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^^r^mirimi^'^mn^ 
 
MANHOOD 
 
 WRECKED AND RESCUED 
 
 BY 
 
 REV. W. J. HUNTER, Ph.D., D.D. 
 
 MONTRKAL, CANADA 
 
 A SERIES OF CHAPTERS TO MEN ON SOCIAL 
 PURITY AND RIGHT LIVING 
 
 TORONTO : 
 VV^ILLIAM I3RIGGS, 
 
 WESLEr BUILDINGS. 
 MDCCCXCIV. 
 

 20^9 
 
 /Tdr^ T ^ ^< ^^ 
 
 Jlntered, according to Act of the Parliament of Canada, in the year one 
 thousand eight hundred and ninety-four, by Wilmam J. Hunter, 
 Montreal, at the Department of Agriculture, Ottawa. 
 
 A 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 This book is an expansion of a series of 
 addresses on Social Purity, delivered to 
 men only, in St. James Methodist Church, 
 Montreal, on Sunday evenings after the 
 regular services, in the autumn and winter 
 of 1892-8. These addresses were largely 
 attended, as many as fifteen hundred men 
 being present on a single night; tliey 
 evoked widespread interest, and called 
 forth many requests for their i)ub]ication. 
 To those requests I now respond, and send 
 forth this book on its mission of rescue. 
 1 have dealt with every phase of the sub- 
 ject, and have given in brief form and 
 simple language what might have covered 
 a thousand pages and bewildered the 
 reader. This book ought to have a place 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 in every home. No man can read it with- 
 out an abhorrence of illicit pleasure ; no 
 boy can read it without feeling ever after 
 what a great sin self^pollution is, and no 
 victim of that sin can read it without the 
 inspiration of hope, and the assurance thtit, 
 without medicine and ^vithout expense, he 
 may be restored to perfect manhood, health, 
 and happiness. W. J. H. 
 
 Montreal, 1894. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE WllKCK. 
 
 Primeval man-His dignity and purity-Some noble 
 specimens of manhood still— Causes of the wreck- 
 Ignorance of natural law— Poverty and lack of proper 
 food- Stimulants and narcotics— Sexual ])or versions 
 the crowning cause— Touches more than half the 
 race- Puberty— When sexual passion abates in man- 
 Rebukes to the clergy. . . . .' 9 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 AN ANCIENT WRECK, 
 
 Sensuality the sin of the ages— Proof that the flood was 
 a direct punishment of sensuality- The Mosaic ac- 
 count critically examined— Testimony outside the 
 Bible— Why Noah was spared— Per f Jet in his gen- 
 erations— Bhimeless in his sexual relations— The 
 indecency of Ham— Tlie old devil of sensuality— Cir- 
 cumcision; its meaning and its lessons— Sensuality 
 the sin which caused the destruction of Sodom and 
 the cities of the plain— Sensuality in the patriarchal 
 age— The chastity of Joseph-A modern incident- 
 Prostitution in the i)atriarchal age— The Mosaic 
 economy— Sensuality the sin which destroyed the 
 Canaanites and surrounding nations— Sexual purity 
 in the law of Moses 3J 
 
■I. ,. .J ■ 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CILVPTKRIir. 
 
 A MODKUN WUIiCK. 
 
 The history of prostitution — The Christina era — The 
 diictrinc of cluistity — The voiee of the uposiies and 
 tiie life of the early Christians — No coinproniise with 
 impurity — Modern civilization — Statistics of prosti- 
 tution — A startling testimony — The blood of the 
 race poisoned by venereal diseases — Thirty thousand 
 men daily infected iu the United States— History of 
 venereal diseases — A State document — National de- 
 cay—Prevention l)etter than cure — Licensed prosti- 
 tution a failure — Roman laws for the regulation of 
 prostitution — Facts and statistics of recent date — A 
 threefold a))peal 61 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 A YOUTHFUL WUKCK. 
 
 Masturbation — Pul)erty, its indications and sequence — 
 Prevalence of the solitary vice — An ancient habit — 
 Referred to in the law of Moses — Impossible to ex- 
 aggerate its ruinous results — Testimony of medical 
 experts and of educationists — Duty of ministers — 
 Duty of parents — Loss of semen is loss of blood— Re- 
 sults of its expenditure — Seminal emissions — EfTeets 
 on the nervous system — Conservatism of nature — The 
 nervous system explained — Where masturbation and 
 marital excess do their most deadly Avork — A word 
 to parents and boys — Quacks and charlatans — No 
 medicine required to cure seminal emissions. ... 95 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 A WIIKCK KSCAPED. 
 
 CoDtiiicntc of young men— Is continence po8sil)lc?— Trc- 
 memlous power of the sexual appetite— Created of 
 God for the ])erpetuati()n of the race— Continence 
 outside of wedlock is possible— None but impure 
 men question this— Impure thoughts the cliief cause 
 of self-abuse and fornication — Testimony of Ur. 
 Acton and his personal experience — How to live ■■. 
 continent life 14i 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 TIIK UKSCUE BEGUN. 
 
 Does nature forgive?— Natural law is God's jnethod of 
 operation — Forgiveness in the moral rr.ilm a higher 
 type than forgiveness in the natural reahn — Nature 
 repairs and restores when we cease to disregard her 
 laws— Three letters to the author— Comments on the 
 same — Difficult to convince the victim of seminal 
 weakness that no medicine is needed — Cut loose 
 from charlatans— Burn their i>:imphlets— High med- 
 ical testimony that medicine is not required — Is mar- 
 riage a cure? — The question answered— The habit 
 abandoned — Helps and encouragements — A cure as 
 certain as the rising of the sun— Old-time philos- 
 ophy — An anudet — Perseverance and victorv. . . 157 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE RESCUE CONTINUED. 
 
 Some earnest words— Imperative— Philosophy of tlu; 
 diflerence between nervous function and muscular 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 power — Nervous scnstition frequently evokes results 
 it) sensitiveness und clel)ility — Strong drink — To- 
 bacco and its effects on the nervous system — How 
 to cure yourself of the tobncco habit without ex- 
 pense and without inconvenience — What to eat and 
 drink — Employ meut — Exercise — Bathing— Bleep — 
 Society 195 
 
 CHAPTER VIH. 
 
 THE RESCUE COMPLETED. , , 
 
 The medical profession — If y(m must have medical 
 advice, consult a resident ])hysician — Beware of 
 medical companies and sharks — They take jour 
 money and shorten your life— Additional testimony 
 that medicine cannot cure seminal weakness— The 
 parts affected— Their intimate relationship— The 
 ])rincipal aggravating cause of seminal weakness — A 
 flood of light on the subject— Special treatment, 
 without exjiense— An absolutely infallible remedy— 
 A certain cure for piles, and relief from the suttering 
 resulting from irritation of the l)ladder and enlarge- 
 ment of the prostate gland— It is your life— Worth a 
 struggle — A man again 225 
 
THE WRECK. 
 
MANHOOD: 
 
 WRECKED AND RESCUED. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE WRECK. 
 
 " And God said, Let iis make man in 
 our image, after our likeness : and let them 
 have dominion over the fish of the sea, 
 and over the fowl of the air. and over the 
 cattle, and over all the earth, and over 
 every creeping thing that ci-eepeth upon 
 the earth." Gen. \, 26. 
 
 "What is man, that thou art mindful 
 of him? and tlie son of man, that thou 
 visitest him ? For thou hast made him a 
 little lower than the angels, and hast 
 crowned him with glory and hom^r. Thou 
 madest him to have dominion over the 
 
12 MANHOOD: WRECKED AND RESCUED. 
 
 works of tliy hands ; thou liast put all 
 tilings under his feet: all sheep and oxen, 
 yea, and the beasts of the field ; the fowl 
 of tlie air, and the lisli of the sea, and 
 whatsoever passeth through the paths of 
 the seas." Psalm viii, 4-8. 
 
 I accept as rational and trustworthy 
 the Bible account of the creation of man. It 
 is in harmony with well-estal)lislied scien- 
 tific truth, and is confirmed l)y mythology 
 and tradition. It is impossible to conceive 
 of the dignity and purity of man as lie came 
 from the forming hand of the Creator and 
 while yet unstained by sin. A fine w^riter 
 has given tliis pen-picture of tlie first man : 
 " He was placed in a world of grandeur, 
 beauty, and utility. It w'as canopied with 
 other distant worlds to exhibit to his very 
 sense a manifestation of the extent of 
 space and the vastness of the varied uni- 
 verse ; and to call his reason, his fancy, 
 and his devotion into their most vigorous 
 
THE WRECK. 
 
 13 
 
 and salutary exercise. With a body per- 
 fect in form, full of vigor as of life, he 
 Lad an intellectual power that grasped all 
 ci'eated objects, and ranged the loftiest 
 heights of sublime in([uiry and research." 
 That glory has passed awa^-, and we must 
 study man as we see him to-day, with his 
 long train of diseases, infirmities, and im- 
 pedhiients. And vet, even now, in this 
 world of marvels and of beauty, thei-e 
 is nothing to compare wdth the human 
 form and face divine. 
 
 There are specimens of manhood ^vhom 
 we cannot pass on the sti-eets without 
 admiration; we involuntarily tui-n round 
 and look at them as they move on with 
 the tread of a giant. There are kings of 
 the stage, the platform, the pul[)it, the bar, 
 and the senate, who need but to speak 
 and stand erect, when all eyes are riveted 
 and all hearts are cai-ried away into a 
 sweet captivity. These men inherited 
 
il- 
 
 14 MANHOOD: WRECKED AND RESCUED. 
 
 noble forms and high intellectual faculties, 
 and have lived in obedience to natural 
 law, and are examples of what following 
 genei'ations might become if |)eople were 
 properly educated, and if the same care 
 and common sense were exei'cised in the 
 propagation of the race as in the breeding 
 of cattle, sheep, and horses. 
 
 DETERIORATION. 
 
 The causes of deterioration are numerous 
 and perplexing. Ignorance of the anatomy, 
 physiology, r.ul functions of the human 
 system is a most prolific cause. Sanitary 
 science is doing much to remove this cause, 
 and the time is approaching when in the 
 homes of the peoph^, as well as in colleges 
 and universities, these important subjects 
 will be studied and understood. 
 
 Poverty and consequent lack of whole- 
 some food is another cause. The human 
 body is the most delicate and exquisite 
 
 f 
 
THK WRECK. 
 
 IS 
 
 DS 
 
 piece of mechanism in the world, and can 
 be sustained in strength and beauty only 
 by regular and proper quantities of nutri- 
 tious food. An engine cannot work with- 
 out fuel ; a horse cannot work without 
 grain, and a man cannot work without 
 waste-repairing food. More than half the 
 human family are inadequately fed, and 
 fifty per cent of the remaining half are im- 
 properly fed. Poverty is the mother of 
 dirt, vice, and crime ; and the attention of 
 the Christian, the statesman, and tlie phi- 
 lanthropist must be directed more than ever 
 to the elevation of the masses. Thev are 
 fast filling the ^vorld with a race of imbe- 
 ciles and incompetents who are becoming 
 a charge on the State and a tax on the 
 generosity of the thrifty and benevolent. 
 
 Stimulants and narcotics are another 
 cause of physical and national deteriora- 
 tion. Strong drink works ruin everywhere, 
 and tobacco, opium, and morphine are sap- 
 
 m 
 
16 MANHOOD: WRECKED AND RESCUED. 
 
 M 
 
 ping the foiuidatious of health and threat- 
 en! ns: national existence itself. 
 
 The habits of modern society in the 
 matter of dress, recreation, late hours, and 
 sensational literature tend to deplete vital 
 force and convert men and women into 
 pygmies and puppets. 
 
 But towering high above all these, some- 
 times gi'owing out of them, sometimes giv- 
 ing lise to them, and always associated 
 with one or more of them, is sexual perver- 
 sion in its multitudinous forms and with 
 its concomitant army of shame and degra- 
 dation. Tiie subject is one of great deli- 
 cacy, and hitherto has received but little 
 attention save in publications of limited 
 circulation ; but of late it has engaged the 
 thought of the Church, the pulpit, the plat- 
 foi'm, and social reformei'S in Europe and 
 America. 
 
 It is safe to say that sexual perversion 
 in its various forms touches more than half 
 
\ 
 
 THE WRECK. 
 
 17 
 
 •sion 
 half 
 
 the popuLitioii of every city, town, .'iiul 
 country in our luodeni civiliziitioii. It 
 shortens human lite, burdens it with intir- 
 niities and diseases, de])letes its working 
 power, enfeebles its mentality, and makes 
 it a drudgery and a sorro\v. Look at the 
 men \vhom you meet day after day, and 
 how few s^^eciniens of perfect manhood do 
 you see ! Note their walk aud beai'ing ; 
 how sliilly-shally the gait, how lusterless 
 the eye, how utterly devoid of snap and 
 spirit the whole demeanor ! Contrast men 
 with tlie males of the brute creation — the 
 lion, the tiger, the bull, or the entire liorse. 
 AVhat a majesty there is in the movements 
 of these creatures, what fire in the eye, 
 what thunder in the voice ! 
 
 " Hast tliou given the horse strength? 
 hast thou clothed his neck with thunder? 
 canst thou make him afraid as a grass- 
 hopper ? the glory of his nostrils is terrible. 
 He paweth in the valley, and rejoiceth in 
 
18 MANHOOD: WliECKKD AND RESCUED. 
 
 his strength: he goeth out to meet the 
 armed men. He mocketh at feai*, and is 
 not affrighted ; neither turneth he back 
 from the sword. The quiver rattleth 
 against him, the glittering spear and the 
 shield. lie swallovveth the ground ^vitll 
 fierceness and rage : neither believeth he 
 that it is the sound of the trumpet. He 
 saith among the trumpets, Ha, ha ! and he 
 smelleth the battle afai* off, the thunder 
 of the captains, and the shouting." Job 
 xxxix, 19-25. 
 
 That is Job's description of the war 
 horse, and it is the climax of sublimity. 
 And shall not man, standing at the head 
 of creation, excel in beauty and in bearing 
 all lower animals ? The eunuchs of the 
 East were castrated and appointed to the 
 care of bed-chambers in palaces and in the 
 homes of the wealthy. They were effemi-. 
 nate and harmless creatures with smooth 
 faces and without force and energy of 
 
THE WRECK. 
 
 \ 
 19 
 
 character ; for wheu sexual power is de- 
 stroyed or depleted thei'e is always a lack 
 of force and energy. 
 
 A CKrnCAL PERIOD. 
 
 At the period of puberty, explained in 
 a subsequent chapter, the seminal fluid is 
 secreted ; at the age of twenty-five virility 
 is well and fully established, and at the 
 age of fifty the sexual passion begins to 
 abate, and after that peiiod it should never 
 be stimulated, and seldom gratified. Then 
 life retains its brightness, and a long and 
 happy old age awaits the man who has 
 been observant of nature's laws. Think 
 of Gladstone bearing the weight of an 
 empire on his shoulders at eighty-four, 
 and then think of the thousands of 
 men who are superannuated and with- 
 ered at fortv, and see the difference be- 
 tween manhood retained and manhood 
 wrecked, 
 
20 MANHOOD: WRECKED AND UESCUKI). 
 
 Now tills period, from puberty to forty- 
 five or fifty yeai's of age, is the critical 
 period in tlie life of man. If boys were 
 properly instructed by their parents or by 
 the family physician before they attain 
 the age of puberty ; if, in simple language, 
 they were told what self-abuse is, and what 
 its terrible consequences are, most of them 
 would be saved from this first step to ruin. 
 And if at the age of puberty a book like 
 this one were put into their hands, they 
 would see the sin and peril of illicit inter- 
 course' in all its forms, and be saved from 
 the second step to ruin, and they would 
 come to the marriage altar pure in body 
 and in mind, govern their married life 
 according to the laws of health, and thus 
 secure to themselves a heritage of happi- 
 ness, and bequeath to their offspring a 
 mind and body fitted to the discharge 
 of life's high and dignified responsi- 
 bilities. 
 
THE WRECK. 
 
 21 
 
 AN HONORABLE MISSION. 
 
 I know of iio uiissioi) more honorable 
 than that of guiding the people into paths 
 of virtue, chastity, and purity. It is the 
 mission of parents, teachers, and Christian 
 ministers. As yet we have touched only 
 its fringe. It is a subject that cannot be 
 dealt "svith in minuteness of detail in the 
 public press, in the pulpit, or even on the 
 platform ; ])ut in a book written in a plain, 
 simple style that even the unlettered may 
 understand, we can use that plainness of 
 speech which we could not employ in ad- 
 dressing a promiscuous audience. 
 
 An Italian mother said of her sons, 
 " They are my jewels," and this book is 
 sent forth to protect and save the jewels of 
 the household and the State. I have no 
 shadow of apology to offer for its publica- 
 tion. My only I'egret is that I did not 
 sooner give wings of type to the startling 
 
fF 
 
 32 MANHOOD: WliEOKFA) AND RESCUED. 
 
 and iiiuiuentous trutlis herein contained. 
 The pressure of duties insepai'able from a 
 busy pastorate is my excuse. 
 
 iiii 
 
 REBUKES TO THE CLERGY. 
 
 The demands upon the pulpit increase 
 with the increasing advancement of the 
 age, and I am in pei-fect syni2)athy with 
 the opinion expressed by a medical writer 
 when he says : " All ministers and teachei-s 
 should be as well learned in the laws that 
 govern the sexual organism, and in other 
 departments of human physiology, as they 
 are in the supposed legitimate pursuit of 
 their lives." Dr. Jackson deals with this 
 thought in a plain, outspoken fashion 
 sufficient to paint a blush of shame on 
 many a clerical cheek. He says : 
 
 "As a class clergymen are honest men, 
 earnest in theii* efforts to bless their fel- 
 lows ; but I have not much respect for their 
 sagacity. They seem to me to lack insight 
 
THE WliECK. 
 
 M 
 
 to liuiiiau luitiire. They fail in adaptation, 
 and take altogether too narrow views of 
 their sphere of activity, and of the depravi- 
 ty which it i>< theii* object to combat. They 
 chiefly confine their effbrts to saving of 
 souls; whereas Christ instituted the minis- 
 try to save men. As God created him, man 
 has a body as well as a sonl, ai.d without 
 which body it were a misnomer as truly to 
 call hini a man as it would be to call an angel 
 a man. As Christ's minister the clergy- 
 man is to look after the redemption, not of 
 a human soul simply, but of a human being. 
 " The clergymen seem utterly ignoi'ant 
 of the fact that the bodily organization 
 can become depraved, and so force the 
 soul to abnormal conditions. They seem, 
 judging of them by their conduct, not to 
 have the least information respecting the 
 laws of hereditary descent, or the trans- 
 mission of physical and moral traits. 
 True, they see children looking like their 
 
 I 
 
24 MANHOOD: WRECKED AND RESCUED. 
 
 fathers or mothers, or both, having their 
 tones of voice, color and toA'tiire of hair, 
 shade of eye-coloring, shape of mouth and 
 lips, or feet and fingers, and they take it 
 for granted that these resemblances happen 
 according to law. But \vhen they see 
 chihlren Avith habits, tendencies, appetites, 
 predispositions all wrong, they are not 
 sufficiently informed to incpiire whether 
 these developments in children have not 
 for long years l)een cultivated in their 
 parents as the alpha and omega of their 
 existence. Can tliey not l)e made to see 
 that a mother likino; rum can conununi- 
 cate her appetite to lier unicorn babe as 
 easily as she can i\\Q features of her face ? 
 that an appetite for to])acco is as easily 
 transmissible as the color of the hair? that 
 a strong lui'ch to\vard licentiousness can 
 l)e given to one's firstborn as readily as 
 the tones of the Vv.ice ? 
 
 "Now, would luinisters give their atteu- 
 
THE WRECK. 
 
 2.- 
 
 }' 
 lat 
 
 ill! 
 .'IS 
 
 tiou to physiology, and, in connection Avitli 
 their spii'itiial exhortations, press home on 
 human beings the law of pei*soiial purity, 
 the world would be nearer heaven." 
 
 The late O. S. Fowler strikes squarely 
 from the shoulder, and speaks like one of 
 the old prophets, \\\\m\ he addresses him- 
 self to clergymen. Listen to these clarion 
 tones: 
 
 " Are you not volunteer watchmen 
 placed on the sightly watchtowers over- 
 looking the public good, for the specific 
 purpose of Avarning your congregations 
 affainst sexual sins as much as acrainst false- 
 hoods and cheatery ? Yet in this respect are 
 not almost all dumb dogs that will not bark 
 ao-ainst this vilest of all vices ? How can 
 you possibly reconcile this ominous silence, 
 either to truth, to your clerical vows, to 
 public morality, or even to the dictates 
 of unordained humanity, mrjh more or- 
 dained ? Your silence is a crime against 
 
26 MANHOOD: WRECKED AND RESCUED. 
 
 truth, humanity, and God. Either dis- 
 charge this your solemn duty or else resign 
 your commission." 
 
 It is hut fair to say that the charge of 
 ignorance, on the one hand, and of timidity, 
 on the other hand, is not by any means uni- 
 versal in its application. The AVhite Cross 
 movement, which has girdled the world, 
 owes its inception to a clergyman, and in 
 all lands Christian ministei's, with few ex- 
 ceptions, stand in the front ranks of social 
 and moral reform. But it can be seen at 
 a glance that these subjects cannot be dealt 
 with in detail in our ordinary pulpit min- 
 istrations. Ministers can address the sexes 
 apart and do much good, and they can use 
 the pen as I do in these pages, and speak 
 with all freedom, but beyond that they 
 cannot go in a public way. 
 
 In private they can do more ; and if 
 their pulpit discourses show that they 
 have given attention to these subjects 
 
THE WRECK. 
 
 2t 
 
 if 
 
 they will Lave more patients coming to 
 them for counsel and sympathy than any 
 doctor hiis for opinion and medicine. 
 
 Henry Ward Beecher, in one of his 
 published sermons, says : 
 
 "Young men want to act upon their 
 feelings. They are for joy. They are for 
 outspring. And I like to see young men 
 full of life and vigor and elasticity. And 
 it is not their racing, or wrestling, or rid- 
 ing, or shooting, or fishing that breaks 
 them down. It is leaking. It is wasting 
 the nei've substance by pleasures that 
 draw out the very vitality of their life. I 
 wish I could read you the letters tliat 
 come to me with implorations and suppli- 
 cations that I would save the writers from 
 the evils into which they have fallen, as 
 they say, through ignorance." 
 
 Mr. Beecher does not stand alone in 
 this particular. Eveiy pastor in large 
 cities, whose sermons and addresses show" 
 
28 MANHOOD: WRECKED AND RESCITED. 
 
 that he is in touch with the young, and 
 that he knows the pei'ils which beset 
 them, lias a like experience. Canada is a 
 young country, and its moral atmosphere 
 is supposed to be the purest in the world, 
 but after a pastorate of eight years in its 
 rural districts, and thirty years in its prin- 
 cipal cities, the publication of lettei*s which 
 have come pouring in upon me in response 
 to pulpit and platform appeals for social 
 and pei'sonal purity, and a narration of 
 personal interviews, in which the unhappy 
 victims of sexual perversions have im- 
 plored me to help them, would fill a large 
 volume and make any pure heart sick. 
 
 These considerations have prompted the 
 publication of this book. There are not a 
 few publications on sexual science, and 
 some of them are not devoid of merit. 
 Some are wi'itten ioY the profession, and 
 are comparatively useless to the ordinaiy 
 reader; some are written by specialists 
 
THE WRECK. 
 
 29 
 
 with a view to secui-e patients, and those 
 who have taken treatment from these spe- 
 cialists know how expensive it is, and how 
 transient the relief obtained. But nuun^ 
 of these publications are wi'itten by un- 
 principled charlatans, whose sole object is 
 money. Millions of dollars are paid to 
 these charlatans every year. Their adver- 
 tisements are found in every paper and 
 magazine whose columns admit them, irre- 
 spective of cost, and their pamphlets flood 
 the land, like the locusts of Egypt, and, 
 like them, eat up " every green thing." 
 
 MONEY THROWN AW/VY. 
 
 And I now solemnly declare that every 
 dollar spent on medicine for the cure of 
 seminal weahness, nocturnal emissions^ 
 errors of youth^ and loss of manhood is so 
 much money thrown away; for not one drop 
 or grain of medicine is needed to effect a cure. 
 And not more confidently do I off'er the 
 
t 
 
 SBva 
 
 30 MANHOOD: WRECKED AND RESCUED. 
 
 salvatiou of God a* a panacea for the soul 
 than I offer hope and health and happiness 
 to every suff'erer loho conscientiously fol- 
 lows the directions contained in this hook. ■ 
 This is a strong and unqualified state- 
 ment, but I know whereof I affirm, and 
 my character and standing in the commu- 
 nity are involved in the statement, and I 
 do not fear the result. 
 
 
 1 1 
 
 
 ' '1' 
 
 
 i 
 
 ; 
 
 
 
 
niAmmmmUHoaamm 
 
 AN ANCIENT WRECK. 
 
 i: <'> 
 
 HP' 
 
 ■ i 
 
 i 
 
^I'll 
 
 AN ASCIENT WRECK. 
 
 33 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 AN ANCIENT WRECK. 
 
 Sensuality is the sin of the ages ; it is 
 the sill wliich God htites and visits with 
 special punishment. Let us begin at the 
 beginning and examine a remarkable and 
 somewhat obscure passage in the Book of 
 Genesis : ■ . 
 
 " And it came to pass, \vhen men began 
 to multiply on the face of the eai-th, and 
 daughters were born unto them, that the 
 sons of God saw the daughters of men that 
 they were fair ; and they took them wives 
 of all which they chose. And the Loi*d 
 said, My Spirit shall not always strive with 
 man, for that he also is flesh : yet his days 
 shall be a hundred and twenty years. 
 There were giants in the earth in those 
 days ; and also after that, when the sons 
 
1 
 
 1' 
 
 r 
 
 
 1 ' 
 
 1 
 
 lilt !! 
 
