Editorial November 4, 1922 Issue

"The way of holiness"

Ella W. Hoag

Isaiah at one time, in referring to "the joyful flourishing of Christ's kingdom," encouraged his hearers to "be strong, fear not," and then went on to say: "Your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompence; he will come and save you." After this he portrayed the wonderful healing results which would follow trust in God. He told them that the blind should see and the deaf should hear, the lame should leap and the dumb should sing; and then added, "And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness." He did not stop there, however; for he continued, "The unclean shall not pass over it."

God's people have always understood, at least theoretically, that sin and holiness are opposites. They have always preached the desirability of attaining holiness at some time, although they have largely placed that time in a future heaven. While scholasticism has declared that holiness is a final necessity for all men, and has proclaimed that all should strive for it, nevertheless it has not shown the exact way to gain it. In "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 11) Mrs. Eddy marks out the way plainly, and also emphasizes the fact that sin and holiness can never dwell together. She says: "We know that a desire for holiness is requisite in order to gain holiness; but if we desire holiness above all else, we shall sacrifice everything for it. We must be willing to do this, that we may walk securely in the only practical road to holiness."

The Christian Scientist, therefore, recognizes at the outset not only that he must first "desire holiness above all else," but that one can walk in the way of holiness only as he is willing to "sacrifice everything for it." And who would not sacrifice all that is unholy? Who would not give up the unholy nothings of material belief, in order to gain the satisfying perfections of holiness? Holiness, therefore, must be one's aim. One need not imagine, however, that he can grow in holiness simply by declaring for what he is pleased to call normality. By continuously affirming that he is still human, and so must do the things which appear to him as humanly normal, he may land himself in the ditch of materiality.

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