=Some effects of the habit.=--Some of the effects of this sin are as follows: It injures the morals. The victim will take on a guilty look; may become irritable and cross; may avoid good company and seek the vile; may quit reading the Bible and going to church. This is one class. They are called bad boys. There is another class that are affected differently and would usually be called good boys. They are very modest, retiring fellows, rather shy of girls and would be shocked at immodest language. As the habit fastens itself more firmly, they become more sensitive, stay more alone, the presence of girls becomes more embarrassing to them, they become quite suspicious and feel that everybody knows of their guilt. In both of these cases, if the habit is continued, it will get the mastery of them and will be very difficult to quit. The latter class will feel gloomy and discouraged. They feel that everything is going wrong and that everybody is against them. This is due to the effect of the sin upon their nervous system. It is hard for them to dismiss this idea. This state of mind will unfit them for business of any kind. Unless they break from the sin and dismiss these gloomy feelings, they can’t hope to succeed. =It injures the mind and morals.=--The boy who practices the secret sin will one day find that he is falling back in his classes. His memory is not as good as it once was. He cannot solve problems as easily as he once could. If a kind-hearted, wealthy man should offer to put all the young men in a town of ten thousand people through college and meet all their expenses, on the conditions that they study hard and stand their examinations, not half of them would accept his kindness. Why? They have wasted this energy and are without ambition. The young men who have been wise enough to live pure lives, have so much manly ambition that poverty will not keep them from graduating. Many young men who die from consumption when from eighteen to thirty years old are victims of this sin. In a few cases the sin leads to epilepsy or insanity. =It injures the sexual organs.=--The sexual organs become soft and flabby, when this sin is practiced much. Sometimes they do not develop properly. The most common effect of the habit is varicocele. This often occurs at the age of eighteen. The blood vessels in the scrotum become gorged with impure blood and feel like a mass of tangled cords. There will be felt a very unpleasant dragging pain in these cords and the left gland. Soon the left gland will waste away until it is no larger than in a small boy. Sometimes both glands become affected. Passion aroused by the mind and handling the organs, even when the habit is not practiced, will cause this disease. There are other bad effects that do not occur until the boy is a man and it is not necessary to mention them here. You have learned enough for you to know that boys should not form the habit, and, if they have, they should break away from the habit at once.