 I 
 
 hiim i 
 
 ill 
 
 84 MANHOOD: WJihJCKKD AND ItESCUED. 
 
 of God came in unto the (Liughters of men, 
 and they bare children to them, the stime 
 became mighty men which were of ohl, 
 men of reno^vn. And God saw that the 
 wickedness of man was great in the earth, 
 and that every imagination of tlie thoughts 
 of his heart was only evil continually. 
 And it I'epented the I^ord that he liad 
 made man on the earth, and it grieved 
 him at his heart. And the Lord said, I 
 ^vill destroy man whom I have created 
 from the face of the earth ; both man, and 
 beast, and the creeping thing, and the 
 fowls of the air ; for it repenteth me that 
 I have made them." Gen. vi, 1-7. 
 
 The o])inion of some of the ancients that 
 tliese sons of God were fallen angels who 
 had illicit intercourse with women is now 
 set aside as utterly without foundation. 
 The supposition that these sons of God 
 were the male children of Seth, and the 
 fair women the female children of Cain, is 
 
 iil: 
 
AN ANCIENT WRECK. 
 
 35 
 
 equally uiiteiuible. Adam had other chil- 
 dren than Cain and Seth, and how would 
 this interpretation designate /A^'^V offspring ? 
 
 CRITICAL EXAMINATION. 
 
 It is necessaiy, in order to understand 
 this remarkable passage, to turn to verse 
 26 of chapter iv, wheie we read : "And to 
 Seth, to him also there was Lorn a son ; 
 and he called his name Enos : then beo-an 
 men to call upon the name of the Lord." 
 What do these words mean ? They cannot 
 mean that now for the first time men be- 
 gan to worship God and pray to him, for 
 Adam and Abel had certainly worshiped 
 God and called upon his name long before 
 this. The maro-inal readincf casts some 
 light on the passage : " Then began men 
 to call themselves by the name of the 
 Lord ; " and this reading has suggested the 
 opinion that at the period alluded to the 
 descendants of Seth formed themselves 
 
^Ik^ 
 
 86 MANUOOD: WRECKED AND RESCUED. 
 
 into ii society, <jr church, which they cuHcd 
 after the iiaine of the Loid. But this 
 o])inioii })reaks (U)\vii in tlie light of liis- 
 tory, for in none of the subsequent wi'itings 
 of Moses do we find reference to any such 
 society, church, or organization ; nor is 
 there any reason in nature wliy tlie cliil- 
 dren of good nien and bad Avonien should 
 more tlian others become "mighty men, 
 men of renown." 
 
 At this point I beg to submit a critical 
 examination of this passage wliich meets 
 us at the very entrance to the history of 
 sensuality and its work of desolation and 
 ruin. It is from the [)en of a most schol- 
 arly man, a member of the Royal Asiatic 
 Society of Great Britain and Ireland — 
 George Smith, F.S.A. In a lengthy and 
 exhaustive exposition of the passage in 
 question Mr. Smith says : 
 
 "There is, however, another rendering 
 of the text which some of the best scholars 
 
AN ANCTKKT ^VRKCK. 
 
 tn 
 
 contend is not only allowable, but re- 
 (iuiied V)y the original words. They say 
 tliat thr A'ord which we render hegan 
 sliould translated hegan profanely ; 
 
 and that we are therefore led to the be- 
 lief that the Holy Spirit marks out in 
 this Scripture the beginning of that awful 
 profanation by which i)rond and wicked 
 men arrogated to themselves and to each 
 other the names, titles, and atti'ibutes of 
 Deity. 'Then men profanely began to 
 call themselves by tlie name of the Lord.' 
 If this be the true sense of the passage, 
 we can easily offer a consistent interpreta- 
 tion of the text to which our attention 
 was fii'st directed. If proud and power- 
 ful and wicked men were called after the 
 name of God, then by the ' sons of God ' 
 we should understand the sons of these 
 mighty and profane men. These, we are 
 told, 'saw the dauglitei*s of men that 
 they were fair ; and they took them wives 
 
38 MANHOOD: WRECKED AND RESCUED. 
 
 (the word meaus " to ravish, to take by 
 violence ") ^f all which they chose.' In- 
 flamed by passion, their desires were un- 
 checked by the dictates of reason, the 
 claims of right, or the principles of religion. 
 They were given np to unbridled licentious- 
 ness. The latter part of the passage states 
 that the issue of this connection were 
 ' mighty men, men of renown.' 
 
 " In favor of this sense it may be urged 
 that it accords with the conduct of those 
 powerfid but wicked men who in later 
 ages acted in exact conformity with the 
 letter of the text, according to this last 
 rendering ; it affords important informa- 
 tion respecting those v' .^s of government 
 and society Avhich soon after filled the 
 world with violence ; and it presents a 
 consistent account of the orio-in of those 
 men whom tlie Scriptures call 'giants.' 
 
 " We should not have been so particular 
 in our examination of these passages had 
 
ws^ 
 
 AN ANCIENT WRECK, 
 
 89 
 
 they not involved a moat important feature 
 in the history of this age. According to the 
 reading of these texts in the Authorized 
 Version, although we are told that pre- 
 viously to the deluge the earth was filled 
 with violence, we have not a single intima- 
 tion of any deterioration of morals, or of 
 the existence of any religious or political 
 causes in operation, likely to lead to so 
 serious a result. But if the interpretation 
 now advanced be received, we have a 
 clear notice of a combined religious and 
 political deterioration which, I'ising into 
 vigorous action with an increasing popula- 
 tion, at length overruns the whole surface 
 of society, and introduces and confirms the 
 most feaiful and extensive corruption." 
 
 ADDITIONAL TESTIMONY. 
 
 In confirmation of this view of the 
 passages under consideration, the author of 
 Ancient Universal History^ speaking of 
 
 / 
 
40 MANHOOD. ' WRECKED AND ItESCUED. 
 
 Jewish authorities such iis the Targums 
 of Oiikelos and Jonathan Ben Uzziel, 
 says : 
 
 " They suppose by the ' sons of God ' in 
 this phxce are meant the princes, great 
 men, and magistrates of those times, who, 
 instead of using their authority to punish 
 and discountenance vice, -were themselves 
 the greatest examples and promoters of 
 lewdness and debauchery ; taking the 
 daughtei's of the inferior people and de- 
 bauching them by force." 
 
 Then, in the Essay for a New Transla- 
 tion^ the author says: "It must have been 
 observed further that the verb Lahacli not 
 only signifies 'to take,' here, and in several 
 other places, but ' to take by force or sur- 
 prise, or to ravish.' So that the words 
 should be rendered : The sons of the 
 sovereigns, seeing that the daughters of 
 the inferior sort were fair, took them by 
 force and ravished them at their pleasure." 
 
An ANCIENT WRECK. 
 
 4i 
 
 Dr. Adam Clarke, in allusion to this in- 
 terpi'etation of the passage, says, " Most of 
 the Jewish doctors were of this opinion." 
 
 This terrible sin, therefoi'e — unbridled 
 lust and passion — was the sin which, in this 
 early age of the world, provoked God to 
 shorten the period of human life and 
 drown that polluted generation with a 
 flood of water. 
 
 WHY NOAH WAS SPARED. 
 
 In Gen. vi, 9, we find the reason why 
 Noah and his household were raved from 
 the general ruin : " Noali was a just man 
 and perfect in his generations, and Noah 
 Avalked with God." AVhat is the meaning 
 of these words, " perfect in his genera- 
 tions ? " It is not enough to say that the 
 word generations means the offspring of 
 Noah. It is not enough to say that it 
 means the age in which Noah lived. It 
 may include all these, but it includes much 
 
I 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 42 MANHOOD: WRECKED AND RESCUED. 
 
 more than these. In the niai'gin of the 
 Revised Version the words are : " Noah 
 was blameless in his generations." The 
 idea is that Noah Avas blameless in his 
 sexual relations ; he observed the law of 
 chastity, and remained nncontaminated by 
 the prevailing pollution around him, and 
 God spared him and made him a kind of 
 second Adam to begin the race over again. 
 He was blameless in his generations. 
 
 AN IMPORTANT INCIDENT. 
 
 It is clear tliat Noali's sons were not as 
 pure in thought and life as their father, 
 but had suffered more or less from the 
 associations inseparable iVom their early 
 life. At least one of them had so suffered. 
 The proof of this is found in an incident 
 recorded in Gen. ix, 20-25. We are told 
 that Noah '^ planted a vineyard : and he 
 drank of the wine, and was drunken." 
 This incident is sometimes cited by tem- 
 
AN ANCIE27T WRECK. 
 
 4d 
 
 perance lecturers and ministers to show 
 that drunkenness is as old as the flood, and 
 that even Noah, who walked with God, was 
 guilty of the sin of drunkenness. But 
 the history does not warrant such conclu- 
 sions. It rather suggests that now for the 
 first time wine was made from the juice of 
 the grape. It would naturally ferment and 
 become intoxicating if the means to pre- 
 vent its fermentation, now so well known, 
 were not employed; and thus Noah may 
 have become drunken because he was igno- 
 rant of the intoxicating properties of the 
 wine which he drank. 
 
 There is no record that he was ever 
 intoxicated as^ain ; and the fact that the 
 spirit of prophecy came upon him immedi- 
 ately after he awoke from his wine is suffi- 
 cient proof that, as Dr. Clarke expresses 
 it, "of the crime of drunkenness he was in- 
 nocent as a child." 
 
 But an incident is recorded in connec- 
 
 
 m 
 
 U 
 
 m 
 
44 MANHOOD: WRECKED AND RESCUE A 
 
 \ ! 
 
 tion with Noah's intoxication which reveals 
 the displeasure of God at any breach of 
 that instinct of modesty which is born in 
 all of us. This is the record : 
 
 " And Noah began to be a husbandman, 
 and he planted a vineyard : and he drank 
 of the wine, and was drunken ; and he was 
 uncovered within his tent. And Ham, the 
 father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of 
 his father, and told his two brethren with- 
 out. And Shem and Japheth took a gar- 
 ment, and laid it upon both their shoulders, 
 and went backward, and covered the naked- 
 ness of their father ; and their ftices wei'e 
 backward, and they saw not their father's 
 nakedness. And Noah awoke from his 
 wine, and knew what his younger son had 
 done unto him. And he said, Cui*sed be 
 Canaan ; a servant of servants shall he be 
 unto his brethren." 
 
 This malediction was not the utterance 
 of an incensed father in a moment of anger. 
 
 ■"•^ 
 
AN ANCIENT WHECK. 
 
 45 
 
 It was the spii'it of prophecy, divinely im- 
 parted, and furetellinr' the future of the 
 descendants of Hani ai 1 Canaan, in whom 
 the old devil of indecency and sensuality 
 had survived the flood and found a foot- 
 hold. Neither was it a direct infliction 
 from the Almighty, but a j)rediction of the 
 consequences — the outcome of a life of 
 impurity and sensuality. And this is an 
 additional proof that sensuality is the sin 
 which God hates and visits with punish- 
 ment prompt and severe. 
 
 • k 
 
 CIllCUMCISIOlS^. 
 
 The waters of the flood did not extin- 
 guish evil passion. Soon we find the 
 tow^er of Babel in coui*se of erection — a 
 daring project to defy the God of heaven 
 to send another flood ; and even the pos- 
 terity of Shem fell into idolatry and its 
 associate corruptions. 
 
 Then followed tlie call of Abraham, and 
 
'Mi 
 
 1)E ROBPmVAL. 
 
 Hi! 
 
 ill! 
 
 ill 
 I PI 
 
 Rob. 
 
 Take this good sword from good Rochelle: 
 
 The citizens liad it forged, 
 
 And i)aid for it, 
 
 And give it to yonr little Excellency. 
 
 Buckle it on your hip. Don't be afeared. 
 
 We know you know how to make it flourish 
 
 Against the King's enemies. Zip-zip-huzza ! 
 
 Roberval unbuckles his own sword, and replaces it by the citizens' gift. 
 
 Excellent Syndic, and good Kochellese, 
 
 My heart leaps at the sight of this good sword ! 
 
 I take it as a pledge 'twixt you and me 
 
 To live or die for service of the King. 
 
 Ne'er shall 1 draw it save for France's cause, \ 
 
 And never shall I sheathe it save with honor 
 
 As pure and stainless as its polished blade. 
 
 Citizens. 
 
 Zip-zip I 
 
 Wireworkers. The skilled men who spin iron into wire, 
 
 And weave in wire as spiders weave in thread, 
 By their guild-fathers, now in presence here. 
 Beg your acceptance of a gross of mouse-traps. 
 
 Rdb. Perhaps in the whole range of industry 
 
 Is nothing I would long for more, the rather 
 That in New France we ti*ap beasts for their skins ; 
 Moreover, these will keep my mind assured 
 'Gainst depredations on our farmers' cheese. 
 
 Breeches-makers. Our Art and mystery as old as Adam — 
 For he was our tirst customer for breeches — 
 Present you with a pair of leather smalls. 
 
 Rub. These I shall keep for high-class festivals. 
 
 Cliord-spinners. Valiant Commander, our illustrious guild 
 Is passed apprentice to the Muse of Music, 
 And in its name we offer you a type 
 Of industry pecidiar to Rochelle — 
 The very primest strain of catgut strings. 
 
▼"!"■ 
 
 AN ANCIENT WRECK. 
 
 47 
 
 man child in your generations, be that is 
 born in the house, or bought with money 
 of any stranger, which is not of thy seed. 
 He that is born in thy house, and he that is 
 })ought with thy money, must needs be 
 circumcised : and my covenant shall be in 
 your flesh for an everlasting covenant. 
 And the uncircumcised man child whose 
 flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised, that 
 soul shall be cut oif from his people ; he 
 hath broken iny covenant." 
 
 MEANING AND INTENT OF CIRCU3ICISI0N. 
 
 The literal meaninc: of the word circum- 
 cision is cutting around^ and refers to the 
 act of cutting off the foreskin of the male 
 organ. It is clnimed by Herodotus that 
 the Egyptians and Ethiopians observed 
 the rite of circumcision from the i-emotest 
 period, and that other nations borrowed it 
 from them. But when we consider that 
 Herodotus flourished but four hundred and 
 

 I 
 
 48 MAMJOOU: WltECKElJ AND liESCUEl). 
 
 eighty-fuur years })et()i'e the Chi istiaii era, 
 and that Jacob and his family Uved in 
 Egypt 1800 B. C, and that the rite of 
 circnnicision was transmitted to them from 
 Abraham, the presumption is that the 
 Egyptians received it from the Israelites, 
 and not the Israelites from the Egyptians. 
 It was unquestionably a divine institution, 
 and its introduction so soon after the terri- 
 ble dissolution of manners and morals which 
 grew out of sexual perversions is significant 
 in the extreme. It is clear that circum- 
 cision involved more than ♦pei'sonal clean- 
 ness. It is still resorted to by physicians 
 in some cases in order to keep the parts 
 free from offensive and irritating secretions ; 
 and this cleanliness is important in all cases 
 of seminal weakness. But the original rite 
 implied more than this. Its deeper mean- 
 ing was purity in thought and word and 
 action. Tlie operation was delicate and 
 painful, and it pointed to the organs of 
 
 
 
 
 
 ■ i 
 
 1 
 
 i 
 
 1 
 J 
 
 1 
 
 ** 
 
 1 
 
 ■1 
 
AN ANCIENT WRECK. 
 
 49 
 
 generation as the instruments for the trans- 
 mission from parent to child of the qualities 
 inherent in tlie parent. That was at least 
 one great lesson. It was the voice of (irocl 
 calling men away from the sensuality and 
 irapnrity which had resulted in the destruc- 
 tion of former generations by the judg- 
 ments of heaven. 
 
 A FLOOD OF FIRK. 
 
 AVe need but to turn from the sixth to 
 the nineteenth chapter of Genesis to learn 
 that the flood had not extinguished evil 
 passions. The destruction of Sodom and 
 Gomorrah by fire and brimstone was a 
 judgment on their inhabitants for their 
 degrading sensuality. 
 
 TIk; corruption of morals ^vas well-nigh 
 universal. Look at the picture. The 
 sacred narrative informs us that " the 
 l)lain of Jordan ^vas w^dl watered every- 
 where, before the Lord destroved Sodom 
 
' 
 
 i 
 
 50 MANIIOOJ): WHECKEI) AND liKSCUEI). 
 
 and Gomorrah, eveu as the garden of the 
 Lord." The limpid stream, the quiet lake, 
 the hill and dale, with their variegated 
 loveliness, are there ; the homes and palaces 
 and towers of tlie young cities throw back, 
 in diamond brightness, the rays of the 
 rising sun. And yet these fair cities are 
 the home of abominations deep and foul 
 as hell. They have become so utterly 
 cori'upt that God must wipe them out of 
 existence, and convert the site which they 
 occupied into a sea of death. 
 
 THE SIN OF S0DO3I. 
 
 The sin of Sodom cannot be mistaken. 
 It is clearly indicated in the Epistle of 
 Jude : " Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, 
 and the cities about them in like manner, 
 giving themselves over to fornication, and 
 going after strange flesh, are set forth for 
 an example, suffering the vengeance of 
 eternal fire." One cannot read the inspired 
 
 1! : 
 
AN ANCrKXT WItKCK. 
 
 hi 
 
 account of that last uiglit in Sodom with- 
 out a sense of horror at the depths of 
 dej^ravity to wliicli its inliabitants had 
 sunk; and tlie closing scene in the his- 
 tory of Lot shows that even his daughters 
 were contaminated by the corruption of 
 the age and the place. 
 
 THE IIKJJKEW PEOPLE. 
 
 Following the stream of history in the 
 line of Abraham, wt; have first t)f all the pa- 
 triarchal age, when society existed in a very 
 simjile form, and the habits of the people 
 were principally pastoral. They dwelt in 
 tents and raised large herds of sheep and cat- 
 tle, and the heads of families conducted relig- 
 ious worship, adjusted disputes, and presid- 
 ed over family and tribal matters in general. 
 
 The history of this period is condensed 
 and fragmentary, but enougli is revealed 
 to show that marriage was respected and 
 prostitution was punished by heavy pen- 
 
 !i! 
 

 i 
 
 52 MANHOOD: WRECKED AND UESCUED. 
 
 jilties. And altlioiigh polygamy existed 
 to a limited extent, yet not witli the divine 
 a2)pi'oval, and subsequent events show how 
 disastrous it was to all concerned. 
 
 CnASTITY OF JOSEPH, 
 
 The chastity of Joseph is one of the 
 b]"ightest incidents of the patriai'chal age, or 
 of any age. A young man full of life and 
 blood, with all the natural appetites in a 
 state of perfection, solicited by a lady of 
 rank, and with no pi'ob.^bility of detectioii ; 
 and yet he stands in his virtue firm a^ a 
 I'ock and says, "Can I do this great wick- 
 edness, and sin against God ? " The fear 
 of God was in his heart as a controlling 
 principle, and before it human passion 
 stood rebuked and Avithering. 
 
 A :\ioDEUN iNCir ?:nt. 
 Some years ago a friend related to me 
 the following;, which he received from the 
 
msassssamm 
 
 AN ANCIENT WRECK. 
 
 68 
 
 ]ips of the gentleman who was the prin- 
 cipal actor in the scene. This gentleman 
 was in Europe on a three months' business 
 engagement, when passion was awakened 
 ])y the thouglit that in the high class 
 houses there was supposed to be neither 
 danger of detection nor infection. His 
 conscience rebuked him, but passion rose 
 liigh above the voice of the faithful moni- 
 tor. Pie made his way to one of these 
 houses, selected a partner of his guilt, and 
 retired to a room, when, quick as a flash 
 of lightning, there rose up before his vision 
 the sweet faces of his pure and confid- 
 ing wife and three iiappy children pray- 
 ino; for him even^ nii2:ht and waitinc: 
 for his return. In a moment desire 
 was gone, the great drops of perspira- 
 tion stood like beads upon his brow, 
 and he rushed fi'om the house thanking 
 God that he had escaped from the jaws 
 of hell. 
 

 54 MANHOOD: WRECKED AND RESCUED. 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 ■; 
 
 .■ !■ 
 
 
 
 
 
 , 
 
 
 . 
 
 . y 
 
 - 
 
 
 
 ! 
 
 1 
 
 ^ 1 
 
 1 
 
 
 % 
 
 
 ii 
 
 
 J 
 
 
 STILL AT WORK. 
 
 But all men in the patiiarchal age were 
 not like Josej)h, and through the side 
 lights of Scriptui'e history we see enough 
 to warrant the conclusion that the old 
 demon of sensuality was still at large, and 
 that the vices Avhich are rampant to-day 
 were doing their deadly work in that early 
 age. One of these side lights opens to us 
 in the thirty-eighth chapter of Genesis, 
 and reveals the i^ict tliat at least one 
 method for the prevention of conception 
 was already known and practiced. It was 
 a law of that period that Avhen a married 
 man died childless his brother — if he had 
 one — must maiTy his widow, and it chil- 
 dren ^vere born they were considered as 
 the children of the first husband, and in- 
 herited his property. Judah's eldest son 
 had died, and it became the duty of Onan to 
 marry the widow and raise up seed unto 
 

 AN ANCIENT WRECK. 
 
 55 
 
 liis brutLer. Tlie inspired writer aayH : 
 "And Onau knew that the seed should 
 not be his ; and it came to pass, when he 
 went in unto his brother's wife, that he 
 spilled it on the ground, lest that he 
 should give seed to his brother. And the 
 thing which he did displeased the Lord : 
 wherefore he slew him also." 
 
 The sin of Onan was not, as is commonly 
 supposed, the sin of masturbation, but the 
 sin of " withdrawal," or incomplete coition. 
 
 Then in this same chapter we learn that 
 prostitution existed; for we have the story of 
 Tama. Judah's daughter-in-la\v, disguising 
 herself as a harlot and seducing Judah to 
 illicit commerce. So that even in this sim- 
 ple age sensuality was the sin befoi'e which, 
 above all other sins, men and women fell. 
 
 THE MOSAIC ECONOMY. 
 
 AVhen we come to the age of Moses we 
 find the Hebrew people emancipated from 
 
50 MANHOOD: WRECKED AND IIESCUEIK 
 
 {[ 
 
 l(ing years of slavery, Init not from con- 
 secjuent lax morality, and we can imagine 
 the magnitude of the task assigned to 
 Moses as leader and instructor of these 
 millions of people. 
 
 It will assist ns to the end in view to 
 digress for a little at this point and glance 
 at the condition of the tribes and nations 
 dispossessed and driven out to make place 
 for the Israelites. AVe shall find that 
 moral causes were at work, as they 
 always are, in determining national ex- 
 istence. 
 
 In the fifteenth chapter of Genesis, when 
 God promises that the land of Canaan 
 should be given to the posterity of Abra- 
 ham, he intimates that ])ossession must be 
 delayed for a long period, and at the same 
 time assigns a reason for the delay : " For 
 the inicpiity of the Amorites is not yet full." 
 The inhabitants of Canaan were wicked, 
 and their crowning sin was sensuality, 
 
 i 
 
 I I 
 
ESI 
 
 .LV ANCIENT WUKCK. 
 
 .)( 
 
 but so long as there remained a frag- 
 ment of vii'tue and a Lope of I'eformation 
 not even the Israelites could dispossess 
 them. 
 
 Then, if we turn to the Book of Leviti- 
 cus, ^ve find a long series of laws and 
 prohibitions and penalties — a series of laws 
 which, the more it is studied and under- 
 stood, commands the admiration of the 
 world. The eighteenth chapter deals with 
 unlawful marriages and unlawful lusts. In 
 verses 2-i, 25, it is written, "Defde not ye 
 yourselves in any of these things: for in 
 all these the nations are defiled which I cast 
 out before you: and the land is defiled : 
 therefore I do visit the iniquity thereof 
 upon it, and the land itself voraiteth out 
 her inhabitants." What were these terri- 
 ble crimes which rooted out these great 
 t: ;bes and nations ? Not simply idolatry, 
 but incest, adultery, fornication — every 
 species and form of sexual perversion. 
 
r.8 MANHOOD: WRECKED AND IlESCUED. 
 
 SEXUAL PUKITY. 
 
 And therefore when we examine the 
 sanitary laws of Moses we are not sur- 
 prised at tlie space and prominence given 
 to sexual puiity. Referi'ing to these laws 
 a medical writer says : 
 
 " The Old Testament by its clear and 
 sublime teachings preserved the Israelites 
 from the contamination by which they 
 were surrounded. Situated in the midst 
 of nations by whom an unlicensed de- 
 bauchery was regarded as a part and 
 parcel of religious life, the chosen people 
 successfully retained its purity; and even 
 in the darkest hour of its history there 
 were found four hundred men who had 
 never bowed the knee to Baal. The doc- 
 trines of Moses are most explicit in \vhat 
 I'elates to individual purity. Far from 
 passing by in silence those delicate rela- 
 tions as indifferent, or of doubtful utility, 
 
■"""J f- g^ y 
 
 AN ANCIENT WRECK. 
 
 59 
 
 or as possibly harmful if discussed openly 
 — as the modern fashion widely prevails — 
 the sacred word enters with singular ini- 
 nuteness into the admonitions for chastity, 
 for temperance in the marital relations, 
 and for sanitary precautions connected 
 therewith. Anyone who will take the 
 pains to examine the various chapters in 
 Leviticus and Deuteronomy which contain 
 the directions to single and married men 
 will there find an explicitness and a minute- 
 ness which writei's oi the present day can- 
 not attenij^t to imitate." 
 
