called upon to speak out frankly so that hypocrisy and falsehood might be exposed and swept away. But he does not have to resort to filth to accomplish his work. The truth is what sets men free.—Matt. 23:13-36; John 8:32.

PROTECT YOUR CHILD FROM SMUT

If your child uses filthy language, ask yourself, “Is the language in the home wholesome and clean?” “Do his friends use decent speech?” “What books does he read?” Children are not born with a vocabulary of curse words. These they learn from their surroundings.

Today, more than ever, young impressionable minds are under attack by a most vicious and subtle enemy—the smut peddler. In 1959 the United States Post Office Department reported that sex-filth peddlers were shipping at least 50,000,000 items of obscene matter through the mails, raking in more than $500,000,000 a year. These peddlers are aiming their wares largely, if not exclusively, at teen-agers! Millions of children, some eight and eleven years old, have been reached with literature described by a Senate subcommittee as “wanton, depraved, nauseating, despicable, demoralizing, destructive and capable of poisoning any mind at any age.” Authorities state that in the United States one school-age child out of every eighteen is the target of the purveyors of such unbelievable filth.

Such printed matter corrupts more than one’s speech. According to J. Edgar Hoover, FBI chief, there has been a startling rise in juvenile sex crimes since 1955, which, significantly enough, parallels the increase in salacious literature. There has also been a rise in perversions among juveniles and an increase in venereal disease, and over half the cases are among teen-agers and young adults—an unthinkable condition twenty years ago.

PROTECTION—HOW? WHERE?

Only by guarding the mind can children and adults be protected from such pollution. Speech originates in the mind. It is what fills the mind that ultimately comes out of the mouth. Clean thoughts will produce clean speech; filthy thoughts, filthy speech. People who use obscene speech think obscene things. Their minds are filled with the obscene filth flooding the world. It is as simple as that. For the speech to be clean the mind must be safeguarded against all impure intrusions.

It is becoming to man and woman to regulate their thoughts, words and actions in such a way that they may not think or speak anything concerning God and his purposes but with the greatest sense of appreciation, sobriety and reverence, that in meditating on his words no opinion may be formed that is dishonorable to Him. Such regulated thoughts and expressions are as beautiful as apples of gold in silver carvings. However, when thoughts and speech are not controlled, not only do they become ugly, but death and destruction are often their fruitage.—Prov. 15:4; 25:11; 18:21.

Profanity and obscene jesting cannot be cured for long by emptiness, that is, by simply saying, “I’m not going to swear anymore,” or, “I’m not going to engage in obscene jesting anymore.” Mere negative prohibitions are not enough. Mere censorship of smut literature is not going to shut the doors effectively against infiltration of evil thoughts into the mind. Wrong thinking must be driven out with truth and reason. Truth must take the place where corruption once kept house. Jesus pointed this out in one of his illustrations. He said that a house swept clean of unclean spirits and then left empty will soon become worse than before. The house must be filled with the holy spirit of God as a protection against demonic invasion.—Matt. 12:43-45.

When the mind of a child or an adult is turned to truth as found in the Word of God, the Bible, and is kept tuned in on it by asking, seeking and knocking, it has the active force of God, that is, God’s holy spirit working on it, building it up, making it new. Paul brought this fact to the attention of the Ephesians, saying: “You should be made new in the force actuating your mind.” This would result to those who “heard him [Christ] and were taught by means of him, just as truth is in Jesus.” So it is not just any truth that can supply a protective force against forces that influence the mind. Only those truths embodied in the principles of Christianity can provide that protection.—Eph. 4:20-24.

To fill the mind with these truths, these thoughts of God, means the Bible must be studied. It means its truths must be pondered over, its promises meditated upon. It means getting rid of old-world ideas and making God’s thoughts our thoughts. Paul counsels: “Quit being fashioned after this system of things, but be transformed by making your mind over, that you may prove to yourselves the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” (Rom. 12:2) This can be done, Paul says, if you “keep your minds fixed on the things above, not on the things upon the earth.” (Col. 3:2) Also, he says: “Keep walking by spirit and you will carry out no fleshly desire at all.” (Gal. 5:16) Then he admonishes Christians to dwell on virtuous and praiseworthy things. “The things that you learned as well as accepted and heard and saw in connection with me,” he says, “practice these; and the God of peace will be with you.”—Phil. 4:8, 9.

The way to a clean mind and a wholesome tongue begins with truth fed into the mind. It depends on what we read, look at, listen to, dwell on, whether the mind will be affected for good or bad. If we fix in the mind thoughts patterned according to the healthful teachings of God’s Word, then words of life will flow forth.—Jas. 3:1-18.

This means we must watch our associations. Pick good, clean associates, whether they be people in reality, or those on films, characters in novels, or those imagined, because they can drastically affect your thinking. Bad associations will corrupt useful habits and spoil clean speech.—1 Cor. 15:33.

The best of association is that to be enjoyed with God in prayer. When the temptation arises to misuse the tongue, pray. One cannot imagine using foul speech while praying to God. On one occasion Jesus counseled his disciples: “Carry on prayer, that you do not enter into temptation.” (Luke 22:40, 46) Pray also when in temptation that you may not succumb. To your Christian conscience may God always be so vividly present that you will never say or do anything that will displease him.—1 Pet. 3:10-12.

Why Youths Turn Delinquent

✔ Today delinquent youths do not come only from underprivileged families, but from the upper classes as well. But why? What is wrong? A young attorney throws light on the situation when he notes the religious attitudes of these families. “Most of these boys we call ‘middle-class delinquents’ are from families who no longer follow their religious beliefs, except procedurally,” he observed. “They have lost the firm foundation of the Commandments. They have lost their personal grip on all religious ethics and they have not yet developed any humanitarian or secular ethics. They’re in between. They’re in a no-man’s land and a no-God’s land and their children don’t know what to believe.”