A PLEA FOR OUR BOYS by Mrs. B. M. Clark

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Apr 3, 1901

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 27, No. 14.

A PLEA FOR OUR BOYS.

By Mrs. B. M. Clark

WHAT shall I say to awaken the sleeping fathers and mothers to the dangers that surround their boys?

Why do we make such a difference between our girls and our boys? Why do we shield and protect our girls from the surroundings of sin and vice, yet push our boys out into the very midst of every form of temptation? Is your girl's soul more precious to you than your boy's? “No! no!” I hear every mother exclaim. But would you allow your sixteen-year-old girl to go down street, and remain until 10, 11, and sometimes 12 o'clock at night? If you would not, you surely must think more of your girl than you do of your boy, or you do not realize what you are doing.

This is but one of many instances where we seem to put the salvation of our girls first. What would become of our girls if they had to face the world, and battle for a living, at as early an age as do our boys? I am speaking to the middle class of people; for the lower classes it is often share and share alike; boys and girls must bring in their help for the family good.

Of course the wealthier class do not have any such temptations. What excuse have they if their boys go wrong? They can educate them as highly as they choose. The boys do not have to battle for bread. They can procure books, games, innocent amusements of all kinds, to keep their boys at home if they will.

But our boys of the middle class must, in most instances, give up school and go to work at fifteen, or at the latest, sixteen or seventeen years of age. Think of it! so young! just at the age when sin seems so alluring; just when the boys need more protection perhaps than ever before; yet they must take their places on the world's great battle-field. It is a hand-to-hand struggle; they must compete with others older, and often—O, how often—with those hardened in sin. The strongest wins. Those who can not lie and cheat often go to the wall, or are trampled under foot. Into this turmoil, then, we send our boy—our baby he once was. Now he must take a man's part in the world.

How often have I heard the expression, “The younger a boy has to start out for himself, the better it is for him,” or, “It will make a man of him.” Is it manly to smoke, to chew, to drink, to play cards, to curse, to stand on street corners and make remarks on girls passing by? This is the education that the street is giving them; many of our boys acquire it, and you, mothers, know nothing of it; or, if you do, you perhaps give your boy a little lecture now and then, and tell him he ought not to do so. Would we be so easy if our girls had such habits? Yet mother, your boy will have to answer for his sins just as truly as your girl will for hers.

There are many fatherless boys who must work to help a widowed mother and provide for their own needs. Perhaps they must go out into the world, that sister's education may be finished. For that seems another weakness we have; the girls must be educated, whether or not the boys can do little more than read and write. All praise to these boys. They are the heroes of the world.

But, mothers, sisters, you have a duty to perform toward this son and brother, a duty that is imperative. You can make home a pleasant place—an oasis in the desert of the world, fresh and green with true love, and made fertile by the fountain of life. You can do more; you can pray. If he must go out into the world to meet its temptations, we can put him in God's hands. We must pray, and pray earnestly and believingly. It is no use to ask God to save your boy while a voice down in your heart whispers, “I am afraid it isn't much use; I fear he will be sure to sin.” God hears that whispered voice before he hears the prayer. Ask in faith, and in Christ's name; He will hear our request. For does He not promise that if we ask in faith, and in Christ's name, He will grant our request?

Some will say, “Yes, if it is best for us.” Stop! That may answer in some cases, for we often ask for things we ought not to have; but the salvation of our boy's soul is different. Think you God is so cruel and unjust as not to think it best for us that our boy's soul should be saved? What did Christ die for?—Your boy, my boy, every mother's boy; then what excuse can you offer if your boy is lost? No matter if he inherits bad habits or a depraved appetite from ancestors; that does not hinder you from praying in faith for him. The answer may be long in coming, for God sometimes tests our faith; but keep on; don't despair; pray on unceasingly, from the time your baby is first laid in your arms until you are ready to fall into your last sleep, and he perhaps is old and gray in sin. Pray on, I say; God never yet failed His children. He will save him if you do your part for your boy. Pray for your girl, too; but your boy needs it most. We don't doctor our healthy child, but our sick one; not because we don't love that child, but because he does not need the treatment as does the little puny one. If our boy's clothing was on fire, we would not throw water on our girl. We would just keep her out of danger, and spend every second of time putting out the flames of our boy's clothes.

Missionaries tell us that in some heathen lands boys are allowed to live, while girl children are slain to appease the gods. We do the opposite; we save our girls; we throw around them every protection we can think of; we shield them from every temptation possible; but often we take our boy on the brink of the great sea of life and virtually push him into the dark waters, where sharks are lurking for his life. What chance, then, is there for that boy? If he must go—if it is impossible to hold him back—then, O mothers, sisters, go with him—down to the very brink of the waves,—and when he steps bravely in among the dangers awaiting him, with his head held high, his shoulders squared against the buffeting of the waves, a courageous smile on his lips, do you fall on your knees, and stay there. You can not follow him, but there is One who can. You get weary and fall asleep; but there is “One who never slumbers or sleeps.” What a blessed assurance! Let it sink deep into your troubled heart, worrying mother, as you turn restlessly on your pillow, unable to sleep for wondering where your boy is at that moment. If you have done your part, go to sleep in peace. If not, get up from your bed and pray long and earnestly before you dare let sleep seal your eyelids this night.

For fear some mother may say, “O, it is easy to write these things; but if she had a son out in the world it would be different,” let me tell you, mothers, I have a son, an only son, my eldest of three children. He is just sixteen years old; yet he has for a year been out in the world, working for his bread. It is this fact that has made me realize what a sin we mothers are committing in the way we treat our boys. Experience has made me write this, nothing else. I am one of you; and for a long time I prayed, but could not hush that other voice; and even now it struggles for a hearing; but I will not listen. My boy is hundreds of miles away from me. But while he can get farther and farther away from the mother who loves him, he can not get away from the God who loves him so much more dearly than it is possible for me to love.

While I must sleep and can not send up during the night the almost hourly petition that I can during the day, there is his heavenly Father who never slumbers, watching over him; for I have asked Him to do so, and then fallen asleep almost instantly, knowing that God has sent His angels to keep charge over my boy. And altho he may sin, God will forgive him—will, in the end, save him—if I do not fail in my part. Let us keep this motto in our hearts: “Pray and wait in faith.”

And now I have sounded the alarm in your ears. Wake up, ye sleeping mothers! See where your boy is drifting. Will you do nothing to save him? Will you do nothing—not even pray? Will you see him go down, down, down, until he is lost eternally? Our boys must be saved, and nothing but earnest, faithful prayer can save them. I am praying for mine—pray for yours. God has said, where two or three are agreed as to one thing, and ask, it shall be given. There are two sisters and a mother agreed in this one boy's salvation, and I know he will be saved. Let us pray also for the boys who have no one else to pray for them. It is not necessary that we know them by name; but they are all known and loved by Him who gave His life for them.

I send forth this warning and appeal with a prayer that it may be the means of saving some boy's soul thru the prayers of mother and sister.

Emporia, Kansas. Mrs. B. M. CLARK.