 How sadly these laws were neglected 
 in the reigns of Ahah and Solomon, and 
 how dejjradino; and destructive this neglect 
 was, the history of those times abundantly 
 testifies. And ^vhen we approach the ad- 
 vent of Christ w^e find the world tottering 
 to its fall. The religions and civilizations 
 of men had lost their hold on the faith 
 and affections of the people. Vices foul 
 
 
TT 
 
 msBS 
 
 ii^ 
 
 III 
 
 00 MANHOOD: WEEGKKD AND RESCUED. 
 
 and black as hell devastated the nations 
 and, like a mighty volcano, were burn- 
 ing out their strength and vitality. A 
 Deliverer must come, else the world 
 must perish. 
 
 ,! 
 
 ' I 
 
 ^ I 
 
A MODERN WRFXK. 
 
 I ■ i a u-l 
 

 aqi 
 
 I 
 
A MODKHN WHKVK. 
 
 63 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 A MODERN WRECK. 
 
 We liav^ iollowed ^vitli hasty glance 
 the stream of history in the line of the 
 chosen people, and have seen that sensu- 
 ality was the sin Avhicli broke out again 
 and attain, workino' disc:race and I'uin. It 
 would be a tedious and i)aint'ul task to 
 give even a sketch of the history of sexual 
 perversion in ancient nations outside the line 
 of Abraham. As I write I have before me a 
 volume of 685 pages, entitled The History 
 of Prostitution : Its Extent^ Causes^ and 
 Effects Throughout the World. It was 
 published in 1858, and was written by 
 William W. Sanger, M.D., resident phy- 
 sician, Blackwell's Island, New York city. 
 After tracing the history of prostitution in 
 Egypt, Syria, and Asia Minor, in Greece 
 

 I , 
 
 i( ' 
 
 I 
 
 64 MANHOOD: WltECKKD AND ItKSGUED. 
 
 jiiul ill Komc, Dr. Sanger approaches the 
 Christian era in these words ; 
 
 it HM 
 
 THE ClIKISTIAN ERA. 
 
 "Perhaps tlie most marked oi'iginality 
 of the Christian doctrine was the stress it 
 laid on chastity. It has been well re- 
 marked tliat even the most austere of the 
 j)agan moralists recommended chastity on 
 econoiiilcal grounds alone. The apostles 
 exacted it as a moral and religious duty. 
 They j)reached against lewdness as fer- 
 vently as against heathenism. Not one of 
 the ej)istles contained in the New Testa- 
 ment but inveiglis, in the strongest lan- 
 guage, against the vices classed under the 
 generic head of luxury. Nor can it be 
 doubted that, under divine Providence, 
 the obvious merit of this feature in the new 
 religion exercised a large influence in ral- 
 lying the better class of minds to its sup- 
 port. 
 
A MODERN WRECK. 
 
 66 
 
 "From the first the Chiistiau cominu- 
 nities made a jik't boast of the purity of 
 their morals. Their adversaries met them 
 on this ground at a great disadvantage. 
 It was notorious that tlie C(;llec:e of vestals 
 had been sustained with great difficulty. 
 Latterly, it liad been found necessary to 
 su[)ply vacancies with children, and even 
 under these circumstances the number of 
 vestals buried alive bore but a very small 
 proportion to the number who had incurred 
 this dread penalty. Nor could it be denied 
 that the chastity of the Roman virgins was, 
 at best, but partial, the purest among them 
 being accustomed to unchaste language and 
 unchaste sights. The Chi'istian congrega- 
 tions, on the contrary, contained numbei's 
 of virgins who had devoted themselves to 
 celibacy for the love of Christ. They were 
 modest in their dress, decorous in their 
 manners, chaste in their speech. They 
 refused to attend the theaters, lived fru- 
 
 m 
 
 5 
 
mllp« 
 
 I 
 
 ! 
 
 
 66 MANHOOD: WRECKED AJ!^D UEHCUED. 
 
 gaily iiiid temperately ; allowed no dances 
 at their banquets ; used no perfumes, and 
 abstained generally from every practice 
 which could endanger their rigorous conti- 
 Tience. Marrias-e aniom:' the Christians 
 was a lioly institution, whose sole end was 
 the procreation of children. It was not 
 to be used, as was the case too often 
 among the heathen, as a cloak for im- 
 moralities." 
 
 In the light of this testimony consider 
 the condition of morals ^vhen the apostles 
 be2:an their mission of reform and salvation. 
 Take, for example, the picture sketched 
 by Paul in Rom. i, 24-27 : " Wherefoi-e 
 God also gave them up to uncleanness, 
 through the lusts of their o\vn hearts, to 
 dishonor their own bodies between them- 
 s^lvea: who changed the truth of God 
 into a lie, and worshiped and served the 
 creature more than the Creator, who is 
 blessed forever. Amen. For this cause 
 
I 
 
 A MODERN WRECK. 
 
 ()7 
 
 God gave tlieiii up unto vile utfectious : 
 for even their woineii did change the 
 natural use into that which is against 
 nature : and likewise also the men, leav- 
 ing the natural use of the woman, burned 
 in tlieir lust one toAvard another ; men 
 Avith men working that which is unseemly, 
 and receiving in themselves that recom- 
 pense of their error wliicli was meet." 
 
 NO COMPROMISE. 
 
 How did Christianity ineet this awful 
 corruption of mannei's and morals ? Did 
 the apostles advocate a system of licensed 
 and regulated prostitution ? Did they 
 teach that, the sexual appetite being nat- 
 ural and God-given, its gratification must 
 be innocent and natural, out of v.edlock 
 as well as in it? No: tliey reiterated the 
 connnandment, " Thou slialt not commit 
 adultery." They declared that " whore- 
 mongers and adulterei's God will judge." 
 
» 
 
 68 MANHOOD: WRECKED AND ItESCUED. 
 
 They proclaimed tluit " they who commit 
 such things are worthy of death." They 
 taught tlie sacreduess of marriage and the 
 purity of the conj'igal relation ; and these 
 teachings were the salt which prevented 
 the utter cori'uption and consequent ex- 
 tmction of the race. 
 
 And in all subsequent ages, in proportion 
 to the diffusion of the system of morality 
 taught in the Ncav Testament, and the hold 
 which this system lias taken on the heart 
 and conscience of nations and individuals, 
 has been the degree of national elevation, 
 as well as the standard of social and do- 
 mestic purity, which have distinguished 
 Christian from non-Christian conmiunities. 
 Let no student of history pronounce 
 Christianity a failure even if limited to 
 this single line of improvement. It has 
 elevated woman, sanctified mari'iage and 
 the home, driven adulteiy and fornication 
 into the darkness to which they belong. 
 
A MODEllN WliECK. 
 
 69 
 
 mid placed oii the statute books of civilized 
 nations laws which protect virtue and 
 punish rape and seduction. 
 
 SUPPRESSED BUT NOT EXTINCT. 
 
 The passions which the watei^s of the 
 flood could not (piench, and which the fire 
 of Sodom could not burn out, have sur- 
 vived through all ages. Stimulated by 
 wealth and luxury, on the one hand and 
 by the poverty which drives to despair, on 
 the other hand, the old sin of sensuality is 
 making; such strides and workino: such 
 havoc in our age as may well a^vaken tlie 
 apprehension and excite the alarm of the 
 Christian, the philantlu-opist, and the states- 
 man. 
 
 The revelations of the I-^allJ fall Gazette 
 a few years ago startled tlie civilized 
 world. That such a condition of st)ciety 
 could exist in Christian Enij^land, not anionic: 
 its criminal classes, l)ut amongst its nobil- 
 
ro MANIWOI): ]Vl{ECKEn AND RESCUED. 
 
 i 
 
 ity and tlie higher classes, Avas a revelation 
 which made the pulse of the world stand 
 still, and its face pallid with alarm. It is the 
 boast of the nineteenth century that ours is 
 the richest inheritance becpieathed to any 
 generation ; that the wisdom and learning 
 of all })ast ages have come down to us, and 
 a beacon light has been erected on every 
 rock and shoal on Avhich immortal cargo 
 has Ijeen w-recked. But alas ! the sins and 
 follies and evil habits of the past have 
 come doAvn to us as well ; and to-day sen- 
 suality, the sin of the ages, lives in the 
 midst of our boasted civilization : in our 
 great cities ; in the ])resence of wealth and 
 luxury; undei' the very shadow of onr 
 churches and schools and colleges. 0])en 
 prostitution, seci'et and illicit commerce, 
 and the solitary vice are destroying the 
 sanctity of the home and threatening the 
 security of the nation. Shall we sleep 
 while this I'uin goes on ? 
 
A MODERN WliECK. 
 
 71 
 
 STATISTICS OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 It is very tliffieiilt to ohtain statistics of 
 prostitution. It is absolutely impossible 
 to obtain exact statistics, for this sin is 
 committed in secret. In Montreal, witli its 
 population of some 220,000, there ai'e 218 
 houses of shame known to the police ; and 
 I am not aware that Moutieal is worse in 
 this regai'd, in proportion to j)opulation, 
 than the other great cities of the American 
 continent. Of course the number of such 
 liouses, in any city, known to the police 
 will uot ])y any means repi-esent the ex- 
 tent of this vice. 
 
 Dr. Foote, of New York, bears this tes- 
 timony to the physical and national effects 
 of prostitution : 
 
 "Tlie blood of the whole hnman race 
 is becoming contaminated with venereal 
 poison. Do you question this ? Look at 
 the fact that in tlie United States there are 
 
 \: < 
 

 73 MAmiOOD: WUECKED AND RESCUED. 
 
 not less than 100,000 luirlots, and in Lon- 
 don alone nearly an equal number, nightly 
 dealing out sensual pleasure and physical 
 death to a still greater number of incon- 
 siderate men. It is computed that in the 
 ten chief cities of England thei'e are 
 about 800,000 prostitutes. Cincinnati is 
 one of the smallest cities on tliis side of 
 the Atlantic, but a paper published thei'e 
 remarks that the amount of property, per- 
 sonal and real, invested in the traffic of 
 prostitution in that city, as revealed by 
 late police investigations, is one million 
 of dollars, and it places the annual expen- 
 dituie in this direction atone million two 
 hundred and fifty thousand dollars. But 
 they are not all diseased, says one. Admit 
 that ; but it is safe to infer that one third 
 of the whole number are, and a little exer- 
 cise in simj)le division shows to us that 
 the seeds of venereal poison are commu- 
 nicated nightly to over thirty thousand 
 
.1 MODERN WRECK. 
 
 73 
 
 pei'soiis in our coimtry alone, many of 
 wlioni liave wives or bed-companions to 
 ^\ horn tliey are liable to impart tlie dis- 
 ease. 
 
 "I have not the least doubt — and my 
 estimate is leased on authoritative figures 
 which cannot lie — that thirty thousand 
 males ai'e dailv 'infected with venereal 
 ])()ison in the large cities of the United 
 States, a majoi'ity of whom are residents 
 of inland towns, whither they i*etnrn to 
 spi'ead the seeds of the loathesome disorder. 
 In the public institutions of New Yoj'k 
 city about 10,000 cases of venereal disease 
 are treated annually, to say nothing of 
 those ^vho seek the advice of their own 
 physicians. The reader cannot fail to see 
 from the foregoing that prostitution is a 
 prolific source of blood disease, and that it 
 is rapidly converting the great fountain of 
 life, as originally imparte<l to man by his 
 Creator, into a slough of deatli. Of all 
 
 ^i I 
 
U MANHOOD: WliECKED AND RESCUED. 
 
 ]>lo(>(l impurities, tliei-e are none wliicli lead 
 to such endless xarieties of disease as those 
 induced by the virus with which whoi'edoin 
 is inoculating the whole human fnmily." 
 
 It is said that for years pasta little pam])h- 
 let of less than t\venty ])nges — price, one 
 dollar — ]irofessing to give prescriptions and 
 directions fov the cui'e of venereal diseases, 
 has sold at the rate of t^venty thousand 
 copies per month in the United States and 
 Canada ah^ne. Think of it ! Two hun- 
 dred and forty thousand copies a year. 
 That means two hundred and forty tliou- 
 sand new cases of these horrible diseases 
 every year. And the victims \\'\\o pur- 
 chase this ]>amphlet represent but a 
 fraction of the total contaminated each 
 yeai'. 
 
 Does one need to present further jn'oof 
 that sensuality is sapping the very founda- 
 tions of national life ? AVhen cholera or 
 smallpox threatens the land Congress and 
 
A MODFAiN WRECK. 
 
 "ity 
 
 Parliament and boards of health rush 
 to the rescue ; but this deadly plague is 
 going on by night and by day, and we 
 close our eyes to its widespread desolation. 
 
 IIISTOUY OF VENEREAL DISEASES. 
 
 No autlientic liistory of venereal diseases 
 exists. At one time it was the o[)inion of 
 the medical facult}' that they were of com- 
 paratively I'ecent origin, and that the sail- 
 ors of Columbus contracted them from 
 the aborigines of this continent ; l)ut this 
 opinion does not rest on aiiy solid basis, 
 and is now generally rejected. It is a 
 Avell-established fact that venereal diseases 
 existed in Europe as eai'ly as the fiftli cen- 
 tury, and Dr. Sanger i-emarks, in his woi-k 
 already referred to, that "the pi-esumption 
 from an imposing mass of circumstantial 
 evidence is that venei'eal disease has 
 afflicted humanity from the beginning of 
 its history." 
 
 ' 
 
"SH 
 
 1 1 
 
 70 MANIIOOJ): WRKCKhJJ) AND liEHCV' '» 
 
 ! 1 
 
 lUliLE LIGHT. 
 
 I iisk the reader to examine carefully the 
 fifteenth chapter of Leviticus, whore he 
 will .^Mcl the huv given by Moses for the un- 
 clean.iess of men and women, and for their 
 cleansing : " When any man hath a run- 
 ning issue out of his flesh, becanse of his 
 issue he is unclean." 
 
 There can be no doubt that the issue 
 here mentioned was gonorrhoea, or syphilis. 
 The Sei)tnagint version renders the word 
 gonorrhoea., instead of issue, nine times in 
 this chapter. Dr. Adam Clarke, in his 
 Commentary, ^iiyii>'. "The disgraceful dis- 
 order referred to hei'e is a foul blot which 
 the justice of God in the course of provi- 
 <lence has made in general the inseparable 
 consequent of these criminal indulgences, 
 and serves in some manner to correct and 
 restrain the vice itself. In countries 
 Avhere prostitution was permitted, where it 
 
A MODERN WUECK. 
 
 Wfis even a religious ceremony among 
 those \vlio were idolaters, ^liis disease 
 must necessarily have been frequent and 
 prevalent. . . . That the Israelites might 
 have received it fi'om the Egyptians, and 
 that it must, through the Baal-peor and 
 Asliteroth abominations which they learned 
 and practiced, have prevailed among the 
 Moabites, etc., there can be little reason 
 to doubt." 
 
 Physicians tell us how infectious these 
 diseases are, being communicated by inter- 
 course, by vaccination, by utensils, and 
 even by a kiss ; and when we consult the 
 . Mosaic laws we find a perfect system of 
 septiration enjoined, so as to preclude the 
 possibility of infection and contagion. 
 
 This awful disease, this subtle infection, 
 is God's immediate penalty attached to a 
 violation of the law of purity ; and if I 
 could speak with a voice of thunder I 
 would peal into the ears of the world a 
 
 
 ! 
 
78 MANHOOD: WIlEGKhJl) AN J) UESCUKI). 
 
 solemn warning : A]);uulon nil Iio[)e, ye 
 who dally with illicit pleasure, use what 
 prev^entive and precaution }ou may. 
 Pi'esently you will awake to the conscious- 
 ness that you have been stung hy the 
 fangs of a scorpion whose poison no 
 materia medica can extract. 
 
 A STATE DOCUMENT. 
 
 State documents are not platform ora- 
 tions, but sober, solemn utterances of men 
 who study the public weal. When they 
 convey public warning the warning is the 
 outcome of facts carefully gathered and 
 tabulated. Listen to these notes of warn- 
 ing from one of the annual reports of the 
 Board of State Charities of Massachusetts 
 anent venereal disease : " Woe to the bodi- 
 ly tabernacle in which it once enters ; for 
 it is one of those evil spirits which not 
 even prayer and fasting can cast out. With 
 slow, painless, insidious, resistless march it 
 
.1 MODERN WliEVK. 
 
 70 
 
 })eiietrates into the very iiuirrow of the 
 bones, and poisons the fountain of* life be- 
 yond purification. All imiylook fairwith- 
 (►ut and feel fair within, ])ut the taint is 
 there, and it aft'ects the oft'spiing. The 
 effects i)f this disorder in corrupting the 
 human stock and predisposing offspring to 
 disease are more deadly than is usually be- 
 lieved. They are hardly exceeded by the 
 effects of alcohol. Nature readily foigives 
 unto the sons of men other sins and 
 blasphemies wherewith soever they may 
 bkspheme; but this one, like him that blas- 
 phemeth against the Holy Spirit, hath never 
 forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal 
 damnation, for he hath an unclean spirit." 
 
 • 
 
 I'iJIi 
 
 TTIR RIVER OF DEATH. 
 
 Dr. Dio Lewis calls the sensuality of 
 this age " a deep, swift I'iver on which half 
 the race is being borne away into the dark- 
 ness," 0, that deep, dark river, the river 
 
 !• 
 
80 MAN 110 OD : WllE CKED AND JiES C UEJJ. 
 
 
 
 II 
 
 i 
 
 i. 
 
 II 
 
 
 i 
 
 I. m 
 
 m 
 
 i death ! Hear what Solomon says about 
 it under a change of figure : " For tlie 
 lips of a strange woman drop as a honey- 
 comb, a)id her mouth is smoother than oil : 
 but her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp 
 as a two-edged sword. Her feet go down 
 to death ; her steps take hold on hell. . . . 
 Remov^e thy way far from her, and come 
 not nigh the door of her house: lest thou 
 give thine honor unto others, and thy 
 years unto the cruel: lest strangers be 
 mied with thy wealth ; and thy labors be 
 in the house of a stranger." Pro v. v, 3-10. 
 
 NATIONAL DECAY. 
 
 All history teaches that national decay 
 follows in the wake of this vice. The en- 
 feeblement and corruption, the deteriora- 
 tion and (ollapse, of the nation in which 
 tliis r-il 18 allowed to work out its conse- 
 ([uences are as certain as the law of grav- 
 ity. Surely the time has come when pul- 
 
 C ^. 
 
A MODKIiX Wh'ECK. 
 
 81 
 
 pit, platfoi'm, press, liurcli, and legislature, 
 ill a worel, when all good citizens should 
 unite in the demand for the enactment and 
 enforcement of such laivs as shall make 
 this vice a crime, and thus ai'rest the stream 
 of poison wliich is con Laminating the blood 
 of the nation, and which must ere long 
 consign it to a like ol)livion Avith the old 
 empires which ^vere consumed by the flames 
 of ^ust and passion. 
 
 niEVENTIOX BETTER THAN CURE. 
 
 Haj)py is the man who retains the pu- 
 rity of manhood. My heart's desire is to 
 SO iniDress the readers of these i)aii:es with 
 a loathing and abhorrence of sexual im- 
 purity in all its forms as to create in them 
 a purpose lastiiig as life and strong as 
 death that they will nevei' violate the laws 
 of personal and social purity. 
 
 I make my plea, first of all, on the 
 ground of self-preservation. You cannot 
 
83 MANHOOD: WRECK HI) AND RESCUKD. 
 
 nft'ord, for the sake of moiiientaiy gi'atifica- 
 tioii, to imperil youi* health and happiness, 
 J ltd even life itself. Let no man deceive 
 }()u with the suggestion that there are re- 
 lia])le preventives of infection, either me- 
 chanical or otherwise. There is no safety 
 for the man who consorts with women who 
 sell their virtue for money. There is no 
 safety for any man save in obedience to 
 the law of purity. 
 
 LICENSE AND INSPECTION. 
 
 The attempt to escape the penalty at- 
 tached to illicit commerce by a system of 
 license and inspection has not proved a 
 success to any appreciable extent. Roman 
 laws governing prostitution date as early 
 as the reign of the emperor Augustus. 
 
 The object of these laws was, first, to 
 presei've Roman blood from polhition, and, 
 secondly, to degi'ade the prostitutes. To this 
 end the marriage of citizens with j)rostitutes, 
 
 ■ )»: 
 
 jj^i 
 
 t4_L^'"^ 
 
..,>■ «^«^^^.-IuB 
 
 A MODK/iN' WRECK. 
 
 83 
 
 or with the descendants of women of loose 
 virtue, \\ms strictly prohibited. 'J'he wom- 
 an desiring to be licensed as a prostitute 
 had her name registered as such, and by 
 that rei^istration incurred a brand of re- 
 proacli which could never be wiped out. 
 No repentance and I'eformation could re- 
 store lier to society. Even when she mar- 
 ried and became tin; mother of children 
 the brand of reproach remained. No laws 
 conld be more detei lent, and yet Rome 
 failed to regulate this vice by license and 
 registration. Lust and sensuality became 
 I'egnant over intellectual culture and na- 
 tional aml)ition, and destroyed that might- 
 iest empire of tlie world. 
 
 STILL A FAILURE. 
 
 The New York Medical Record contains 
 the following facts and figures, which show 
 how completely the system of license raid 
 rcirulation fails to save from coutamination 
 
■—— 
 
 
 i 
 
 i 
 
 
 I 
 I; ; 
 
 t ! 
 
 V \ 
 
 84 MANHOOD: WliECKED AND RESCUED. 
 
 and disease. The article in question 
 states : 
 
 "1. During the last twenty-seven years 
 that he has been practicing, Dr. Fourniei' 
 has been consulted by 887 women afflicted 
 with syphilis. Of this number 842 cases 
 were of sexual origin, and in 45 cases, 
 which is already a proportion of fiv^' per 
 cent, the disease was contracted otherwise 
 than by sexual connection. As regards 
 the social position of the 842 cases, the 
 author divides the patients into three cat- 
 egories : First, ^vomen ])elonging to the 
 (lemi-mondey 360 ; second, married women, 
 220; third, women wliose social position was 
 unknown, 25(). In striking out from tlie 
 tio;ures 220 a certain nund)er of the cases 
 of married women who evidently got the 
 disease from other sources than their hus- 
 bands, there reuiaiu 1()4 infected by their 
 husbands. 
 
 " 2. Megnlating Prostitution, — Fournier 
 
■tfumm-i^tf- 
 
 A MODERN WRECK. 
 
 85 
 
 asked 873 male sypliilitics how they had 
 become infected. It was found that 625 
 got the disease from registered, licensed, 
 and regularly examined prostitutes, 100 
 from working women, 24 from domestics, 
 24 front married ^volnen, 46 from clandes- 
 tine prostitutes. The incpiiry showed that 
 the licensed prostitute was the most serious 
 source of infection. 
 
 " 3. A Protest against Licensed Prosti- 
 tution. — A memorial has been presented 
 to the Japanese Parliament praying for 
 the abolition of licensed prostitution in 
 the empire. It is contended by the peti- 
 tioners that the system encourages immo- 
 rality, debases women, and promotes, 
 rather than hinders, the spread of venereal 
 disease. There never was a measure, 
 the memorial states, which showed more 
 plainly the sex that devised it than this 
 system of license, and never (Mie which 
 showed more tlie brutal side of man's na- 
 

 ill 
 
 80 MANHOOD: WRECKED AND RESCUED. 
 
 tiire. It is a scbeme to pi'otect inaii in his 
 baser impulses at the expense of woman, 
 and society is corrupted in tlie effort." 
 
 If men would bnt use their connnon 
 sense they w^ould see how utterly impossi- 
 ble it is by any system of medical inspec- 
 tion to make contact with an inmate of a 
 house of shame free from infection, no 
 matter how high the house may be. These 
 women are after money. The doctor 
 may make his inspection at six o'clock, 
 and at seven the woman nifiy have inter- 
 course with an infected man, and at ten 
 o'clock with one free from disease, but wlio 
 now contracts it from her. 
 
 Be assured that God has put his mai*k 
 on this great sin, and as you value your 
 life and health and happiness make a 
 covenant with your nobler manhood that 
 you \vill preserve your body in honor and 
 chastity to the last day of your life. For 
 the man wlio seeks illicit pleasui'e, whether 
 
jminJii^lliSii, 
 
 A MODE UN WRECK. 
 
 87 
 
 in the low brothel or in the fashionable 
 house of shame, there is no permanent 
 escape. God's pursuivant is on his track, 
 and will run him down and run him in ; 
 and, with a bcjdy reeking with putrefac- 
 tion, there Avill come home to the soul the 
 sad retribution indicated in the divine warn- 
 ing, " And thou mourn at the last, when 
 thy flesh and thy body are consumed." 
 
 HIGHER MOTIVES. 
 
 I plead for purity not only on national 
 and patriotic grounds, not only on the 
 ground of self-preservation, but on higher 
 grounds as well. You are somebody's 
 child ; I am somebody's child. Somebody 
 to-day at the old home, it may be, or in 
 the spirit world, used to call you " darling," 
 and you called her " mother." She In'ought 
 you into the world through the pangs of 
 labor; from her breast you drew the 
 nourishment of your infant life, and she 
 
 11! a 
 
u 
 
 i 
 
 88 MANHOOD: WltKGKED AND liESCUED. 
 
 c.ired for you in cliiklhood as none otlier 
 could. 
 
 Peril jips, too, you know what the ^vord 
 6-is-t€)' means, and what the woi'd wife means. 
 Tell me, then, what is the feeling which 
 thrills your whole being like a shock of 
 electricity, and sends the blood galloping 
 through your veins, as you think of the 
 bare possibility of some man violating the 
 honor of your mother or sister or wife. I 
 know what your thought i:^. You say, " I 
 would shoot him down like a doic." But 
 you are the man who deserves to be shot 
 down like a dog when }ou violate the honor 
 of another man's mother or sister or wife. 
 
 This is not all. Every poor fallen woman, 
 ready to sell he)" soul for money and 
 jewelry and gay attire, is somebody's child. 
 Some mother pressed her to her heart, and 
 dandled her on her knee, and, perchance, 
 some man of God sprinkled baj^tismal water 
 on her brow. 
 
