Men, Women, and God: A Discussion of Sex Questions from the Christian Point of ViewGray, A. Herbert (Arthur Herbert)
Religion
Men, Women, and God: A Discussion of Sex Questions from the Christian Point of View
Gray, A. Herbert (Arthur Herbert)
Sexual ethics -- Early 20th century
Now by some mysterious and kindly providence I believe it usually
happens that this mutual attraction declares itself between two people
who as they do get to know each other find that they are also attracted
mentally and spiritually. Usually from this beginning a real fellowship
between the two persons will grow up which involves nearly their whole
personalities. Many people who fell in love at first sight have made
splendid marriages. But it does not always happen so. Sometimes this
physical attraction remains the only bond between two people. Sometimes
in the other departments of life they actually fret and annoy one
another. Sometimes a friendship refuses to grow up. Sometimes even
while the attraction still exists contempt lurks behind it. And that
means that it is entirely unsafe to get engaged on the basis of a mere
physical attraction. There is really something impersonal about mere
physical attraction. The individual as such is hardly an active agent
in it. He or she is the victim of some great life force that seems to
want to throw men and women together regardless of their mental and
spiritual qualities. Behind a mutual physical attraction there must be
some strange harmony between the two physical natures concerned. But
that may be the whole truth of the situation. And to become engaged or
married on that basis alone is just another instance of acting as if we
were merely bodies, when we are not. It constitutes another attempt to
forget mind, heart, and soul, and is therefore disastrous.
And that, of course, means that a man and a woman, if they want to find
their true life, must take care to get to know each other _before_ they
commit themselves, even though they are attracted. "Maggie" in _What
Every Woman Knows_ showed herself extraordinarily astute when she
packed off her husband, who was the victim of an intense physical
attraction for another woman, into a lonely place in the country where
he would have to spend all day and every day with the lady whom he held
to be his heart's delight. The result was that in four or five days he
was bored almost beyond endurance. He had an acute mind and a very
definite type of character, and no happy life was possible for him
merely on the basis of a physical passion.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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