THE KING’S BUSINESS
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to see how much was being tossed into that pan, though. There he sat with every muscle in his body ap parently motionless. I stood and watched him for a long time. There he was, covered with ashes and filth from the crown of his head to tne soles of his feet. But he was “a holy man” ! That is where the Theoso- phists have gone to get their ideas of holiness! Esoteric Buddhism! He was “a holy man” ! His holiness con sisted in contemplation, Nirvana (in its highest form, not in thought but in the absence of thought, the absence of feeling, the absence of anything and everything except dirtiness.) That is not the Bible conception of holiness. The Bible conception of holiness is one going alone with God, to drink in His life and be filled with His Spirit; and then going out to burn himself out in the service of his fellowmen. Have you that kind of holiness? If you say, “I love to go to Conferences like this; our fellow ship is so sweet, our singing is so wonderful, and these great truths that we have heard about are so wonder ful that I would just like to spend the rest of my life here,” then you are very unholy and very selfish, Ecstacy is not holiness. One of the most dis tinctive. characteristics of Christian holiness is that of going out to win others. Like Christ. What was He like? Turn to Luke 19:10, and find His .own definition, of why He came into this world at all: “For the 'Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.” It was for that He came to this earth ;it was for that He left heaven, with all its glory, where He was wor shipped by the angels and archangel, cherubim and’ seraphim, and came down into this world to be spit upon, to be blindfolded, to be scourged until His back was one mass of wounds, to be nailed to the cross, and die the
ness; Bible holiness is holiness that leads us to forget self, and go out to win others. The idea of holiness that people had in the dark ages was cloistered holiness. The man who wanted to be holy went into a monas tery and wore a hair shirt; and the woman who wanted to be holy went into a nunnery. There they spent hours and days in fasting, vigils and prayers. They went through a great many austere penances. Sometimes they became anchorites, and went out into the desert where they never saw anybody, living alone with wild beasts out in the desert. Some, like Simon vStylites, were hoisted up on to a great high pillar, where there was scarce room to stand, and there they sat or knelt, year after year, having their food hoisted up to them, never com ing down; and people would come along and admire the holy man up there on the top of the pillar! That is not holiness. That is an extreme form of unholiness—selfishness, which is the very essence of unholiness. The very essence of holiness is love; and love goes out, love does not hide itself; love does not go off by itself and try to be holy. That is pure self ishness, nothing more nor less. Love forgets self and burns self out in the pursuit of others. When I was over in India I saw a “holy man,” as he was called. I saw a number of them, but this particular one attracted my attention. There he sat, in a sort of cage, without a piece of garment on him, except a little cloth around his loins. He was dirty; the dirtier he was, the holier he was, he thought. He had a little pan of coals in front of him. People would toss him small coins, or bring him food. There he sat, hour after hour, with his eyes rigid, not seeing.—or at least trying to appear not to see—anybody. I thought I saw him sort of look out of the corner of his eye occasionally
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