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 THE BEATITUDES OF JESUS.
 
 VESPER ADDRESSES 
 
 ON 
 THE OCTAVE OF BLESSEDNESS 
 
 Given in Trinity Church, San Jose, Cal., and at the 
 Church Divinity School, San Mateo, 
 
 BY 
 
 J. WILMER / GRESHAM, B.D. 
 
 WITH INTRODUCTORY WORDS 
 BY THE 
 
 THE BISHOP OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 SAN JOSE, CAL. 
 
 MELVIN & MURGOTTEN. INC. 
 
 1908
 
 TO THE 
 
 REV. WILLIAM P. DuBOSE, S.T.D. 
 
 IN GRATEFUL REMEMBRANCE 
 
 OF THE INSPIRATION AND GUIDANCE OF THOSE 
 CHERISHED YEARS "ON THE MOUNTAIN*' 
 
 AT SEWANEE, WHEN, BEFORE THE 
 
 WORLD KNEW HIM THROUGH HIS WRITINGS, 
 
 " HIS DISCIPLES CAME UNTO HIM," 
 
 AND KNEW HIM AS THEIR 
 
 TEACHER AND FRIEND.
 
 INTRODUCTORY WORDS 
 
 BY THE 
 
 Bishop of California. 
 
 WHEN, Sunday after Sunday, people flock to 
 a Vesper Service at an hour in the late after- 
 noon generally supposed to be least hopeful for 
 large congregations, there is some reason for it. 
 The many must have caught some message. 
 
 The following addresses on The Beatitudes of 
 Jesus, which were delivered at Trinity Church, 
 San Jose", had that evidence of their message. 
 They were spoken without manuscript to those 
 who heard them. Happily, in order that others 
 may read the same message, the addresses have 
 been written out and printed here. The sus- 
 tained interest of the congregations proves the 
 perennial vitality of "preaching Jesus." This 
 showing one reason why people go to Church is
 
 Introductory Words. 
 
 far more effective than any number of reasons 
 why they do not go to Church. 
 
 "The Octave of Blessedness" is the felicitous 
 phrase chosen in the sub-title to note the fact 
 that the eight "Beatitudes are both mutually 
 related and individually distinct," and that this 
 "constitutes at once their inspiration and their 
 charm." And the range of interpretation in 
 the chording of the Beatitudes to profound hu- 
 man need and aspiration reveals music which 
 breathes of the harmonies of spiritual counter- 
 point. Benedictus benedicat. 
 
 WILLIAM F. NICHOLS. 
 
 The Bishop's House, San Francisco, 
 ST. LUKE'S DAY, 1908.
 
 THE BEATITUDES OF JESUS. 
 St. Matthew : Fifth Chapter. 
 
 Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs 
 is the kingdom of heaven. 
 
 Blessed are they that mourn: for they 
 shall be comforted. 
 
 Blessed are the meek: for they shall in- 
 herit the earth. 
 
 Blessed are they that hunger and thirst 
 after righteousness: for they shall be filled. 
 
 Blessed are the merciful: for they shall 
 obtain mercy. 
 
 Blessed are the pure in heart: for they 
 shall see God. 
 
 Blessed are the peacemakers: for they 
 shall be called sons of God. 
 
 Blessed are they that have been persecuted 
 for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the 
 kingdom of heaven.
 
 At first the music of the Beatitudes 
 tells out its sweetness in the simplicity of 
 familiar melody, but as the ear of man's 
 spiritual nature comes to catch its deep 
 undertones and to trace its hidden har- 
 monies, the nature of its simplicity is 
 heightened and deepened, its simple uni- 
 son rises into majestic harmony, and 
 this harmony is simplicity brought to its 
 perfect state. In a word, the simplicity 
 of the Beatitudes is the simplicity of the 
 character of Christ.
 
 V 
 
 THE BLESSEDNESS 
 
 I. OF THE POOR IN SPIRIT .... 1 
 
 II. OF THOSE THAT MOURN ... 19 
 
 III. OF THE MEEK 37 
 
 IV. OF THE QUEST FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS 55 
 V. OF THE MERCIFUL 75 
 
 VI. OF THE PURE IN HEART ... 93 
 
 VII. OF THE PEACEMAKERS . . . . Ill 
 
 VIII. OF THE PERSECUTED . . 127
 
 OF THE POOR IN SPIRIT.
 
 'Blessed are the Poor in Spirit: 
 for theirs is the Kingdom of 
 Heaven. 11
 
 THE BEATITUDES OF JESUS. 
 
 i. 
 
 OF THE POOR IN SPIRIT. 
 
 ONE God, one law, one element," 
 wrote Tennyson, in words of in- 
 sight only a shade less familiar to the 
 popular mind than the words of vision 
 with which the noble passage closes, "and 
 one far-off divine event to which the 
 whole creation moves." With deeper 
 insight and diviner vision, in the chaste 
 forms of the simplest speech, or veiled 
 under luminous parable, the Man of 
 Nazareth spoke of the Kingdom of Heav- 
 en, or of God. This expression came 
 to signify to him, with ever-increasing 
 completeness, that conception of the 
 divine order which it was his mission to 
 reveal to human consciousness, and ul- 
 timately to fulfill in human history. The
 
 The Beatitudes of Jesus. 
 
 "Kingdom of Heaven" is the first con- 
 crete expression that falls from his lips 
 as he stands on the threshold of his min- 
 istry, and it is the substance of his final 
 teaching during the great forty days that 
 stretch in the after-glow of his resurrec- 
 tion. He seems to have lengthened his 
 stay upon earth in order to unfold its 
 deeper meanings in the light of his ac- 
 complished work. Thus we find it set 
 forth in the initial beatitude as the spirit- 
 ual blessedness that awaits the poor in 
 spirit, and it greets us in the closing be- 
 atitude as the reward of those who are 
 persecuted for righteousness' sake. The 
 keynote, touched in the opening chord, 
 is heard again with added richness of 
 meaning in the closing strain, while each 
 of the related intermediate harmonies 
 may be traced by the spiritual ear. 
 
 THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 
 
 This thought, the Kingdom of Heaven, 
 which underlies the structure of the be- 
 atitudes, is woven into the texture of the 
 2
 
 Of the Poor in Spirit, 
 
 Master's life, and forms the substance 
 of his best authenticated teaching. It 
 shadows forth with marvelous clearness 
 of delineation his conception of his mis- 
 sion to earth, and expresses his deepest 
 conviction of the ultimate relation of God 
 to man and the universe. In attempt- 
 ing an analysis of the first beatitude, 
 we shall find our reflections materially 
 assisted by viewing the natural divis- 
 ions of our simple text in their reverse 
 order. Let us ask ourselves, first, what 
 this expression, "the Kingdom of Heav- 
 en," meant to the Master, and what he 
 intends it should mean to us. Then let 
 us inquire who are the poor in spirit, and 
 in what sense the Kingdom is theirs. 
 What, then, are we to understand by the 
 phrase, the Kingdom of Heaven, as it 
 takes its place in the earliest teaching of 
 Jesus ? Many learned volumes have been 
 written in reply to this question. It is 
 easy enough to be dogmatic, and to dis- 
 miss the inquiry by framing a reply in 
 the rigid terms of a cold traditionalism. 
 
 3
 
 The Beatitudes of Jesus 
 
 The seeker of mere novelty of expres- 
 sion, on the other hand, often as dogmatic 
 as the theological traditionalist himself, 
 is justly reminded that the new may not 
 be true, and the true may not be new. 
 Yet for our comfort, we may reflect that 
 every sincere attempt to conceive and 
 express the truth may be in some real, 
 though relative sense, both new and true. 
 
 THE UNFOLDING OF THE KINGDOM. 
 
 There can be little doubt that the 
 idea of the Kingdom of Heaven in the 
 heart and mind of Jesus passed through 
 successive stages of unfolding, and was 
 in fact as organic in its nature as the 
 Kingdom itself. We cannot trace these 
 stages with any degree of certainty, but 
 we can offer reverent, and, perhaps, 
 reasonable conjecture. The average mind 
 is strangely averse to admission of the 
 progressive development of the mental 
 conceptions of Jesus. If the admission 
 is made, as the records require, it is made 
 with reservations that virtually inval- 
 
 4
 
 Of the Poor in Spirit. 
 
 idate it. But waiving all discussion of 
 the subject, let us reflect upon the 
 unfolding of the Kingdom in the con- 
 sciousness of Jesus. There were two 
 central thoughts that lay at the heart of 
 his teachings, and to which all that he 
 said and did stood related. They were 
 the thought of God in his relation to man, 
 and the thought of man is his relation to 
 God. During the thirty years of his 
 retirement from the world, when, amid 
 the familiar scenes of his Nazareth home, 
 Jesus waxed strong in spirit, filled with 
 wisdom, with the grace of God ever upon 
 him, these thoughts matured with his 
 expanding intelligence, shedding light 
 upon the problems of faith and the ques- 
 tions of duty, for we read that he grew 
 in favour with "God and man." The one 
 recorded incident of his boyhood points 
 to this two-fold direction of his develop- 
 ment, where we find the balance between 
 his Godward and manward relations 
 carefully maintained. Surely, it must 
 have been from sources such as these 
 
 5
 
 The Beatitudes of Jesus. 
 
 that his earliest conception of the King- 
 dom took shape; and while the dream of 
 a Messianic mission must have tinged 
 his thought, the spiritual principle that 
 animated his mind would ultimately free 
 that conception from every restrictive 
 influence. When we next see him he is 
 standing at the entrance of his ministry 
 with the words, "Thou art my beloved 
 Son," falling like a benediction on his 
 soul, and the Baptist's cry, "the Kingdom 
 of Heaven is at hand," ringing in his 
 ears. Yet he is keenly aware of the 
 temper of the expectancy that greets 
 him in the waning light of the Baptist's 
 ministry. It is Messianic ; and it is borne 
 in upon him that his Kingdom must 
 transcend his own boyhood's dreams and 
 Israel's expectations. The next stage 
 is that of the temptation. No thoughtful 
 student of the temptation narratives can 
 fail to note their bearing upon the Messi- 
 anic question, or to trace the influence of 
 that inward struggle upon the great 
 central truths that lay at the heart of the 
 
 6
 
 Of the Poor in Spirit. 
 
 human development of Jesus. Perhaps 
 the radiant vision of the kingdoms of 
 the world and the glory of them never 
 entirely faded from his soul, but the 
 Kingdom of Heaven henceforth meant 
 for him, God's presence and God's rule 
 realized in human consciousness; and 
 when he crowns his first Beatitude with 
 the phrase "for theirs is the Kingdom of 
 Heaven," he is speaking from a region 
 of spiritual elevation whose condition 
 he has tested, whose laws he has mas- 
 tered, and into whose blessedness he 
 would lead mankind. 
 
 Before passing on to define the mean- 
 ing of the phrase "the poor in spirit," we 
 have but to notice that this Beatitude 
 places the possession of the Kingdom of 
 Heaven in the present tense. This tense 
 is not repeated until the eighth Beatitude 
 is reached, when the Kingdom of Heaven 
 is mentioned as the reward of the 
 persecuted. Manifestly the impression 
 intended to be conveyed is that the King- 
 dom is in some deep sense "at hand" as a 
 
 7
 
 The Beatitudes of Jesus. 
 
 possible fact of experience, a divine event, 
 whose consummation awaits the fulfill- 
 ment of its clearly stated law. 
 
 POVERTY OF SPIRIT. 
 
