Boys | Page 6

with those of the opposite sex, let any corrupt
communications proceed out of your mouth. If it is necessary for you to

speak upon such subjects ask advice of those older than yourself, and
not of companions of your own age. You know lads that you love your
mother and care for your sisters. You would be furious if anyone spoke
to or of them as you sometimes hear women spoken of. What would be
an insult to them is an insult to any woman. Stand up for the honour
and respect due to others as you would for your own mother or sister.
You would not talk like that before your mother. Make it a rule never
to do or say anything that you would be ashamed to say in her presence,
or in the presence of anyone you respect. Courage is what you want
here and plenty of it, but if you will only make a stand for the right,
strength, not your own, will be given you. I can tell you of one who did
so try and do the same. Bishop Pattison, who died some years ago,
when he was fearlessly doing his duty in the islands of the Pacific, was,
once a boy, face to face with this difficulty. He was in the cricket
eleven of his school--a good player and very fond of the game. It had
become the custom at cricket suppers for bad talk to be indulged in.
Pattison one evening rose up at the table and said, "If this conversation
is to be allowed I must leave the eleven. I cannot share in this
conversation--if you determine to continue it I shall have no choice but
to go." They did not want to lose him, and the foul conversation was
stopped.

MONEY.
The love of money is the root of all evil. Nevertheless, money in a
civilized country is a necessity. How to make it is one of the great
questions, and how to spend it aright is one of the great difficulties.
Money is power. It is power, if we use it aright, it overpowers us if we
use it badly or even carelessly. It is a great mistake to want to make
your money too quickly, and a still greater mistake to think that you are
likely to do so. Money that is the result of honest labour will, if rightly
used, be a blessing to you and yours.
1st. How to make it. By honest labour, honestly done. You have chosen
your trade or occupation--let your money be honestly earned therein,

and look more to the quality of your work than to the quantity of your
money. You have a right when you have learnt your trade to a fair day's
wage for a fair day's work, but be sure that the word fair governs both
the work and the wage--the fair work must be done before the fair wage
can be rightly claimed. There is far too much scamping work in the
present day, working simply for money and not for any interest in the
work itself. Money should not be a man's test of success, but the
perfectness of his work. Men used once to work for love of their art,
and so long as the picture was painted or the sculpture wrought, they
cared little for the money they were to gain by it, or the hardship of
their lives, but now men paint for what the public will pay for, and
write and work not from their hearts but for their pockets. And with
high and low, not success but money is the moving power--not how can
I can make it more perfect, but what can I get for it. A man who will
leave a piece of work, or a clerk who will leave a few minutes writing
only because the clock has struck the hour, is little better than a
money-making machine. Work done in such a spirit did not give us
men like Wren or Stephenson. Read their lives and you will see what I
mean. If your work is thoroughly and honestly done, you have a right
to your own price for it, if you can find a purchaser. You have a right to
sell your labour at your own price, but the master has an equal right to
buy or to refuse. Combinations and unions of working men are
perfectly right, if they unite for their own advantage, and for protection
against oppression, and strikes may, though in very rare cases, be a
painful necessity. It must be borne in mind that there can be no fixed
standard of wages. Wages must vary with the state of the markets. Men
must be ready to accept lower wages when trade is