Do not let it stand related in the first case to warnings
against sins. You do not want to associate the idea of sin in the first
case with this subject at all. What you can do is to implant a certain
reverence in a child's mind in relation to the whole matter, and if you
succeed in that you will have forearmed your child against sin. I long
to know that children are learning about sex not in association with
scoldings, reproofs, and warnings, but rather as part of the splendid
truth of God. It is the association of the facts of sex with the sins
of men and women that has spoilt this part of life for most minds. Of
course it is only kind to tell boys and girls where it is that they may
go wrong--it _is_ necessary to put them on their guard. But that
should be a secondary matter--a mere addition to your teaching.
My own experience as a minister has brought to my knowledge several
very pathetic instances of how young girls get into very serious
trouble just through lack of the knowledge their mothers ought to have
given them. It seems possible still for a girl even of seventeen or
eighteen, or even much older, to be almost incredibly ignorant, and no
words are too strong to describe the cruelty of allowing them to face
life in that condition.
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