 "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for 
 theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven." We 
 can best arrive at an understanding of 
 the condition imposed, by excluding the 
 false explanations that meet us at the 
 outset. From the rendering of the Beati- 
 tude in the twentieth verse of the sixth 
 chapter of St. Luke, "Blessed be ye 
 poor," it is evident that the poverty 
 mentioned in the third Gospel is intended 
 to imply a condition of material cir- 
 cumstance, and this is supported by the 
 antithesis in the twenty-fourth verse, 
 where the evangelist represents Christ as 
 saying: "But woe unto you that are rich." 
 In interpreting the Beatitude, we might 
 dismiss from our minds this aspect of 
 poverty, but for its evident bearing upon 
 a closely related condition. It seems 
 quite clear that we have in the two 
 
 8
 
 Of the Poor in Spirit. 
 
 accounts, reports of the Master's teaching 
 on two distinct occasions, and under 
 widely differing circumstances. At the 
 same time it must be admitted that 
 Christ, both in his teaching and by his 
 example, exalts the condition of material 
 poverty as conducive to spiritual advan- 
 tage. But never does he exalt it for its 
 own sake as inherently meritorious. In 
 all his references to the subject, he seems 
 to lay down the principle that disciple- 
 ship involves a certain detachment which 
 is equally indifferent to wealth or pov- 
 erty; that a man's best life "consisteth 
 not in the abundance of the things that 
 he possesseth." Material poverty is to 
 be understood as blessed only as it min- 
 isters to the spirit of detachment. On 
 the other hand, one's wealth and mate- 
 rial advantage may be administered in 
 the spirit of a stewardship that will make 
 effectively for precisely the same temper of 
 detachment. Yet because the character- 
 istic tendency of material affluence is in the 
 opposite direction, we can understand 
 
 9
 
 The Beatitudes of Jesus. 
 
 that the Master would say as the rich 
 young ruler passed out of his sight, "how 
 hardly shall they that trust in riches enter 
 into the Kingdom of Heaven," and to 
 those who, while deprived of this world's 
 good things, were rich towards God, 
 "Blessed be ye poor." 
 
 POVERTY AND THE KINGDOM. 
 
 We must bear in mind, however, that 
 St. Matthew's designation "poor in spirit" 
 releases us from the necessity of defending 
 the blessedness that belongs to a condi- 
 tion of material privation, and limits our 
 discussion to a state or condition within 
 the spirit of man. The region of man's 
 spiritual nature is clearly the region 
 designated. But what is meant by man's 
 spiritual nature ? Surely poverty of spirit 
 means neither a false humility regarding 
 one's endowments or acquisitions of mind, 
 nor an unreal depreciation of one's native 
 or acquired qualities of character. What- 
 ever our spiritual pastors and masters 
 may have taught us in time past, we are 
 10
 
 Of the Poor in Spirit. 
 
 neither to regard our thoughts as alto- 
 gether vain, nor our righteousnesses as 
 filthy rags, nor ourselves as vile earth 
 and miserable sinners. 
 
 What then are we to understand as the 
 poverty of spirit named in the Beatitude ? 
 Clearly it is an attitude of the soul. In 
 general terms it is a recognition that man 
 is incomplete apart from God. As re- 
 gards its personal meaning to the indi- 
 vidual, there are two elements that enter 
 into it, and give it definiteness. First, 
 it must be conscious poverty. That which 
 makes poverty poverty is one's keen 
 consciousness of it. All men need God, 
 few men are deeply conscious of that need. 
 The other element is that it is an un- 
 satisfied poverty. The oft-quoted phrase 
 of St. Augustine, "Thou hast made us for 
 thyself, O Lord, and our heart will find 
 no rest till it rests in thee," expresses 
 this most perfectly. This sense of un- 
 satisfied incompleteness passes into spirit- 
 ual yearning and receptiveness, which is 
 but another name for poverty of spirit. 
 11
 
 The Beatitudes of Jesus. 
 
 In what sense can it be said of those who 
 meet these terms that theirs is the King- 
 dom of Heaven? In a sense not unlike 
 that in which we may speak of the King- 
 dom of Knowledge as the possession of 
 the mind that, being uninformed and 
 ignorant, is both sorrowfully aware of the 
 limitation, and resolutely bent on over- 
 coming it. To be ignorant, to be conscious 
 of ignorance, and to be dissatisfied with 
 ignorance, means mental effort, and this, 
 persisted in, means mental acquisition, 
 or entrance into the Kingdom of Know- 
 ledge. Poverty of spirit likewise opens 
 wide its doors to the Kingdom of Heaven, 
 and a spiritual process is begun, whose 
 completion will not be reached till man's 
 spirit is filled with all the fulness of God. 
 
 THE CONTENT OF BLESSEDNESS. 
 
 It remains for us to define or suggest 
 the meaning that lies behind this key- 
 word of the Beatitudes, which more than 
 any other single expression of the Master 
 represents his conception of the summum 
 12
 
 Of the Poor in Spirit. 
 
 bonum of his spiritual kingdom. There 
 is a sense in which the very nature of 
 this blessedness precludes definition, inas- 
 much as it is the spiritual state of those 
 who have met the several conditions 
 named in the Beatitudes. There is a subtle 
 danger in attempting to reason by anal- 
 ogy from the lower to the higher, as 
 when in our interpretation we construe 
 blessedness as a kind of heightened or 
 glorified happiness. But when the Beati- 
 tudes are regarded as a self -revelation of 
 Christ it becomes evident that he himself 
 must have been in possession of the bless- 
 edness which he promises as a result of 
 the fulfillment of the conditions set forth 
 in the Beatitudes, and our hope of arriving 
 at an understanding of the nature of that 
 blessedness turns upon the degree of our 
 insight into the spiritual state in which 
 Christ lived and had his being. Our task 
 is greatly lightened as we watch the move- 
 ment of his life through successive periods 
 of its unfolding, and then pause to con- 
 template the disclosures that marked the 
 
 13
 
 The Beatitudes of Jesus. 
 
 concluding days of his ministry. When, 
 for example, he speaks of his joy, his love, 
 and his peace, as inherent in his own 
 spiritual state, we cannot fathom the 
 meaning of these elemental qualities, but 
 we can conceive them as belonging to the 
 content of his blessedness, and it is infin- 
 itely reassuring, to those who are seeking 
 the Kingdom of God by the path of the 
 Beatitudes, to find that in the Master's 
 use of each of these terms, he claims for 
 his followers a share of whatever spiritual 
 condition they imply, which is equivalent 
 to bidding his disciples share his blessed- 
 ness. The law or principle of this partic- 
 ipation we find set forth in the Beatitudes, 
 from obedience to which there is no 
 exemption for Master or disciple. 
 
 14
 
 OF THOSE THAT MOURN.
 
 "Blessed are they that Mourn: for 
 they shall be Comforted."
 
 OF* THOSE THAT MOURN. 
 
 NOWHERE, in all the range of 
 Christ's teaching, can we find his 
 character more completely mirrored than 
 in the Beatitudes. In portraying the 
 beauty and the blessedness of the Perfect 
 Life, the Master has unconsciously given 
 to the world a description of himself, so 
 that with entire truthfulness it may be 
 said that henceforth the Perfect Life and 
 the Christ Life are terms of equal mean- 
 ing. On this account both the character 
 and the words of Jesus are invested with 
 an added beauty and significance. It is 
 quite conceivable that the Perfect Life 
 might have been lived without its lofty 
 principles being crystallized in human 
 speech. On the other hand, the Master, 
 dwelling in the light which no man can 
 
 19
 
 The Beatitudes of Jesus. 
 
 approach unto, might have tempered his 
 disclosure of spiritual truth with reference 
 to human limitations, as when he later 
 declared, "I have many things to say 
 unto you, but ye cannot bear them now." 
 In either case the connection between the 
 life and the teaching would have been 
 remote and unreal, and we should find 
 ourselves groping dimly in the twilight 
 of conjecture, with no clear light upon 
 the path of precept or example. As 
 the case stands, the Beatitudes become 
 luminous with meaning, for the Master's 
 words interpret and reveal his life, and 
 his life in turn clothes his words with 
 infinite beauty and preciousness. 
 
 TWO RELATED TRUTHS. 
 
 Our first impression of the Beatitude, 
 "Blessed are they that mourn, for they 
 shall be comforted," is that while it 
 speaks directly from the heart of the 
 Master to the world's deepest need, it 
 bears no necessary relation to the inner 
 history of Jesus, except in the sense that 
 20
 
 Of Those That Mourn. 
 
 he hath borne our griefs and carried our 
 sorrows. Such an impression is the 
 result of our religious training and tradi- 
 tions, which dispose us to substitute the 
 theological Christ, or N the ecclesiastical 
 Christ, for the human Christ. We hes- 
 itate to construct the inner spiritual his- 
 tory of the Master in terms of human 
 experience, and thus we miss much of the 
 meaning, and of the comfort, too, of 
 passages such as the one before us, where 
 the blessing of comfort is pronounced 
 upon those that mourn. In this Beati- 
 tude, we have a bit of the inner history 
 of Jesus, the full meaning of which cannot 
 be appreciated without reference to the 
 one that precedes it, "Blessed are the 
 poor in spirit; for theirs is the Kingdom 
 of Heaven." It seems strange that more 
 than one careful student of the Beati- 
 tudes should fail to note the connection 
 here, contending for an arrangement dif- 
 fering from that given by St. Matthew, and 
 insisting that the Beatitude of the Meek 
 should follow that of the Poor in Spirit. 
 21
 
 The Beatitudes of Jesus. 
 
 The surface resemblance in the latter case 
 has much apparently to commend it, but 
 when we understand the theme of the 
 Beatitudes to be the Kingdom of Heaven, 
 the connection between the poor in spirit 
 and those that mourn becomes quite close 
 and vital, and we are led to conclude that 
 the order given is the true one, and that 
 St. Matthew has correctly reported the 
 original utterance of our Lord. 
 
 THE MISSION OF COMFORT. 
 
 It may be remembered that in our 
 previous address, we took the ground 
 that when Christ said "blessed are the 
 poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom 
 "of Heaven," poverty of spirit was under- 
 stood to be a condition of inward recep- 
 tiveness, which of its very nature invites 
 the beginning of a spiritual process known 
 as the Kingdom of Heaven. There seems 
 a slight confusion of thought in speaking 
 of the Kingdom as a process, yet such it 
 unquestionably is. It is both a spiritual 
 state, and a spiritual process. A spiritual 
 22
 
 Of Those That Mourn. 
 
 state, in that it is the invited presence and 
 acknowledged rule of God; a spiritual 
 process, in that not until every power and 
 faculty in the vast region of man's inner 
 consciousness is brought into subjection 
 to that rule will the Kingdom be realized 
 in experience. Incident to this process 
 of the unfolding of the Kingdom, or rule 
 and presence of God in man's spirit, there 
 is pain and anguish, sorrow and travail, 
 yet, be the process as mournful as it will, 
 there is divinest comfort in the vision of 
 the ultimate end to be achieved, for 
 experience worketh hope, and hope sees 
 dimly a glory that shall be revealed when 
 the "becoming is completed" and God is 
 all in all. There is comfort, too, in the 
 reflection that the Master knew no exemp- 
 tion from the law that we must through 
 much tribulation enter into the Kingdom 
 of Heaven, and we have the assurance 
 that we may know the fellowship of his 
 sufferings. "We have not an high priest 
 that cannot be touched with the feeling 
 of our infirmities, but was in all points 
 
 23
 
 The Beatitudes of Jesus. 
 
 tempted like as we are." As the writer 
 of the Epistle to the Hebrews further 
 recounts the history of Christ's prepara- 
 tion for the bestowal of sympathy, how 
 intimately do we find the Master's pov- 
 erty of spirit related to the pain that 
 attended the process of his spiritual un- 
 folding, as when we read that "in the 
 days of his flesh he offered up prayers 
 and supplications, with strong crying and 
 tears, unto Him that was able to save 
 him, and was heard in that he feared," 
 and that "though he was a son, yet 
 learned he obedience by the things that 
 he suffered." 'It is quite true that we 
 are now reading these passages back 
 into the Beatitude, yet if the Beati- 
 tude in setting forth the law of the 
 spiritual life faithfully reflects the mind 
 and interprets the experience of Jesus, 
 the connection between the blessedness 
 of the poor in spirit and the blessed- 
 ness of those that mourn is unmis- 
 takable. The tender minor into which 
 the music of the Beatitudes sinks, vi- 
 
 24
 
 Of Those That Mourn. 
 
 brates to universal human need, because 
 it is a chord in the spiritual conscious- 
 ness of him who offers his own blessedness 
 to the world. Coleridge declared that he 
 knew the Bible to be, inspired because it 
 found him. How truly does it find us 
 here! "Blessed are they that mourn, for 
 they shall be comforted ! " In the midst of 
 pain inscrutable and grief insupportable, 
 under the crush of sorrow, and in the 
 shadow of death, the consolations of God 
 are voiced from human lips, and there is 
 "beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for 
 mourning, and the garment of praise for 
 the spirit of heaviness." 
 
