HOLINESS.
[TO THE EbrIVE OP THE "SPECTATOR:I- SM—May I point out that the sense-development of " holy '1 is not clear, and that the etymological connexion of the word With " whole " is not sufficient to- warrant the-assertion that it is synonymous with " perfect " (see Spectator, Septem- ber 25th) ? It is quite certain that the conception of whole- ness or perfection is not the idea at the bottom of the original Hebrew word. In English the earliest sense of the word " holy " was not "whole, perfect," but "consecrated, dedicated, sacred, set apart for religious use," and the Hebrew word which we translate "holy," when applied to the deity, means "separate, apart, separate from human infirmity," the original idea of the root being separation, withdrawal. To translate the Trisagion by "Perfect, Perfect, Perfect," would be a. very serious misrepresentation of the attitude of the Semites
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