6 Principles to Practice in the Quest for Healthy Masculinity

A book from 1903 offers insights into modern day's masculinity crisis

In his book "Manhood's Morning," Joseph A. Conwell encourages young men to go at life with gusto, overcoming difficulties and setbacks with a noble character. Biba Kayewich

My sister recently organized a church event just for boys—an event where they could spend time together playing sports while also learning important truths from older males. She purposely left the girls out, wanting to give boys an occasion where they didn’t have to compete with the opposite sex for time and attention.

Judging from the engaged attention and interest I saw from the boys as I sat on the sidelines, my sister was absolutely right in her assessment. A single mom sitting with me further confirmed this, exclaiming several times how good it was for her sons to have guy interaction like the type we were watching.

Sports provide a great way for boys to compete and learn from each other. Biba Kayewich

It’s increasingly apparent that America is dealing with a masculinity crisis. Young men and boys are recognizing that they are adrift, Christine Emba noted in a recent article for The Washington Post, but this recognition is sometimes leading them to less than exemplary models of masculinity, such as media personality Andrew Tate, who appears to mix good advice—“work hard”—with bad—“women are property.” Indeed, it seems we are embroiled in yet another cultural battle, with some trying to pull men toward being more feminine while others are trying to pull them toward an unhealthy, abusive form of masculinity.

Amid this confusion, I stumbled on “Manhood’s Morning,” a 1903 book by Joseph Alfred Conwell. In his chapter “What Young Men Must Be,” Conwell offers a surprisingly balanced and timeless blueprint for healthy manhood, encouraging his readers that “being something is an essential preliminary to doing something” and that “the greatest friend to liberty is he who governs himself.” As such, Conwell offers the following six actions that males should take in their quest for healthy masculinity.

Aim High

In his book "Manhood's Morning," Joseph A. Conwell encourages young men to go at life with gusto, overcoming difficulties and setbacks with a noble character. Biba Kayewich

“There is at the present time an overwhelming glut of incompetency and a famine of available, desirable men,” Conwell writes. This isn’t because lack of privilege and fortune have kept men from achieving success and competency; rather, it is because they haven’t made the best of what they have been given. As such, Conwell encourages young men to go at life with gusto, overcoming difficulties and setbacks with a noble character that seeks to root out the flaws present in their innermost being.

Indeed, the quality specimen of manhood, Conwell suggests, is one “that believes what it now doubts, that constructs what it now neglects, that cultivates and saves what it now wastes; that lays upon the altars of duty and loyalty what it now sacrifices at the shrine of base indulgences and selfish greed.”

If today’s young men fail to work on improving themselves—their habits, tendencies, beliefs, and sins—then there is no hope for our nation at large, Conwell explains.

“Nobility of character has ever been the bulwark of nations. History teaches nothing more plainly than that progress and prosperity, require a corresponding improvement in the type of manhood.”

Diligent in Business

“Diligence is more than simply industry,” Conwell writes. “It means working with the might; throwing energy, heart and life into what we do.”

Diligence in matters of business is all about the small things, Conwell explains. The guy who wants to be a true man will carefully manage his finances, keeping accurate records of his accounts, even the small ones. He won’t “fritter away” his “early earnings,” for doing so will make poverty a habit. Instead, a true man saves and practices “self-denial,” creating a good pattern to follow for the rest of his life.

Fight for Right

Fighting for right means fighting for others more than self.

“What young men need most is to become enamored of humanity,” Conwell writes, showing “love and sympathy” to others around them.

“Young men, more than any other class, should be interested in the effort to correct the evils of intemperance, crime and lawlessness,” he continues, urging them that they must lead the charge in this fight for right, rather than sitting on the sidelines waiting for someone else to rally the troops for battle.

Pursue the Path of Purity

In this age of pornography and easy sex, those who advocate purity can often be cast as prudes, a type of weak, sissified man. That picture is the opposite of the picture Conwell paints of true masculinity.

True men “appreciate their own bodies, and especially their sexual natures,” Conwell writes. But they have reverence for them, using them in the right way and for the right reasons. “The passions are not to be despised nor blasted by sin, but held and appreciated as a sacred possession and as the most attractive, noble and magnetic expression of manhood.” This is because from them stems one of the most foundational building blocks of society: the family.

“Purity of life is the palladium of earthly happiness; it is the stronghold of religion and the chief cornerstone of society,” Conwell writes. In other words, men who get their sexual lives into a pure, working order will not only benefit themselves, but will set society on the right path as well.

Show Kindness Toward the Fairer Sex

In the current pushback against feminism, it sometimes seems like those seeking a revival of masculinity kick it into overdrive, treating women with toughness and indecency in order to show what strong men they are. While such a reaction may be understandable, it certainly isn’t true masculinity, for “every true man holds sacred the estate of womanhood,” Conwell writes. “Genuine gallantry enthrones all women.”

The true man will recognize that women can bring great happiness to life, and as such, men must seek to win the gift of a woman by having a pure heart and living a clean, guileless life themselves, Conwell explains.

Practice Spiritual Disciplines

“Of all the subjects which young men are called upon to consider religion is of first importance,” Conwell writes, noting that neglect and indifference toward spiritual matters is “the foe in America to-day.” Conwell contradicts the idea that religion is just an emotional sentiment; rather, “it is a moral and spiritual force and supplies man’s highest needs.

As such, Conwell recommends three spiritual disciplines for young men to practice. The first is to read the Bible, for “threads of manly strength and vigor run through its pages.”

Second, he names church attendance as “essential to every young man,” for it “teaches not only spiritual truths, but patriotism, morality ethics, refinement and culture.” Conwell also notes that church provides a venue in which to cultivate much-needed friendships, not only among members of the same sex, but among those of the opposite as well, providing “to young men and women the safest and most desirable ground on which to meet, enjoy each other’s company, fall in love and marry.”

Finally, Conwell encourages men to observe the Sabbath, noting that it “was made for man” and that he needs it. Taking this rest enables men to “do more work and better work” rather than continuing in “unremitting plod.”

It isn’t hard to see that today’s males are in crisis. What’s harder, however, is figuring out how to set them on the right path. But perhaps, in the end, the prescription for healthy masculinity is right under our noses in the pages of the past.