 IN THE LIGHT OF THE PARABLES. 
 
 Assuming that there is a connection, 
 indeed, an intimate relation, between the 
 blessedness of those that mourn, and that 
 poverty of spirit in answer to which the 
 Kingdom of Heaven is given, we shall 
 find in several of the parables of the King- 
 dom the place of comfort in the unfolding 
 of the spiritual life from within. Later 
 
 25
 
 The Beatitudes of Jesus. 
 
 we shall speak in more general terms of 
 the mission of comfort in the disciplines 
 of life. In that cluster of parables which 
 St. Matthew introduces into his later 
 narrative, the Kingdom of Heaven is set 
 forth under a variety of images, which 
 may be interpreted either objectively of 
 the Church, or subjectively of the soul in 
 its relation to God. It is in the latter 
 sense that we shall view them, that is, as 
 descriptive of the spiritual process to 
 which reference has been made. The 
 Hidden Treasure and the Pearl of Great 
 Price picturesquely portray the intrinsic 
 worth of the Kingdom, and at the same 
 time imply the possibility of its present 
 possession. The Mustard Seed, the Leav- 
 en, and the Growing Wheat, are descrip- 
 tive of a process insignificant in its begin- 
 ning, gradual in its operation, and for a 
 long time doubtful as to its final issue. 
 When the poor in spirit, aglow with the 
 thought that the Kingdom of Heaven is 
 indeed theirs, awake to the realization 
 that this Kingdom in its inception is 
 
 26
 
 Of Those That Mourn. 
 
 meagre to the point of insignificance, that, 
 in fact, it is as a grain of mustard seed, 
 the reflection is mournful and depress- 
 ing. The enthusiasm that accompanies 
 the purchase of the field wherein the 
 treasure lies buried, or the first possession 
 of the priceless pearl, is followed by 
 depression, as the first two pictures melt 
 away and give place to the tiny image of 
 insignificance. But the mustard seed is 
 only apparently insignificant. It tells of 
 life. When the Master declares that faith 
 as a grain of mustard seed may remove 
 mountains, obviously he is speaking of 
 vital, not meagre faith; and the soul 
 mourning over the smallness of the begin- 
 nings of God's work within takes comfort 
 in the thought that this work, in obedi- 
 ence to its own inherent law, must go on 
 till the vitalizing process is complete. 
 "By and by it waxeth a great tree, and 
 the fowls of the air take refuge under the 
 shadow of it." The parable of the Leav- 
 en deals with another phase of the devel- 
 opment of the Kingdom from within. A 
 
 27
 
 The Beatitudes of Jesus. 
 
 transmuting principle is introduced into 
 the unleavened lump of human character. 
 Our attention is now fixed upon the slow- 
 ness, and, so to speak, the painfulness of 
 a process by which human nature sub- 
 mits to this transmuting influence work- 
 ing silently, and from within. But if the 
 process be slow and painful, it is none the 
 less persistent and effectual. Again we 
 find that patience worketh experience, 
 and experience hope, for ultimately the 
 silent spiritual forces that lie concealed 
 in human character will complete their 
 transforming work. The whole lump, 
 whether of human character or of the 
 social order, will one day be leavened, and 
 surely there is infinite comfort in such an 
 assurance. 
 
 ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 The parable of the Growing Wheat 
 introduces an element which for a time 
 seems to make the final issue doubtful. 
 It tells of the sinister design of an enemy, 
 who, under cover of night, maliciously 
 
 28
 
 Of Those That Mourn. 
 
 sows tares among the wheat. This ag- 
 gressive and personal aspect of moral evil, 
 in the presence of which human nature 
 feels its mournful helplessness, is a graph- 
 ic picture of the Kingdom within which all 
 of us instinctively recognize. "Surely," 
 we exclaim with the husbandman in his 
 dismay, "an enemy hath done this!" 
 
 Universal experience testifies to the 
 havoc that some power not ourselves has 
 wrought in even the best of us. There 
 is comfort for those that mourn in such a 
 case. Patience must have her perfect 
 work. The parable tells of the ultimate 
 destruction of the evil, the final triumph 
 of good. These parables are descriptive 
 of the process of the Kingdom as it un- 
 folds from within, yet they set forth but 
 single phases of that process. Again, the 
 Beatitude of Comfort is not indifferent to 
 the needs of the spiritual life as it proceeds 
 from above and without. In the con- 
 versation with Nicodemus, the mysteri- 
 ousness of the process of birth into the 
 Kingdom is set forth significantly: "the 
 
 29
 
 The Beatitudes of Jesus. 
 
 wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou 
 hearest the sound thereof, but canst not 
 tell whence it cometh and whither it 
 goeth," so is the spiritual process. But in 
 his farewell discourse another aspect is 
 dwelt upon, the painfulness of the process 
 issuing in a heightened happiness. "A 
 woman when she is in travail hath 
 sorrow because her hour is come, but 
 when she is delivered of the child she 
 remembereth no more the anguish for joy 
 that a man is born into the world." 
 Christ's use of this figure, in close connec- 
 tion with his plain words concerning his 
 departure and return, implies his own 
 intimate relation to the new birth. The 
 blessedness of comfort could not be stated 
 more strongly or more beautifully. 
 
 THE MINISTRY OF SORROW. 
 
 Our study of this Beatitude would be 
 incomplete if we confined our application 
 of it to the growth of the soul in its rela- 
 tion to the Kingdom, apart from the cir- 
 cumstances of human experience that 
 
 30
 
 Of Those That Mourn. 
 
 fashion it both from without and from 
 within. The high priest that can be 
 touched with the feeling of our infirm- 
 ities has opened an unfailing source of 
 sympathy for the tempted and tried, for 
 the sin-burdened and the grief -stricken, 
 for the afflicted and distressed in mind, 
 body and estate sympathy for those that 
 sorrow, comfort for those that mourn. 
 But the sympathy and the comfort that 
 meet us at every stage of human vicissi- 
 tude find their meaning in the higher 
 levels of spiritual vision to which they 
 lead. "Our light affliction, which is but 
 for a moment, worketh for us more and 
 more exceedingly an eternal weight of 
 glory; while we look not at the things 
 which are seen, but at the things which 
 are not seen : for the things which are seen 
 are temporal; but the things which are 
 not seen are eternal." 
 
 CHRISTUS CONSOLATOR. 
 
 The student of the inner life of Jesus 
 doubtless feels an instinctive reluctance 
 
 31
 
 The Beatitudes of Jesus. 
 
 in ascribing to the content of his Master's 
 blessedness the spiritual equivalent of 
 the emotion of sorrow named in the 
 Beatitude, fearing lest it imply a peni- 
 tence inconsistent with the cherished 
 tradition of his sinlessness. Neverthe- 
 less, the comfort that falls to the lot of 
 those that mourn must have been his 
 in a sense not figurative but real, as the 
 Kingdom of God's presence and rule, 
 under the stress and pressure of tempta- 
 tion, advanced from stage to stage of its 
 inward realization. That thus, indeed, 
 he was qualified for his high-priestly 
 function of sympathy, is clearly shown in 
 the passage from the Epistle to the He- 
 brews, which we have just read. "For 
 we have not a high priest that cannot be 
 touched with the feeling of our infirm- 
 ities ; but one that hath been in all points 
 tempted like as we are, yet without sin. 
 Let us therefore draw near with boldness 
 unto the throne of grace, that we may 
 receive mercy, and may find grace to help 
 in time of need." The bestowal of com- 
 
 32
 
 Of Those That Mourn. 
 
 fort has become in a most intimate and 
 peculiar sense the mission of the Incar- 
 nate Son, who, at all points, has related 
 himself to human need. "Who in the 
 days of his flesh, offered up prayers 
 and supplications with strong crying and 
 tears unto Him that was able to save 
 him from death, and was heard for his 
 godly fear." Himself once a recipient of 
 comfort, he is now divinely qualified for 
 the bestowal of sympathy ; to disclose the 
 meaning of suffering and the ministry of 
 pain; to reveal to those of the sons of 
 earth who travail and are heavy-laden 
 the truth of the human heart of God. 
 
 33
 
 OF THE MEEK.
 
 "Blessed are the Meek: for they 
 shall inherit the Earth."
 
 III. 
 
 OF THE MEEK. 
 
 THE order in which the Beatitudes 
 are reported by St. Matthew is not 
 arbitrary or accidental. On the contrary, 
 there is evidence of the presence of a spir- 
 itual sequence which is both profoundly 
 suggestive in itself, and, at the same time, 
 indicative of an intimate knowledge of 
 the law that governs the unfolding of the 
 inner life. We have already traced the 
 connection between the blessedness of the 
 poor in spirit and the blessedness pro- 
 nounced upon those that mourn. It will 
 be seen that from these the Beatitude of 
 the Meek follows as a natural corollary, 
 the steps of transition being clear and 
 unmistakable. If poverty of spirit im- 
 plies an unsatisfied spiritual receptive- 
 ness, and grief and pain are incident to 
 
 37
 
 The Beatitudes of Jesus. 
 
 the quest for God, then something akin 
 to meekness must ensue when the soul is 
 ushered into the presence of God. "For 
 thus saith the high and lofty One that 
 inhabiteth eternity, whose name is holy: 
 I dwell in the high and holy place, with 
 him also that is of an humble and contrite 
 spirit." There can be no better way in 
 which to prepare our minds for a spiritual 
 appreciation of the Beatitude of the Meek 
 than by tracing more closely this inti- 
 mate relation, which will greatly influence 
 the conclusions we shall finally reach 
 regarding the nature of meekness and the 
 meaning of its temporal reward. 
 
 THE SOUL'S PILGRIMAGE. 
 
 When, amid the material satisfactions 
 of life, man is conscious of unutterable 
 loneliness, and discovers that the inward 
 peace which he craves can be realized only 
 in the companionship" of God, it may be 
 that his spirit sets out on the definite quest 
 for God, and, unless his experience is quite 
 exceptional, his feet follow one or another 
 
 38
 
 Of the Meek. 
 
 of several well-trodden paths. It may be 
 the path of penitence, which leads 
 through the land where the famine is, 
 when, having spent all in the world's 
 service, he calmly turns his back upon the 
 old life, and sets out for his Father's home. 
 It may be the path of a nameless sorrow, 
 when the burden of an affliction which is 
 not light or momentary presses with a 
 weight of increasing bitterness upon the 
 heart, often a mere foot-path leading 
 down into the valley where the shadows 
 lie, scarce visible in the gathering gloom. 
 Or, perchance, it is the slow and painful 
 ascent of some dimly discerned duty in- 
 volving sacrifice, wherein the soul must 
 rise on stepping stones of its dead self to 
 higher things. Be the conditions of its pil- 
 grimage what they may, it will be seen that 
 when the path of the spiritual life emer- 
 ges into God's clear light, and the soul 
 awakens to a vision of the lofty One, 
 man's spirit clothes itself with meek- 
 ness as with a garment, for meekness 
 is the soul's attitude towards Him who 
 
 39
 
 The Beatitudes of Jesus. 
 
 hath blessed its poverty with his riches, 
 comforted its mourning with his love, 
 and now rewards its lowliness with his 
 abiding presence. We shall presently 
 return to the line of interpretation sug- 
 gested by the interdependence of these 
 opening Beatitudes. 
 
