Editorial December 17, 1927 Issue

Sanctification

Albert F. Gilmore

IN that most appealing prayer which appears in the seventeenth chapter of John's Gospel, Christ Jesus besought the Father not only to glorify himself, that he in turn through his strict adherence to divine Principle might glorify God, but he also prayed for the sanctification and protection of his dearly beloved disciples, who had stood with him throughout the trying years of his ministry. "I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world," he implored, "but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil." And as to his own status and theirs, he added in pregnant words, "They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world."

In this touching appeal Christ Jesus besought the divine blessing upon his most intimate followers, in order that they might be shielded from the allurements of the materiality in which the world of that day was so completely immersed. He asked not that those earnest disciples of the Christ should be removed from the world, which so greatly needed the spiritual vision they could bring to mankind, but he besought the Father to keep them clean, unspotted from their contact with the temptations so constantly confronting them. He knew how great was mankind's need for the reformation which comes from spiritualized consciousness; and he knew that because of their faithful discipleship with him these humble followers were better prepared to reflect the healing truth than were any others.

Mrs. Eddy was keenly awake to the necessity for her followers to lead lives of sanctification, in order that her restatement of Christianity might do the work God designed it to do. She was fully aware of the temptations which beset mortals at every turn, and she safeguarded in every possible way those who should be chosen to fill the important places in this work of Christian ministry. Her solicitude in this direction she voices in the Church Manual, where in stating the moral obligations of Readers in Christian Science churches she says (p. 31), "They must keep themselves unspotted from the world,—uncontaminated with evil,—that the mental atmosphere they exhale shall promote health and holiness, even that spiritual animus so universally needed." How well she knew that only through pure channels can flow the healing streams of Love! The streams of Truth, always flowing from the pure fountains of Spirit, require purified channels in order to meet the urgent needs of mankind.

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