A Solemn Appeal - James White

quite differently. I then looked upon it in the light
of a blessing. I regard it thus now. Because of
sickness, I was kept from society, which preserved
me in blissful ignorance of the secret vices of the
young. After I was a mother, by the private deathbed
confessions of some females, who had
completed the work of ruin, I first learned that such
vices existed. But I had no just conception of the
extent of this vice, and the injury the health
sustained by it, until a still later period.
The young indulge to quite an extent in this
vice before the age of puberty, without
experiencing at that time, to any very great degree,
the evil results upon the constitution. But at this
critical period, while merging into manhood and
womanhood, nature then makes them feel the
previous violation of her laws.
As the mother sees her daughter languid and
dispirited, with but little vigor, easily irritated,
starting suddenly and nervously when spoken to,
she feels alarmed, and fears that she will not be
able to reach womanhood with a good constitution.
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