While traveling with a girl friend and her brother in Europe, I met a tall, blond Scandinavian boy at a youth hostel in the Alps. He and I liked each other immediately. Since we were all going to Paris, it seemed very natural that he should join us. After about ten days of shared adventures, he and I felt very close.

One morning when he knew my girl friend was out and before I was up, he came casually into my room and lay down on the foot of my bed. I knew what he had in mind, and I felt very much in love with him.

As he was lying there, a thought came very clearly to me. It was a phrase that Mrs. Eddy quotes from Shakespeare's Hamlet, part of the advice Polonius gives to his son before Laertes leaves home:

Exactly what this means has been debated by many drama scholars, but at that moment thoughts that I had been taught in the Christian Science Sunday School about "self" came to mind.

What self was I being true to? Was I being true to the self that God knows, my real self, spiritual, pure, and upright? Or was I being true to the mortal self that craved indulgence, immediate satisfaction, and short-range pleasure? To whom would I be false? No one would know. Whose business was it? Weren't we in love, and isn't love the most important thing? These thoughts raced through my mind.

Coming right after them were thoughts about moral integrity. Didn't I want to live up to the self that was God-created? Hadn't Christ Jesus in the Beatitudes told us that the result of being pure in heart was to see God? Wasn't my ability to see God more important than the physical attraction I was feeling for this young man? What self did I really want to express? I shook my head—"no." He could tell that I was no longer wavering, and he left the room.

Through the years I've been very grateful that God gives one the ability to stand with moral integrity when human emotion cries out for quick satisfaction. The word "integrity" is defined by Webster as "soundness, completeness." We need it, all of us.

Since that experience in Paris, I have thought of how many people I might have been false to if I had let selfish emotion govern. In addition to parents and others who had trustingly poured out love through the years, expecting me to live up to my highest sense, there were people I hadn't become involved with at that point, such as my future husband, my son, and the many young people whom I have talked with about premarital relationships. It's pretty hard to counsel a son or daughter, a younger brother or sister, not to follow every impulse if we haven't lived up to that standard ourselves.

We all need to establish a clear concept of who we are, why we are. Do we know what God sees in us? God sees man as eternally pure. We all have some intuition of this purity, giving us moral intelligence to use so that our experiences, however hard, will always bless us. If we firmly establish our sense of purity and integrity, we can still hold on to our real desires and our real self when emotional experiences seem to sweep over us. If we fill our thoughts with spiritual good, nothing else can enter our mental citadel.

The argument that this is a new age, with unique problems and unique attitudes, is essentially false. The temptation not to live up to one's highest sense of self has been around in every century. When Potiphar's wife said, "Lie with me," Joseph's reply was, "How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?" ^{Gen. 39:7, 9;} He relied on his sense of moral integrity established by God. This occurred even before Moses gave God's commandment, "Thou shalt not commit adultery." ^{Ex. 20:14;} This same sense of moral integrity still belongs to us. We need to talk quietly with God, establishing in our thought the self that He sees, so that when various temptations arise, we can answer unwaveringly, as Joseph did.

Mrs. Eddy in the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health, minces no words when she writes, "The commandment, 'Thou shalt not commit adultery,' is no less imperative than the one, 'Thou shalt not kill.'" ^{Science and Health, p. 56;} Some people argue that premarital sex is not classified as adultery. However, in the Sermon on the Mount, Christ Jesus pointed out clearly that the important thing is not the letter of the law but the spirit of the commandment, and the spirit of the seventh commandment is obvious to anyone who faces up to it. Fornication, defined by Webster as "sexual inter-course between unmarried people," both Jesus and Paul list together with such things as adulteries and murders. Jesus goes on to say, "These are the things which defile a man." ^{Matt. 15:20;} Paul concludes, "They which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God." ^{Gal. 5:21;}

We need to counter moral blindness with moral alertness and replace moral irresponsibility with moral integrity. The long-range benefits of purity are both seen and felt. Moral qualities are not medals we pin on ourselves. They are the means to clarify our vision. As we bring out our native purity, we see God's reality and feel ourselves in harmony with God's creation. Pure living keeps our thoughts clear so that we can find our way in this spiritual adventure.

Moral integrity is a quality that develops each time we use it. Temptations continue throughout life. As we stand up for our highest sense of morality each time, our integrity is strengthened. If at some time we have slipped into moral denseness, this doesn't mean that we have to take that as our level from then on. At any time we can take a stand for moral integrity and work upward from that point on.

Sometimes the argument comes, "I have the best of intentions, but when I am with that certain someone, I can't resist." If your deep desire is to stay in control of your emotions, God will always provide the right thought and the right activity that will help to sustain this control. Despite all the emotional arguments, if one person in a relationship takes a stand for a higher sense of moral integrity, both parties can be strengthened and blessed.

In our quieter moments we need to establish a long-range view of our lives and our purposes. We need to quietly pray, "Lead us not into temptation," ^{Matt. 6:13;} as in the Lord's Prayer. If these prayers are sincere, they will be answered, and Mrs. Eddy's spiritual explanation of this line will be proved in our lives: "And God leadeth us not into temptation, but delivereth us from sin, disease, and death." ^{Science and Health, p. 17.}