A MODE UN WRECK. 
 
 8!) 
 
 Tell me, if you will, that she has ostra- 
 cised hei'sell: tVoiii decent society, and put 
 herself into the market, and it is her own 
 lookout and not yours. All ! my brother, 
 you do not know the history of that sad 
 life. You do not know with what flat- 
 tery, and protestation of love and promise 
 of marriage, some devil dressed like a gen- 
 tleman seduced and I'uined her, 
 
 '* Then flung her off with taunt and scoff, 
 And bade her work or die." 
 
 You do not know how, with wido^ved 
 motlieror sick sister to care foi", or stand- 
 ing behind the counter all day ^vith weary 
 limb, and tired brain, and small pay, the 
 seducer of souls whispered into her ear 
 that the world is cruel, and the church is 
 cold, and life is short, and beauty commands 
 money, and others do it, and why not she ? 
 
 You do not stay to think of the anguish 
 of that poor soul v,dien the short career of 
 
90 MANHOOD : WliKCKICD AND ItESCUKD. 
 
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 shame is ended, and the past haunts tlie 
 memory like a dismal gliost, and the fiituie 
 I'ises up witli its fire of retribution, and the 
 broken heart sobs out its pitiful wailings: 
 
 " Once I was pure as the snow, but I fell, 
 Fell like a snowflake from heaven to hell ; 
 Fell to be trampled as filth in the street, 
 Fell to be scoffed, to be spit on and beat ; 
 Pleading, cursing, dreading to die ; 
 Selling my soul to whoever would buy ; 
 Dealing in shame for a morsel of bread; 
 Hating the living and fearing the dead. 
 Merciful God ! have I fallen so low ? 
 Aud yet I was once like the beautiful snow." 
 
 You do not think of all these things, 
 else you would say : Let who ^vill contril)- 
 ute to a ruin so apj^alling, no hot passion 
 shall make me accessory to jui end like 
 that. 
 
 But I turn from tlie outcast to our 
 homes, our offices, aud our stores ; for out 
 of all these tair young girls are taken 
 every year by the arts of the accom- 
 
A MODEliN WUECK. 
 
 1)1 
 
 plished seducer. And I say before high 
 heaven that wlien a man deliberately sets 
 himself to seduce a wonian there are no 
 words in our vocabulary which can ade- 
 quately express the depths of depravity to 
 which he has descended. The libertine, 
 niai'ried or single, who plans and perpe- 
 trates the ruin of a woman, married or sin- 
 gle — does he think of the extent of that 
 ruin. It touches many hearts. Dark are 
 the shadows that have fallen on that home, 
 and heavy is the blow that crushes to the 
 earth the aged parents. Their gray hairs 
 gr{)^v grayer, and the sobs of their aching 
 hearts grow louder, as tliey weep over the 
 fact that now they are worse than child- 
 less. 
 
 Men may be thoughtless and snaj* their 
 fingers and say : " She tempted me more 
 than I tempted lier, and what does it signi- 
 fy ? " T answer that question partly in the 
 language of another : 
 
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93 MANHOOD: WRECKED AND RESCUED. 
 
 man, it shall signify. As sure as there 
 is a God in heaven thou shalt meet again 
 that lost one to whom thou didst o})en the 
 door of shame, of infamy, and of ruin. 
 Her own lips shall tell thee liow thou 
 didst help to put out in her all that was 
 pure, and send her into the streets an out- 
 cast. It shall signify. That child of neg- 
 lect shall claim thee as its father. Before 
 God and holy angels it will tell thee of its 
 bare infant feet on snowy sidewalks ; of 
 the ignorance and wretchedness and foul 
 examples through which its struggling life 
 was passed, and which left it no chance of 
 virtue. From thee it will demand account 
 of those parental duties thou didst incur 
 but didst not discharge. It shall signify. 
 
 A TiniEEFOLD APPEAL. 
 
 1 make, thou, this threefold appeal for 
 purity. After having traced the windings 
 of the river of sensuality in primitive his- 
 
Hi 
 
 m 
 
 n 
 
 A MODERN WRECK. 
 
 93 
 
 tory ; after having seen that this sin pro- 
 voked (tO(1 to drown the antediluvian 
 world and to burn the cities of the plain ; 
 after having traced this dark river from 
 Noali to the Advent, and on to the present 
 day, noting how sensuality has sapped 
 the nations, and how it threatens our 
 modern civilization, I appeal on the ground 
 of patriotism that you set your face as a 
 flint against this vice of all vices. I ap- 
 peal on the gi'ound of self-preservation 
 that you vow to God that you will shun 
 every form of illicit indulgence and pi'e- 
 serve your body in honor and i)urity. I 
 appeal on the ground of the reverence 
 with which you oherish the name of 
 mothei', sister, and wife that you scoin to 
 soil the white feather of female virtue. 
 
 And if these poor words of mine abide 
 in your heart, and come like uiinistering 
 angels in moments of temj^tation, I am 
 repaid. 
 
A YOUTHFUL WRECK. 
 
 , 
 
 i 
 1 
 
 m 
 
 v 
 
 I 
 
 1 
 
 ^^^M 
 
 
 ■ 
 
 tt-^'.- . ^IH 
 
 
 

 Itl 
 
A YOUTHFUL WRECK. 
 
 97 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 A YOUTHFUL WRECK. 
 
 That form of sexual perveision which 
 now invites attention is known as the 
 solitary vice, masturbation, or self-abuse, 
 and is generally included in the familiar 
 term, seminal weakness. The habit is 
 frequently acquired at an early period in 
 life, and in utter ignorance of its sinfulness 
 and its serious consequences. 
 
 PUBERTY. 
 
 The word puberty means the period in 
 life at which persons are capable of beget- 
 ting or bearing children. In civil law the 
 age is usually fixed at twelve years in 
 females and at fourteen in males, but the 
 period varies in different individuals and 
 
 in different climates. 
 % 
 
 
 h 
 
B ■ I I 
 
 98 MANHOOD: WRECKED AND RESCUED. 
 
 u 
 
 The passage of the boy into manhood 
 is distinctly marked and easily discerned. 
 The muscles become larger and firmer, the 
 skin becomes coai'ser, the hair begins to 
 grow on the face, tlie voice changes into 
 deeper tones, a corresponding change takes 
 place in the mental faculties, and the lad 
 reaches one of the most critical periods of 
 his lite. If he has already learned the 
 solitary vice God pity him in the absence 
 of some wise friend to counsel and in- 
 struct him, and if he has not learned 
 it he is almost certjdn to learn it now in 
 the absence of a knowledge of its ruinous 
 results. 
 
 Alas ! how many boys come to this crit- 
 ical period ignorant of the marvelous pow- 
 ers which now come into operation ! No 
 book like this one is put into their hands, 
 no instruction is imparted by their parents, 
 and they are left to grapple with the new 
 desires and passions as best they can ; and 
 
A YOUTHFUL WRECK. 
 
 99 
 
 thousands of briglit young lads go down 
 in the struggle, as soldieis fall on the open 
 plain exposed to the fire of the enemy. 
 
 SAD BUT TRUE. 
 
 It is sad to think that the majority of 
 boys learn the solitary vice even before 
 the age of pubei'ty, and when this change 
 takes place and passion grows stronger the 
 habit is indulged in day after day, and be- 
 fore the age of strong manhood is reached 
 they are physical and mental wrecks. Our 
 cemeteries and graveyards are peopled with 
 the remains of boys and young men who 
 died victims of the solitary vice ; yes, and 
 men in middle life too — mari'ied as well 
 as single. In all our lunatic asylums its 
 victims are found, while hundreds of the 
 brightest boys in schools and colleges, in 
 stores and offices, in factories and work- 
 shops, in great cities and throughout the 
 rural districts, are suffering from a vital 
 
 11 
 
 i 'I 
 
 \U 
 
 m 
 
I 
 
 100 MANHOOD: WliECKED AND li?:sCUED. 
 
 weakness which in nuuiy cases will follow 
 them to the grave. 
 
 AN ANCIENT IIAIUT. 
 
 Just how ancient the habit of self-pol- 
 lution is we cannot determine with abso- 
 lute certainty, but it is clear that seminal 
 weakness, which, although sometimes trace- 
 able to other causes, iuv^ariably follows the 
 indulgence of this practice, existed in the 
 days of Moses and called forth divine leg- 
 islation. 
 
 In Lev. XV, 16, 17, we i*ead : "And if 
 any man's seed of copulation g(^ out from 
 him, then he shall wash all his flesh hi 
 watei', and be unclean until the even. And 
 every garment, and every skin, whereon is 
 the seed of copulation, shall be washed 
 with water, and be unclean until the even." 
 
 Also in Deut. xxiii, 10, 11, we read: "If 
 there be among you any man, that is 
 not clean by reason of uncleanness that 
 
A YOUTHFUL WRECK. 
 
 101 
 
 chanceth hiiu by uiglit, tlieu shall he go 
 abroad out of the camp, he shall not come 
 ^vithin the camp : but it shall be, when 
 evening cometh on, he shall wash himself 
 with water: and when the sun is down, he 
 shall come into the camp again." 
 
 These passages teach us that seminal 
 emissions Were regarded as an impurity, 
 and the treatment prescribed was exercise 
 in the open air and ablutions of water. 
 
 IMPOSSIBLE TO EXAGGERATE. 
 
 I do not forget that the natural tendency 
 of one who addresses himself to the expo- 
 sure of a particular vice is to exaggerate, 
 unconsciously, both its extent and its con- 
 sequences. It is my purpose to avoid this 
 error, and yet when I submit testimony to 
 the prevalence and to the destructive char- 
 acter of the solitary vice I think you will 
 conclude that exaggeration is impossil^le. 
 
 My first witness is the late Dr. Work- 
 
102 MANHOOD: WltECKEB AND RESCUED. 
 
 mau, for mauy yeiira the efficient superin- 
 tendent of the Provincial Lunatic Asylum 
 at Toronto. In one of his annual reports 
 he dwells at length on the causes of insan- 
 ity. I quote his words in full touching the 
 practice now under consideration. He 
 says : 
 
 " There is one cause, of a physical form, 
 which I fear is very widely extended, 
 but Avhicli I almost dread to mention, 
 which all over this continent appears to be 
 peopling our asylums with a loathesome, 
 abject, and hopeless multitude of inmates. 
 Its victims are not intemperate — nay, in- 
 deed, not unfrequently very temperate — as 
 to indulgence in alcoholic beverages. They 
 are very modest, very shy, very (dare I 
 say it ?) pious — as such, at least, they very 
 often are sent here with sufficient creden- 
 tials ; very studi()U3, very nervous, very 
 everything save what they really are. 
 "I have recently made a careful 
 
A YOUTHFUL WRECK. 
 
 108 
 
 scrutiny of the character of the cases of in- 
 sane men on behalf of whom applications 
 have been nitide, and from \\'hu8e friends 
 and physicians details, in our circular form, 
 have been received. The result has been 
 frightful. I hesitate to state the propoi'tion 
 in which, I feel fully assured or morally 
 certain, secret vice is present. 
 
 " In liardly any instance is it found that 
 parents have any suspicion of its existence 
 when they place the victims in the asylum ; 
 indeed, very many of them appear to be 
 totally ignorant of the veiy existence of 
 such a habit, and nothing can be more 
 painful and embarrassing to an asylum 
 physician than correspondence by letter 
 with such persons, when the conviction is 
 established in our minds that the insanity 
 of their beloved one is associated with the 
 destructive habit, and in all probability it 
 has been induced by it. 
 
 "The very frequent, indeed, almost in- 
 
 ^O' 
 
104 MANHOOD: WRECKED AND RESCUED. 
 
 variable, observaiK'^ that the habit of 
 secret indulgence is encouraged, not in 
 persons of rougli manners and wliat are 
 called coarse morals, but in those of an 
 opposite character; not in the grossly 
 'gnorant; not even in the profane, but in 
 the better informed and passingly religious; 
 not in the lover of manly sports and invigo- 
 rating e?ijoyments, but in the ostensible 
 economizers of constitutional 2>o\ver and 
 the shunners of youthful fi'ivolitie-^ ; not in 
 those who, in lano-uasfe or in acts, are re- 
 garded as ovei'stepping the limits of mod- 
 esty or chastity, but among those who 
 evince no wish to mini):le with the other 
 sex, or sometimes, indeed, evince an utter 
 aversion to it — the observance of these, 
 and many othei* I'elated facts, lias con- 
 strained me to v^he ])elief that modern so- 
 ciety, modern training, and modern exac- 
 tion are all too severe upon youth. 
 
 *' The skillful physician, who measures 
 
A YOUTHFUL WRECK. 
 
 lOS 
 
 tlie feeble, paltry, accelerated y^t lazy 
 pulse — who notes the pallid coiuiteuance, 
 the waxy features, and fi-equently foul 
 breath — who tries to gain one steady, con- 
 fiding, open look from his patient, and 
 whose cpiestions in a certain suspected 
 direction are met with liesitation, equivo 
 cation, or affected moi'tification, well knows 
 how much ti'utli there is in tlie charge 
 against love ; and he will, in similar cases, 
 acquit religion. 
 
 " I have in stronij remembrance a case 
 apparently chargeable to I'eligion. The 
 patient, before entering hei'e, did hardly 
 anything but attend prayer meetings and 
 preachings; lie was away from one church 
 and off to another as fast as open <loors 
 permitted him. In the climax of his fervor 
 he was sent to the asylum. We know liow 
 much relisrion had to do witli his insanitv 
 — not more than smoke has in kindling the 
 fire from \vhich it proceeds. 
 
 I 
 
1 
 
 II 
 
 ':■. 
 
 106 MANHOOD: WRECKED AND RESCUED. 
 
 " What is to be done to check the prog- 
 ress of the evil ? — for that it is progressing 
 and accumulating is beyond doubt. Surely 
 the right course cannot be to avoid all 
 notice of it, or to do all v.e can to ignore 
 its very existence ; much less to manifest 
 disopproval of those who proclaim the evil. 
 Yet that is exactly what many do. It is 
 unnecessary to speak more pointedly ; those 
 who have so done will be able to apply 
 these remarks — it is to be hoped profitably 
 — and see that they have erred in believing 
 that their mistaken delicacy is to be re- 
 garded as the equivalent of their neglect 
 of duty. The first rational step toward 
 the removal of an evil is the recognition 
 of its existence and the ascertainment of 
 its magnitude. Can it be right that, through 
 fastidious delicacy on the part of those 
 possessed of information, the youth of our 
 country should be permitted to fall into 
 the traps and pitfalls with which their 
 
A YOUTHFUL WRECK. 
 
 101 
 
 paths are studcled? Of all the hidden 
 dangers besetting them, assuredly none is 
 of a more hideous or more destructive char- 
 acter than that here alluded to." 
 
 AMERICAN TESTIMONY. 
 
 Side b}^ side with this Canadian testi- 
 mony I place that of Anx^'ican witnesses 
 equally competent and trustworthy. 
 
 Dr. Woodward, during his suj^erintend- 
 ency of the Massachusetts Asylum for the 
 Insane, said : " Those who think tliat infor- 
 mation on this subject is either unnecessary 
 or injurious are hardly aware how exten- 
 sive this habit is with the young, or how 
 early in life it is sometimes practiced. I 
 have never conversed with a lad twelve 
 years of as^e who did not know all al)out 
 the practice, and understand the language 
 used to describe it." 
 
 Dr. Snow gives his testimony in these 
 words : " Self-pollution is undoubtedly one 
 
 li 
 
108 MANHOOD: WRECKED AND liESCVEb. 
 
 of the most common causes of ill health 
 that can be found anioug the young men 
 of the country. From the observations 
 that I have been able to make I am satis- 
 fied that the practice is almost universal. 
 Boys commence it at an early age, and the 
 habit once formed, like that of intemper- 
 ance, becomes almost unconquei'able. In 
 boarding schools and colleges it obtains, 
 oftentimes, without an exception. Hence 
 the many sickly students, and the many 
 young men of the most brilliant and 2:>rom- 
 ising talents, who have broken their con- 
 stitutit)n, and ruined their health, as it is 
 said, hy hard study.'''' 
 
 The late O. S. Fowler devoted a long 
 life to the lecture platform and to the 
 private delineation of character, and was 
 brought into personal contact with people 
 of all ages, sexes, and nationalities ; and 
 whatever we may think of some of the 
 hohhies discussed in his voluminous writ- 
 
.1 YOUTHFUL WRECK. 
 
 109 
 
 ings, his utteiances are true and telling on 
 Jill questions of personal and social purity. 
 His little work on self-abuse reached a sale 
 of more than half a million. Let us re- 
 ceive his testimony on this subject : 
 
 "While sexual sin is the most destruct- 
 ive of all human vices, this personal form 
 is by far its worse form, because it is the 
 greatest outrage on nature's sexual ordi- 
 nances which man can possibly perpetrate. 
 It is man's sin of sins, and vice of vices, 
 and has caused incomparably moj-e sexual 
 dilapidation, paralysis, and disease, as well 
 as demoralization, than all the other sex- 
 ual vices combined. Neither Chi'istendoin 
 nor heathendom suffers any evil at all to 
 compare with this, because of its univer- 
 sality and its tei'ribly fatal ravages on body 
 and mind, and because it attacks the yoiing 
 idob of our hearts and the hopes of our 
 future years. Forty years of personal ob- 
 servation, -with the best of facilities, war- 
 
 \i\ 
 
HSS 
 
 110 MANHOOD: WRECKED AND RESCUED. 
 
 rant the solemn Jeclaration that few escape 
 its ravagesP 
 
 He cites many incidents in those forty 
 years of personal observation, and I cpote 
 one at this point for the benefit of parents 
 and guardians. It is the experience of a 
 lady who was determined to save her three 
 adopted boys troni this vice. This is her 
 own language : 
 
 " I warned my eldest son on his sixteenth 
 birthday, but was too late, as he had per- 
 petrated it for years. Determined to be 
 in ample season with my other two, I 
 warned the next youngest at thirteen, never 
 dreaming that it could be pi'acticed before 
 puberty, but found m^^self again too late. 
 Half frantic with disappointment, and de- 
 termined to make sure of seasonabl}^ 
 warning ray now only nndefiled, I warned 
 him at ten, but, horrible to relate, was still 
 too late ; for he had already learned and 
 perpetrated it,'' 
 
^^ 
 
 A YOUTHFUL WRECK. 
 
 Ill 
 
 ADDITIONAL TESTIMONY. 
 
 Dr. Sylvester Graliam, whose pamphlet 
 on Chastity is one of the best in print, 
 speaking of the prevalence of this habit, 
 says : 
 
 "The common notion that boys are gen- 
 erally ignorant in relation to this matter, 
 and that we ou2:ht not to remove that ig^no- 
 ranee, is wholly incorrect. I am confident 
 that I speak within bonuds when I say 
 that seven out of every ten boys in our 
 country, at the age of twelve, have at least 
 heard of this pernicious practice; and I 
 say again, the extent to which it prevails 
 in our public schools and colleges is shock- 
 ing be3^ond measure." 
 
 TESTIMONY OF AN EDUCATIONIST. 
 
 The Eev. E. M. P. Wells, a distinguished 
 educationist, says : 
 
 " From an intimate acquaintance with 
 
i\r' 
 
 ll"!*" 
 
 »i 
 
 JM 
 
 iiin 
 
 
 112 MANHOOD: WRECKED AND RESCUED. 
 
 about sev^en hundred boys for the past 
 nine years, from the recollections of a 
 pretty extensive acquaintance in boyhood, 
 and from information derived from gentle- 
 men of the highest distinction and most 
 eminent success in the great subject, not 
 of learning only, but of education, in my 
 own country and several nations of Europe, 
 I am fully convinced that the practice of 
 the self-gratification of the sexual desires 
 is more common than any other indulgence 
 Avhich we consider at all wrong." 
 
 These are my witnesses, and not one of 
 them is a qnack or a charlatan seeking to 
 make money by alarming the fears of the 
 suffering; but they are men who have 
 studied tlie subject and know whereof they 
 affirm. It would be easy to multiply such 
 testimonies, but it is not necessary to do so. 
 
 To be forewarned is to be forearmed, 
 and the question is. Who shall give our 
 boys and young men instruction on these 
 
.1 YOUTHFUL WRECK. 
 
 113 
 
 subjects? Shall they receive their first 
 knowledge from playmates and compuiiions 
 ever ready to initiate them into practices 
 which, before we know it, will lay the 
 foundation for j^hysical, mental, and moral 
 bankruptcy, shame, and disgrace? Tlie 
 White Cross movement, the Young Men's 
 Christian A8so<^Mation, and the Woman's 
 Christian Temperance Union are doing a 
 noble work in the supply of addresses and 
 the circulation of literature on social pu- 
 rity; but all this is not enough. Christian 
 ministei-s must come to the front, and, by 
 voice and pen, exert the great influence 
 God has given them. They must study 
 these subjects and speak on them to con- 
 gregations of men, who will crowd to hear 
 them and profit by what they hear. 
 
 THE DUTY OF PARENTS. 
 
 Fathers and mothers must instruct their 
 boys and girls, and supply them with 
 
114 MANHOOD: WliECKED AND REF^CUED. 
 
 \ 
 
 I 
 
 books on this delicate and important sub- 
 ject. Surely no father can be too bashful, 
 no mother too modest, to tell tiieii' chil- 
 dren what 8elf-al)use is, and warn them 
 against companions who would tempt them 
 •to commit this sin against God and against 
 their own bodies. But again I say, minis- 
 ters must lead in this as in every great 
 moral reform. " The leaders in health 
 must set a warning everywhere. They 
 must make it impossible for a single youth 
 to walk into the pit with his eyes blind- 
 folded, or f(>' one man to enter the door 
 of shame and incurable disease without a 
 full knowledge that he is taking the ex- 
 press train to ruin." 
 
 Speaking of this whole question of pu- 
 rity, the Rev. Dr. Wardlaw says: " I makt; 
 my first appeal to the pulpit. The theme, 
 I am well aware, is one on which the min- 
 isters of the Gospel cannot dwell, frequently 
 or freely, before promiscuous auditors, yet 
 
A YOUTHFUL WRECK. 
 
 115 
 
 nil- 
 
 yet 
 
 there is danger of excess of squeamishness 
 such as it is not easy to reconcile with 
 faithfulness." And the Rev. Dr. Dwight 
 is most emphatic in his views of the duty 
 of the pulpit on these subjects. He asks : 
 " Is it a phiin and prominent part of the 
 counsel of God to forbid, to discourage, to 
 prevent this profligate conduct of mankind? 
 Why else this precept, the seventh com- 
 mandment, inserted in the decalogue and 
 promulgated amidst the lightnings of Sinai? 
 Why else is it, throughout the Scriptures, 
 made the subject of such forcible pro- 
 hibitions and the object of such awful 
 threatenings? Is it fit, is it safe, is it not 
 preposterous, is it not ruinous to the best 
 interests of mankind, to leave the whole 
 management of it to loose and abandoned 
 men, and to suffer them, from year to yeai* 
 and from century to century, to go on in a 
 course of corruption, seducing and destroy- 
 ing thousands and millions, especially of 
 
u 
 
 lUJ MANHOOD: WltKdKED AND liEHCUKD, 
 
 the young, the gtiy, and the gitldy, while 
 we, ministers of Chi'ist, divinely ujjpointed 
 to AVfitch for the souls of men, quietly sit 
 by jind see them hurried on to perdition? 
 Shall we be awed by the cry of indeli- 
 cacy? Shall Avc not infinitely rather lay 
 hold of every opportunity to rescue our 
 fellow-creatures fi'om destruction?" 
 
 The Rev. Dr. Adam Clarke's Coinmen- 
 tary finds a place in thousands of Christian 
 homes, and is read by boys and girls and 
 pure-minded women, and he does not think 
 this sul)ject too indelicate to deal with. 
 Speaking of the solitary vice, he says: 
 "The sin of self-pollution is one of the 
 most destructive evils ever practiced by 
 fallen man. In many respects it is several 
 degrees worse than common whoredom, 
 and has in its train more awful conse- 
 quences. It excites the powers of nature 
 to undue action, and produces violent se- 
 cretions which necessarily and speedily 
 
"^r 
 
 A YOUTHFUL WRECK. 
 
 11' 
 
 exhaust the vitiil principle aiul energy; 
 lience the muscles become flaccid and fee- 
 ])le, the tone and natural action of the 
 nerves I'elaxed and impeded, the under- 
 standing confused, the judgment per- 
 verted, the will iudeterniinate and wholly 
 without energy to resist ; the eyes appear 
 languisiiing and without expression, and 
 the countenance vacant ; nutrition fails ; 
 tremors, feai's, and terroi-s are generated, 
 and thus the wretched victim drags out a 
 miserable existence, till, superannuated even 
 before he had time to arrive at man's estate, 
 with a mind often debilitated even to a 
 state of idiotism, his worthless body tum- 
 bles into the grave, and his guilty soul — 
 guilty of self-murder — is hurried into the 
 presence of its Judge." 
 
 ly 
 
 STRONG BUT TRUE. 
 
 This is strong language, but true in the 
 case of those whose eyes are open to see 
 

 118 MANHOOD: WRECKED AND RESCUED. 
 
 that self-poll utiou is a sin against God and 
 nature. But it is only fair to emphasize 
 the fact that in multitudes of instances the 
 habit is contracted and continued in abso- 
 lute ignorance of its destructive I'esults. 
 No one who reads this book can plead 
 such ignorance. The lad who for the first 
 time excites his sexual organs and causes 
 the seminal fluid to flow has taken a long 
 step to ruin. It may not be until after the 
 lapse of months, or even years in the case 
 of strong and vigorous constitutions, that 
 the debilitating effects of the habit begin 
 to manifest themselves ; but at length they 
 come like an avalanche, that first moves, 
 then rushes, and then roars down the hill- 
 side to crush and be crushed at the base. 
 
