Editorial March 17, 1923 Issue

"The pure in heart"

Albert F. Gilmore

In pointing the way whereby men become citizens of God's spiritual kingdom, the Psalmist declared that this exalted state is to be attained by him who has "clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully." And in the next verse he defines the rewards consequent upon the possession of these qualities. Thus, purity is here established as a requisite to the gaining of spiritual vision, as a preliminary to entrance into the kingdom of heaven. Christ Jesus in his beloved Beatitudes enlarged upon the blessings which follow the attainment of purity, declaring that a reward to be gained by the pure in heart is that "they shall see God." Mrs. Eddy, fully cognizant of the necessity of seeking purity as a condition precedent to perfect spiritual attainment, says in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 241): "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 flesh, signifies that the pure in heart see God and are approaching spiritual Life and its demonstration." Is it not apparent, then, how necessary to the gaining of knowledge of God and His kingdom these religious teachers have regarded purity? In view of the great importance of purity to spiritual attainment, may we not well inquire how it can be gained?

The student of Christian Science learns the significance of Jesus' words, "It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing." Here are arrayed in sharp contrast the opposites, Spirit and matter, the true and the false, the real and the counterfeit. Purity is the state of thought which has excluded the beliefs of the flesh, of life in matter with all its round of allurements and of the false pleasures of the world, which the spiritually-minded Jesus declared he had overcome. He had so purified his thought that the material beliefs were seen at their true value, as illusions of the counterfeit senses, having no basis in Truth.

But, one may ask, am I to yield my belief in the reality of mortal experience, all my earthly pleasures, in order to gain that degree of purity which will enable me to see God? Is there no other way? And Christian Science answers this question conclusively. Not only does it declare that only in proportion as material beliefs are surrendered may purity be gained, but it comforts those who believe that in surrendering sensuous desires they are losing something substantial, with the assurance that infinitely more important is the gaining of spiritual truth. Indeed, in this experience loss is definite gain; for the falsities to be put off, having no foundation in fact, possessing no element of stability and permanency, are but so many fleeting phantoms of the night, and no more substantial.

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