whatever might
interfere with it: 'There is none holy, but the Lord;' 'To whom will you
liken me? or shall I be equal? saith the Holy One.' As Holy, God is
indeed the Incomparable One; Holiness is His alone; there is nothing
like it in heaven or earth, except when He gives it. And so our holiness
will consist, not in a human separation in which we attempt to imitate
God's,--no, but in entering into His separateness; belonging entirely to
Him; set apart by Him and for Himself.

Closely connected with this is the idea of Exaltation: 'Thus saith the
High and Holy One, whose name is Holy.' It was the Holy One who was seen
sitting upon a throne high and lifted up, the object of the worship of
the seraphim. In Psalm xcix. God's Holiness is specially spoken of in
connection with His exaltation. For this reason, too, His Holiness is so
often connected with His Glory and Majesty (see 'Sixth Day'). And here
our holiness will be seen to be nothing but the poverty and humility
which comes when 'the loftiness of man is brought low, and the Lord
alone is exalted.'

If we inquire more closely wherein the infinite excellence of this
Separateness and Exaltation consists, we are led to think of the Divine
Purity, and that not only in its negative aspect--as hatred of sin--but
with the more positive element of perfect beauty. Because we are
sinners, and the revelation of God's Holiness is in a world of sin, it
is natural, it is right and meet, that the first, that the abiding
impression of God's Holiness should be that of an Infinite Purity that
cannot look upon sin, in whose Presence it becomes the sinner to hide
his face and tremble. The Righteousness of God, forbidding and
condemning and punishing sin, has its root in His Holiness, is one of
its two elements--the devouring and destroying power of the consuming
fire. 'God the Holy One is sanctified in righteousness' (Isa. v. 16); in
righteousness the Holiness of the Holy One is maintained and revealed.
But Light not only discovers what is impure, that it may be purified,
but is in itself a thing of infinite beauty. And so some of our holiest
men have not hesitated to speak of God's Holiness as the infinite
Pulchritude or Beauty of the Divine Being, the Perfect Purity and Beauty
of that Light in which God dwelleth. And if the Holiness of God is to
become ours, to rest upon us, and enter into us, there must be, without
ceasing, the holy fear that trembles at the thought of grieving the