 LOSS OF BLOOD. 
 
 Loss of semen is loss of blood. The 
 blood is the life, and if y^w drain off a 
 sufficient quantity life becomes extinct. 
 
A rOVTIIFUL WRECK. 
 
 119 
 
 Dr. Miller says : " The semen, or male 
 pi*incii)le, is composed of the elements 
 Avhich form brain, nei've, muscle, bone — in 
 sliort, every tissue of which the body is 
 composed; and by parting with it a por- 
 tion of the life principle is lost ; and a con- 
 stant loss of the life principle, whether for 
 puqjoses of generation or otherwise, must 
 invariably drain the system of a vast 
 amount of life foi'ce, and render it an easy 
 prey to the innumerable diseases to which 
 humanity is subject." 
 
 Dr. Woodward says : " Nature designs 
 tliat this drain upon the system should be 
 reserved to mature age, and even then 
 that it be made but sparingly. Sturdy 
 manhood, in all its vigor, loses its energy, 
 and bends undei* the too frequent expen- 
 diture of this important secretion ; and no 
 age or condition will protect a man from 
 the danger of unlimited indulgence, though 
 legally and naturally exercised, in the 
 
WE^ 
 
 130 MANHOOD: WRECKED AND liESGUEl). 
 
 young, however, its influence is much more 
 seriously felt. No cause is more influen- 
 tial in producing insanity." 
 
 Some eminent authorities claim that an 
 ounce of this fluid is equal to forty ounces 
 of blood, and that in a well-regulated life 
 it is reabsorbed or taken into the circula- 
 tion, its vital elements going to the vital 
 centers to strengthen them, and its earth- 
 ly elements feeding the bones, hair, nails, 
 etc., and building up the masculine proper- 
 ties of the man. 
 
 1'! 
 
 1 
 
 SEMIXAL EMISSIONS. 
 
 The opinion j^rev^ails in some quarters 
 that the loss of semen is not, in itself, a 
 serious injury or a source of physical and 
 mental weakness, but that the nervous ex- 
 citement induced by masturbation and by 
 the sexual act works all the mischief. It 
 cannot be denied that the strain upon the 
 nervous system is more destructive than 
 
A YOinirFUL WRECK. 
 
 121 
 
 the loss of semen, but the hitter is a jiositive 
 and a very great injury. When we read 
 lip this sul)ject and consult physicians 
 personally we are somewhat perplexed at 
 the diversity of opinion expressed. I have 
 consulted more than one hundred volumes 
 in the preparation of this book. On the 
 one hand, I find an authority of the rank 
 and standing of Dr. Gross writing as fol- 
 lows on the question of nocturnal emissions: 
 
 " In a general way, I should say that in 
 single men who lead a continent life and 
 possess a sound nervous system emissions 
 at intervals of two weeks are indicative of 
 excellent health. In such persons they are 
 merely reflex signs of fullness or distension 
 of the seminal passages. Even if they 
 occur several times a w^eek, provided they 
 are not follo^ved by symptoms of nervous 
 disorder, they are not at all inconsistent 
 with temporary good health." 
 
 Dr. George M. Beard coincides wnth this 
 
I ,-v — „- 
 
 ! 
 
 133 MANHOOD : WRECKED AND RESCUED. 
 
 view when be says: " Some are injured by 
 one emission a week, while others have 
 several weekly and maintain perfect health 
 and strength. Seminal emissions should 
 never excite any alarm so long as our health 
 in other respects I'emains good/' 
 
 On the other hand, I find a large number 
 of authorities who agree \vith Dr. Graham, 
 who devoted much attention to the subject, 
 and whose views I now submit : 
 
 " Health does not absolutely require that 
 there should ever be an emission of semen 
 from puberty to death, though the indi- 
 vidual live a hundred years. The fre- 
 quency of involuntary nocturnal emissions 
 is an indubitable proof that the parts, at 
 least, are sufficiently under a debility and 
 morbid irritability utterly incompatible 
 with the genei'al welfare of the system; 
 and the mental faculties are always debili- 
 tated and impaired by such indulgences. 
 The plain truth of the matter is this : An 
 
A YOUTHFUL WRECK. 
 
 123 
 
 individual in what is ordinarily called good 
 health may, sometimes, on account of some 
 disturbing cause in the alimentary canal, 
 some particular position in which he lies, 
 or some other cause, experience an involun- 
 tar}'' venereal paroxysm in his sleep, with- 
 out any very serious injury to health, and 
 without justifying the conclusion that any 
 of his organs are in an actual state of dis- 
 ease. Yet even in these cases the indi- 
 vidual ought always to consider the fact 
 of so abnormal or irregular a character, 
 and so pernicious a tendency, as to I'equire 
 that he should, if possible, ascertain and 
 avoid a recurrence of the cause and a repeti- 
 tion of the effect. 
 
 " But as a general fact, when the involun- 
 tary venereal paroxysms are frequent, it is 
 entirely certain that the sexual organs are 
 in a state of debility and preternatural 
 irritability inseparable from that general 
 condition of the nervous system which is 
 
134 MANHOOD: Vf KECKED AND IlESCUKD. 
 
 
 wholly inconsistent with the pathological 
 welfare of the body. It always evinces 
 that there is more or less of an unhealthy 
 debility and irritability in the sexual organs, 
 and a preternatural sympathy between 
 them and the alimentary canal and the 
 T>rain. So that iri-itations in either of these 
 ])arts serve to induce that train of physio- 
 logical and mental exercises which result 
 in the involuntary venereal paroxysms. 
 More generally, however, disturbing causes 
 in the alimentary organs are the sources of 
 these paroxysms. At any rate, they are 
 always an abnormal or irregular result, 
 and afford no evidence that nature required 
 an emission of semen, nor the least evi- 
 dence that any semen was secreted when 
 the individual retired to rest." 
 
 Dr. Trail confirms the thought contained 
 in the last sentence quoted, and speaks with 
 great positiveness when he says : " A gen- 
 eral error has prevailed among young 
 
a^ 
 
 A YOUTHFUL WUECK. 
 
 135 
 
 pei'sons, that the seminal fluid, after the 
 full development of the sexual apparatus, 
 is constantly accumulating, and that un- 
 less it is occasionally or periodically dis- 
 charged its superabundance will produce 
 injury. The fact is, the semen, in its pei'- 
 fect state, is never secreted, except during 
 the period of sexual excitement. Its ele- 
 ments may pervade the whole circulatory 
 system; be diffused throughout the entire 
 organism; and any detrimental excess may 
 be detei'ged through the various excretion- 
 ary functions ; but it is only during vene- 
 real excitement that they are secreted by 
 the proper organs in the form of semen." 
 
 
 A FALLACY NAILED. 
 
 Dr. Ritter, an eminent German physician, 
 says : " We sometimes meet, in common 
 life, with stories of the terrible evils which 
 have befallen young persons on account 
 of their excessive chastity. Nay, we have 
 
126 MANHOOD: WRECKED AND HKSCUED. 
 
 1:1 
 
 
 U 
 
 been told that the seminal fluid has even 
 occasionally entered the brain of one or 
 other of these unfortunate beings, and ren- 
 dered him insjine, with many other things 
 equally silly and equally untrue. Gha-stity 
 can never he exce-s,nve. It is always advan- 
 tageous. It always promotes health and 
 happiness. It never ^vill nor can become 
 the cause of injury or disease." 
 
 I have been thus particular to present 
 these somewhat conflicting opinions, alike 
 for the encouragement of those who are on 
 the border of despair because of nocturnal 
 emissions after the practice of self-abuse 
 has been abandoned, and as a warning to 
 those who, in vigorous health, indulge the 
 habit and feel no immediate evil results. 
 AVhatever may be said of occasional emis- 
 sions in the case of men of full blood, 
 nothing is more certain than the fact that 
 emissions which are the result of mastur- 
 bation or of e.T.cess in the mamage relation 
 
' 
 
 ' ^"l 
 
 llj 
 • « 
 
 1} 
 
 A YOUTHFUL WRECK. 
 
 la? 
 
 U 
 
 are a positive injury, a source of j)liysical 
 and mental weakness, as every victim of 
 these destructive practices well knows. 
 
 • 
 
 CONSERVATISM OF NATURE. . 
 
 Nature makes provision for the expul- 
 sion of all effete and injurious properties 
 which may accumulate in the body; but 
 on the other hand she i-etains and utilizes 
 all life-sustaining pro[)erties. She does 
 not cast off elements which make brain, 
 and nerve, and bone, and muscle. Semen 
 is such an element, and nature uses it for 
 the purposes intended ; and when we 
 needlessly expend it we pauperize nature 
 and she pauperizes us. 
 
 In addition to all this, re lu ember that 
 the secretion of this life fluid does not take 
 ])lace without a mental act, either in our 
 sleeping or in our waking moments. You 
 will hear men say, " I am so constituted, 
 so organized, that it seems impossible for 
 
 
 ^flfll 
 
1 i' 
 
 i 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 128 MANHOOD: W HECK ED AND liE.SCUJW. 
 
 me to control this piussioii." The difficulty 
 with sucli men is that they do not control 
 their thoui^hts. They are always thinking 
 and talking about women, and so they set 
 fire to their sexual passion. There is true 
 philosophy in that remarkable passage in 
 James i, 13-15 : "Let no man say when 
 he is tempted, I am tempted of God : for 
 God cannot be tempted with evil, and 
 he himself tempteth no man : but each 
 man is tempted, when he is drawn away 
 by his own lust, and enticed. Then 
 the lust, when it hath conceiv^ed, bear- 
 eth sin : and the sin, when it is full- 
 grown, bringeth forth death " (Revised 
 Vei'sion). j 
 
 The meaning is that we are to look for 
 the cause of every sin in ourselves, and not 
 outside of ourselves ; and when we cherish 
 an evil thought it will blossom into an 
 act of sin, and sin, when it is full-grown, 
 ^vill bring forth death, 
 
A YOUTHFUL WHECK. 
 
 199 
 
 THE NERVOUS SYSTEM. 
 
 We derive our most simple and impress- 
 ive view of the human nervous system 
 from the analogy between it and a tele- 
 graphic system. Think of a thousand 
 wires entering a central office in a great 
 city and connecting this central office with 
 smaller offices all over the land ; think of 
 many thousands of cells generating elec- 
 tricity in these offices, and you have some 
 idea of the nervous system in man. The 
 brain is the central office, and in it there are 
 nine hundred million cells generating 
 nerve iluid, and apart from the brain a 
 still larger number ; so that in the entire 
 human body there are some two billion 
 cells generating nerve fluid to keep up a 
 current of sensation and supply motor 
 power to the muscular system. Thus the 
 several parts of the body are connected 
 
 with the central office in the head, 
 9 
 
130 MANHOOD: WRECKED AND RE8CUED. 
 A lUJNDLE OF NEKVES. 
 
 For a long time the opinion prevailed 
 that the nerves were solid threads like the 
 strings of a violin, and a sensitive person 
 was spoken of as "a bundle of nerves," 
 operated upon by change of weather, or 
 by stinging words, just as a musical instru- 
 ment is affected by the condition of the 
 atmosphere, or by the manipulation of 
 the artist. 
 
 But a better knowledge of anatomy 
 and physiology i-eveals the fact that each 
 white thread of nerve is a minute tube 
 filled with substance through which nerve 
 force is communicated, and which makes 
 the nerve threads look like a glass tube 
 filled with a clear liquid. 
 
 DOUBLE NERVE SYSTEM. 
 
 The brain with its twelve pair of nerve 
 cables, and the spinal cord with its thirty^ 
 
A YOUTHFUL WRECK. 
 
 181 
 
 one pair, compose the cerebro-spiiial sys- 
 tem. Tlirv embrace the nerves of sensa- 
 tion and t nerves of motion which 
 communicate directly ^vith the brain, and 
 to which tliey go for information, orders, 
 and commands. 
 
 Then there is tlie sympathetic nervous 
 system, binding together all pai'ts of the 
 body; its fibers forming an interlacing 
 network, penetrating and uniting the 
 internal organs. The nerves of the sym- 
 pathetic system are not under the control of 
 the will, and do not receive their commands 
 and directions from the mind and through 
 the brain, but fi'om God himself. We 
 breathe and digest food, not by an act 
 of the will, but by the action of the sym- 
 pathetic nervous system, \rliich receives its 
 commands from God, " in whom we live, 
 and move, and have our being ; " and 
 when he ceases to issue the commands we 
 cease to breathe and live. 
 
il 
 
 134 MANHOOD: WRECKED AND RESCUED. 
 
 sometimes, disorganization. And this vio- 
 lent paroxysm is <_jenerally succeeded by 
 great exliaustion, relaxation, lassitude, and 
 even prostration." 
 
 I 
 
 ITS MOST DEADLY WORK. 
 
 And here it is that tlie solitary vice does 
 its most deadly work. It is a mental as 
 well as a physical act. The imagination 
 is whipped and spurred into activitj^ ; 
 thoughts of female form and beauty fill 
 the mind until it becomes a playground 
 for unclean devils ; and when at last the 
 unhappy victim seeks to expel the fiends 
 they refuse to be exorcised, and come into 
 the chambers of his soul in his sleeping 
 hours, and torment him witn lascivious 
 dreams and involuntary emissions, from 
 which he arises in the morning exhausted 
 and nerveless, utterly unfitted for the duties 
 of the day. And in the daytime, too, 
 these fiends flutter around him like devils 
 
A YOUTHFUL WRECK. 
 
 id5 
 
 from the pit ; he canuot look upon a fair 
 woman without hiscivious thoughts. With 
 what terse and vivid language does St. 
 Peter depict the men who have reduced 
 themselves to this wretched condition : 
 "Having eyes full of adultery, and that 
 cannot cease from sin ; beguiling unstable 
 souls." 2 Peter ii, 14. The Greek is 
 more literally, liamng eyes full of an 
 adulteress I the images of nude women 
 and sinful acts are constantly before their 
 
 disordered imairi nation. 
 
 TO PARENTS AIS^D BOYS. 
 
 Let no boy or young man imagine that 
 his sin can be hidden from an experienced 
 eye. And let parents, guardians, and 
 teachers be careful to learn and note the 
 fij'st symptoms of masturbation, and ad- 
 minister counsel and rebuke at the very 
 beginning. The first indication is frequently 
 a strange bashfulness. The boy becomes 
 
ifrT 
 
 136 MANHOOD: WRECKED AND liESCUKl). 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 
 sliy and reticent, and seeks to be alone; 
 his eyes do not meet yours with a steady, 
 frank, and honest gaze, but he looks 
 sheepish, as if conscious of wrongdoing 
 and fearful of detection. Now is the 
 time to question and warn him against 
 the practice, and point out its evil con- 
 sequences. 
 
 Do not scold or upbraid him, but speak 
 kindly to him, for the strong probability 
 is that he is entirely ignorant of the sinful 
 and ruinous character of the act, and felic- 
 itates himself on the fact that he has dis- 
 covered this easy and agreeable method of 
 allaying strong and tormenting desires. 
 The bashfulness and sheepishuess, and 
 apparent consciousness of wrongdoing, 
 may not result from any feeling of guilt, 
 but from innate modesty. No words of 
 censure should be uttered, but in tender, 
 loving words the sin of the act and the 
 destructiveness of its character should be 
 
■ 
 
 A YOUTHFUL WRECK. 
 
 isr 
 
 pointed out before the habit puts its 
 hooks of steel into his very soul. 
 
 Another indication may be seen in the 
 ajipetite, whicli becomes variable — to-day 
 voracious and to-morrow defective. The 
 mind, too, feels the effects of this drain 
 upon the system ; the speech is embar- 
 rassed and the memory is impaired, and as 
 the sickening work goes on the whole sys- 
 tem is deranged ; the boy becomes an in- 
 valid ; the face is pale, and sometimes 
 pimpled ; the hands are cold and clammy, 
 and he is unfit for work or stu(^.y. 
 
 Conscious now of the injury wrought, 
 he resolves to abandon the habit, when, 
 to his horror and amazement, he finds him- 
 self polluted l)y nocturnal emission,^: ac- 
 companied by lascivious dreams ; and as 
 the weakness progresses the semen passes 
 away without dreams, and he wakes in 
 the morning tired and unrefreshed, and 
 finds the stains upon his linen. 
 
 , ■ 
 
PTS" 
 
 138 MANHOOD: WRECKED AND RESCUED. 
 
 Then his agony l)egins in earnest. He 
 becomes nervous and despondent and 
 irrital>le in tem])er, and longs to be free 
 from the body of death which chains him 
 to its foul carcass. 
 
 QUACKS AND CHARLATANS. 
 
 He is now an easy prey for quacks and 
 charlatans. He is ashamed to tell his fa- 
 ther, and ashamed to consult a resident 
 and respectable physician ; and he reads 
 the* advertisements of the sharks and sends 
 for their pamphlets, and if he can raise the 
 money he puts himself into their hands, 
 and his ruin is complete. 
 
 I have secured liundreds of these pam- 
 phlets, and I pronounce them without ex- 
 ception a snare and a delusion. They so 
 depict the symptoms as to work upon the 
 fears of the man while he is in a condition 
 of bodily and mental \veakness, and their 
 authors never let the victim go until his 
 
A YOUTHFUL WRECK. 
 
 130 
 
 money is exhausted. I do not deny that 
 seminal weakness may i-esull in death, but 
 it is cruel to associate with it almost every 
 disease that flesh is heir to. 
 
 The victim deserves our pity and our 
 sympathy, and needs to be told that if he 
 will but abandon the habit there is hope, 
 and life, and joy for him. As I have al- 
 ready intimated, it is generally contracted 
 in ignorance of its sinfuhiess and its con- 
 sequences. It is indulged in by young men 
 ■who are Church members, Sunday school 
 teachers, theological, art, and medical stu- 
 dents. It is indulged in by men who would 
 scorn to visit a house of shame, or seduce a 
 virtuous young woman ; and, when at last 
 they find their very life draining away, they 
 would give their weight in gold, did they 
 possess it, if they could only be men again. 
 
 To all such I say, avoid the quacks ; if 
 you must have medical advice, consult 
 some respectable physician in your own 
 
t?»,.«*^ 
 
 140 MANHOOD: WltECKEl) AND UESCUED. 
 
 
 neigliborhood. You need not fear to give 
 him your confidence; he will not betray 
 you, neither will he poison you with drugs, 
 but give you some simple medicine, and 
 the real benefit w^ill be his sympathy and 
 his words of encouragement. But again I 
 affirm that not one drop or grain of medi- 
 cine is needful in the treatment of seminal 
 weakness. Dr. Kellogg tells of a quack 
 who advertised himself as a returned mis- 
 sionary from South Africa, and who of- 
 fered a free recipe for the cure of seminal 
 weakness. The insured ients could not be 
 found in the drug store, and tire swindler 
 intimated in his pamphlet that in case a 
 local druggist could not put up the prep- 
 aration he would supply it at |3.50 a pack- 
 age. AVhen some time ago this scoundi'el 
 died he was found to be worth half a million 
 dollars, and it was also ascertained that he 
 was neither a missionary nor a clergyman, 
 and had ad vertised under an assumed name. 
 
Bf ' 
 
! 
 
 m 
 
 m 
 
A WRECK ESCAPED. 
 
 143 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 A WRECK ESCAPED, 
 
 I DEEM it desirable at this stage of the 
 discussion to introduce a short chapter on 
 the continence of young men, and in that 
 phrase I include the continence of all un- 
 married men. Webster says: "Content 
 without lawful venery is continence ; with 
 out unlawful, is chastity." But just now 
 I use the word continence in the sense of 
 abstinence from all sexual indulgence, and 
 from self-abuse as well. I do not speak 
 of conjugal continence, as I propose to 
 deal with that subject in a subsequent 
 publication. 
 
 I. ; 
 
 IS CONTINENCE POSSIBLE ? 
 
 At the outset we are met by this perti- 
 nent question : Is continence possible ? Can 
 
f 
 
 144 MANHOOD: WRECKED AND RESCUED. 
 
 a well-sexed and liealtliy young man live a 
 cLaste and continent life from the age of 
 puberty to the time of marriage, which 
 may not take place before his thirtieth or 
 even his fortieth year? 
 
 Let it be remend)ered that the sexual 
 appetite is the strongest in our nature ; 
 there is no other appetite to compare with 
 it ; and herein we see the wisdom and 
 goodness of God, for if it Avere not strong 
 beyond compare the human race would 
 soon become extinct. Witness the 
 wretched devices of modern society to pre- 
 vent conception and thus escape the trou- 
 ble and expense of raising a family ; but 
 in spite of all these the population of the 
 Avorld is maintained, although in some 
 localities these devices are blotting out 
 the native population, and handing the 
 country over to foreigners. I simply note 
 the fact tliat the sexual appetite is super- 
 latively strong, and may well evoke the 
 
A WRECK EFiCA PRD. 
 
 U.* 
 
 question, Is continence outside of wed- 
 lock possible ? 
 
 The first answer to this question comes 
 with an emphasis which startles, and it 
 comes from a thousand lips : " No, it is not 
 possible, and not one young man in a hun- 
 dred lives a continent life ; he either vis- 
 its the house of shame, or keeps a paid 
 woman, or practices masturbation, and in 
 this way keeps his passion down." 
 
 Now I most emphatically deny that 
 statement. It is a libel against God, who 
 never created a human being with an un- 
 governable appetite or passion. It is a 
 part of the discipline of life to grapple 
 with and bring into subjection every part 
 of our animal nature. Paul said, " I keep 
 undt . my body, and bring it into subjec- 
 tion ; " and it is the glory of man that he 
 can. do this. 
 
 There are thousands upon thousands of 
 
 young men who live a pure, chaste, and 
 JO 
 
140 .VANiroOD: WliECh'hW AND nKSaUED. 
 
 
 continent life. They have esscaped the 
 perils of masturbation and fornication he- 
 cause they were early instructed and cau- 
 tioned. It is only when a man gives license 
 to his passions that they become regnant 
 and lead him captive at their will. When 
 you hear one declare that no unmarried 
 man can live a continent life, and that in 
 fact all young men have sexual intercourse 
 occasionally before marriage, you may set 
 that man down as an impure man. He 
 judges others by himself; he associates 
 with young men like himself, snaps his 
 fingers and curls his lip, and says, " They 
 ail do it." He is a liar, and libels thousands 
 of pure men who would sooner pluck out 
 the right eye than defile themselves by il- 
 licit intercoui'se. 
 
 Human nature is sufficiently degraded, 
 and sensuality is sufficiently rampant, but, 
 thank God, all are not vile and impure. 
 There are thousands of men who never 
 
 r 
 
■"^1 
 
 .1 WRECK ESCAPED. 
 
 147 
 
 il- 
 
 r 
 
 know what sexual intercourse is until mar- 
 riage, and who struggle lieroically against 
 tlieir passion and concjuer manfully. There 
 are well-sexed men who never many and 
 yet live a pure, chaste, continent life to the 
 day of their death. But if a young man 
 give reins to his imagination, and associate 
 Avitli vulgar, foul-mouthed companions, 
 whose conversation is principally about 
 women, no wonder that he cannot control 
 his passion, for he is pouring oil on the fire 
 all the time. 
 
 AN0TIIP:K (ilJESTION. 
 
 Another practical (piestion arises at this 
 point, and is sometimes presented in this 
 form : When a young man makes every 
 honest effort to control his passion, but 
 fails, what is he to do ? Shall he resort to 
 masturbation, or seek connection with some 
 woman free from disease and \vho may be 
 willing to indulge him for money ? I an- 
 
 1 
 
 ,.\ 
 
11. -^ 
 
 I 
 
 Ik! 
 
 14R yrANlIOOD: WRKCKED AND ItKSCUED. 
 
 suer, he must do neither the one nor the 
 other. Let us, first of all, understand what 
 he means when he declares that he has 
 made every honest effort to control his pas- 
 sion. The Avhole question of diet, recrea- 
 tion, amusements, literature, companions, 
 manner of life and habits of thought, is in- 
 volved in an honest effort to control desire 
 and live a virtuous life. But just now I 
 invite attention to the testimony of a few 
 scholarly men who have made sexual sci- 
 ence a specialty, and w^.lJ, while they rec- 
 ognize the tremendous power of sexual lip- 
 petite in some temperaments, do not hesitate 
 to assure \u that this powei"ful appetite 
 may be subdued, regulated, and con- 
 trolled. 
 
 I begin with the sentiments of Dr. Kel- 
 logg: "It would be just as reasonable to 
 offer the appetite for liquoi as an apology 
 for its use, and a good evidence of the 
 physiological necessity for alcoholio stimu- 
 
A WRECK ESCAPED. 
 
 MO 
 
 laiits, as to tin'ue that sexual miliil<xence 
 
 7 O 
 
 is a physiological need for the iucliv^idual, 
 whereas no such necessity exists unless pro- 
 duced by erotic thoughts or other condi- 
 tions within the individual's own control, 
 or by morbid and diseased conditions, and 
 which will be a^iji-ravated rather than re- 
 lieved by the gratification of the desire for 
 indulgence/' 
 
 In the next place we have so high an 
 authority as Mayer declaring that : " At the 
 outset the sexual necessities are not so un- 
 conti'olled as is generally supposed, and 
 they can be put down by a little energetic 
 will. There is, therefore, as it appears to 
 us, as much injustice in accusing nature of 
 disorders which are dependent upon the 
 genital senses badly directed as there 
 would be in attributing to it a sprain or a 
 fracture accidentally produced." 
 
 And then we have the testimony of 
 that distinguislied Englisli physician, Dr. 
 
 
loO MANHOOD: WRECKED AND RESCUED. 
 
