Editorial March 23, 1940 Issue

Holiness and Happiness

George Shaw Cook

Holiness is a quality usually attributed to God, but not always seen as a characteristic of man. However, since man in his true being is the image of God, and therefore like his heavenly Father, he must of necessity reflect Godlike qualities, such as holiness.

Students of the Scriptures will recall that Moses, speaking in the name of God, said, "I am the Lord your God: ye shall therefore sanctify yourselves, and ye shall be holy; for I am holy." The word "holy" is defined as "spiritually perfect, whole, or sound; pure in heart." And Christ Jesus, who came to do and to teach the will of God, said, in that part of his Sermon on the Mount known as the Beatitudes, "Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God." In the same sermon he also said, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect."

In calling upon men to be holy, pure, and perfect, Moses and Jesus were asking nothing impossible of achievement. Indeed, all must sooner or later see not only the possibility of, but the necessity for attaining that state known as holiness, or perfection. In no other way is the divine state of consciousness often described as heaven to be realized. And this fact is made plain by Christian Science. On page 241 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," its Discoverer and Founder, Mary Baker Eddy, says: "One's aim, a point beyond faith, should be to find the footsteps of Truth, the way to health and holiness. We should strive to reach the Horeb height where God is revealed; and the corner-stone of all spiritual building is purity." On the next page she writes: "There is but one way to heaven, harmony, and Christ in divine Science shows us this way. It is to know no other reality—to have no other consciousness of life—than good, God and His reflection, and to rise superior to the so-called pain and pleasure of the senses."

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