Editorial November 27, 1909 Issue

CHASTITY

Annie M. Knott

In the Christian Science text-book we read: "Chastity is the cement of civilization and progress. Without it there is no stability in society, and without it one cannot attain the Science of Life" (Science and Health, p. 57). Mrs. Eddy says, on the preceding page, that "infidelity to the marriage covenant is the social scourge of all races, 'the pestilence that walketh in darkness, . . . the destruction that wasteth at noonday.' " In an article on "Wedlock" she tersely reminds us that at the first publication of Science and Health, in 1875, its teachings exposed the evil belief called "free love," but she adds, "The whole warfare with sensuality was not then ended" (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 285).

Our Leader's teaching on the subject of chastity, her constant insistence upon obedience to the Christly demand for purity, and fidelity to right, have been and are today a tremendous influence in stemming the tide of sensuality with all its attendant misery. Thousands of men and women have learned in Christian Science that there is something far higher than sense gratification and mere personal happiness, — that we must strive to reach the realization of the divine ideal of manhood and womanhood, or we are not living at all in any true sense. To quote Longfellow's familiar lines, —

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