 THE ORIGIN OF THE BEATITUDE 
 
 We may now profitably interrupt our 
 analysis to reflect briefly upon the Beati- 
 tude of the Meek in its relation to origin- 
 ality. An ordinary reference Bible re- 
 minds the most casual reader that the 
 third Beatitude, "Blessed are the meek 
 for they shall inherit the earth," is, with 
 the slightest possible variation, a direct 
 quotation from the Old Testament, where 
 we read in the thirty-seventh Psalm, "for 
 the meek shall inherit the earth, and shall 
 delight themselves in the abundance of 
 peace. ' ' Mo reover , to a greater or less de- 
 gree it would be possible to parallel the 
 other Beatitudes from Hebrew literature, 
 and the same course might be followed with 
 
 40
 
 Of the Meek. 
 
 approximate results with reference to the 
 petitions of the Lord's Prayer, and very 
 much else in what we have been taught 
 to regard as Christ's most distinctive 
 teaching; indeed, a study of non-Christian 
 sources has also been found fruitful in 
 the establishment of such parallelisms. 
 In view of this, it is well to keep in mind 
 the precise nature of Christ's originality, 
 and to remember the distinction between 
 the relative and the absolute in his dis- 
 closure of truth. Much of Christ's teach- 
 ing was relative as regards its material, 
 absolute as regards the employment of 
 that material. There is no title more 
 truly descriptive of him in relation 
 to the truth he taught than the title "The 
 Master." The separate notes in the 
 Divine Octave had been struck repeatedly 
 in the course of the ages ; never before had 
 they been woven into a single harmony. 
 When the last word concerning the paral- 
 lelisms has been spoken, the fact remains 
 that the Master formulated the Beati- 
 tudes, grouped them in their remarkable 
 
 41
 
 The Beatitudes of Jesus. 
 
 sequence, and crowned them with that 
 spiritual distinctiveness which gives them 
 their essential character. 
 
 THE QUALITY OF MEEKNESS. 
 
 In interpreting the principle of our 
 present Beatitude, and attempting to 
 unfold its deeper meanings, let us first 
 inquire the precise quality of meek- 
 ness; then examine scriptural instances 
 of it; and finally seek to understand the 
 sense in which it may be said of those who 
 acquire it that they shall possess the 
 earth. The precise nature of meekness 
 is greatly confused in the popular mind 
 by reason of familiar misrepresentations 
 of it. The common impression of meek- 
 ness is that it is but another name for 
 weakness. This view seems to find a 
 certain support in such passages as the 
 following from the Sermon on the Mount : 
 "I say unto you that ye resist not him 
 that is evil, but whoso smiteth thee on thy 
 right cheek turn to him the other also. 
 And if any man go to law with thee, and 
 
 42
 
 Of the Meek. 
 
 take away thy cloak, let him have thy 
 coat also; and whosoever shall compel 
 thee to go with him one mile, go with him 
 twain." This, as we know, was the Mas- 
 ter's comment on the v law of retaliation, 
 and it seems to give color to that mis- 
 conception of meekness with which we take 
 issue. The truth is, however, that this 
 passage has no reference to the quality of 
 meekness, but is illustrative of the substi- 
 tution of the law of love for the law of 
 retaliation, and sets forth the lengths to 
 which love should go in its mission of 
 service. It implies spiritual strength and 
 greatness, not insipidity and weakness, 
 and may be understood as a working 
 principle by reference to the life of Christ, 
 of which love was the supreme motive. 
 It is small wonder that meekness so inter- 
 preted should lend itself to caricature and 
 travesty. Happily, the religion of the 
 Man of Nazareth is reverting to its earlier 
 type, and the unreal and effeminate fea- 
 tures which have so long concealed its 
 vigor and its strength, and have done so 
 
 43
 
 The Beatitudes of Jesus. 
 
 much to dishonor and discredit it, are 
 rapidly undergoing transformation, and 
 giving place to an image that will one day 
 be lifted up and draw all men unto it. 
 "Meekness," wrote Archbishop Trench, 
 "is not in man's outward behavior only, 
 nor yet in his relation to his fellowman. 
 Rather it is an inwrought grace of the 
 soul, and its exercises are first and chiefly 
 towards God." This admirable defini- 
 tion of meekness will be found to harmo- 
 nize absolutely with the scriptural view 
 of it, which consistently makes the sphere 
 of its action man's Godward rather than 
 his manward relations. The soul, brought 
 face to face with God, becomes lowly in 
 its own clear sight. It no longer meas- 
 ures itself by itself, nor yet by the stan- 
 dard of other men. In the readjustment 
 of its relations with the world its bearing 
 may become full of tenderness and pity 
 and gentle consideration, but these qual- 
 ities will be the expression of a truer esti- 
 mate of human values, a juster sense of the 
 meaning of life and its relationships. 
 
 44
 
 Of the Meek. 
 
 "Then thought I to understand this: but 
 it was too hard for me, until I went into 
 the sanctuary of God : then understood I 
 the end of these men." 
 
 EXAMPLES OF MEEKNESS. 
 
 With these thoughts in mind we turn 
 to the examples of the meekness thus 
 defined which meet us in the great text- 
 book of spiritual biography, the Bible. 
 We have been taught to regard the found- 
 er of the Hebrew nation as the supreme 
 embodiment of meekness, and doubtless 
 we have often wondered wherein he actu- 
 ally exemplified it, for every incident of 
 his life reveals his character in quite the 
 opposite light. The fault, of course, lies 
 with us, for we have brought to the case 
 that preconception of meekness which 
 views it as a trait of disposition having 
 its characteristic action in a manward 
 direction. The Hebrew patriot who 
 proudly disdains the royal ancestry that 
 would claim him; who with soul aflame 
 hurls an offending Egyptian to his death, 
 
 45
 
 The Beatitudes of Jesus. 
 
 escaping the consequence of his act by 
 flight, only to return to effect the liber- 
 ation of his people by a prowess born of 
 the conviction of a heaven-given mis- 
 sion, is no type of maudlin meekness. 
 Whether we view him as prophet or chief- 
 tain, leader or lawgiver, the history of the 
 Exodus, which is but his own story, writ- 
 ten large, abounds in the material of a 
 personality singularly devoid of the ele- 
 ments of traditional meekness. But 
 when this remarkable man is viewed in 
 the light of his relations with the Unseen, 
 as the servant or Minister of God, the 
 difficulties are all cleared away, and we 
 can readily understand that the verdict 
 of spiritual history is true. This quality 
 one had almost said this faculty so ex- 
 emplified in the Hebrew prophet, finds its 
 most perfect expression in the Man of 
 Nazareth. This is significantly shown 
 at nearly every turn as the Perfect Life 
 unfolds, but perhaps nowhere more ex- 
 pressly than in that passage in St. Mat- 
 thew, where our Lord describes himself 
 
 46
 
 Of the Meek. 
 
 as meek and lowly in heart, the immediate 
 occasion of which was his denunciation 
 of the cities that had witnessed his most 
 mighty works, and yet coldly rejected his 
 claims. At the very moment when he 
 thanks his Divine Father that the truth 
 is hidden from the wise and prudent and 
 made known unto babes, he essays to 
 offer himself to the sorrow -burdened 
 world as the source of rest and peace, 
 "because he is meek and lowly in heart." 
 If time permitted, the principle stated 
 might be abundantly illustrated from the 
 gospel records, but we must now pass to 
 the final division of our subject. 
 
 THE HERITAGE OF THE EARTH. 
 
 It remains for us briefly to define the 
 sense in which the meekness thus de- 
 scribed may be said to realize the tem- 
 poral promise of the Beatitude. "The 
 meek shall inherit the earth. ' ' The bless- 
 edness of the meek turns unmistakably 
 upon the adjustment of an earthward 
 relationship, notwithstanding that the 
 
 47
 
 The Beatitudes of Jesus. 
 
 principle of that adjustment is essen- 
 tially spiritual. This Beatitude of the 
 Meek is more truly Messianic in character 
 than any of its companion Beatitudes, 
 and doubtless it spoke to the heart of 
 those who heard it in terms more defi- 
 nite, and with a meaning more intelligible, 
 than did any of the others in the octave. 
 The inheritance of the land had been the 
 goal of their hopes, and now the wider 
 vision of the possession of the earth made 
 its subtle appeal to every instinct of their 
 national character. 
 
 It may be said, first, that the Beatitude 
 is remotely true. The future tense is 
 used. The principle of a spiritual evolu- 
 tion by its selective processes is making 
 steadily for the production of a spiritual 
 type which will ultimately possess the 
 earth a type that will delight itself in the 
 abundance of peace in that far-off time 
 when men shall beat their swords into 
 plowshares and their spears into prun- 
 ing hooks, and conflict shall be no more. 
 If meekness, as defined, is a condition of 
 
 48
 
 Of the Meek, 
 
 the divine indwelling, the Beatitude may 
 be understood as prophetic of that time. 
 But such an interpretation of the tem- 
 poral promise is open to the criticism that 
 it is as unreal as it & remote, and in this 
 light it would have been meaningless to 
 those to whom it was first given, as it is 
 relatively meaningless to us. Meekness, 
 again, may be understood as a temper of 
 mind that enables its possessor to enter 
 into nature's processes, and master her 
 secrets, for the abnegation of self, in the 
 spirit of lowliness and patience, condi- 
 tions every search for truth, as when the 
 gifted Newton confessed himself but a 
 child, gathering shells upon the seashore, 
 while the great ocean of truth spread out 
 in mystery before him. Then, again, we 
 may find an explanation of the promise in 
 the meaning that turns upon the term 
 "possession." Possession, properly un- 
 derstood, is not a thing of title-deeds or 
 landmarks, which impose limitations. 
 Nothing can be more foreign to the dis- 
 position of the truly meek than the anx- 
 
 49
 
 The Beatitudes of Jesus. 
 
 ieties that attach to ownership. Posses- 
 sion is one thing, property another. A 
 lovely picture may be the possession of 
 the soul to whom its beauty is revealed, 
 a book the possession of the mind that 
 has mastered its meaning, while in each 
 case ownership may lie in another direc- 
 tion. An individual, burdened with a heri- 
 tage of golden wealth and leaden instincts, 
 once invited a poet to saunter with him 
 through his vast domains. "The land 
 is mine," affirmed the rich man, compla- 
 cently. "Truly, but the landscape is 
 mine," replied the poet. This is the 
 key to the interpretation of the Apostle's 
 paradox, "As having nothing, and yet 
 possessing all things." Says a thought- 
 ful writer: "in the language of the world 
 the expression 'it is mine' means this 
 thing belongs to me, and to none else ; in 
 the language of truth, 'it is mine' means 
 'I draw from this thing the good it is cap- 
 able of imparting.'" He continues: "the 
 force, the power, the knowledge, the vir- 
 tue of things, cannot be said to belong to 
 
 50
 
 Of the Meek. 
 
 him who has rights over them which he 
 has never exercised. They belong to 
 him who derives benefit from them. They 
 belong not so much to him who owns 
 them, as to him who ^ias made them his 
 own." Similarly, the heritage of the 
 earth by the meek-spirited may be under- 
 stood as ultimately in the nature of a 
 spiritual acquisition. It is for a time 
 veiled in material symbolism, and made 
 attractive by the subtle power of illu- 
 sion, as an expression of the principle, 
 "that is not first which is spiritual, but 
 that which is natural, and afterward that 
 which is spiritual." 
 
 51
 
 OF THE 
 QUEST FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS.
 
 "Blessed are they that hunger and 
 thirst after Righteousness: for 
 they shall be filled."
 
 OF THE QUEST FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS. 
 
