Editorial February 28, 1925 Issue

Purity

Albert F. Gilmore

THE great war left in its wake many unsolved problems, many turbulent mental conditions which it is commonly believed time alone can correct. The so-called crime wave, which, following tradition, has swept over the whole world, is one phase of this aftermath. Under the unusual circumstances occasioned by the exigencies of war, much of the restraint generally exercised between individuals was thrown aside, and passion and false appetite were given freer rein. An inevitable result of war is the stirring of the baser passions of mankind, the arousing of ignorant material beliefs, which apparently still remain with mortals, latent, perhaps, until aroused by some unusual circumstance.

Christian Scientists understand this situation to be due to the acceptance as true of erroneous beliefs, which in one guise or another are constantly claiming recognition as reality. That these beliefs are unreal does not relieve Christian Scientists of the necessity of knowing them to be such, and of proving their position by destroying them; otherwise, error would continue to parade in the guise of reality, deceiving all who have not learned the truth regarding it,—that is, its nothingness, Through the revelation of Truth which came to her spiritualized mentality, Mrs. Eddy has made the situation so clear that none may be in doubt as to the great gulf between the claims of mortal mind and the facts of spiritual Truth. How complete her revelation! It is so comprehensive, in fact, that it furnishes the solution to every human problem!

Among the current discussions of these post-war conditions, much is being said relative to the lessened restraint in the social relations between young men and young women. Many of the traditional conventions have been discarded, and a freedom of social intercourse is in vogue that would have so greatly shocked the sensibility of the wise and prudent, even of a single decade ago, that it would scarcely have been tolerated. Some observers see in this freedom of relationship a lessening of restraint which makes for lower moral standards of living; such view the situation with alarm and seek reform through divers plans. Others see in presentday conditions a freedom which is the outgrowth of a saner view of relationship between the sexes, due to better understanding of human existence and its problems; such see nothing in this new sense of freedom over which to be concerned.

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