 Acton, who gives liis personal experience 
 for tlie encourai^cemenfc of others. He 
 
 says : 
 
 4/ 
 
 " You may be surprised by the statement 
 I am about to make to you, that before my 
 marriage I lived a perfectly continent life. 
 During my university career my passions 
 ■were very str(jng, sometimes almost uncon- 
 trollable, but I have the satisfaction of 
 thinking I mastered them. It was, however, 
 by great efforts. I obliged myself to take 
 violent physical exertion. I was the l)est 
 oar of my year, and when I felt particu- 
 larly strong sexual desire I sallied out to 
 take my exercise. I was victorious always, 
 and I never connnitted fornication. Yovi 
 see in what vigorous health I am ; it was 
 exercise that saved me." 
 
 Dr. Carpenter says : '' Try the effect of 
 close mental application to some of those 
 ennobling pursuits to which your profes- 
 sion introduces you, in combination with 
 
 Mii. 
 
A WRECK ESCAPED. 
 
 m 
 
 vigorous bodily exercise, before you assert 
 that the appetite is unrestrainable antl act 
 upon that assertion." 
 
 A DISGRACE TO TIIP: PROFESSION. 
 
 If all medical luen were as wise and 
 honest as these witnesses, it would be a 
 blessing to society ; but it is a lamentable 
 fact that there are men bearing the 
 diplomas of respectable medical colleges, 
 but who are utterly devoid of moral 
 principle, who actually encourage their 
 patients to gratify their desires outside of 
 wedlock. I have had sad cases brought 
 under my own observation ; young men 
 deeply convicted of sin have confessed to 
 me that for months and years they have 
 aiyain and ascain committed fornication on 
 the advice of a doctor. The doctor has 
 told them that inasmuch as the Creator 
 has implanted these desires he intends 
 their gratification, and therefore it is Law- 
 
^•.nivuF^wm^ 
 
 iiim-'i 
 
 1.V2 MANHOOD: WRECKED AND MEHGUED. 
 
 fill to keep a woman for this purpose, 
 only be sure that she is not contaminated 
 by disease. The penitentiary is too good 
 a place for such creatures, and medical 
 councils ought to expel them, as a disgrace 
 to the profession. 
 
 Dr. Dio Lewis deals out merited rebuke 
 to these scoundrels when he says: "There 
 is a vast deal of loose and most reprehen- 
 sible gabble among doctors of a certain 
 class about the dictates of nature. In 
 the case under consideration they will 
 shake tlieir wise heads, and draw down 
 tlieir lionest faces, and talk solemnly of 
 following nature — that nature knows 
 what she is about. I know^ one of this 
 fraternity, doing a large and very profit- 
 able business (to himself), who constant- 
 ly advises young men to keep a mis- 
 tress, and gravely warns them against 
 the clanger of accumulation of semen, 
 which may attack the brain. Is there 
 
A WRECK ESCAPED. 
 
 15:] 
 
 no Lnv Ly wliicli such miscreauts may 
 be suppressed ? " 
 
 DIET AND EXERCISE. 
 
 If a young man would subdue and I'egu- 
 late liis passions he must attend to liis diet 
 as well as exercise. Strong drink, even in 
 its mildest forms, inflames tlie passions, 
 and tobacco is only second to strong drink, 
 and both should be rigidly abstained 
 from. All rich and highly seasoned foods 
 must be avoided. With proper diet and 
 bathing, constant employment or hard 
 study will consume the vitality which 
 each day supplies, keep the mind free 
 from lascivious thoughts, and make sleep 
 sweet and refreshing. 
 
 Add to all these right conceptions of the 
 purity and dignity of womanhood. It is 
 true that some women are giddy and 
 foolish, some are loose and immoral, and 
 the market is always full of Avretched 
 
 i \\ 
 
I 
 
 ^ 1 * 
 
 11 
 
 154 MANHOOD: WRECKED AND RESCUED. 
 
 creatures willing to sell body and soul 
 for money; but women are not half so 
 bad as men. Where is tlie young man 
 who would marry a woman who has lost 
 her vii*tue? Then why should you offer 
 your hand to a virtuous woman when you 
 have sinned against virtue? Where is 
 the husband who Avould live with his 
 wife if he knew that she admitted other 
 men to her embrace ? Then ^vliy should 
 he seek clandestine pleasure with other 
 women and still claim the confidence and 
 affection of his wife? 
 
 Womanhood is a pure and holy thing 
 until man seduces and ruins it. 
 
 J* MARRIAGE. 
 
 Mari'iage is a divine institution for the 
 propagation of the race, and for the natural 
 gratification of sexual desire. Paul says, 
 " To avoid fornication, let every man have 
 his own wife, and let every woman have her 
 
A WRECK ESCAPED. 
 
 15.-) 
 
 own husbaiul." Thiit does not teach that 
 marriage is a refuge house for lust. It simply 
 points to the fact that the sexual appetite 
 is to find its legitimate gratification only 
 in the marriage relation. 
 
 But some young man says, "I cannot 
 afford to marry ; I am not in a j)osition to 
 support a home. I am a student, and my 
 education is not completed. Must I 
 struggle on against these tormenting desires 
 which almost driv^e me crazy ? " 
 
 Shame on yoii ! What is your manhood 
 worth if, after the experience of Dr. Acton, 
 and after tlie rules here laid down for the 
 regulation of this passion, you still whine 
 out the complaint, "What can I do?" 
 Be a man. Drive out impure thoughts ; 
 avoid impure companions ; work hard ; 
 study hard ; and look forward to the 
 time when, with your business established 
 or your profession acquired, you may select, 
 as the companion of life's joys and sorrows, 
 
T" 
 
 I 
 
 m u 
 
 ! ) 
 
 lo6 MANHOOD: WRECKED AND RKSCUED. 
 
 some pure and noble woman to whom 
 you can bring a mind unpolluted and a 
 body unstained, and enjoy the pleasures 
 of the marriage relation in love and not 
 in lust. 
 

 THE RESCUE BEGUN. 
 
Nil' . 
 
THE HKSCUK BEG UN. 
 
 150 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE RESCUE BEGUN. 
 
 May I hope that the reader who has 
 fallen into the snares depicted in these 
 pages is now convinced that his conrse is 
 leading him directly to rnin, and that with 
 this conviction established he earnestly and 
 honestly asks the question : Is there rescue 
 from such a wreckage, is there a way back 
 to purity? My brother, there is, and I 
 now proceed to point it out. Listen : 
 
 " If the wicked will turn from all 
 his sins that he hath committed, and 
 keep all my statutes, and do that which is 
 lawful and right, lie shall surely live, he 
 shall not die. All his ti'ansgressions that he 
 hath committed, they shall not be mentioned 
 unto him : in his righteousness that he hath 
 done he shall live," Ezek. xviii, 21, 22. 
 
! I 
 
 ICO MANHOOD. WRECKED AND RESCUED. 
 
 That is God's \void of promise to every 
 sinner. But it is sometimes said that while 
 God forgives, nature never forgives. But 
 what is nature l)ut God in action ? Nat- 
 ural law is simply God's method of oi)era- 
 tion. Forgiveness in the moral realm may 
 ))e of a higher type than foi-giveness in the 
 natural realm, but they are both divine 
 foi'giveness. A man may, in consequence 
 of a course of dissipation, break down his 
 constitution, so that, for example, one lung 
 may be gone ; no repentance and foi'give- 
 ness can restore that lung, but the new life 
 which the man now lives will help him to 
 preserve the lung that remains. In all 
 cases of weakness and infirmity brought on 
 by violation of natural law, the moment a 
 man ceases to violate the law nature comes 
 to the rescue and begins the work of repair. 
 If nature does not forgive, as God forgives 
 in the moral sphere, she repairs and re- 
 stores. There is a merciful and restorative 
 
THE UKSCUE liEGUK 
 
 Hit 
 
 
 principle at work, and ready to coo[)erate 
 with man, in every dej)artinent of God's 
 natural and moral govei'mnent. The recu- 
 perative power of nature cannot be over- 
 estimated, and to the victim of seminal 
 weakness it is the very inspiration of hope. 
 
 I take it for granted that the facts set 
 forth in the preceding pages are sufficient 
 to deter the man who has not as yet en- 
 tered the house of the harlot or contracted 
 the habit of masturbation, but who may, 
 at times, be sorely tempted in one or the 
 other of these directions, or in both. 
 
 My bi'other, let me plead with you as 
 you value your health, your manhood, 
 your purity, resist the temptation. Fight 
 against it with the energy of an uncon- 
 querable will, and you ^vill come off victo- 
 rious. 
 
 But when I address myself to those 
 
 who have already yielded to the tempter, 
 
 and are now anxious to escape, I would 
 11 
 
 I * 
 
162 MANHOOD: WRECKED AND RESCUED. 
 
 speak words of sympathy and encoiirage- 
 iiieiit, for the enemy is a giant and you are 
 a weakling. Take the following as sam- 
 ples of a flood of letters whicli came pour- 
 ing in upon me during the delivei'y of my 
 addresses to men only, in St. James 
 Church in the autumn of 1892 : 
 
 " Montreal, Not. 38, 1892. 
 
 " Rev. W. J. Hunter, D.D.— 
 
 "Deau Sir: Since you have inaugu- 
 rated your Sunday evening talks to men I 
 have attended each one, and have been very 
 much struck with the able and lucid way 
 you have treated each subject. Now, sir, 
 I was specially struck last Sunday with 
 your address. It is perhaps humiliating 
 to confess, but I have been for years a 
 victim of the sin of mjisturbation ; the 
 consequence is that often work has become 
 distasteful ; and loss of energy. Will you 
 kindl}^ still further advise me as to the 
 
THE liEtiUUE BEOUN. 
 
 168 
 
 best method to atlo[)t to avoid a recurrence 
 of this evil, and also let me know if hy 
 discontinuing now a young man can regain 
 that lost vigor ? I do not wish you to be 
 put to the trouble of communicating with 
 me personally. Perhaps you will be kind 
 enough to enlarge on this subject next 
 Sunday night. 
 
 " Yours respectfully, 
 
 A AVOKD OF COMMENT. 
 
 Here is a letter written in a fine busi- 
 ness hand, and, as the style of composition 
 indicates, by a young man of good educa- 
 tion ; and yet, with a knowledge of the sin- 
 fulness and consecpiences of masturbation, 
 he is still a slave to it. Could there be a 
 greater proof of the tremenaous power of 
 this habit when once it has taken a firm 
 grip of its victim I Now to the question 
 of my correspondent, which is the (j[u 38tiou 
 
ii 
 
 10^ MANHOOD: WRKCKKD AND liKSCUlW. 
 
 asked by every man wlio seeks my advice, 
 " If ))y discontinuing now can a young 
 man regain his lost vigor ? " In answer 
 let me say that some men })ractice mastur- 
 bation for years and are not afflicted with 
 involuntary emissions. Why? because 
 they expend the semen as fast as nature 
 manufactures it, and not until thev wake 
 up to a consciousness of the fact that this 
 incessant drain upon vitality causes "loss 
 of energy " and makes " work distasteful " 
 do they resolve, if possible, to abandon 
 the hal>it. But no sooner do they carry 
 that resolution into practice than they find 
 themselves the victims of emissions durins; 
 sleep, and they go back to self-polhition 
 in oi'der to prevent involuntary emissions. 
 That is a fatal mistake. The emissions 
 are not a cause^ but an effect. The sinful 
 practice is the cause, and when the cause is 
 permanently removed, in due time the effect 
 will cease, because the source of supply is 
 
THE Itl'JSVUi: BEQVN. 
 
 105 
 
 cut off. Let me say, therefore, under no 
 circumstances must you revert to the prac- 
 tice which you have resolved to abandon. 
 Burn the bridges behind you and cut off 
 all possibility of retreat, and your ultimate 
 cure is as certain as the rising of to-morrow'« 
 sun if you carry out the directions given 
 in subsequent chapters of this book. 
 
 ANOTHER T.EITER. 
 
 Here is a communication that is tinged 
 with sadness ; for while it contains some 
 of the elements of genuine repentance it 
 lacks, to a large extent, the element of 
 liope : 
 
 "Montreal, Dec. 6, 1892. 
 
 " Dear Sir : I was present at your last 
 lecture to men, subject, ' The Solitary Vice.' 
 It was with much interest, and also sad- 
 ness, I heard you speak of what was meant 
 for me. At an early age I learned self- 
 abuse, and practiced it up to the age of 
 
I 1 
 i ■ I 
 
 160 MANHOOD: WRECKED AND RESCUED. 
 
 niueteeu. From nineteen to twenty-two 
 years of age I led an immoral life. No 
 doubt many of your congregation ^vould 
 say, if they heard this statement, I was a 
 foolish and vicious young man. Perha2)s 
 so, but I Fay to you, sir, my surroundings 
 at a public school were anything but good. 
 I emigrated alone to Montreal, and have 
 hardly any friends I can call friends here. 
 The church I was recommended to was a 
 fashionable church, and its minister and 
 congregation cared little if I went in or 
 out of its doors. Now I am more settled, 
 l)ut am a physical and mental wreck, and 
 can you blame me entirely, Dr. Iluntei' 'i 
 In conclusion I will say, I don't mind your 
 reading this out, as I know you Avould not 
 give me away, and it may help some 
 young fellow there from going to the same 
 excess as I did. 
 
 " I am, sir, yours respectfully, 
 
 
 u 
 
 V 
 
 i 
 
THE RESCUE BEGUN. 
 
 167 
 
 Tliei'e is indeed a tinge of sadness, al- 
 most despair, in this letter. As I approach 
 the end of a pastorate of thirty years in 
 large cities I feel most deeply that the 
 Church must direct her attention and her 
 energies more and more to the salvation 
 of the young. The great mistake of the 
 Church is in the erection of costly build- 
 ings, Avitli heavy debts and large current 
 expenses, and no funds for the employment 
 of qualified assistants. Every large city 
 church should have a man of age and ex- 
 perience devoted to pastoral work alone, 
 leaving the minister in charge to prepare 
 and deliver his sermons and superintend 
 the church ^vork in general. The man 
 devoted to the pastoral work would then 
 have time to find out and visit every 
 young man and woman in the congrega- 
 tion ; he would become their friend and 
 adv^iser, and the next generation would 
 be saved fi'om the pitfalls into which 
 
^ 
 
 168 MANHOOD: WItECKEI) AND RESCUED. 
 
 our young people are slipping in tliou- 
 simds. 
 
 But the great question for every man 
 who finds himself in the condition of my cor- 
 respondent is not, What contributed to my 
 fall ? but, How can I get up and be a man 
 again ? Do not despair. Do not say, No- 
 body cares for me. God cares for you, 
 cind if you are determined to lead a new 
 life you will soon find human hands 
 stretched out to help you and hunuin 
 hearts ready to sympathize with you. 
 
 STILL ANOTHER LETTER. 
 
 " MoNTiiEAi,, Nov. 23, 1803. 
 
 " Kev. Dr. Hunter — 
 
 " Dear Sir : I write this letter to thank 
 you foi" that grand address which you gave 
 to men on Sunday evening last. I am a 
 young man of t^venty-three years, and I 
 have been leading an immoral life ever 
 since I was eighteen years, and I have 
 
THE ItESCCE BEGUX. 
 
 Kill 
 
 I 
 
 tried to give it u}), Init O how liurd ! and 
 liovv many times T Imve fallen I am un- 
 able to tell. I went down on my knees 
 and prayed to God to give me the strength 
 to resist this evil hahit of sexual inter- 
 course, but the strong desire would over- 
 master me, and I would fall again and 
 again, until at last I gave up all hope of 
 ever mastering it. But on Sunday evening 
 I remained to hear your address to men, 
 and I have a resolution, God helping me, 
 to break this awful chain that is fast drag- 
 ging me to an early grave. I would ask 
 you to pray to God to give me the help 
 that I need to overmaster this demon. 1 
 ^vill be at your service next Sunday even- 
 ing to hear your next subject, God sj^ar- 
 ing me till then. T trust you will forgive 
 me for writing such a letter, but something 
 is telling me ever since Sunday evening 
 to do it. 
 
 "I remain, — 
 
 » 
 
i 
 
 no MANHOOD: WRECKED AND UESCUED. 
 A DIFFICULTY. 
 
 I am fully a^^'al•e of the difficult task 
 assuuietl when I promise you recovery 
 from an infirmity with which you have 
 grappled for years, and that, too, with- 
 out a grain or drop of medicine. If I 
 should announce the discovery of some 
 plant from which a medicine at five 
 dollars a bottle had been prepared for 
 the cure of all forms of seminal ^veak- 
 ness I could make a fortune in a year. 
 But when I })romise a cui'e without med- 
 icine you think it too good news to be 
 true. 
 
 I do not say that the effects of a long 
 course of self -abuse can be entirely blotted 
 out. You may never be the man you 
 Avould have been but for this practice, but 
 you may arrest the process of debility, 
 husband your remaining vitality, and add 
 to it as the years go by. 
 
TlIM RESCUE BEGUN. 
 
 171 
 
 NOT GOING TO DIE. 
 
 Settle it in your mind at the beginning 
 that if you see the sinfulness of self-pollu- 
 tion and determine to abandon it you are 
 not going to die from tlie effects of your 
 past misconduct. But do not men die of 
 this disease? Yes, they do, and hundreds 
 go to the lunatic asylum demented for life. 
 But you are not among that number if 
 you are alarmed at your present condition. 
 If you have intelligence enough left to 
 read and understand what I vviite you 
 need not die from the weakness engendered 
 by masturbation. No ; you are not going 
 to die if you " cease to do evil and learn 
 to do well." Banish your fears and say, 
 " With God's help I will be a man again." 
 That is the first victory in the battle for 
 life, the fii'st step back to purity, the first 
 note of the rescue song of manhood re- 
 gained. 
 
I ** .m»'"^ 
 
 1 72 MANlIOOn : WUKCKED AND UK.. • 
 
 I : ' 
 
 i 
 
 ll 
 
 A NOTI I K R 1) 1 1^' FIO ULT Y. 
 
 Another difticulty wliicli I desire to re- 
 mov^e at this stage is a difticulty growing 
 out cf the simplicity of the cure and the 
 treatment prescribed. 
 
 It is the old story over again. When 
 Elisha tlie prophet sent his servant out to 
 Naanian the Syrian and bade him go and 
 wash in Jordan seven times and his leprosy 
 would be cured, "Naamaii was wroth, and 
 went away, and said, Behold I thought, He 
 will surely come out to me, and stand, and 
 call on the name of the Lord his God, and 
 sti'ike his hand over the place, and recover 
 the leper." He could believe in Elisha's 
 touchy but staggered at his simple tvord. 
 kSo it is with you. Pills, powders, galvanic 
 belts, vacuum appliances — something with 
 a liigh-sounding name and an air of mys- 
 tery about it — O, how you clutch at 
 these, and throw a^vay your money for 
 
 
THE JiEJSCUE BE GUN. 
 
 1 1 •> 
 
 that wliicli is iiotliiiig aiul worse tliaii 
 
 notliiiig! 
 
 CUT LOOSE FROM CIIAULATANS. 
 
 I ask you, therefore, at the outset, to cut 
 loose from charhitaiis. Do not read their 
 advertisements in the newspapers; bui'u 
 their pamphlets as fast as they come to you ; 
 save your money and your life. I am not 
 a crank ; when I have sickness in my 
 family I call in a doctor, but seminal weak- 
 ness needs no medicine. 
 
 Dr. Kellogg says : " If drugs, ^^r se, will 
 cure invalids of any class, they are certainly 
 not satisfactory in this class of patients. 
 The whole materia medica affords no root, 
 herb, extract, or compound that, alone, 
 will cure a pei'son suffering fi'oni emissions. 
 Thousands of unfortunates have been 
 ruined by long-continued drugging." 
 
 Dr. Dio Lewis was not a man to trifle 
 with suffering humanity; he was a scholar 
 
 ii!^ 
 
174 MANIWOJ): WltHCKED AND liKSVUKlK 
 
 and a geiitleiiiaii, and stood in tlie front 
 rank of liiy profession. Tlicse are liis^ 
 words anent the sulgect now before lis: 
 "The vdctinis of sperniatorrhcea nmst not 
 hope for relief in the use of medicines, but 
 must seek restoration in determined absti- 
 nence from all sexual indulgences and 
 lil)idinous fancies, conjoined to a faithful 
 observance of the laws of health. One of 
 the obstacles to cure in this common and 
 afflicting malady is the notion that the 
 disease may be got I'id of by opening the 
 moutli and swallowing medicine. The 
 patient cannot understand you when you 
 assure him that he must cure himself. All 
 the specific medicines, patent rings, cauteri- 
 zations, etc., are each and all a deception 
 and a snared'' 
 
 Now I ask you to ponder this testimony. 
 It comes from the heart and head of an 
 honest man — a man who made sexual sci- 
 ence a special study, and who might have 
 
THE llESCUE liEGUN. 
 
 173 
 
 filled his pockets with thousands of dolhirs 
 every month, by imposing on the cicdulity 
 of the suffering ; but he scoined to do so, 
 and accepted only the usual consultation 
 fee, and told his patients to live in harmony 
 with the laws of nature. 
 
 There is, in many cases, great benefit in 
 consulting a respectable })hysician, but the 
 benefit lies in the fact that while he may 
 give you some harmless medicine he will 
 encourage you to cultivate pure thoughts, 
 and teach you how to live, and this will be 
 worth far more than his medicine. 
 
 IS 3[AKIUA«E A CUKE? 
 
 Every man who has given me his con- 
 fidence and sought my advice has asked 
 this question. As preparatory to a direct 
 answer, and as a further protest against 
 the vicious advice of unprincipled or ig- 
 norant physicians who recommend illicit 
 intercourse as a remedy for seminal 
 
! 'i 
 
 17G MANIKjOD: WRECKED AND RESCUED. 
 
 emissions, I append some testimonies addi- 
 tional to tliose given in a former chapter: 
 
 " In all solemn earnestness T pi'otest 
 against such false treatment. There is a 
 terrible significance in the \v'ise man's 
 words, ' None that go to her return again, 
 neither take tliey hold of the path of life/ " 
 — Dr. Alton. 
 
 " It may cause a diminution in the 
 nund)er of emissions, but this is only a 
 delusion; the semen is still thro\vn off; 
 the flame still continues to be exhausted ; 
 the genital organs and nervous system 
 are still harassed by the incessant tax, 
 and the p'ltient is all the while lay- 
 ing ^he foundation of impotence." — Dr. 
 Milton. 
 
 ''In i)ur?uinii: tliis course, one form of 
 emission is only substituted for another at 
 the best; but more tlian this, an involun- 
 tary result of disease is converted into a 
 voluntary sin of tlie Ijlackest character. 
 
 /.M^' 
 
TUE RESCUE HEQUK 
 
 177 
 
 a 
 
 
 a crime in which two participate, ajid 
 wliich is uot ouly an outrage iij)()ii na- 
 ture, but against morality as welh" — Dr. 
 Kellogg. 
 
 "It is hardly credible, and yet .*t is 
 true, that there are medical men of re- 
 spectability who do not hesitate to advise 
 illicit intercourse as a remedy for mastur- 
 bation. In other words, they destroy two 
 souls and bodies under pretense of saving 
 one. No man with Christian pi'incii)le, or 
 even with a due respect for the common- 
 wealth, can approve for a moment such a 
 course as this." — Dr. Napheys. 
 
 Now, all this may throw some light on 
 
 the (paestion of marriage as a remedy for 
 
 seminal emissions, and yet we enter a veiy 
 
 wide field when we touch this (juestion. 
 
 There are marriages, nud marriages. 
 
 There are marriages which contemplate 
 
 oidy a good settlement in life, and all 
 
 such ai'e a pi'ostitution of a holy institu- 
 12 
 
178 MANHOOD: WHECKED AND RESCUED. 
 
 tion to a most unworthy eud. There are 
 marriages which are the outcome of mere 
 ahiiual love, and such a marriage is the 
 worst possible thing for one afflicted with 
 seminal weakness. It giv^es license to his 
 passion, and in excess of riot he hastens to 
 the grave, ruins the health of his wife, and 
 entails weakness and disease on his off- 
 spring, if, indeed, offspring I'esult from 
 such a marriage. 
 
 But I have known a good many men 
 afflicted with emissions, and ^vho have 
 married pure, virtuous women, the mar- 
 I'iage being the result of soul love, and 
 who have been moderate in marital rela- 
 tions, and mari'iage has made men of 
 them. So that while I would pronounce 
 it wrong and perilous for one with pro- 
 nounced seminal ^v^eakness to marry, yet a 
 man with emissions which do not mate- 
 rially affect his general health will find in 
 marriage a help and a safeguard. 
 
 •i«Juii«4oiiJi«iaM;«w*(l- , 
 
THE RESCUE BEGUX 
 
 179 
 
 men 
 luive 
 nuir- 
 and 
 rela- 
 u of 
 unce 
 pro- 
 yet a 
 mate- 
 nd In 
 
 BACK TO PARTICULARS. 
 
 We are speaking of the rescue from 
 self-abuse. I have given as the first direc- 
 tion, that you cut loose from charhitans 
 and quacks ; and now I give as the second 
 direction — nay, demand as a condition of 
 recovery — that you promise and resolve, 
 by the help of God, that you will abandon 
 at once and forever the habit of mastur- 
 l)ation, and that you will forego all illicit 
 intercourse. I have no prescription for 
 the vile and al)andoned, who desire resto- 
 ration to health and sexual vigor only 
 that they may again indulge their lusts 
 and passions. If you belong to this class 
 we part company right here. Close the 
 book or burn it ; there is nothing in it for 
 you. JVb poiver on earth o?' in heaven, 
 can save you until you abandon the cause 
 of your wrech Turn t.:; the fifth chapter 
 of Proverbs, and read it over and over 
 
yn I \r 
 
 '■ ; 
 
 180 MANUOOU: WRECKEl) AND RESCUED. 
 
 again. It is the sad, bitter experience of 
 Solomon. He speaks of the strange wom- 
 an, and dechires that " her feet go down 
 to death ; her steps take hold on hell." 
 He asks the question, "And w^hy wilt 
 thou, my son, be ravished with a strange 
 woman, and embrace the bosom of a 
 stranger?" And then follow two verses 
 containing a philosophy true as God, and 
 a law exact as gi-avitation : " His own 
 inicjuities shall take the wicked himself, 
 and ho shall V)e hohlen with the cords of 
 his sins. He shall die without instruc- 
 tion ; and in the greatness of his folly 
 he shall go astray." The words need no 
 comment. If a man will deliberately 
 cherish a habit whicli, by the operation of 
 a natural and necessary law, gathei's 
 strength and facility by repetition, he 
 puts himself beyond all help, human or 
 divine. 
 When I insist on the abandonment of 
 
THE RESCUE BEGUN. 
 
