2. Holiness is the essence of all moral perfection; it is purity unsullied by any breath of evil. True holiness can be ascribed only to Divinity, above the realm of the flesh and the senses. “There is none holy but the Lord, for there is none beside Thee,” says Scripture.(256) Whether man stands on a lower or higher level of culture, he has in all his plans and aspirations some ideal of perfection to which he may never attain, but which serves as the standard for his actions. The best of his doings falls short of what he ought to do; in his highest efforts he realizes the potentiality of better things. This ideal of moral perfection works as the motive power of the will in setting for it a standard; it establishes human freedom in place of nature’s compulsion, but such an ideal can emanate only from the moral power ruling life, which we designate as the divine Holiness. 3. Scripture says of God that He “walketh in holiness,”(257) and accordingly morality in man is spoken of as “walking in the ways of God.”(258) “Walk before Me and be perfect!” says God to Abraham.(259) Moses approached God with two petitions,—the one, “Show me Thy ways that I may know Thee!” the other, “Show me, I pray Thee, Thy glory!” In response to the latter God said, “No man can see Me and live”, but the former petition was granted in that the Lord revealed Himself in His moral attributes.(260) These alone can be understood and emulated by man; in regard to the so-called metaphysical attributes God will ever remain beyond human comprehension and emulation. 4. In order to serve as vehicle for the expression of the highest moral perfection, the Biblical term for holiness, _Kadosh_, had to undergo a long process of development, obscuring its original meaning. The history of this term gives us the deepest insight into the working of the Jewish genius towards the full revelation of the God of holiness. At first the word _Kadosh_(261) seems to have denoted unapproachableness in the sense in which fire is unapproachable, that is, threatening and consuming. This fiery nature was ascribed by primitive man to all divine beings. Hence the angels are termed “the holy ones” in Scripture.(262) According to both priestly practice and popular belief, the man who approached one of these holy ones with hand or foot, or even with his gaze, was doomed to die.(263) Out of such crude conceptions evolved the idea of God’s majesty as unapproachable in the sense of the sublime, banishing everything profane from its presence, and visiting with punishment every violation of its sanctity. The old conception of the fiery appearance of the Deity served especially as a figurative expression of the moral power of God, which manifests itself as a “consuming fire,”(264) exterminating evil, and making man long for the good and the true, for righteousness and love.