authority is weakened. The insincerity of the sexual moral code may well be a cause of the widespread contempt of the younger generation for society's rules and prohibitions.

It is not possible to be certain how the present situation compares with the situation as it was a few generations ago, but these appear to be the developments we are faced with today:

(a) A great increase in adolescent sexual intimacy.

(b) An increase in transient pre-marital sexual intimacies generally. It is fairly common in both young men and women with high standards of general conduct and integrity to have one or two love affairs, involving intercourse, before they find the person they will ultimately marry.

(c) It is even more common for those who intend to marry to have sexual intercourse before the ceremony. This is true, probably, of the majority of young people in all classes of society, including those who often have a deep sense of responsibility.

(d) The incidence of extra-marital intercourse is great, but it is not possible to estimate whether there is an increase. There must be very many instances which do not lead to divorce or obvious harm and which are kept secret.

The central concept of sexual morality in Christian countries is the integrity of the family. Most people-religious or otherwise-in our own and other countries would agree that the family as a social unit should be safeguarded and sexual practices that threaten its stability vigorously discouraged. The Christian family is a monogamous one held together by understanding love and responsibility and by an acceptance of a faith and purpose in life.

This concept of the family is esteemed both by religious and secular interest. The secular interest sees in marriage and the family an institution that preserves the structure of society, that maintains responsibility for children and provides them with security. The religious interest sees the institution, as one ordained by God, and thus dignifies what is socially necessary. This might seem an ideal and permanent conjunction of interests, but it is not. This very fact that we think of marriage as an "institution" or a pattern will explain why many people have been led into a distorted idea of what is Christian. Over long periods of history, illegitimate children in Christian countries have been shockingly treated compared with their counterparts in a polygamous African community; a Christian pattern has thus involved cruelty to those born outside that pattern. But not only to those outside the pattern. Parents urgently seeking to establish what they think to be a Christian pattern of family life have in the past subjected their own children to barbarous punishments; or they have created conditions that are defensive, restricted, inhibited-and not in any way a source of the "abundant life". It is evident that we must sort out a confusion if we are to understand the components of what we call morality.

A distinction can be made between a social code and an ethical or religious code. A social code will express a norm that seems to be necessary to maintain the existing structure of society and community life. It cannot be fixed for ever, for the pattern of society has mattachine REVIEW

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always changed with the development of knowledge and needs, and will continue to change. The social code changes in this process, not because society changes it deliberately, but because an increasing number of people break away from it. The ethical or religious code is simpler but far more demanding and long-lasting. If it is truly religious it is, in its essentials, changeless and eternal.

During a period in which the social code is changing rapidly while at the same time the ethical and religious codes are being widely questioned, it is inevitable that a great deal of distress will be encountered by many, young and old, who do not "know where they are" in matters of sexual behaviour. Fear of misunderstanding and rejection discourage many from bringing forward their distress, yet the sexual instinct is common to all, and it is our duty to be informed and sympathetic. Particularly does this apply to elders and overseers in the Society of Friends. This essay may help to show that though each individual is unique, specific problems are not. Sexual difficulties are infinitely, more common than is realised and the isolation of the individual, arising as it does from society's repressive outlook towards the sexually troubled, is more apparent than real.

This still repressive and inhibited outlook towards sex, whether heterosexual or homosexual, has brought difficulties to the serious student of human behaviour. It has invested a normal function with guilt, mystery and ignorance; it has hindered the gathering of facts, and, what is worse, it has devalued the sexual currency to the levels of sensation and pornography. When one considers the universality of the sexual drive, understanding of its origins and manifestations is surprisingly small: nevertheless a body of knowledge has been built up and in what follows we draw freely on published works (sec book list). Sexual behaviour and moral outlook are much more conditioned by upbringing and by prevailing cultural beliefs than most people realise. We might well, therefore, have examined other human communities, and even the animal kingdom, in order to understand the society in which we live (see Appendix B). But what we shall not here attempt is an ABC of sex: basic knowledge of the elementary physical facts is well provided elsewhere. Instead we hope through this essay to share our concern and findings in greater detail, to assist those facing these problems in their own lives or in the lives of others.

The Society of Friends is often spoken of as "a peculiar people", but exemption from human frailty in general or from sexual difficul ties in particular is no part of their peculiarity. In what follows we have drawn frequently on our personal experiences of Friends needs. If Friends are at all peculiar it perhaps lies in their rejection of a professional priesthood and their acceptance of the total equality. of men and women in the life of their religious Society. In a priest hood of all believers there must be a democratic sharing of pastoral duties; we are bidden to watch over one another for good.

The essentials of Christianity are simple but demanding. Christianity is concerned with relationship: the relationship of man with man and man with God. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind and with all thy 29