 181 
 
 or 
 
 of 
 
 the practice of masturbation as a necessity 
 to recovery your common sense assents to 
 the requirement. If you are subject to 
 bleeding at the nose, and if the blood al- 
 ways starts when you blow the nose vio- 
 lentl}", you will learn to treat the nasal 
 oro;an Avith tenderness and consideration. 
 
 Promise me, then, before we take an- 
 other step, promise in the name of mother, 
 sister, wife, God, and heaven, that you will 
 sooner cut off your I'iglit hand, and your 
 left one too, than again make them the in- 
 struments of an act so vile and polluting 
 and degrading. But j^ou say, " I will for- 
 get the promise, and break it when the 
 passion comes on." Very likely you will, 
 again and again, l)ut that is no reason why 
 you should despair and hesitate to renew 
 the promise. It is the renewal of the 
 promise and the reassertion of your man- 
 hood that will give you the victory at last. 
 And when for the first time you gain the 
 
'I 
 
 If 
 
 i 
 
 182 MANHOOD: WRECKED AND RESCUED. 
 
 mastery you will feel like a new man ; it 
 will give you new lioj^e ; it will elevate, 
 strengthen, inspire you. 
 
 IJE A COWARD. 
 
 Co^var(ls are usually despised, but it is 
 wise to be a coAvard sometimes and under 
 some circumstances. Better run out of the 
 back door and live tlian face an armed 
 bura^lar at the front door and die. "A 
 prudent man forcseeth the evil, and hideth 
 himself; but the simple pass on and are 
 j)unished." 
 
 The man who is never a coward is a 
 fool. You have reason to be a coward in 
 the face of a passion which has mastered 
 you hundreds of times. And therefore I 
 say, run away from it if need be. If it 
 seize you in the daytiine,in leisure moments, 
 go out for a walk or visit a friend or go 
 to work. If the paroxysm come on in the 
 night, rise from your bed in a moment. 
 
THE RE8GUK BEGUN. 
 
 183 
 
 Do uot dally with the tempter ; in snni- 
 mer or winter, late or early, spring out of 
 bed in a moment, walk briskly across the 
 room a few times, bathe the parts in cold 
 water, and sit down and read a few pages 
 of this book. It is intended to be a friend 
 and companion to which you may turn for 
 sympathy and direction in the climax of 
 }'our embarrassment. 
 
 What if you do have a horrid dream 
 and a debilitating emission when you fall 
 asleep again ? Never mind that just now. 
 A\niat you have to settle is the resolute 
 determination that if you perish it \vill not 
 be by your own hand. One thing at a 
 time ; and a long step toward final rescue 
 lies in this — Hands off ! 
 
 BE A ]\[AN. 
 
 What is the distinguishing characteris- 
 tic of a man, that which separates him as 
 by a gulf from all other animal orders? 
 
184 MANHOOD: WRECKED AND RESCUED. 
 
 
 We say it is tlie gift of speech ; or ^ve say 
 it is the marvelous endowment of reason, 
 the ability to analyze and compare and 
 judge, the capacitj^to invent and improve; 
 the almost unlimited capacity to acquire 
 knowledge and apply it to the pi'actical 
 affairs of life. In a word, it is his higher 
 mental nature and his pui-ely spiritual na- 
 ture. I have said in a former chapter 
 that the sexual act is a mental as well as 
 a physical act. It is an act of the soul as 
 well as the body, and the I'elation between 
 soul and body is so intimate that tliey 
 constantly act and react on one another. 
 The intimate and mysterious connection 
 bet'veen soul and body is a factor which 
 cannot be overlooked in the discussion of 
 a subject like this. You sit at the table 
 very hungry, and have just commenced to 
 eat, Avhen a telegram is put into your hand 
 announcing the death of a dear relative, 
 and in a moment all relish for food is gone. 
 
p 
 
 THE RKSCUK BEGUN. 
 
 185 
 
 You watch at .tho hedt-lde uf a dying friend 
 and refuse to eat or sleep. 
 
 Now this phenomenon is most impor- 
 tant to the subject in hand. If you keep 
 your thought and imagination i)ure the 
 demon of sensuality can have no power 
 over you. Di*. Dio Lewis says : "Where 
 one person is injured by sexual commerce 
 many are made feverish and nervous by 
 harboring lewd thoughts. Rioting in vis- 
 ions of nude women may exhaust one as 
 much as an excess in actual intercourse. 
 Tliere are multitudes who would never 
 spend the niglit witli an abandoned female, 
 but who rarely meet a young girl that their 
 imaginations are not busy with her person. 
 This species of indulgence is well-nigli uni- 
 versal, and it is the source from which all 
 other forms, the fountain from which tlie 
 external vices spring — the nursery ox mas- 
 turbation and excessive coitus. I am sur- 
 prised to find how little is said about it. 
 
 
186 MANHOOD: WltECKED AND RESCUED. 
 
 I Inive looked over many volumes on sex- 
 ual abuses, but do not recall a single 
 earnest discussion of this point. Believing 
 that this incontinence of the ima2:ination 
 woi"ks more mischief than all other forms 
 of evil — that, indeed, it gives rise to all the 
 rest — I am astonished that it has received 
 so little attention. All overt sins and 
 crimes begin, we know, in the thoughts or 
 imagination. A young man allows him- 
 self to conjure up visions of naked females ; 
 these become habitual and haunt him, 
 until at last the sexual passion absorbs not 
 only his waking thoughts but his very 
 dreams." 
 
 A COVENANT WITH THE EYES. 
 
 As a general rule, and at thefii'st, temp- 
 tation comes to us from without and 
 through the senses. Thus it came to Eve. 
 She " saiv that the tree Avas good for food, 
 and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a 
 
THE RESCUE BEG UK. 
 
 187 
 
 tree to be desired to make one wise," aud 
 " she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat." 
 The temptation came through tlie eyes. Tn 
 tliis way temptation came to David in the 
 case of Bathsheba. He saw the beautiful 
 woman in a state of nudity taking a bath, 
 and instead of turning his eyes in another 
 direction lie gazcnl on, till a spark of pas- 
 sion wrapped his soul in a flame of lust, 
 and the strong man fell and lay prone. 
 
 OLD-TIME PJIILOSOniY. 
 
 No one can doubt that Job was a phi- 
 losopher. Ilis knowledge of the laws of 
 nature, and of luen and things, is a marvel 
 to the diligent student of his wonderful 
 utterances There are some remarkable 
 verses in the thirty-first chapter of the book 
 which hears his name. In verse 1 he says, 
 " I made a coN-enrait with mine eyes ; why 
 then should I think upon a maid ? " In 
 verses 9-12 he says; "If mine heart have 
 
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 188 MANHOOD: WRECKED AND RESCUED. 
 
 l)eeii deceived by a woman, or it* 1 Lave laid 
 ^vait at my iieiglibor's door ; then let my 
 wife grind unto another, and let others 
 bow down upon hei'. For this is a heinous 
 crime ; yea, it is an iniquity to be punished 
 by the judges. For it is a fire that con- 
 sumeth to destruction, and would I'oot out 
 all mine increase." 
 
 He speaks like an expert who has stud- 
 ied physiology and sexual hygiene. He 
 speaks of illicit intercourse as " a heinous 
 crime." It inflicts the deepest wound ; it 
 destroys virtue and home ; it covers two 
 souls with shame and dishonor, and is well 
 termed a heinous crime. He speaks of a 
 double punishmeut due to this crime : first 
 that of civil law, and secondly that of nat- 
 ural law. " It is an iniquity to be pun- 
 ished by the judges." Among the Jews it 
 was a capital crime in some of its forms, 
 and in all civilized nations it is an offense 
 against law and order. As a sin against 
 
^mmmmmtm 
 
 THE RESCUE BEOUK. 
 
 m 
 
 nature he calls it a " fire that consumeth 
 to destruction, and would root out all 
 mine increase." How full of raeanincj these 
 words are, and how ti'ue to nature ! Sen- 
 suality is a fire that consumes health, hap- 
 piness, home, family, and at last the soul 
 itself in eternal perdition. 
 
 But I ask you to note specially Job's 
 I'ecipe for chastity : " I made a covenant 
 with mine eyes ; why then should I think 
 upon a maid ? " He recognizes the eye as 
 the inlet of lust. We have seen that Eve's 
 looking at the forbidden fruit let sin into 
 the world and laid the family of man be- 
 neath the curse ; David's looking at Bath- 
 sheba let sin into his heart and culminated 
 in murder and adultery. Lot's wife looked 
 back on Sodom and perished, and Dinah's 
 idle curiosity to see the heathen women 
 cost her the loss of her own virtue. The 
 eye is the inlet of lust and sin, and if you 
 would keep out evil thoughts and cherish 
 
 17 
 
100 MANHOOD: WRECKED AND RESCUED. 
 
 good ones you must make a covenant with 
 yo'ar eyes that you will not look upon any 
 thing that is immodest or impure. 
 
 A 3UG CONTRACT. 
 
 Now that is a big contract. It covers 
 impure literature ; it covers many dramatic 
 representations ; it covei-s many of the so- 
 cial manners and customs of our modern 
 society. This book is not written as a 
 critic and judge of society in general, but 
 I shall not be deterred from expressing 
 the conviction that the social customs of 
 society need a radical reformation if fol- 
 lowing generations are to grow up pure 
 in thouglit and virtuous in life. Woman 
 ought to prize what Christianity has done 
 for her, bat when woman appears in so- 
 called full dress she appeals to passions in 
 the opposite sex which must respond so 
 long as human nature is human nature. 
 Many of the plays put upon the boards of 
 
mm 
 
 THE RESCUE BEGUK 
 
 191 
 
 modern theaters, and the costumes of the 
 actresses, are a direct appeal to man's pas- 
 sional nature, and make masturbators, lib- 
 ertines, and fornicators of thousands of 
 young men, while the round dances of so- 
 ciety have a tendency in the same direc- 
 tion. 
 
 The posters which adorn the fences and 
 bill-boards of our cities and towns are, in 
 many instances, an insidt to every instinct 
 of modesty, and even the pictures in some 
 of our society papers are an outrage on 
 modesty. The novels which abound with 
 sensational love stories, elopements, and 
 betrayals add fuel to sexual passion and 
 set it on fire of hell. 
 
 To all these the eye becomes the inlet 
 of lust and passion, and if you would get 
 back to purity you must make a covenant 
 with your eyes that you will not look 
 upon anything that begets impure thoughts 
 or awakens impure desires. 
 
1 i I 
 
 
 I ! 
 
 Iii2 VAXnOOI): WUECKET) AND RESCUED. 
 AN AMULET. 
 
 And now I give you an amulet that you 
 may \vear near your heart in moments of 
 temptation. It is composed of five words 
 which I ask you to photograph on heart 
 and memory and repeat over and over 
 again ^vhen the paroxysm of passion as- 
 sails you : Mother — Sister — Wife — God 
 — Heaven. Pronounce these words, and 
 go to the embrace of a harlot if you can. 
 Pronounce these words, and betray an in- 
 nocent girl if you can. Pronounce these 
 words, and use the hand of the mastur- 
 bator if you can. Nay, you cannot. You 
 v\ ill think of your own mother, wife, or 
 sister, and say, " God forgive me ! " and 
 once more you will gain the mastery and 
 say, " Hands off ! " 
 
 
 PERSEVERANCE. 
 
 You must not expect to be cured in a 
 week or a month ; pei'liaps not in a year. 
 
THE RESCUE BEGUN. 
 
 193 
 
 That will depend on the progress which 
 the disease has made, and the resolution 
 and determination with which you address 
 yourself to the work of restoration. But 
 do not be discouraged. Consider for how 
 many years you have outraged nature^s 
 laws and diminished her vital force, and 
 do not ask her to restore all tiiis in a 
 month. Consider how the parts affected 
 are irritated and inflamed, or weakened 
 and relaxed. Consider how your will 
 power is correspondingly weak, and your 
 resolution enfeebled, and do not despair 
 at apparent delay in the improvement of 
 the symptoms. 
 
 The cure is as certain as if you had it in 
 your hand and could look at it this very 
 moment. Courage^ my hrotlier! 
 
 13 
 
'f;'' ■< 
 
 m' 
 
THE RESCUE CONTINUED, 
 

 M : 
 
 ■ili 
 
 ■— idfai 
 
THE ItESCllE CONTmUKl). 
 
 197 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE RESCUE CONTINUED. 
 
 Having begun tlie Avork of self-rescue 
 in earnest, you will be ready to continue it 
 if your resolution is such as I have dwelt 
 upon in the preceding chapter, but you 
 will not succeed without patient persever- 
 ance. And I'ight at this point lies your 
 danger. The man whose health is com- 
 pletely broken and wlio looks down into 
 his own grave, who is utterly unfitted for 
 work or business, is willing to do anything, 
 and spends his last dollar, if he can be as- 
 sured of restoration to health. How care- 
 ful he is in the matter of diet and exercise, 
 jind with Avhat fidelity does he carry out 
 the directions of his physician ! But you 
 are not sick enough for that. You are 
 able to attend to your work or business, 
 
 i 
 
 
mi 
 
 108 MANHOOD: WHECKED AND H^SCUEI). • 
 
 or to pursue your studies after a fashion, 
 thougli you do sometimes feel dead and 
 alive, and live under the shadow of a great 
 fear. And the danger is that as soou as 
 you find vitality and sexual power return- 
 ing you ^vill hasten to use them up again, 
 and not give nature a chance to reestablish 
 you in perfect manhood. Or, if you do not 
 go back to your old habits, you will grow 
 tired o'f living by rule, relax your efforts, 
 and arrest the health-restoring process. 
 This would be a great blundei*, for not 
 only do I insist on the conditions and 
 recpiirements of the last chapter, but now 
 proceed to give some further counsel and 
 directions. 
 
 We have seen that excesses of this 
 nature produce an irritation and engorge- 
 ment of the parts, on the one hand, or an 
 extreme relaxation, on the other hand. 
 There is also a derangement, more or less 
 marked, of the entire nervous system, oc- 
 
»■ 
 
 THE RESCUE CONTINUED. 
 
 lUU 
 
 casioned by the expeuditure of uerve fluid 
 or semen which ought to be reabsorbed 
 and taken into the circulation to impai-t 
 strength and vitality. 
 
 IMPERATIVE. 
 
 What is imperative, therefore, is the 
 avoidance of anything and everything 
 which has a tendency to provoke and keep 
 up nei'vous irritation. I would have you 
 note carefully the following facts: Noth- 
 ing but rest and nourishment can recover 
 a man from nervous exhaustion. By the 
 word rest I do not mean, in the case of 
 seminal emissions, idleness, or freedom 
 from useful employment, for work, study, 
 recreation, exercise, are of great importance 
 in all these cases. I speak now of a gen- 
 eral physiological law touching the nerv- 
 ous system in general ; and its applica- 
 tion to seminal weakness will be readily 
 perceived by the intelligent reader. The 
 
 Hi 
 
pi . 
 
 "•ncaeimaa 
 
 :!9RSi 
 
 
 1*1 
 
 200 MANHOOD: WRECKED AND RESCUED. 
 
 la^v and its rationale are clearly presented 
 by an eminent physiologist in calling 
 attention to the' difference between nei-vous 
 function and muscular power. He says : 
 
 " By frequent exercise the muscular sys- 
 tem increases in .strength, and decreases in 
 irritability; but the nei've force, by repeated 
 calls upon it, increases in irritability, but 
 decreases in strength. The more tVequently 
 sensation is evoked in a nerve the greater 
 is its sensitiveness and its debility. This 
 physiological law, first distinctly enunci- 
 ated by a celebrated French anatomist, is 
 constantly ovei'looked. From it we learn 
 that, in order to preserve in the gi'eatest 
 vigor and most perfect health any nervous 
 function, our aim should be to excite and 
 stimidateit as little cs possible. Nowhere 
 does this law find a r,iore striking illustra- 
 tion than in those functions which pertain 
 to sex. And the secret, therefore, of pre- 
 serving their activity to advanced Aears 
 
THE RESCUE CONTrNUED. 
 
 201 
 
 resolves itself into avoiding all stimulants 
 and excitants; to observe temperance and 
 discretion, to limit one's self in the use of 
 those articles of food or drink which by 
 stimulating ultimately debilitate, and to 
 govern one's life by sound laws of health 
 and morals." 
 
 That paragraph needs to be read and 
 studied with great attention, and if acted 
 upon in life it ^vill be worth more than 
 gold, in the length of days it will bring to 
 the man who observes it. The law is sim- 
 ple, and \ve know how true it is. Exei'- 
 cise increases the strength of the rniscular 
 system and decreases its irritability, but 
 exercise increases the irritability and de- 
 creases the strength of the ner\ous system. 
 This does not imply that the muscular sys- 
 tem can endure any amount of exercise, 
 for it may be broken down l)y hard work 
 or violent exercise. And on the other 
 hand it does not imply that no tax should 
 
 i: 
 
203 MANHOOD: WHECKED AND ItESCUEl). 
 
 be put upon the nervous system, for brain 
 and mind need exercise as well as bone and 
 muscle. But the general law is true with- 
 out exception : " The more frequently 
 sensation is evoked in a nerve, the greater 
 is its sensitiveness and its debility." This 
 is why worry and grief break men down, 
 and why incessant mental application 
 breaks men down, and why preachers and 
 statesmen who must appear so often before 
 the public are liable to break down from 
 nervous exhaustion. 
 
 Masturbation and excess in the marriage 
 relation are a tremendous strain upon the 
 nervous system, producing at once debility 
 and irritability. 
 
 TWO BAD HABITS. 
 
 I come now to speak of two bad habits, 
 one or the other of which — both in many 
 instances— is very often associated with 
 sexual perversion. I refer to the drink 
 
The rescue COnTINllED. 
 
 20:^ 
 
 . 
 
 habit and the tobacco habit, and the word 
 md is scarcely strong enough to fitly desig- 
 "Viate them. It would be more correct to 
 call them fatal habits, for, alas ! they are 
 fatal in thousands of instances, as is the 
 opium habit in all its forms. Alcohol is 
 said to possess stimulant, narcotic, and 
 nervine properties, and the same is said of 
 tobacco; but while alcohol is aid to be 
 also caustic and irritant, tobacco is said to 
 be sedative and anti-irritant. It is not dif- 
 ficult to distinguish betw'een a stimulant, 
 an irritant, a narcotic, a sedative, and a 
 nutrient. A stimulant increases the activ- 
 ity of the system, or of one or more parts 
 of it. A narcotic depresses nervous action 
 by its influence upon ti'« brain and spinal 
 marrow. An irritant causes heat, or in- 
 flammation, or pain. A sedative diminishes 
 the nervous, muscular, and arterial forces. 
 A nutrient nourishes by promoting growth 
 or repairing waste. Anything ^vhich 
 
uw«|iUUU 
 
 »WH! 
 
 iifr 
 
 304 MANHOOD: WUEGKED AND RESCUED. 
 
 creates an appetite for itself, or which 
 either irritates or depresses the nervous 
 system, is destructive of health and life. 
 But a nutrient never does this. You 
 never hear of a man becoming addicted to 
 the bread habit, the meat or potato or 
 fruit habit. Some j)eople prefer one kind 
 of food to another; they may eat this from 
 childhood, but it never creates what we 
 call a habit or an appetite. Not so with 
 alcohol, tobacco, opiimi, and the like. They 
 are not foods, but sedatives, narcotics, or 
 irritants as the case may be; they depress 
 and stupefy the nerves, or they excite them 
 and produce a momentary exhilaration, fol- 
 lowed by relaxation and exhaustion which 
 call for a repetition of the sedative or ex- 
 citant, and that, too, in gradually increas- 
 ing quantities. I have not met with a 
 work on seminal weakness which does not 
 prohibit strong drink in all its forms. 
 Even the quacks and charlatans prohibit 
 
THE HE S CUE CONTINUED. 
 
 205 
 
 liquor and tobacco, and furnish rules of 
 diet and bathing, and depend on these, 
 and not on the medicines they supply. 
 
 TOBACCO. 
 
 It is not probable that the reader will 
 stumble at these remarks about strong 
 drink, for all intelligent men know that it 
 is a great evil. But the tobacco question 
 is a more difficult one, for its use is so gen- 
 eral, and by all classes of the community, 
 including clergymen, physicians, professors, 
 and teachers. Its effects are not so imme- 
 diate and destructive, but, in spite of all 
 this, it is a great nerve destroyer, especially, 
 when used to excess or used at an early 
 period in life. 
 
 WHAT IS IT? 
 
 Let us see what tobacco is. Authorities 
 tell us that its active principle is a deadly 
 narcotic poison. The minute glands which 
 
 I HI 
 
 
PMiwia 
 
 ti3wn 
 
 i 
 
 206 MANHOOD: WRECKED AND RESGUKD. 
 
 (lot its surface contain a peculiar liquid 
 known as the essential oil of tobacco. It 
 is composed of a bitter, dark, resinous 
 extract, a volatile substance of peculiar 
 odor, and a transparent fluid alkaloid called 
 'nicotine. The leaf contains a large amount 
 of salts, consisting of chlorides, sulphates, 
 ammonium, malatesof potassium, and other 
 destructive elements. 
 
 In Brown's Elements of Physiology and 
 Hygiene we are told : " Tobacco is among 
 the most pow^erful of the narcotic poisons 
 which the vegetable kingdom affords. As 
 alcohol, is the active poison in all the 
 various forms of intoxicating drinks, so 
 nicotine is the exhilaratinsf; aojent in tobac- 
 CO, whether it be chewed, smoked, or taken 
 in snuff. Tobacco exerts its characteristic 
 influence on the intellectual faculties. Its 
 action is slow, and its exhilaration at any 
 time almost imperceptible ; but in a series 
 of years it works most disastrous conse' 
 
THE RESCUE CONTINUED. 
 
 207 
 
 quence*, impairing first the power of deci- 
 sion — the will power; after that the mem- 
 ory feels its effects, the finer moral feelings 
 are blunted, the mental perceptions are 
 impaired, and the whole mental fabric, 
 slowly undermined, falls into ruin. So 
 steady is its approach, so insidious its 
 march, that neither the victim nor his 
 friends suspect the cause of his feeble 
 health and failing mind; and even when 
 the faithful physician has the sagacity to 
 detect the cause, and the professional honor 
 to tell the whole truth without conceal- 
 ment, the chances are greatly against the 
 patient's being able to exercise self-control 
 enough to apply the proper remedy." 
 
 In the London Lancet Dr.Pidduck writes: 
 " In no instance is the sin of the fathers 
 more strikingly visited on the children 
 than in the sin of tobacco smoking. The 
 enervation, the hypochondriasis, the hys- 
 teria^ the insanity, the suffering lives and 
 
r 
 
 208 MANHOOD: WRECKED AND ItESCUED. 
 
 
 early deatlis of the cliildreii of inveterate 
 sniokei's bear ample testimony to the fee- 
 bleness and unsoundness of the constitu- 
 tion transmitted by this pernicious habit." 
 
 Dr. Gunn says : " Tobacco has spoiled 
 and utterly ruined thousands of boys ; in- 
 ducing a dangerous precocity, developing 
 the passions, softening and weakening the 
 bones, greatly injuring the spinal marrow, 
 the brain, and the whole nervous fluid." 
 
 Dr. Bremer writes in the Hartford 
 Journal of Inebriety, July, 1892: "All 
 observers agree that in our country many 
 conditions conspire to make us a nerv- 
 ous people, to produce what has been 
 styled American nervousness. This nerv- 
 ousness, in other words, means a weakness, 
 an instability, a vulnerability of the nerv- 
 ous system. Add to this the unquestion- 
 ably strong quality of the tobacco which 
 the taste of the American public exacts 
 from the manufacturer, and it becomes 
 
^i^^F 
 
 TITK UEFiCUE CONTINUED. 
 
 209 
 
 plain that there exist two cogent I'easons 
 why we should be on our guard against the 
 indiscriminate use of the article. French 
 medical observers are of the opinion that 
 one of the factors causing the dep()])ulati<)n 
 of Fi'ance is the excessive use of tobacco ; 
 for the offspring of inveterate tobacco con- 
 sumers are notoriously puny and stunted 
 in stature, and lace the normal power of 
 resistance, especially on the part of the 
 nervous system. Again, it is a significant 
 fact that an astonishing percentage of the 
 candidates for admission at AVest Point, 
 and other military schools, are rejected on 
 account of tobacco-heart. Some persons 
 labor under the delusion that tobacco in- 
 creases their working power, that the flow 
 of thought becomes easier, and that with- 
 out tobacco they are unable to do any 
 mental work. Instances are cited bv 
 themof great men, inveterate and excessive 
 tobacco consumers. They do not considev 
 
210 VAyrrooD: wrecket) Ayn nFJsruRD. 
 
 the possibility that these men accomplished 
 what they did in s[>ite, but not in conse- 
 quence of, or aided by, their halnt. There 
 is only one way to lessen the evil — it is the 
 dissemination of knowledge of the baleful 
 effects of tobacco among the rising gener- 
 ation, initiated and sustained by teachers, 
 clergymen, and physicians. Of course, they 
 ought to practice first what they are going 
 to preach." 
 
 now TO CUKE THE HABIT. 
 
