"BLESSED are the pure in heart: for they shall see God." What a marvelous promise this beatitude contains! What a wonderful vista of possibilities opens before one's mental vision when one thoughtfully ponders the statement! To see God! To see Truth, Life, and Love! So clearly to see Truth that instantaneously all the dark mists of sin, sickness, sorrow, and pain will disappear; so clearly to see Life as universal and omnipotent that death will flee away as rapidly as darkness before light; so clearly to see Love triumphant in all its divine radiance and glory that hate with all its evil companions will drop into oblivion, and the brotherhood of man appear in all its primeval harmony! Surely, here is a hope so infinite and a reward so sublime that it is worth striving for to the uttermost.
Purity! Almost as one says the word the vision of a little child comes to us. No wonder Jesus set one of the little ones in the midst and said, "Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven." There is something so unsullied, so transparent, so pure in the thought of a little child that it is easy to understand the further statement of Jesus: "In heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven." Here, then, is the first requisite before we can even attempt to win the prize. To "become as little children" we must not only learn to rely on and trust in God completely, even as a child trusts in its earthly parents, but we must set to work to empty our minds of false theology, traditions, dogmas, prejudices, intellectual pride. We must become receptive to Truth. Giving up our human sense of wisdom and intelligence, we must meekly yield ourselves to the divine will, seeking to be purified of all false selfhood until, like a sheet of golden sand uncovered by the ebbing tide, our consciousness, stainless and pure, is fit for "the finger of God" to write on, and we can say in all sincerity, "Thy will be done."
Mrs. Eddy writes in the textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 241): "The cornerstone of all spiritual building is purity. The baptism of Spirit, washing the body of all the impurities of flesh, signifies that the pure in heart see God and are approaching spiritual Life and its demonstration." She also says, "We know that a desire for holiness is requisite in order to gain holiness; but if we desire holiness above all else, we shall sacrifice everything for it" (ibid., p. 11). So, our thoughts becoming purified, the next requisite is the compelling desire for holiness. And how are we to get this desire? By prayer. In the first chapter of our textbook, entitled "Prayer," we are taught the true manner of prayer. In proportion to our sincerity, importunity, and persistence will this desire be born within us; and we shall be blessed according to our seeking.
