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COMPARATIVE RELIGION. 99 was happiness (Ibid. 153). If a temptation come in a man's way it must be resisted. He should then say to himself :
“Wait poor soul ; do not straightway be carried off your feet by it; consider the contest is great, the task is divine : it is for kingship, for freedom, for calm, for undisturbedness." (Ibid. 149).
The words for Kingship, for freedom, for calm, for undisturbedness' in this quotation are clear enough, meaning, as they do, divine perfection and freedom and joy, as taught by Religion.
In the Bible also it is said (Leviticus, xx. 7) :
"Sanctify yourselves therefore, and be ye holy; for I am the Lord your God."
Man must raise himself to correspond to the type of his ideal. Hence it is stated clearly in an earlier passage in Leviticus (xix. 2) :
"Speak unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say unto them : Ye shall be holy : for I the Lord your God am holy."
The injunction is repeated in the New Testament. 1-Peter (chap. i. 16) records :
“Because it is written, be ye holy for I am holy."
The messianic teaching itself most distinctly inculcates (Matt. v. 48) :
“Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect."
The full divine Perfection of God has been held out here as the Ideal for the aspiration of man. In the Petrine Epistle we again have it (2-Peter, I. 11);
“Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises : that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through
lust."
In Ephesians (chap. iv. 13), the desire is for becoming perfect "unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ "; and in the Epistle of James (chap. i. 4), the language is even more unambiguous, the words employed being "that ye may be perfect Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
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