 I have heard men say, " I can give it up 
 any day," and ten years afterward I have 
 heard these same men say, " I would give 
 a thousand dollars to be free from the 
 habit." If you can give it up to-day, I be- 
 seech you do so, for I know by experience 
 what a tremendous struggle awaits you 
 when you make the effort in earnest. Men 
 who have got free from the liquor habit 
 and the tobacco habit have assured me 
 
^■RPliP 
 
 mmmmmmfi 
 
 THE 11E8CUK CONTINUED. 
 
 211 
 
 that the latter was the most difficult to 
 master. Again and again the victim will 
 resolve to quit it forever ; he will fling a 
 l)lug of tobacco into the lane or into the 
 back yard, and in a day or two he will 
 search for it as for " hid treasure." 
 
 me 
 
 THE (iOLl) CTRE. 
 
 We hear a great deal about the gold 
 cure, the Gale cure, the German cure for 
 alcohol, opium, and tobacco. I can only 
 hope that they may prove effectual, for 
 the Avorld is full of men and women who 
 would give their last dollar to be free from 
 these awful habits. When the tobacco 
 habit is not one of long standing a resolute 
 determination of the will may enable a man 
 to break it ; but when it has grown for 
 years the strength of a Samson is needful 
 to break its iron fetters. 
 
 As a Christian and a minister of the 
 Gospel, and a firm believer in the efficacy 
 
212 MANHOOD: WliEGKKl) AND liEtiCUKD. 
 
 of prayer and in the almighty power of 
 God, I must here state my conviction, based 
 on personal experience, and on a most 
 extended observation, that when we are 
 brought into right rehitions with God we 
 shall find his grace sufficient to overcome 
 tliis and all other hal)its which we know 
 to be sinful and injurious. And I must 
 testify to the fact that thousands of men 
 have been rescued from this habit by re- 
 nouncing it in the name of God, and look- 
 ing to him for "grace to help in time of 
 need." But all men have not this faith, 
 and to such as have it not I recommend 
 
 THE GRADUAL CURE. 
 
 The gradual cure is a natural cure ; it is 
 coming out as you Avent in. One who has 
 had large experience in helping men to 
 get free from the tobacco habit quotes 
 the scriptural injunction, "Let hifu that 
 stole, steal no more," and proceeds to }*e- 
 
THE RESCUE CONTINUED. 
 
 213 
 
 l*e- 
 
 iiiiii'k : " That is good doctiiue in regard 
 to crime, but we are dealing with a physio- 
 logical c^uestiou, and with a habit gradu- 
 ally and ignorantly, and therefore in most 
 cases innocently, acquired. I'he craving 
 for the drug, whatever it may be, is not 
 moral, but physical, and always the habit 
 is gi'adually formed ; and the sure, and 
 natural, and easy, and permanent way to 
 become free from it is to go out of it as 
 we came in. No man at once becomes 
 a heavy smoker, chewer, snuffer, drinker, 
 or user of moi'phine or arsenic. Boys or 
 men see others smoke or chew, and they 
 will nibble moderately as a matter of social 
 imitation. It takes a whole year to form 
 a clamorous habit, and the amount used 
 is increased from week to w^eek. Mean- 
 while the nervous system gradually be- 
 comes able to bear it, and the habit is a 
 disease, and the nervous system is the 
 victim. I quit the use of tobacco sud- 
 
"5 it 
 
 m 
 
 214 MANHOOD: WRECKED AND RESCUED. 
 
 denly many a time, but only those who 
 have tried it can imagine the mighty 
 struggle, and the despondent and hopeless 
 desperation with which one tuins back to 
 his foe. If I were a user of tobacco now 
 I would adoj^t the gradual method of 
 quitting it. For more than thirty years 
 I have recommended to individuals the 
 gradual method w^hen I httd doubts it the 
 victim's strength of purpose, constitution, 
 and nerve were equal to the task, and 
 hundreds of cases have proved the virtue 
 of the prescription." 
 
 I accept that presentation as a rational 
 and physiological statement of the case. 
 
 HOW TO DO IT. 
 
 You are ready to ask, How shall this 
 method be reduced to practice ? My an- 
 swer is, Do not reduce it to j)rj,ctice at all 
 unless you are in dead earnest. You must 
 honestly desire to be free from the habit, 
 
PPPPPPHP 
 
 ■nil 
 
 THE RESCUE CONTINUED. 
 
 216 
 
 and you must make a covenant with your 
 manhood that you will conscientiously 
 obey the following directions : 
 
 If you smoke, count the number of 
 cigars or weigh the quantity of tobacco 
 consumed in a week, and then take off ten 
 per cent the first week, and the following 
 week ten per cent off the remaining ninety 
 per cent, and so on, week after week, and 
 when you come to the last ten per cent 
 you will throw it away and say, " I can do 
 without it altogether." Adopt the same 
 rule in regard to the quantity of tobacco 
 chewed in a week. Be in earnest; be 
 honest; do not waver, and your complete 
 and easy emancipation is as certain as the 
 rising of the sun and the flowing of the 
 tide. 
 
 WHAT TO EAT AND DKINK. 
 
 It is of vital importance that the system 
 be supplied with good, nourishing food. 
 
T 
 
 >}ili>lil 
 
 i4i 
 
 216 MANHOOD: WRECKED AND RESCUED. 
 
 The Iminnii body is composed of cells filled 
 with protoplasm, and these are constantly 
 breaking down and passing away, and are 
 replaced by new cells made out of the food 
 we eat. It is a matter of great importance, 
 therefore, to all people, sick or well, to 
 know what kind of food to eat, in order to 
 repair the constant waste going on. Every 
 thing taken into the circulation exerts an 
 influence, beneficial or harmful, on everv 
 part of the body in general, and on some 
 parts of it in particular. 
 
 Seminal weakness is a disease which 
 specially requires care and wisdom in 
 regard to food and drink. I am not a 
 crank on the diet question. Every thing 
 which God has given to man for food in 
 the vegetable and animal kingdoms is good 
 food in its proper season, in proper quanti- 
 ties properly prepared. This book may 
 fall into the hands of vegetarians; if you 
 find that you can sustain nature on a vege- 
 
THE RESCUE CONTINUED. 
 
 317 
 
 table diet I congratulate you ou that fact, 
 while I am of opinion that most persons 
 in northern climates require a meat diet as 
 well. God knew the requirements of the 
 human system under the changed condi- 
 tions of life after the flood, when he said to 
 Noah: "Every moving thing that liv^eth shall 
 be meat for yon ; even as the green herb 
 have I given you all things." Gen. ix, 3. 
 He did not mean that toads and reptiles 
 should be eaten, but that clean flesh meats 
 should be eaten as well as the green herb. 
 If the reader will consult the eleventh 
 chapter of Leviticus he will find a minute 
 inventory of AN'hat animal food may, and 
 what may not, be eaten ; and we shall find 
 it in the interest of good health to limit 
 ourselves to the meats allowed in that 
 inventory. Clean animals feed on grasses, 
 and animal tissues are similar in structure 
 and composition to those of the human 
 body, and why should we not let the ox 
 
218 MANHOOD: WRECKED AND RESGITBD. 
 
 with Lis enormous digestive power make 
 these tissues for us, rather than make 
 them for oui*selves ? 
 
 Dr. Forrest displays much sagacity when 
 he says : " Life is too short, and man's work 
 in the world is too important and pressing, 
 to spend unnecessary time and force in 
 changing the raw material into brain, nerve, 
 and muscle in deference to a theory. 
 These remarks apply specially to nervous, 
 sedentary people who have weak digestive 
 j)ower, on the one hand, and increased 
 demands on the nervous system, on the 
 other hand. They should take a mod- 
 erate (Quantity of concentrated, easily 
 digested, and easily assimilated food; in 
 other woi'ds, their diet should be largely 
 composed of meat and bread. Bread is 
 made from wheat, which contains in con- 
 centrated form all the elements necessaiy 
 to support life. Good meat, such as beef 
 and mutton, is a highly concentrated food, 
 
THE RESCUE CONTINUED. 
 
 219 
 
 very similar in character to the huiiiaii 
 tissues. Milk and eggs may be taken if 
 they agree. Fruit in season, in modera- 
 tion, and vegetables in small quantities are 
 not to be barred, unless dyspepsia be 
 present." 
 
 But in the case of strong sexual passions 
 meat must be eaten in small quantities, 
 and the starving j^rocess for a time will 
 prove highly beneficial. I do not mean 
 abstinence from all food, but a reduction 
 to the smallest possible quantity of plain 
 food sufficient to sustain nature. In cases 
 of seminal weakness eat in moderation 
 always, and let the evening meal be spe- 
 cially light. Oatmeal porridge and good 
 milk, dry toast and sweet buttei-, beef, 
 lamb, and mutton in small quantities, fresh 
 eggs, vegetables, and fruit, are all blood- 
 producing and health-giving foods. Fresh 
 fish and Graham bread may be added to 
 the list, but there must be persistent absti- 
 
 11 
 
wmar 
 
 220 MANHOOD: WRECKED AND RESCUED. 
 
 nence from pork and fat meats, and all 
 salted meats ; from rich pastries, stimu- 
 lating condiments, spirituous and malt liq- 
 uors. Drink pure water, and if hot put a 
 little milk and sugar in it. 
 
 EMPLOYMENT. 
 
 " Satan finds some misclilef still 
 For idle hands to do.'' 
 
 The solitary vice is most destructive to 
 those who have nothing to do. liCt your 
 every waking moment be filled up by 
 some useful employment or recreation. 
 If you are a farmer or a mechanic you will 
 be tired enough when the day's work is 
 done, and what you need is fii'st of all 
 to wasli and clean up, and then spend 
 an hour or two in the society of virtuous 
 men and ^vomen, or in reading some good 
 book. 
 
 If your work is in the office or the store, 
 and you have all the evening hours at 
 
THE UESCUE COXTTNUKD. 
 
 231 
 
 '^ 
 
 your disposal, it is of the utmost impor- 
 tance that they be filled up with study 
 or recreation. The society of virtuous 
 and intelligent ladies is much to be de- 
 sired. Innocent amusement should be 
 cultivated, some course of readino' 
 marked out and pursued ; walking, skat- 
 ing> gymnastic exercise— anything to keep 
 the mind preoccupied by good thoughts. 
 It was to the empty house, swept and 
 garnished, that the devil returned with 
 seven other devils worse than himself. 
 
 BATHING. 
 
 Bathing is always necessary in seminal 
 Aveakness. Let the water be warm, tepid, 
 or cold, as the system may prefer; a 
 full bath once a week if possible, and 
 a sponge bath night and morning, followed 
 by brisk rubbing with a coarse towel. 
 The Turkish bath is excellent in these 
 diseases, 
 
lit* 
 
 232 MANTTOOn: WRECKED AND RESCUED. 
 
 SLEEP. 
 
 Beware of late hours. Retire as early 
 as possible and sleep as long as you can ; 
 but if you wake early in the morning get 
 up and dress, and go to work, or read some 
 good book. You will sleep better next 
 night for the early rising. Do not fall 
 asleep again after "wakiug in the morn- 
 ing, for this second sleep is almost sure 
 to be attended by an emission. Never 
 sleep on a feather bed, but select a hard 
 bed and hard pillows, and let the covering 
 be as light as possible, barely enough to 
 keep you from catching cold. Do not lie 
 on your back, but on your side, the right 
 side being preferable. 
 
 THE FEAR OF GOD. 
 
 " The fear of the Lord is the beginning 
 of wisdom." Thousands of men have been 
 saved from drunkenness, from sensuality, 
 
THE liKSCUE CONTTNUED. 
 
 333 
 
 from sins of all kinds and degrees, through 
 faith in the Lord Jesus. TJiey have be- 
 come new men, and have lived and died 
 in the triumphs of Christian faith. 
 
 ** Ask the Saviour to help you, 
 Comfort, strengthen, and keep you; 
 He is willing to aid you, 
 He will carry you through," 
 
^■l 
 
 '. n 
 
 1 
 
 B- 
 
 
 i J 
 
 1: 
 
 
 ^■H^ '' 
 
 .1^^^ 
 
 HB^ 
 
 ' '^1 
 
 1 
 
 
 1 
 
THE RESCUE COMPLETED. 
 
 15 
 
" 
 
TIIK RESCUE COMPLETED. 
 
 227 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE REbt^LE COMPLETED. 
 
 In the last two chapters I have marked 
 out the path by which the erring one may 
 come back to purity and health, and be- 
 fore I proceed to indicate a simple natural 
 treatment by a simple natural element as 
 supplementary and auxiliary to all the 
 rest, suffer me once for all to set myself 
 right with 
 
 THE MEDICAL PROFESSION. 
 
 The science of medicine has reached a 
 very high standard in our day. In the 
 dissecting room and in the laboratory 
 every part of the human body is inspected 
 and analyzed ; and the man Avho attempts 
 to become his o^vn doctor is a fool. We 
 cannot afford to trifle with the delicate 
 
 m 
 
w^ 
 
 
 228 MANHOOD: WRECKED AND RESCUED. 
 
 mechanism of the bucly vvlieii it gets out 
 of order; and therefore I say again, if you 
 feel that you would like to have the ad- 
 vice of an educated physician, b}' all means 
 seek it, but do not put yourself into the 
 hands of medical companies and charlatans 
 w^iose advertisements you see in the news- 
 papei*s, or whose pamphlets reach }ou 
 through the mail. Consult a resident 
 physician; he will be honest with you, and 
 his charges will be reasonable. 
 
 But when I have said all this I do not 
 forget that medical works, like those on 
 theology, are within reach of all who de- 
 sire to read them. Every position assumed 
 in this book is fortified by expert medical 
 testimony, and none more strongly t.ian 
 the position that medicine is not required 
 in the uure of seminal emissions. I have 
 already given the testimony of distinguished 
 of the medical fj 
 
 membei 
 
 dty 
 
 point, and I take the liberty to add the 
 
THE RESCUE COMPLETED. 
 
 229 
 
 testimony of Dr. Jackson, of the Dansville 
 Sanitarium,* New York Stale, wlio is known 
 in every part of the world. His experi- 
 ence lias been long, varied, and extensive. 
 These are his words: 
 
 " There is no disease prevalent with our 
 young men which is so terribly destruct- 
 ive, because of its widespread blight and 
 blasting of prospects and of character, as 
 seminal weakness exhibitive of seminal 
 losses. I have given it the best thought, 
 under a very large practice, for investiga- 
 tion of its nature and its legitimate effects 
 on the human organism, and the best 
 means of overcoming it, and I am satisfied 
 that no plan of medication which involves 
 the taking into the circulation of anodynes^ 
 sedatives^ excitants^ or alteratives xoill meet 
 the necessities of the case. It has its origin 
 in bad hal)its of living, and while these 
 exist the causes exist; and v/hile these exist 
 it is impossible for any man, representing 
 

 230 MANHOOD: WRECKED AND RESCUED. 
 
 auy school of medicine, however skiLful 
 he may be, to make the effects cease. Only 
 by inducing the subject of it to return to 
 great simplicity in all his habits, and to 
 have a mucli larger proportion of these 
 strictly hygienic, can we hope to be effec- 
 tually rid of this teri-ible scourge. . . . 
 Without wishing to say anything deroga- 
 tory of the medical profession, I do dis- 
 tinctly declare my conviction that medi- 
 cines internally administered^ no matter hy 
 what physician, of whatever school, for this 
 disease will not produce a curative effect, I 
 do not believe that out of ten thousand or 
 more young men who have first and last 
 consulted me with a view to their deliver- 
 ance from this form of weakness, and their 
 possible restoration to health, there have 
 been a dozen who had not, before coming 
 to me, faithfully tried the specific remedies 
 offered them by physicians of almost all 
 the drug schools. In many instances the 
 
THE RESCUE COMPLETED. 
 
 231 
 
 medicines which they had taken served 
 only to intensify the morbid sensibility of 
 the genitals and to render their resumption 
 of normal action all the more difficult. 
 They Avce just so much worse than they 
 would have been had they taken no medi- 
 cine, as the effect of the medicines taken 
 had been sensibly felt. Every dose they 
 took, whether tinctures or powders, pellets 
 or pills, little or large, did them actual 
 damage. This experience, running over a 
 very wide field, has forced me to the be- 
 lief that for this form of debility drug 
 specifics are not demanded, but that suffer- 
 ers from seminal weakness should relate 
 themselves, by constitutional and functional 
 conditions, where their vital energies can 
 begin to work naturally, and after a while 
 reinstate natural relations between the 
 vital force and the organs whose general 
 and specific office it is to express that force 
 according to law." 
 
Illl^ 
 
 111 
 
 m 
 
 233 MANHOOD: WRECKED AND RESCUED. 
 
 Now I think 1 have sufficiently estab- 
 lished the position that medicine is not 
 needful to the cure of this disease. But, 
 on the other hand, I I'ecognize the fact 
 that nature may sometimes be assisted in 
 her efforts to return to a normal and 
 healthy condition. It will greatly assist 
 us to fix our attention for a moment on 
 
 THE PARTS AFFECTED 
 
 in seminal weakness. The leader vvlio is 
 at all acquainted with the anatomy of the 
 body will understand the intimate rela- 
 tion of the rectum to the bladder, the sem- 
 inal vesicles, and the prostate gland. It is 
 set forth very clearly by Holden in his 
 Landmarks., Medical and Surgical^ when 
 he says : " Many valuable landmarks may 
 be felt by introducing the finger into the 
 rectum, with a catheter at the same time 
 in the urethra. About one inch and a 
 half or two inches from the anus the 
 
 
 ■'^. 
 
THE RESCUE COMPLETED. 
 
 233 
 
 fiuger comes upou the prostate gland. 
 The gland lies in close contact with the 
 bowel, and can be detected by its shape 
 and hard feel. The finger moved from side 
 to side can examine the size of its lateral 
 lobes, their consistence and sensibility. 
 The finger introduced still farther can 
 reach beyond the prostate, as far as the 
 apex of the trigone of the bladder." 
 
 Now, this will help us in determining 
 at least one great difficulty to be removed 
 in the case of seminal emissions. Dr. 
 Kellogg observes that : " In males, one of 
 the most general physical causes of sexual 
 excitement is constipation. The vesicida 
 seminalis., in which the seminal fluid is 
 stored, is situated, as will be remembered, 
 at the base of the bladder. It thus has 
 the bladder in front and the rectum be- 
 hind. In constipation the rectum becomes 
 distended with faeces — effete matter which 
 should have been promptly evacuated in- 
 
 ■Ak'.' 
 
m 
 
 234 MANHOOD: WRECKED AND RESCUED. 
 
 stead of being allowed to accumulate. 
 This hardened mass presses upon the parts 
 most intimately concerned in the sexual 
 act, causing excessive local excitement." 
 
 Another authority says: "The prostate 
 gland is that bulb-like formation just ovei* 
 the anus or mouth of the rectum. See how, 
 when the rectum is engorged with excre- 
 mentitious matter, the gland and vesicles 
 are pressed. Unless the person so affected 
 is remarkably strong in these parts there 
 must be inevitably an involuntary exuda- 
 tion of both semen and prostatic fluid. 
 Especially must this be the case at stool, 
 when by straining this pressure is aggra- 
 vated. Then, too, when the anus becomes 
 irritated and inflamed by the straining 
 and f I'iction, the irritation is almost always 
 communicated to the prostate gland and 
 spermatic vessels, producing, or greatly 
 aggravating, involuntary nocturnal emis- 
 
 sions. 
 
 7? 
 
THE RESCUE COMPLETED. 
 
 235 
 
 Tliis rational explaiiatiuu ui one of the 
 primary causes, and a general aggravating 
 cause, of seminal emissions lets -u a flood 
 of liglit, and suggests a simple and nat- 
 ural method of treatment. The rectum 
 must be kept free from the accumulation 
 of faecal matter, and the bowels must be 
 kept in a condition of great regularity, 
 and in the meantime all irritation or in- 
 flammation of the parts must be sub- 
 dued. How shall this be done? Not 
 by swallowing pills and powders. There 
 is a more excellent way. For the cure 
 of constipation and the regulation of 
 the bowels the simple and natural treat- 
 ment is to take injections of warm water. 
 The water may be as wai'm as the hands 
 can comfortably remain in ; a little castile 
 soap may be rubbed into it, or if the con- 
 stipation be obstinate a little molasses 
 may be added. A common bulb syringe 
 "will answer the purpose, but a fountain 
 
236 MANHOOD: WRECKED AND RESCUED. 
 
 syringe, which any druggist can supply, is 
 preferable ; and you need not fear to inject 
 a quart, or even two quarts, if necessary 
 to produce an evacuation. A little diffi- 
 culty may be experienced at first, but per- 
 severance will soon overcome it, and you 
 will never again swallow pills to keep the 
 bowels in a condition of regularity. 
 
 SPECIAL FOR SEMINAL WEAKNESS. 
 
 But for seminal weakness, for piles, for 
 enlargement of the prostate gland, and for 
 irritation of the bladder, the treatment is 
 special, and a fountain syringe must be 
 used. 
 
 I have intimated that in these affections 
 there is irritation, inflammation, or engorge- 
 ment, on the one hand, or relaxation and 
 debility, on the other hand. And nothing 
 will so speedily and permanently remove 
 these symptoms as applications of warm 
 water. Such applications used externally 
 
THE RESCUE COMPLETED. 
 
 287 
 
 will remove the pain and swelling of a 
 bruise and prevent discoloration. But 
 how shall we apply this remedy internally ? 
 The answer is simple. Use the fountain 
 syringe ; let the water be reasonably w^arm, 
 but not so warm as that injected into the 
 bowels; each night l)ef()re retii'ing, or in 
 the daytime if not convenient at night, 
 allow two or three quarts to pass into the 
 rectum and flow out as quickly as it flows 
 in. A slight bearing down will cause it 
 thus to flow^ out, and in this operation a 
 constant stream of warm water is brought 
 in contact with the neck of the bladder, 
 the prostate gland, find the seminal vesicles. 
 The effect is most soothing and strength- 
 ening; it allays irritation, i-educes inflam- 
 mation, tones up relaxation, and keeps the 
 I'ectum free fi'om accumulations of effete 
 matter. I could fill pages with the grate- 
 fri acknowledgments of men who have 
 come to me on the verge of despair, and 
 
i 
 
 i ■ 
 
 iiik..:. 
 
 238 MANTTOOn: WRECKED AND RESCUED. 
 
 who, by a strict observance of the recom- 
 mendations recited in this book, have in a 
 few months rejoiced in perfect deliverance 
 from afflictions which made life a burden. 
 To those who live in towns and cities, 
 Avith closets in the liouse, there is no incon- 
 venience ; to those who live in the coun- 
 try, with outside closets, tliere need be but 
 slight inconvenience except in the cold 
 winter months, when the treatment may be 
 taken indoors by the aid of suitable con- 
 veniences. 
 
 PILES AND URINARY TROUBLES. 
 
 For piles, enlargement of the prostate 
 gland, and irritation of the bladder, to one 
 or all of which most men past fifty years 
 are subjected, this simple treatment is in- 
 valuable. The piles may continue to an 
 extent, but they become soft and are greatly 
 reduced in size, and if they come down at 
 stool may be readily pushed back with the 
 
THE RESCUE COMPLETED. 
 
 239 
 
 finger wet and rubbed on a piece of castile 
 soap. I speak from happy experience ; for, 
 after years of martyrdom and three sui'gical 
 operations, I find no difficulty, with this 
 treatment once or twice a week, in keeping 
 the piles in complete subjection. Great 
 relief is also affoi'ded in all cases of iri-ita- 
 tion of the bladder and enlarged prostate, 
 and any man afflicted with these maladies 
 may, by this treatment, attend to his busi- 
 ness or profession and end his days in peace, 
 so far as these troubles are concerned. 
 
 IT IS YOUR LIFE. 
 
 In his dying charge to the children of 
 Israel Moses enforced the necessity of im- 
 plicit obedience to the divine command- 
 mental, and sai '- : " It is not a vain thing for 
 you ; because it is your life : and th-ough 
 this thing ye shall prolong your days in 
 the land, whither ye go over Jordan to 
 possess it." I say the same to vou. Your 
 
■I\ 
 
 if 
 
 Mr 
 
 t|!,<| 
 
 240 }rANnOOD: WRECKED AND nESCUED. 
 
 life, your happiness, your usefulness in 
 society, and the length of your earthly 
 existence depend on the fidelity and per- 
 severance with whicli you cairy out the 
 instructions given in these pages. 
 
 MENTAL, NOT PHYSICAL. 
 
 But do not forget that the rules of life 
 and the methoJ of treatment now set be- 
 fore you have reference to effects and not 
 to causes. The cause is mental rather 
 than physical ; certain physical effects fol- 
 low in its train, and the treatment has refer- 
 ence to these. But the cause lies deeper, 
 and in that direction you must search for 
 the cure. 
 
 YOU MUST CHERISH PURE THOUGHTS OR Hlk. 
 
 Nothing can save you if you .allow your 
 imagination to revel in impure thoughts. 
 What I have recommended will remove 
 the effects ; you must arrest the cause, 
 
THE HKHiJUE COMPLETED. 
 
 241 
 
 You must make a covenant with your eyes, 
 your eaj*H, your imagination, that you will 
 not look upon, listen to, noi- think of any- 
 thing that is low, sensual, and degrading. 
 
 WOKTH A S'i'IlUGGLE. 
 
 Is it not worth a struggle to regain lost 
 manhood— to stand erect in God's image 
 with a crown upon your biow ? Is he not a 
 man wlio says to th(^ demon of sensuality, 
 Begone, foul demon ! By the mother who 
 bore me, by the angels who guard me, by 
 the God Avho made me, I bid thee begone, 
 foul demon of sensuality? Do not despair 
 though you fail again and again. Little by 
 little you will gain the mastery: ^uid at 
 last, adorned with the ci-own of manhood, 
 your glad heart will say, I am a man ! I am 
 
 FREE ! 
 
 f 
 
 16 
 
 THE END. 
 
 iH;