 THAT the Beatitudes are both mutu- 
 ally related and individually dis- 
 tinct constitutes at once their inspiration 
 and their charm. We have already found 
 that there runs through them the thread 
 of a remarkable spiritual sequence, while 
 at the same time we have seen that a 
 careful study of the inner content of each 
 separate Beatitude discloses a fresh prin- 
 ciple, and marks a new stage in the soul's 
 advance on the path of the perfect life. 
 The dramatic arrangement of the music 
 of the Beatitudes, which otherwise might 
 be forgotten, so natural are the transi- 
 tions, is enforced in the present instance 
 by a change of key, which the spiritual 
 ear immediately detects, and which har- 
 monizes perfectly with the opening 
 
 55
 
 The Beatitudes of Jesus. 
 
 chords. In other words, the first three 
 Beatitudes, which are more intimately 
 related in thought than are any of the 
 others, are descriptive of the soul in its 
 more passive moods, while the change of 
 key which distinguishes the fourth Beat- 
 itude, indicates an active and energetic 
 disposition of man's spiritual nature, 
 whose intensity and positiveness can be 
 expressed adequately only in the lan- 
 guage of hunger and thirst. 
 
 THE COMPARISON AND CONTRAST. 
 
 When the psalmist cries out, "Like as 
 the hart desire th the water-brooks, so 
 longeth my soul after thee, O God: my 
 soul is a thirst for God, yea, even for the 
 living God, when shall I come to appear 
 before the presence of God ?" he interprets 
 the quality of the first Beatitude, where a 
 blessing is pronounced upon the poor in 
 spirit, for the thirst is for God rather than 
 for God's righteousness in fact the cry is 
 but a vague yearning for the satisfaction of 
 an intellectual or spiritual craving, with 
 
 56
 
 Of the Qwst for Righteousness. 
 
 no moral quality whatsoever. The next 
 stage is reached when the moral element 
 is introduced; when the sense of guilt, 
 which hides the face of God, is consoled 
 with the blessedness of those that 
 mourn. The third stage follows when 
 penitence has done its work in the soul, 
 and the high and lofty One takes His 
 abode with him who is of an humble and 
 contrite spirit. But as neither soul pov- 
 erty, nor soul sorrow, nor the lowliest 
 meekness, may claim affinity with God on 
 moral grounds, being merely passive 
 states incident to the soul's contempla- 
 tion of God, the fourth Beatitude depicts 
 the next act in the unfolding drama of 
 man's inner life, substitutes an active 
 disposition for a passive state, and hence- 
 forth the quest for God becomes an im- 
 mortal hunger and thirst for God's right- 
 eousness. 
 
 THE ACTIVE AND PASSIVE ELEMENTS. 
 
 Nowhere in Holy Scripture may we 
 find the active and passive elements of 
 
 57
 
 The Beatitudes of Jesus. 
 
 man's spiritual experience portrayed with 
 greater vividness or placed in stronger 
 contrast than in the familiar history of 
 the patriarch Jacob. His dream at Be- 
 thel grew out of loneliness or spiritual 
 poverty, while the radiant ladder reach- 
 ing to the skies, with the angels of God 
 ascending and descending upon it, sym- 
 bolized God's answer to the yearning for 
 communion. The lonely Jacob's waking 
 reflection, "how terrible is this place, this 
 is none other than the house of God, this 
 is the gate of heaven," illustrates the 
 third element in the passive state ; that of 
 lowly humbleness of heart. These pas- 
 sive impressions had no special moral 
 quality, yet they deepened the conscious- 
 ness of God, and brought peace, and the 
 spirit of trust and submission. More 
 than twenty years later the moral crisis 
 came, when returning from his lengthened 
 exile the supplanter wrestled with an 
 unseen antagonist beside the murmuring 
 Jabbok until the daybreak. "I will not 
 let thee go except thou bless me, ' ' was the 
 
 58
 
 Of the Quest for Righteousness. 
 
 language of a spiritual craving which no 
 radiant dream of peace or vision of reconcil- 
 iation could appease, "Tell me thy name" 
 was equivalent to "Show me thy right- 
 eousness." The closing touch in the 
 story, "And he blessed him there," re- 
 minds us that then, as now, those who 
 hunger and thirst for righteousness will 
 not be sent empty away. 
 
 THE DEFINITENESS OF THE BEATITUDE. 
 
 Besides revealing an active disposition 
 of the soul, the Beatitude is significant on 
 account of its definiteness. No atmos- 
 phere of vague mysticism surrounds and 
 obscures it. The blessing is not pro- 
 nounced upon the instinctive yearning 
 for God, but upon those who are in quest 
 of righteousness. Elsewhere when the 
 Kingdom of God is set forth as the goal 
 of man's seeking, the Master adds, "and 
 His righteousness," lest the term should 
 be misleading. This, together with the 
 fact that the Sermon on the Mount is an 
 extended commentary upon the essential 
 
 59
 
 The Beatitudes of Jesus. 
 
 meaning of righteousness, clothes the cen- 
 tral thought of the Beatitude with a 
 defmiteness which makes it clearly intel- 
 ligible. In the Sermon on the Mount 
 both tables of the ancient law are re- 
 viewed with reference to a spiritual ex- 
 position of righteousness, wherein right- 
 eousness is shown to consist of right re- 
 lations toward God and towards man, and 
 the motive of the fulfilling of this right- 
 eousness is "that ye may be the children 
 of your Father which is in Heaven." To 
 hunger and thirst after righteousness is 
 to yearn to realize that which God in His 
 inmost being is, which is ultimately dis- 
 covered to be love. But love, again, is 
 rescued from vagueness by being ex- 
 pressed in terms of righteousness, as it is 
 exemplified in acts of obedience. "If ye 
 love me, keep my commandments." God 
 is not only mercy, pity, and tenderness, 
 but equally justice, goodness, and truth; 
 in a word, He is essential righteousness. 
 And there has never yet been a time in 
 the spiritual history of men when it has 
 
 60
 
 Of the Quest for Righteousness. 
 
 not been imperative to insist that a true 
 quest for God is equally a quest for right- 
 eousness. 
 
 THE PRINCIPLE O* N THE BEATITUDE. 
 
 With these thoughts in mind, let us 
 turn to the principle of the Beatitude, 
 asking ourselves first the meaning of hun- 
 ger and thirst in the economy of the spir- 
 itual life; next, the sense in which pro- 
 vision is made for the satisfaction of 
 man's craving for righteousness; and 
 finally, the application of the principle to 
 our own spiritual needs. In answer to 
 our first question, touching the function 
 of hunger and thirst in the economy of 
 the spiritual life, we turn naturally to 
 the analogy of the physical life for illus- 
 tration. There we find the instinct of 
 hunger and thirst to be part of nature's 
 provision for the preservation of life. 
 Life consists not only in correspondence 
 with environment, but in the ability of 
 the organism to nourish and sustain itself 
 from its environment, virtually to turn 
 
 61
 
 The Beatitudes of Jesus. 
 
 the stones into bread to maintain life. 
 Lest this basic principle be lost sight of, 
 nature affixes her penalties of pain and 
 suffering and death. The pangs of hun- 
 ger and thirst are indicative both of phys- 
 ical health and of man's dependence upon 
 the external order, and these instincts are 
 universal in their sway. Now, the world 
 of nature is but a type and symbol of the 
 world of spirit, and there are instincts of 
 man's spiritual nature as absolutely de- 
 pendent upon an external order as are 
 hunger and thirst in the physical realm. 
 The instinct for God, the thirst for immor- 
 tality, are part of the constitution of 
 man's spiritual nature, to which the his- 
 tory of religion bears witness, and the 
 thirst for goodness is as age-old and uni- 
 versal as the thirst for immortality or for 
 God. All this is familiar to the point of 
 being commonplace, yet it bears so direct- 
 ly upon our thought that we cannot afford 
 to pass it by, or to overlook its connec- 
 tion with our present Beatitude. Spiritual 
 hunger and thirst are incentives to the 
 
 62
 
 Of the Quest for Righteousness. 
 
 assimilation of the nutriment of the spir- 
 itual life in the external spiritual order. 
 The shame that attaches to wrong-doing, 
 sorrow and remorse for sin, are signs of 
 moral health, while hunger and thirst for 
 goodness are still more hopeful and more 
 blessed signs. Where they are absent or 
 quiescent, the light that is in us is dark- 
 ness, and how great is that darkness! 
 Yet they exist potentially in all men. To 
 awaken them, or to stir them into in- 
 creased activity, was the mission of the 
 Son of Man, who denned even their un- 
 satisfied presence as a state of blessed- 
 ness. 
 
 THE DIVINE PROVISION. 
 
 We are now led to inquire the sense in 
 which God may be said to have made 
 provision for the satisfaction of man's 
 hunger for goodness. "Blessed are they 
 which do hunger and thirst after right- 
 eousness," declared the Master. Why? 
 Because "they shall be filled." The ex- 
 istence of the yearning is prophetic of its 
 
 63
 
 The Beatitudes of Jesus. 
 
 ultimate complete fulfillment, but when, 
 and where, and how? However far short 
 of its actual realization the Christian in 
 his experience may fall, there can be but 
 one answer to the question of the when and 
 where, and that is here and now, that is, 
 in this present life. But when the third 
 question, How? is raised, the voices of 
 our accredited teachers are singularly 
 at variance. No impartial student of the 
 Gospel narratives questions that Christ 
 attained a standard of righteousness to 
 which no less a term than absolute can 
 be applied. In what true sense can that 
 righteousness be said to be related to us, 
 and we to it? The most precious philos- 
 sophy of Christian experience turns upon 
 that question. "This is the name where- 
 by he shall be called," so read the ancient 
 prophecy, "The Lord our righteousness." 
 In what valid sense is this true of Christ 
 in his relation to us ? Certainly not in that 
 unreal and fictitious sense in which we 
 have been taught that Christ's righteous- 
 ness is imputed to us, a theory for which 
 
 64
 
 Of the Quest for Righteousness. 
 
 the interpreters of St. Paul were largely 
 responsible. For if the Incarnation be 
 understood as the historic fulfillment of 
 the ideal and fact of righteousness in hu- 
 man experience, then righteousness ceases 
 to be an abstraction, and in some deep 
 sense we may conceive it as related to the 
 needs of man's inner life, to the hunger 
 and thirst of man's spiritual nature. We 
 may even go a step further, and speak of 
 Christ's imparted righteousness, which 
 description brings it very near to the 
 terms in which Christ himself expressed it. 
 "Jesus said unto them: I am the Bread of 
 Life; he that cometh to me shall never 
 hunger, and he that believeth in me shall 
 never thirst. I am the Living Bread that 
 came down from heaven; if any man eat 
 of this Bread he shall live forever." The 
 Jews of his day esteemed this a hard say- 
 ing, and many of them on account of it 
 severed their relations with him. It is 
 likewise incomprehensible to us, yet it is 
 the central truth of the Christian religion. 
 To receive Christ into our spirits, to assim- 
 
 65
 
 The Beatitudes of Jesus. 
 
 ilate his righteousness by the reception 
 of the living principle that animated it, 
 to grow up into his spiritual likeness, is 
 at once the inspiration and the privilege 
 of the Christian life. 
 
 THE APPLICATION OF THE PRINCIPLE. 
 
