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Holiness

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Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Oct 7, 1858

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 12, No. 20.

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Holiness.

Holiness is a very comprehensive word, and expresses a state of mind and conduct that includes many things. It is the work of the Spirit in our sanctification, the fruit of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, and the operation of the new nature which we receive in regeneration. Holiness may be viewed in various aspects, according to the different objects to which it relates. Towards God, it is supreme love, delight in his moral character, submission to his will, obedience to his commands, zeal for his cause, observance of his institutes, and seeking his glory. Towards Christ, it is a conformity to his example, and imbibing of his spirit. Towards man, it is charity, integrity, truth, mercy. Towards sin, it is a hatred of all iniquity, a tender conscience easily wounded by little sins, and scrupulously avoiding them; together with a laborious, painful, self-denying, progressive mortification of all the known corruptions of our heart, and a dilligent seeking for such as are unknown. Towards self, it is the control of our fleshly appetites, the eradication of our pride, the mortificatiou of our selfishness. Towards divine things in general, it is spirituality of mind, or the habitual current of pious thought and devout affections flowing through the soul. And towards the objects of the unseen world, it is heaven'y-mindedness, a turning away from things seen and temporal, to things unseen and eternal. O what a word is holiness! How much does it comprehend!