CHAPTER VI


A MAN'S STRUGGLE


A great many men are secretly ashamed of the very fact that they have
to struggle with temptation in the matter of purity. In an inner
chamber of their lives they contend with impure thoughts and impure
suggestions, but they try to keep the doors of that chamber shut, and
would blush if others knew what goes on there. Yet all healthy and
normal men are so tempted. Those who seem to have escaped have
generally taken the course of repressing the whole sexual side of their
natures, and of shutting their eyes to the sexual facts of life, which
is not a wise course. And so, firstly, in view of the task of facing
temptation it would be well for us all to realize that temptation
itself is not sin. We may expose ourselves to quite unnecessary
temptation. We may play with fire. We may be fools, if we will. But
some element of temptation is part of our normal lot in life, and we
need not blush about it. To the average young man it can truly be said,
"There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man." In
this respect we are all brothers in arms, and I believe the first step
towards victory lies in an honest facing of the fact. Let us admit that
we are tempted and get openly to the business of understanding how
temptation can be conquered.

Let me attempt first of all to clear away certain mischievous delusions
about the subject. It is actually believed in many quarters, and half
believed in many more, that continence is bad for a man. It is only
"natural," men often say, for an adult man to satisfy his desires, and