 This brings us to our closing thought, 
 the application of the principle to hu- 
 man condition. The spiritual environ- 
 ment to which our craving for righteous- 
 ness points being Christ, the Living 
 Bread, or Living Water, for the terms 
 are used interchangeably, what means are 
 to be used for the awakening of the sense 
 of spiritual hunger or spiritual thirst, 
 without which the spiritual life declines? 
 The analogy of the physical life is sug- 
 gestive, and may furnish a hint or two 
 that may be neither unreal nor fanciful. 
 Atmosphere is necessary to physical 
 health, exercise to physical growth, and 
 these conduce to the encouragement of an 
 appetite and relish for food, without 
 
 66
 
 Of the Quest for Righteousness. 
 
 which health is impossible. It is said of 
 an invalid who came to our valley that 
 she wrote to her friends in her eastern 
 home that no lovelier spot on earth could 
 be found, that friends were kind and the 
 surroundings ideal, and that she knew she 
 would soon get well if only she could have 
 an appetite. Spiritual invalidism amid 
 most favorable surroundings is a familiar 
 and pathetic spectacle. To awaken or 
 encourage a relish for spiritual things is 
 fundamental to spiritual health. The 
 pure atmosphere of holy living, the re- 
 creative exercises of Christian service, all 
 conduce towards that end, but the symp- 
 tom of improvement is the appetite. 
 Blessed are they which do hunger and 
 thirst after righteousness. There is that 
 in the spiritual environment which makes 
 for the soul's nutrition and growth. The 
 Living Bread that came down from Heav- 
 en is offered freely to all, the living foun- 
 tain ever pours forth its life-giving 
 streams, for Christ, the same yesterday 
 and to-day and forever, still cries out to the 
 
 67
 
 The Beatitudes of Jesus. 
 
 craving souls of men: "He that cometh to 
 me shall never hunger, and he that believ- 
 eth on me shall never thirst." 
 
 THE SACRAMENTAL BREAD. 
 
 No discussion of the Beatitude of the 
 Quest for Righteousness would be com- 
 plete without some reference to the great 
 symbolic act with which the Redeemer 
 closed his ministry, when, "on the night 
 in which he was betrayed, he took bread 
 and brake it, saying 'This is My Body 
 which is given for you : do this in remem- 
 brance of Me.' " It is the custom of 
 Anglican writers to dwell with satisfac- 
 tion upon the philosophy of the real 
 spiritual Presence in the sacramental 
 feast, as infinitely superior both to the 
 empty memorialism of the theory of the 
 Protestant bodies and to the crude mate- 
 rialism of the teaching of the Church of 
 Rome. The doctrine of the real spirit- 
 ual Presence is without doubt close to the 
 teaching of Jesus, but the narrowness 
 
 68
 
 Of the Quest for Righteousness. 
 
 with which it is held has a distinct tend- 
 ency to undo its lofty meaning, and even 
 to falsify it. Christ is present in the 
 sacrament of the altar only as he is 
 present in the Church, which is his body, 
 and in Christian consciousness, which is 
 his sanctuary. We have found that 
 early in his ministry he declared himself 
 to be the Living Bread that came down 
 from Heaven, and that his disciples 
 counted this a hard saying, utterly unrea- 
 sonable. "How can this man give us his 
 flesh to eat?" they murmured, as they 
 withdrew from his company, and forsook 
 his cause. A veil of silence then fell upon 
 this glorious theme of his self-impartation 
 as the Living Bread, till the fateful night 
 in which he was betrayed, when he es- 
 sayed to objectify the spiritual fact in 
 sacramental symbol. Yet, even with the 
 mystic Presence thus made figuratively 
 visible, there were those in the Apostolic 
 company who, like ourselves, failed to 
 discern his Body, that is, his spiritual 
 nearness, or who, discerning it, failed to 
 
 69
 
 The Beatitudes of Jesus. 
 
 perceive that the pledge of its reality was 
 its correlation with the wider truth of 
 his indwelling in his Church, and in 
 Christian life and consciousness. 
 
 70
 
 OF THE MERCIFUL.
 
 'Blessed are the Merciful: for they 
 shall obtain Mercy."
 
 V. 
 
 OF THE MERCIFUL. 
 
 THE Beatitude of the Merciful 
 marks the transition from the pas- 
 sive aspect of the earlier Beatitudes to the 
 active dispositions of the later ones, the 
 Beatitude of the Quest for Righteous- 
 ness standing midway in the process. If, 
 as we found at the beginning of our study, 
 the Kingdom of Heaven is the theme of 
 the music of the Beatitudes, as is revealed 
 both in the opening chord and in tfre 
 closing strain of the music, Righteous- 
 ness is the key into which this theme is 
 transposed, the remaining Beatitudes 
 being interpretative of the meaning of 
 that righteousness. 
 
 THE RELATIVITY OF MERCY. 
 
 Our first thought in connection with 
 the Beatitude of the Merciful concerns its 
 
 75
 
 The Beatitudes of Jesus. 
 
 special place in the octave. Mercy here 
 follows, explains, and illumines right- 
 eousness. A careful study of the quality 
 of mercy or mercifulness shows it to be 
 relative in its nature, for nowhere in the 
 sacred records will it be found to stand 
 quite alone, righteousness, or justice, or 
 truth, ever supporting it upon one side or 
 the other. In ancient Hebrew literature, 
 the literature of the quest for righteous- 
 ness, this relativity of mercy is the theme 
 of prophet and poet alike. "He hath 
 showed thee, O man, what is good," de- 
 clares Micah, "for what doth the Lord 
 require of thee, but to do justly, to love 
 mercy, and to walk humbly with thy 
 God?" The psalmist sets forth the inti- 
 macy of this relationship. "Mercy and 
 truth are met together : righteousness and 
 peace have kissed each other." It is 
 evident that, to the psalmist, truth flour- 
 ishing out of the earth, and righteousness 
 looking down from heaven, are not stran- 
 gers to mercy, but eternal forms through 
 which mercy is made manifest. And 
 
 76
 
 Of the Merciful. 
 
 what is dimly shadowed in the Old Tes- 
 tament is clearly revealed in the New, for 
 mercy, hand in hand with righteousness 
 and truth, sings its x way through the 
 Gospel story. To isolate the quality of 
 mercy as it greets us at nearly every turn 
 in holy scripture, is to falsify and dishonor 
 it. The description of the process 
 of the last judgment, so graphically 
 given by St. Matthew, is a magnif- 
 icent setting forth of mercy as the ulti- 
 mate reward of mercifulness. ''Come, 
 ye blessed of my Father : inasmuch as ye 
 did it unto one of the least of these ye did 
 it unto me." Yet it is possible to isolate 
 such a passage as this in support of a 
 philanthropy entirely devoid of the mor- 
 al elements which form the very fibre of 
 mercifulness. In like manner it is pos- 
 sible to isolate the Beatitude of the Mer- 
 ciful from its companions in the octave; 
 to forget that it is preceded by the quest 
 for righteousness, and followed by pure- 
 heartedness. The relation between them 
 is, in fact, reciprocal. Mercy, as we have 
 
 77
 
 The Beatitudes of Jesus. 
 
 intimated, softens and humanizes right- 
 eousness, while righteousness in turn 
 strengthens and ennobles mercy. 
 
 ITS QUALITY AND SOURCE. 
 
 Our understanding of the Beatitude 
 will be assisted by an inquiry into the 
 source of mercy; a study of its place in 
 the character and teachings of Christ, 
 who himself embodies the spirit of the 
 Beatitude; a consideration of the sense 
 in which the merciful may expect to ob- 
 tain mercy. 
 
 The most casual reflection makes it 
 apparent that mercy does not spring from 
 nature, or inhere in nature's processes. 
 The accepted teaching of evolution, as 
 regards its general principle, depicts 
 nature as in a state of unceasing and 
 relentless struggle, ever forcing out of the 
 race for existence those individual types 
 and collective species that are incapable 
 of meeting the terms of success in the 
 combat. In the light of the "final goal" 
 of which the poet writes, it may be true 
 
 78
 
 Of the Merciful. 
 
 that "nothing walks with aimless feet," 
 that "not one life shall be destroyed, or 
 cast as rubbish to the void," but this is an 
 
 idealistic view of the case. The scientific 
 
 \ 
 
 view of nature is quite otherwise. In 
 John Fiske's delightful little book 
 "Through Nature to God," the writer 
 contrasts the poetic and scientific aspects 
 of nature under the title, "The summer 
 field and what it tells us." He draws 
 a picture of the daisied field, musical with 
 the murmurs of insect life, where creeping 
 and winged things revel in the pure joy 
 of existence ; where the sights and sounds 
 of nature in her varying moods, the glad- 
 ness of the bobolink, the thrush's tender 
 note, telling of the sweet companionship 
 of the nest, fill us with a sense of unal- 
 loyed happiness and abounding life. All of 
 which, he promptly reminds us, is abso- 
 lutely misleading and delusive. For, as he 
 goes on to show, just so soon as we come a 
 little closer to the facts, we find them 
 telling an entirely different story. The 
 life of the countless tiny denizens of the 
 
 79
 
 The Beatitudes of Jesus. 
 
 daisied field is one of unceasing toil, of 
 crowding and jostling, where the weaker 
 fall unpitied by the way; of starvation 
 from hunger and cold ; of robbery utterly 
 shameless, and murder utterly cruel. 
 When we think of the hawk's talons bur- 
 ied in the breast of the wren, while the 
 relentless beak tears the little wings from 
 the quivering bleeding body, our mood 
 toward nature is changed. Not only does 
 nature appear a stranger to pity, but utter- 
 ly and aggressively merciless. 
 
 THE INSTINCT OF PITY. 
 
 Moreover, what is true of nature, in the 
 lower orders of being, is correspondingly 
 true of man in his varied activities and 
 relationships. Man, in his ascent from 
 nature, brings with him the heritage of 
 his savage ancestry. In his purely natural 
 state he is merciless and pitiless, and even 
 when subjected to the refining influences 
 of civilized life, retains instincts of relent- 
 less cruelty, and habits of warfare. Man's 
 inhumanity to man has passed into a 
 
 80
 
 Of the Merciful. 
 
 proverb because it is proverbial. The 
 fierce competitions of business, in which 
 the weaker go to the wall, the heartless 
 selfishness of social life, the bitter antag- 
 onisms of race, remind us that human 
 nature left to itself is devoid of what is 
 falsely termed the "instinct of pity," 
 pity being instinctive only when a higher 
 law has intervened and lifted man's nature 
 into the spiritual region. 
 
 Where, then, may we find the source 
 of mercy and pity, if not in nature? 
 "Every good gift and every perfect gift," 
 says the Apostle, "is from above, coming 
 down from the Father of lights, with 
 whom can be no variation, neither shad- 
 ow that can be cast by turning." And 
 mercy is indeed a good and perfect gift. 
 Here the teaching of an apostle and the 
 insight of the greatest of modern poets 
 meet. When Shakespeare prompts Portia 
 to exalt the quality of mercy, it is on the 
 ground that it "droppeth as the gentle 
 rain from heaven upon the place beneath ; ' ' 
 that it is indeed "an attribute of God him- 
 
 81
 
 The Beatitudes of Jesus. 
 
 self." Nowhere is the poet's insight into 
 spiritual things more divinely true. The 
 course of mercy is defended upon the 
 plea of its being Godlike, which is equiv- 
 alent to the motive urged by Christ, 
 "that ye may be the children of your 
 Father which is in Heaven." 
 
 MERCY IN CHRIST S TEACHING. 
 
