H O L I N E S S : what it is not & what it is by COMMISSIONER SAMUEL LOGAN BRENGLE irst of all, holiness is not necessarily a state in which there is perpetual, rapturous joy. Isaiah 53:3 tells us that Jesus was “a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief,” and Paul tells us that he had continual sorrow and great heaviness because of the rejection of Jesus by his kinsmen after the flesh. Joy is the normal state of the holy man, but it may be mingled with sorrow and grief and perplexities and heaviness on account of many temptations. The low water mark, however, in the experience of a holy person is one of perfect peace—the high water mark is up in the third heaven somewhere. However, this third heaven experience is not likely to be constantly maintained. Jesus and the disciples had to come down off the Mount of Transfiguration and go to casting out devils, and Paul returned from the third heaven to be attacked by Satan, stoned, whipped and imprisoned by men. The War Cry | JUNE 2013 Photo ThinkStock 9