This week’s S&H, citation 12, P.56:15-3
“Infidelity to the marriage covenant is the social scourge of all races, “the pestilence that walketh in darkness,… the destruction that wasteth at noonday.” …”Thou shalt not commit adultery,” is no less imperative than…”Thou shalt not kill.”
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.”
Wow…those are strong statements! I don’t think I ever looked at these words very closely. Perhaps because what I saw all around me growing up was infidelity and divorce, which were to some extent “normalized”, even in the C.S. church I attended. This was not a good foundation for me, and only the very elderly at the time spoke out about these topics with force and clarity, and I did not hear enough of that! I had also not equated infidelity with the 91st Psalm’s “pestilence” and “destruction”… until now!
The definition of chastity in the 1828 dictionary includes:
CHASTITY, n. 1. Purity of the body; freedom from all unlawful commerce of sexes. Before marriage, purity from all commerce of sexes; after marriage, fidelity to the marriage bed. 2. Freedom from obscenity…
Mrs. Eddy states that chastity is the cement of not only civilization, but progress. Society’s idea of “progress” these days includes freedom from all restrictions to “whatever I want to do”. We know this type of freedom is actually bondage. Chastity includes “Freedom from all unlawful commerce of sexes” (sex trafficking, pornography). The lack of stability in present society, and the spiritual warfare going on between opposing sides certainly prove Mrs. Eddy’s words to be prophetic. To stand up for the importance of chastity then means to stand up for civilization and progress. Those who live by the Bible know this to be true.
It was only after coming to Plainfield that I could turn my life around and finally embrace chastity. It certainly freed me from terrible (self-inflicted) bondage!