Men, Women, and God

Men, Women, and God, by A. Herbert Gray

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Title: Men, Women, and God
Author: A. Herbert Gray
Release Date: September, 2004 [EBook #6579] [Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on December 29, 2002]
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MEN, WOMEN, AND GOD
A DISCUSSION OF SEX QUESTIONS FROM THE CHRISTIAN POINT OF VIEW

BY THE REV. A. HERBERT GRAY, D. D.
AUTHOR OF "THE CHRISTIAN ADVENTURE," "AS TOMMY SEES US," ETC.

TO MY WIFE
WHO FOR TWENTY-FIVE YEARS HAS BEEN MY CHIEF TEACHER AND HAS INTERPRETED LIFE AND GOD TO ME THROUGH THE CONTENTS OF THE DAILY ROUND

PREFACE
This book has been written at the request of the Student Christian Movement, and is addressed in the first place to men and women of the student age. I have undertaken the task with great gladness because my long and happy contact with men and women through the Student Movement has taught me how great is the need for a fuller understanding of the problems of sex, and how possible it is that men and women should find help through the timely suggestion of right and wholesome thoughts.
My brother, Dr. Charles Gray of London, has contributed a very valuable appendix dealing with certain facts in a way which is only possible to a medical man, and I am very greatly indebted to him for thus enriching this volume.
It will be apparent to all who read it that I also owe a great deal to many who have shared with me their knowledge and experience. In particular I owe much gratitude to a number of generous-hearted women who have enabled me to write the chapters which are more especially addressed to their sex.
I have deliberately omitted from these pages any reference to disease. I do that not because I am not impressed by the terrible penalties with which nature visits certain sins, but because I do not believe in the power of fear to deliver us. Though there were no such thing as venereal disease, immorality would still be a way of death, and morality would still be the way of life and joy. Till we perceive that we are not on the path of progress.
Books of this sort have generally been addressed specially either to men or to women. I write to both alike because I am quite sure that until men and women understand and help each other, there is going to be no happy solution to the problems of sex. When they do so learn to co-operate I believe we shall as a race find our way out into that larger and happier life which can only be ours when we have accepted the facts of sex and learnt to use them to the enrichment of human life and the glory of God.
A. HERBERT GRAY.
Glasgow, 1922.

CONTENTS
PREFACE
INTRODUCTION
I. KNOWING THE FACTS
II. COMRADESHIP
III. LOVE
IV. FALLING IN LOVE AND GETTING ENGAGED
V. OUR MORAL STANDARDS
VI. A MAN'S STRUGGLE
VII. PROSTITUTION--A CHAPTER FOR MEN
VIII. A GIRL'S EARLY DAYS
IX. INVOLUNTARY CELIBACY
X. THE ART OF BEING MARRIED
XI. UNHAPPY MARRIAGES
XII. THE INFLUENCE OF SOCIAL CONDITIONS
XIII. FORGETTING THE THINGS WHICH ARE BEHIND
APPENDIX--SOME OF THE PHYSIOLOGICAL FACTS. BY A. CHARLES E. GRAY, M.D.

INTRODUCTION
In the following pages I propose to write simply and plainly about the social, personal, and bodily relations of men and women, and about the ways in which their common life may attain to happiness, harmony, and efficiency.
I shall deal with matters often handled only with much diffidence, and thought of with uncomfortable reserve. And I address myself to men and women alike.
I do it all on the basis of one assumption, namely, that a God of love in designing our human nature cannot have put into it anything which is incapable of a pure and happy exercise; and in particular that in