Editorial October 11, 1919 Issue

Purity

Ella W. Hoag

No divine quality is more to be desired than purity. The very word brings visions of loveliness and of things desirable; but because it presents, even to the human thought, so high a standard, mankind has generally relegated it to the realm of the impossible. And yet Jesus classed it as among the things attainable when he said, "Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God." When he so spake, he presented to us an assurance, a demand and a fulfillment. All the world is seeking for blessedness, and most of the world is wondering why it does not obtain it. It does not stop to consider that there are conditions to be fulfilled before blessing can be apprehended. It is always true that since whatever is good comes from God, nothing that is really desirable can ever be realized until the demands of God are complied with. In "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 241) Mrs. Eddy writes: "One's aim, a point beyond faith, should be to find the footsteps of Truth, the way to health and holiness. We should strive to reach the Horeb height where God is revealed; and the corner-stone of all spiritual building is purity. The baptism of Spirit, washing the body of all the impurities of the flesh, signifies that the pure in heart see God and are approaching spiritual Life and its demonstration."

Christian Science approaches the problem of purification of thought, word, and deed from the unalterable standpoint of the allness of the one infinite God, good, and the consequent unreality, nothingness of all supposititious claims to an opposite. At the same time it shows conclusively that this truth in its operation in the human consciousness inevitably uncovers sin before it can prove sin's unreality. While this uncovering of sin as falsity, illusion, offers instant deliverance to the one weary of sin and longing to be delivered from its outrageous bondage, it comes to the satisfied sinner to attack his belief that sin has any pleasure whatsoever. In "Retrospection and Introspection" (p. 63) we find, "We attack the sinner's belief in the pleasure of sin, alias the reality of sin, which makes him a sinner, in order to destroy this belief and save him from sin." Then through Christian Science the way is always marked out for deliverance from sin; for to deny its satisfaction is to sap its only claim to a foundation even in a mortal so-called mind. No one will be found long indulging that in which he finds no pleasure.

Now this shows very plainly that all sin is both primarily and secondarily mental. If anyone should be guilty of cherishing a sinful thought, believing there is pleasure and satisfaction in so doing, even though he may not express it physically, he need not imagine he can escape the punishment which every sin metes out to itself. Hidden sin—even though it be only in the secret recesses of one's own thought—is, if possible, more dangerous than its more open expression. One who has named the name of Christian Science and goes forth cherishing evil in his heart, if he does not quickly awake and repent of the wrong, will without doubt reap the result of the heinousness of such secret sin.

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