Article April 17, 1926 Issue

The Need for Holiness

FLORENCE E. B. DONALDSON

The sacred pages of the Bible, recording the inspired words of psalmist, prophet, and apostle, teach the need for holiness. The appeal to human consciousness is made from every standpoint. The direct command of God and the constant incentive to demonstrate this quality; its frequent portrayal as beautiful and desirable; the search after it emphasized as necessary to human progress; and the final setting forth in the vision in the Apocalypse of its perfect attainment and recognition, have all contributed to direct the thought of mankind to the Godlike nature of holiness and the imperative necessity for all to strive to reflect this attribute of divine Mind.

Notwithstanding the reiterated command to be holy, and its claim upon the obedient recognition of humanity, it would seem to have been passed over all too frequently by religionists as too transcendental to be taken literally. It was not until Mrs. Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, with her clear insight into the true meaning of the Scriptures, explained holiness as signifying divine wholeness, that students of Christian Science saw they must seek to demonstrate it in its completeness.

When Moses voiced the commands of God to the Israelites, we find him repeating to all the congregation of Israel, "Ye shall be holy: for I the Lord your God am holy." The Apostle Peter, elucidating his teaching in his first epistle, draws the attention of the converts to Christianity to this written law of God. And Christ Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount uses the phrase of similar meaning: "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." Paul, in one of his clear-cut arguments, lifts the thought of his Roman readers to understand the difference between human law and the holy law of God; and later, in the same epistle, includes a holy body as a necessary offering from those who would serve God aright.

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