best intimates fol
their boys, and aid most powerfully il
developing the spirit Of chivalry.
1.-THE religion Of the male adolescent
must be active, executive, not mystica
and subjective. In so far as religious
societies emphasize the taking part BY
| young. men in meetings and the dwell
| ing on the inner life, they violate tht
first law of adolescence. The alInos
universal contempt which young meT
| feel toward religion is due to the at
tempt to make it seem what it is not
While there not one religion for mer
and another for women, there Is a. dis
tinctively masculine and a distinctivel.
feminine way Of feeling and express
ing religion. Is not this one Of th'
| troubles with the denominations, tina
they try to get men to express theil
religion in terms suited to women, anC
to express the truths of other days
| Don't we hear them urging young mel
to have faith and peace, to be resigned
| to bear what is sent to them. ETC.? Al
of which is dramatically opposed t
their active, unanalytical natures.
| Adolescence is the time of organic
! ing, when boys and girls delight il
! forming clubs. The youth Of no natio1
shows this spirit of cooperation as d.
Anglo Saxon boys, who have a definite
program In their games which require
for their success that the individual
sacrifice himself to the others. This
habit of cooperation is Of enormous
significance in its application to the
ability of the boy to sacrifice himself
to the group. In Anglo-Saxon games
the group idea is dominant and upor
that quality is based the characteristic
quality of the Anglo-Saxon race. So
in the third place, the religious life Of
boys must be related definitely to this
actiyity-to gauge instinct in boys
and it must be related on the side OF
righteousness, and not of wickedness.
And, fourthly, the object of this
group life must be something definite
and objective, unless the boy sees work
Of a very definite kind to be done, he
will never rouse himself to do any
thing If you tell him to be good he
will reply that he doesn't want to be
good; but he will eagerly swim out to
save a drowning baby. Self-fnprove-
ment clubs fail to enlist the active CO.
operation Of boys, because while excel
lent enough, they have their root in
selhshness rather than in altruism tand
the latter must be the basis), and fail to
call forth the powers Of the Individual.
Any form of religious activity
that does not call for co-opera.-
ton is ineffective, and the more heroic
it is, only provided that it Is based on
th0 motive 70 helm 0thnra fl1A TonFa n