[Sidenote: Danger of Reaction]

Therefore, although the religious excitability of adolescence must
not be thwarted lest it be turned into less helpful channels, and lest
religion lose all the beauty and compelling power lent to it by the
glow of youthful feelings, yet it must be so balanced and ordered by
a clear reason, and especially by the habit of putting each enthusiasm
to the test of conduct, that the young mind may remain true to its law
of growth, developing harmoniously on all three sides at once.

The danger of permitting a young boy or girl while under the influence
of this emotional instability to enter into any special form of
religious service is the danger of reaction. He will discover that
all is not as his early vision led him to suppose--because that
early vision was of things too high and holy for any earthly
realization--and he may turn against what seems to him to be hypocrisy
and pretense with a bitterness proportioned to his former love. Many
honest, faithful men and women remain in this state of reaction for
the rest of their lives.

[Sidenote: A Difficult Period]

Nevertheless, it will not do to thwart these young beginnings. They
must neither be nipped in the bud nor forced to a premature ripening.
Above all they must not be suffered to endure the killing frost of
ridicule. The period is a difficult one, but, as Dr. Stanley Hall
points out, it is supremely the mother's opportunity. If she can hold
her boy's or her girl's confidence now, can ease their eager young
hearts with an intelligent sympathy, she can probably keep them from
any public commitment. Perhaps they may desire to confide in the