ou are now to become a
man, with powers that will unite you to the race; powers that will give
you the ability to form a new link in the living chain that now ends
with you. You have noticed the rapid unfolding of your bodily powers;
you have become conscious of new and strange emotions; you have, it may
be, found yourself becoming irritable and have felt bewildered with the
new aspects of life and have wondered what it all means. It may be you
have felt as did one boy who said to his mother, to whom he confided all
his problems of life: "Mamma, I want to kick and cry, and I don't know
why." The mother knew. She understood the strange unfolding that was
going on in his physical organism, and she kindly explained it to him,
telling him that he must have patience with himself, and govern himself
by his judgment and not allow himself to be carried away by impulse,
assuring him that God would hold him as responsible for purity of
character as He would the dear sister of whom they all felt so careful.
He should reverence his manhood, even as he expected her to reverence
her womanhood. This is necessary, not only for the good of each
individual, but also for the eternal interest of future generations.

This entrance into the Land of the Teens is a serious, even a dangerous
period, for if you have not had right instruction you may be led, or
fall into habits of wrong doing or thinking. If you are rightly taught
you will begin to have an added reverence for yourselves in that God is
dignifying you with new powers that will bring you more nearly into
co-partnership with himself. These powers, the most sacred of all that
have come to you, need years for development, and should be guarded by
pure thoughts and kept for their holy office of promoting the earthly
usefulness and eternal blessedness of those who hereafter will owe both
earthly and immortal life to you.

I have said that we are not responsible for the dower of virtues or of
vices which are ours by inheritance, but we are responsible for the
inheritances of our children, and this is a most solemn thought. Do you
not begin to see that we cannot value ourselves too highly if we have
the right idea of what our real worth is? We can scarcely overestimate
the results of our own deeds. We may think it does not matter if we do
not always tell the exact truth; if at some times we equivocate and at
others exaggerate, but when we remember that truth is the foundation of
character