 This view of mercy being true, we are 
 not surprised to find the quality that lies 
 at the heart of our Beatitude the subject 
 above all others which Christ enlarges 
 upon most frequently in his later teach- 
 ings. It is the incentive to forgiveness, 
 which is but an expression of the "piti- 
 fulness of the Infinite Mercy;" and, when 
 the law of retaliation is succeeded by 
 the law of love, the disciples are enjoined 
 to render the deeds of mercy. "Ye 
 have heard that it hath been said by 
 them of old time thou shalt love thy 
 neighbor and hate thine enemy. But I 
 say unto you, love your enemies, bless 
 
 82
 
 Of the Merciful. 
 
 them that curse you, do good to them 
 that hate you, and pray for them that de- 
 spitefully use you and persecute you, that 
 ye may be the children of your Father 
 which is in Heaven. " Upon the complete- 
 ness with which man exhibits mercy to- 
 wards his fellow-man in the forgiveness of 
 wrongs inflicted, turns the question of 
 his own forgiveness at the hands of his 
 Father in Heaven. This lies at the heart of 
 the Lord's Prayer, and is developed further 
 in the parable of the Unmerciful Servant, 
 where the punishment inflicted leads to 
 the admonition "So also will my Heav- 
 enly Father do unto you, if ye from your 
 heart forgive not every one his brother 
 their trespasses." And what is true of 
 Christ's teaching is true of his life, which 
 is interfused with the quality of merciful- 
 ness, the beauty of his human character 
 resting not alone upon those lofty traits 
 which are the bond of its moral perfect- 
 ness, but upon the union of these with 
 mercy and pity and tenderness. His mis- 
 sion to seek and to save the lost had its 
 
 83
 
 The Beatitudes of Jesus. 
 
 spring in love, and found expression in a 
 service which abounded in acts of mercy. 
 We read of him that he "knew what was 
 in man." His gentleness in dealing with 
 human frailty, his unfailing compassion, 
 had its impulse in a longing to bring men 
 to a knowledge of their spiritual possibil- 
 ities ; and the desire thus to win them to 
 truth and righteousness had its motive in 
 love, and its expression in mercy. The 
 old theologies, which depicted the Infinite 
 Being as setting forth upon the quest of 
 man's redemption for His own greater 
 glory, with man utterly lost and depraved 
 as the object of the divine mission, issued 
 from an entirely false premise. That 
 such a view is passing, is cause for devout 
 thankfulness. God would never have 
 sought to save man were man not worth 
 the saving. God, seeing in man His own 
 image, makes mercy the measure of his 
 love, and in a deep and precious sense 
 mercy becomes the meeting-point of God 
 and man. The blessedness of the Infin- 
 ite One translates itself into the spirit of 
 
 84
 
 Of the Merciful. 
 
 man, who may be merciful as his Father 
 in Heaven is merciful. 
 
 THE REWARD OF THE MERCIFUL. 
 
 We have dwelt at some length upon the 
 central word of our Beatitude in order to 
 avoid a conclusion that would narrow its 
 meaning. The mercy promised as a re- 
 ward of mercifulness contemplates not 
 only the merciful word and act, but the 
 merciful disposition. The Beatitudes all 
 have their primary meanings in states of 
 being, rather than in acts of doing. The 
 blessedness promised does not await 
 opportunities for the exercise of the dis- 
 position, but inheres in the disposition 
 itself. We conclude, then, that when 
 Jesus pronounces his Beatitude upon the 
 merciful man, it is his thought that to be 
 merciful is to be Godlike, which is shown 
 in his conclusion, "Bless them that hate 
 you, in order that ye may be the children 
 of your Father which is in Heaven." 
 Man's purpose in showing mercy to his 
 fellow-creatures is precisely the same as 
 
 85
 
 The Beatitudes of Jesus. 
 
 that which inspired God's compassion 
 toward humankind. The merciful man 
 shows pity and tenderness again and 
 again, in the face of cold ingratitude and 
 bitter hate, to the gracious end that he too 
 may become a saviour of his race, bringing 
 men to a knowledge of their Father, and 
 to a realization of the infinite possibilities 
 that lie enfolded within their natures. 
 
 And who can measure the secret hap- 
 piness that crowns the lot of those who 
 render the deeds of mercy! "You will 
 find as you look back upon your life," 
 wrote one who was ever active in the 
 ministries of love, "that the moments 
 that stand out, the moments when you 
 have really lived, are the moments when 
 you have done things in the spirit of love. 
 As memory scans the past, above and 
 beyond all the transitory pleasures of life, 
 there leap forward those supreme hours 
 when you have been enabled to do un- 
 noticed kindnesses to those around you, 
 things too trifling to speak about, but 
 which you feel have entered into your 
 
 86
 
 Of the Merciful. 
 
 eternal life. I have seen almost all the 
 beautiful things God has made; I have 
 enjoyed almost every pleasure that He 
 has planned for man; and yet, as I look 
 back, I see, standing out above all the life 
 that has gone, four or five short experien- 
 ces when the love of God reflected itself 
 in some poor imitation, some small act of 
 love of mine, and these seem to be the 
 things which alone of all one's life abide. ' ' 
 He continues: "the words which all of 
 us one day shall hear, sound not of the- 
 ology, but of life; not of churches and 
 saints, but of the hungry and poor; not 
 of creeds and doctrines, but of shelter 
 and clothing; not of Bibles and prayer 
 books, but of cups of cold water in the 
 name of Christ." The merciful shall 
 obtain mercy when humanity, redeemed 
 and restored through the ministries of 
 love, shall stand in the presence of God, 
 the perfect embodiment of his glory, the 
 absolute reflection of his love. Through 
 fellowship with him we are made par- 
 takers of the divine nature; and the cup 
 
 87
 
 The Beatitudes of Jesus. 
 
 of cold water in the name of a disciple, or 
 the life laid down for the sake of a friend , 
 shall not be destitute of reward. But 
 there is a sense in which we may look for 
 that reward in this present life, not only 
 in a consciousness of being godlike, but in 
 the fact that love begets love, and though 
 foiled again and again in its gracious 
 ministry of pity and tenderness, the 
 moment comes at last when its conquest 
 is complete, and the object of its com- 
 passion is melted into a grateful acknowl- 
 edgement of that which love hath 
 wrought. 
 
 88
 
 OF THE PURE IN HEART.
 
 ''Blessed are the Pure in Heart: for 
 they shall see God."
 
 VI. 
 
 OF THE PURE IN HEART. 
 
 IT will be remembered that in a pre- 
 vious address we considered the rela- 
 tion of the octave to originality, recalling 
 the familiar parallels that maybe found in 
 the sacred writings that nurtured the 
 mental development of Jesus. We found 
 that, when the full significance of these 
 parallels has been admitted, the fact re- 
 mains that "the Master formulated the 
 Beatitudes, grouped them into their re- 
 markable sequence, and crowned them 
 with that spiritual distinctiveness which 
 gives them their essential character." 
 When, however, we turn our thoughts to 
 the Beatitude of the Pure in Heart, which 
 in its clear depths reflects the character of 
 Jesus more perfectly, and enshrines his 
 vision of spiritual truth more completely, 
 
 93
 
 The Beatitudes of Jesus. 
 
 than do any of its companions in the 
 octave, we find ourselves in an entirely 
 different atmosphere, for no parallel or 
 equivalent to this Beatitude can be found 
 elsewhere in Holy Scripture. It wells up 
 from the inner spiritual consciousness of 
 the Master, and is as original in the his- 
 tory of spiritual thought as his own stain- 
 less character was unparalleled in the 
 unfoldings of human experience. 
 
 It is impossible to escape a sense of the 
 singular elevation of this Beatitude of the 
 Pure in Heart. Following the footsteps 
 of the Master in the path of the perfect 
 life, we have ascended step by step from 
 the quiet valley of contemplation to 
 heights of serenest vision, where, to the 
 spiritual eye, "the King in his beauty, and 
 the land that is very far off" may be seen. 
 "Lord who shall dwell in thy tabernacle? 
 or who shall rest upon thy holy hill? 
 Even he that hath clean hands and a pure 
 heart." "When Thou saidst unto me 
 'Seek ye my face,' my heart said unto 
 thee, 'Thy face, Lord, will I seek." It is 
 
 94
 
 Of the Pure in Heart. 
 
 because of a sense of soil and impurity 
 upon hands and heart that the face of 
 God becomes veiled to the seeker, and the 
 soul of man sets forth upon the quest not 
 only of righteousness, x but of purity and 
 holiness, "without which no man shall see 
 the Lord." 
 
 THE INWARD SPRING OF PURITY. 
 
 The first thought suggested by the 
 Beatitude is that it is a development of 
 the central idea of righteousness, upon its 
 spiritual or subjective side. After pro- 
 nouncing his blessing upon those who 
 hunger and thirst after righteousness, 
 the Master has a word to say about mer- 
 cifulness, which is righteousness active, 
 and then passes on to speak of purity, 
 which is righteousness passive. We have 
 already found that the Beatitudes have 
 their primary meaning in states of being 
 rather than in acts of doing. This is pre- 
 eminently true of pureheartedness, which 
 is a condition of inward purity, from 
 
 95
 
 The Beatitudes of Jesus. 
 
 which pure thoughts and dispositions 
 unceasingly spring. "Keep thy heart 
 with all diligence, for out of it are the 
 issues of life." Thus ran the ancient 
 proverb, and it is true for all time. It is 
 just here that religion is distinguished 
 from moral philosophy. It inquires in- 
 to the state of the heart. It claims and 
 enlists the affections. It begins its work 
 at the center, where it insists that purity 
 shall be enthroned, and passes out to the 
 widest circumference of life. And that 
 which is true in the direction of purity is 
 equally true as regards the sources of im- 
 purity. Out of the heart proceed as from 
 a poisoned spring every one of those sin- 
 ister influences that darken human life 
 and destroy human happiness. But, 
 when purity is enthroned in the heart, 
 it becomes the inspiration of every good 
 and perfect work, the safeguard of the 
 moral life, and the inward pledge of char- 
 acter. 
 
 96
 
 Of the Pure in Heart. 
 
 THE SPECTRUM OF PURITY. 
 
 An analysis of the content of heart- 
 purity will disclose certain distinctive 
 constituent elements," among which we 
 find guilelessness, singleness of heart, and 
 simplicity. All of these are present in 
 the condition of heart which this Beati- 
 tude describes, and with them in mind 
 we shall be able to examine more closely 
 the quality of pureheartedness as it is 
 reflected in human life. First, then, we 
 see its presence in the unsullied innocence 
 of childhood. It is very common to hear 
 the quality of innocence disparaged on 
 the ground that it is mere ignorance of 
 evil, and, therefore, without moral sig- 
 nificance. Because it is untried it is di- 
 vested of its moral beauty, and emptied of 
 its moral value. There is an element of 
 truth in this view, for the problem of the 
 Christian life consists in the development 
 of conscious purity, under the pressure 
 of temptation, out of the raw material of 
 innocence. Yet at the same time it must 
 
 97
 
 The Beatitudes of Jesus. 
 
 be constantly borne in mind that Christ 
 declared this condition of innocence, or 
 some state analagous to it, the title of 
 entrance into the Kingdom of God. 
 "They brought young children to Christ," 
 says St. Mark, "that he should touch them, 
 but the disciples rebuked those that 
 broughtthem, ' ' a circumstance which drew 
 from the lips of Christ those tender words, 
 "suffer the little children to come unto me, 
 and forbid them not, for of such is the 
 Kingdom of Heaven. Verily, I say unto 
 you, whosoever shall not receive the King- 
 dom of Heaven as a little child, he shall 
 not enter therein." In other words, guile- 
 lessness, singleness of heart, and sim- 
 plicity, are of the texture of spiritual char- 
 acter. In the light of Christ's clear 
 teaching, with what mingled feelings of 
 surprise and regret must we regard that 
 curious phase of protestant evangelism 
 which busies itself with emotional expe- 
 dients for the so-called conversion of 
 children, forcing upon their pure minds 
 thoughts of guilt and sin, which belong 
 
 98
 
 Of the Pure in Heart. 
 
 only to later developments of spiritual 
 experience! Christ did not say "except 
 ye convert these little ones and acquaint 
 them with sin and its consequences, they 
 cannot come to know the Father's 
 love," but enjoined upon the disciples 
 themselves that they should become as 
 little children. And in another place, 
 in singular appositeness to this Beati- 
 tude, the Master said, speaking of little 
 children, "Their angels do always behold 
 the face of my Father, which is in hea- 
 ven." It was in the spirit of this utter- 
 ance of Jesus that Wordsworth wrote 
 his immortal line, "Heaven lies about us 
 in our infancy." 
 
 THE RESTORATION OF PURITY. 
 
