Editorial July 4, 1925 Issue

"The beauty of holiness"

Albert F. Gilmore

Certain phrases and sentences in the Bible convey an impression at once celestial and sacred, assured and joyous. An instance of this is found in the expression "the beauty of holiness," a term used several times in the Scriptures. The impression which it conveys is altogether a happy one, suggesting that which is beautiful, and at the same time spiritual, pure, holy, sacred.

In David's psalm of thanksgiving recorded in I Chronicles, the shepherd king implored the children of Israel to do their duty as the chosen of the Lord, severally enumerating these duties. "Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name," he admonished them; "bring an offering, and come before him: worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness." Again, in the Psalms, David pleaded in similar terms, so that the worship of God in "the beauty of holiness" came to be his standard for true worship. Not in material terms of supplication and sacrifice did he urge the people to discharge their duty to God, but in a manner so purified, so devoid of material conditions, that it could be described in those exalted words.

This is precisely analogous to Mrs. Eddy's words on page 253 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," where, in setting forth the "Testimony of Soul," she says, "The beauty of holiness, the perfection of being, imperishable glory,—all are Mine, for I am God." This sublime concept of holiness is predicated of divine Mind, in which inheres all that is perfect, eternal, pure, and holy. The beauty which belongs to God is thus seen to partake of spiritual qualities, devoid of every phase of materiality.

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