 If, then, heart- purity is a condition 
 analogous to innocence, and such a state 
 must be attained if the soul is to win the 
 vision of God, is not the outlook one of 
 discouragement to us who bear the marks 
 of many an unsuccessful struggle, the 
 stains of many a dark defeat, in the con- 
 
 99
 
 The Beatitudes of Jesus. 
 
 flict with the forces of moral evil that are 
 in the world ? It is here that the gospel of 
 Christ finds us. The soul must return to 
 purity, not innocence. This purity is 
 imparted by the divine spirit who "takes 
 of the things of Christ and shows them 
 unto us," that is, mediates or imparts the 
 purity of Christ. And this principle of 
 transformation, working from within, is 
 met by a like principle, working from 
 without. "Reflecting as in a mirror the 
 glory of the Lord we are changed from 
 character to character." In the New 
 Testament sometimes this inward alter- 
 ation is described in terms of regeneration, 
 sometimes of redemption. "How can a 
 man be born, when he is old?" asked Nico- 
 demus, naively. "Art thou a Master of 
 Israel and knowest not these things?" 
 answered Jesus. Yet Christ's explanation 
 of the process of regeneration does not 
 explain, it only emphasizes the myste- 
 riousness, of the new birth. "The wind 
 bloweth where it listeth, and thou hear- 
 est the sound thereof, but canst not tell 
 100
 
 Of the Pure in Heart. 
 
 whence it cometh and whither it goeth, 
 so is everyone that is born of the spirit." 
 Entrance into the spiritual kingdom can 
 be effected only by a birth from above, 
 closely associated with which the con- 
 stituent elements of inner purity reap- 
 pear, namely, the guilelessness that think - 
 eth no evil, and rejoiceth not in iniquity 
 but in the truth; the singleness of heart, 
 which says, "I come to do thy will, O 
 God"; and that simplicity of character 
 which is the vesture of pureheartedness. 
 Restoration of purity through a re- 
 demptive process is another aspect of the 
 work of Christ in man's spiritual nature. 
 We cannot fathom the meaning of the 
 Cross, but we know that in some deep 
 sense it is closely related to this process. 
 
 "We may not know, we cannot tell 
 What pains he had to bear; . 
 But we believe it was for us 
 
 He hung and suffered there." 
 
 In whatever obscurity the mystery of 
 atonement may be involved, it becomes 
 101
 
 The Beatitudes of Jesus. 
 
 luminous with meaning when it is found 
 that it meets and answers the mystery of 
 evil in the human heart, which otherwise 
 leaves the soul of man groping hopelessly 
 in darkness and the shadow of death. 
 The Bible opens with a symbolic account 
 of the fall of man from a state of innocence. 
 It closes with a symbolic representation of 
 the restoration to purity of the host of 
 God's redeemed, standing before the 
 throne and before the Lamb, clothed in 
 white, and with palms in their hands. 
 "These are they which have washed their 
 robes, and made them white in the blood 
 of the Lamb." 
 
 THE BEATIFIC VISION. 
 
 We pass now to a consideration of the 
 spiritual vision which is promised to the 
 pure in heart. "They shall see God," 
 declares the Master. Is this the state- 
 ment of a clear and essential truth, or is it 
 an extravagance of the mysticism of Jesus ? 
 The meaning back of the assurance is, of 
 course, quite obvious, i.e., that our pow- 
 102
 
 Of the Pure in Heart. 
 
 ers of perception are influenced by our 
 moral condition. "Who shall ascend into 
 the hill of the Lord ? or who shall stand in 
 his holy place?" There can be but one 
 answer to the question, and that follows 
 immediately in the text: "Even he that 
 hath clean hands and a pure heart." As 
 an English writer has said, "the hill of the 
 Lord, on whose summit all light shines, 
 is no inaccessible height. Moral eleva- 
 tion and spiritual vision are intimately 
 related." It is of interest to trace this 
 thought of the spiritual vision as it ap- 
 pears elsewhere in scripture, pre-eminent- 
 ly in the writings of St. John, who de- 
 clares, "now are we the sons of God, and 
 it doth not yet appear what we shall be, 
 but we know that when he shall appear 
 we shall be like him," then adding sig- 
 nificantly, "for we shall see him as he 
 is." He evidently refers to the vision of 
 the glorified Christ, for in his Gospel he 
 writes with careful emphasis: "No man 
 hath seen God at any time, the Only Be- 
 gotten, which is in the bosom of the 
 
 103
 
 The Beatitudes of Jesus. 
 
 Father, he hath declared him." It is 
 very evident that to the Apostle's mind 
 the truest, the completest, the divinest 
 revelation of God was in the person and 
 character of the Christ. The sight or vis- 
 ion of God is ever through some medium. 
 The vision is seen through a veil. To the 
 purehearted there is a view of God in 
 nature and her processes, for "the heavens 
 declare the glory of God, and the firma- 
 ment showeth his handiwork," while to 
 the unspiritual, the impure, the self- 
 absorbed, God in nature is simply invis- 
 ible. "The sights and sounds of the mate- 
 rial world are but the drapery of the robe 
 beneath which God has concealed his 
 mysterious loveliness." As we look at 
 nature we see God as through a veil, but 
 the essential condition of our seeing him 
 at all is the grace of an inward purity 
 enthroned in the heart. 
 
 THE VISION IN HUMANITY. 
 
 A higher revelation is found in that 
 disclosure of himself which God has given 
 
 104
 
 Of the Pure in Heart. 
 
 in man, upon whom he has bestowed his 
 image, whom he has fashioned in some 
 deep sense in his invisible likeness. In 
 following the quest for God as he thus 
 unfolds himself in human life and ex- 
 perience, we must avoid a predisposition 
 in favor of accepted types. "The light 
 that lighteth every man" is diffusing 
 itself in ways that cannot be measured 
 by standards of orthodoxy. The question 
 as to who are the saints and who the sin- 
 ners may be settled some time in some 
 future adjudication, but not here, and 
 not now. The image of God, marred and 
 imperfect through human frailty, is 
 stamped upon all men, irrespective of the 
 accidents of temporal condition. And the 
 pureminded, passing in and out among 
 men, as did the Son of Man in the days 
 of his earthly ministry, will see God in 
 all his human children, and under the 
 spell of that vision will go forth upon 
 ministries of service and helpfulness. 
 When the temptation to misanthropy is 
 strong upon him, and nameless disap- 
 
 105
 
 The Beatitudes of Jesus. 
 
 pointments fall like darkening shadows 
 across the path of his well-doing, he will 
 still be obedient to the heavenly vision, 
 remembering that his Master, who saw 
 more deeply into the human heart than 
 he can ever see, retained his belief in 
 man, and out of almost hopeless condi- 
 tions won response from souls in whom 
 the divine spark seemed almost extinct, 
 calling forth in human lives the image of 
 his divine Father. 
 
 THE VISION IN CHRIST. 
 
 But the vision of God in nature, 
 "though the earth and every common 
 sight be apparelled in celestial light; "and 
 the vision of God in history, though his- 
 tory be understood as indeed "His story," 
 must ever be partial and incomplete, 
 because of the dimness of the medium of 
 the disclosure. The perfect vision of God 
 is in the face of Jesus Christ who is the 
 
 ^ *' 
 
 1 'effulgence of his glory and the very im- 
 age of his substance. ' ' "Lord, shew us the 
 Father, and it suffice th us," was the 
 
 106
 
 Of the Pure in Heart. 
 
 yearning entreaty of the wondering Philip. 
 "Have I been so long a time with you, and 
 yet hast thou not known me, Philip?" 
 was his Master's questioning reproof. "He 
 that hath seen me liath seen the Fa- 
 ther." As these words fell from his lips, 
 Philip must have recalled those other 
 words of his, "Blessed are the eyes that see 
 the things that ye see : for I say unto you 
 that many prophets and kings have desired 
 to see the things that ye see, and have 
 not seen them." The beatific vision, 
 the heaven of the pure in heart will 
 be a contemplation of the light of the 
 glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. 
 
 107
 
 OF THE PEACEMAKERS.
 
 "Blessed are the Peacemakers: for 
 they shall be called Sons of 
 God."
 
 OF THE PEACEMAKERS. 
 
 IN the Beatitude of the Peacemakers, 
 with its crowning word concerning 
 sonship, we touch the seventh note in 
 the octave of blessedness. The delinea- 
 tion of spiritual character at this stage 
 reaches its loftiest expression, the next 
 step being the crystallization of that 
 character by contact with its opposite in 
 the world, involving persecution. Glanc- 
 ing backward over our previous studies, 
 it will be seen that in the development of 
 his theme, the Master passes two distinct 
 points of transition, the first of these being 
 the transition from the passive to the 
 active in the interior region of the spirit- 
 ual life, where poverty of spirit, contri- 
 tion, and what is imperfectly termed 
 meekness, rise into the eager quest of the 
 111
 
 The Beatitudes of Jesus. 
 
 soul for righteousness; the second being 
 the transition from the inner life of aspi- 
 ration and effort to the wider field of en- 
 deavor and service, as set forth in the 
 character of the Peacemaker. In unfold- 
 ing the meaning of our present Beatitude, 
 let us think first of the preparation of the 
 peacemaker for his task, next of the 
 sphere of his influence, and finally of the 
 reward of his service. 
 
 HIS PREPARATION. 
 
 While all of the qualities previously 
 enumerated in the octave are constituents 
 of the peacemaker's preparation, the 
 Beatitude immediately preceding the pre- 
 sent one expresses the essential pre- 
 requisite for peacemaking according to 
 the rule of Christ. "Blessed are the pure 
 in heart; for they shall see God." The 
 mystic reward of the pure in heart being 
 the beatific vision, or vision of God, 
 where may we find that vision most per- 
 fectly expressed? Obviously, in Christ. 
 "No one," writes St. John, "hath seen 
 112
 
 Of the Peacemakers. 
 
 God at any time; the only- begotten, 
 which is on the bosom of the Father, he 
 hath declared him." In what character, 
 then, does the Incarnation disclose the 
 Divine Father? God's disclosure of him- 
 self in Christ is that of the Divine Peace- 
 maker, reconciling the world unto him- 
 self, sending his Son to preach peace to 
 them that are far off, and to them that 
 are nigh, accomplishing his gracious pur- 
 pose at the cost of infinite pain, and com- 
 pleting his benign work by the appoint- 
 ment of a ministry of reconciliation. 
 Prophecy anticipates this disclosure. The 
 Son to be born, the child to be given, is 
 to be called the Everlasting Father, the 
 Prince of Peace. In the celestial setting 
 of the nativity, the antiphon of the heav- 
 enly host is an announcement of univer- 
 sal peace, "And suddenly there was with 
 the angel a multitude of the heavenly 
 host, praising God, and saying, 'Glory 
 to God in the highest, and on earth peace 
 among men in whom he is well pleased.' ' 
 And anticipation is justified by fulfill- 
 
 113
 
 The Beatitudes of Jesus. 
 
 ment. As the matchless life unfolds in 
 the gospel story, of profounder signif- 
 icance than any mere program of peace 
 and peacemaking, deeper than any an- 
 nouncement of goodwill to a weary, rest- 
 less world, was the serene, unbroken calm 
 in which the Son of Man lived and had 
 his being. It told of the perfect adjust- 
 ment of a valid human experience to the 
 Divine Nature of which it was an essen- 
 tial part. So personal was the realization 
 of this peace to his consciousness that 
 he came to speak of it as his own peace, 
 a peace which having received he was 
 thenceforth able to communicate. The 
 closing scene in his life-drama, when 
 his human form vanishes from sight, 
 lost in the encircling cloud, depicts him 
 in the act of the bestowal of his peace. 
 
 PEACE AND LOVE. 
 
 The primary preparation of the Peace- 
 maker is the reception of that peace, the 
 possession of which signifies admission to 
 the ministry of reconciliation. Yet it 
 
 114
 
 Of the Peacemakers. 
 
 should be remembered that the peace 
 which qualifies for peacemaking is de- 
 rivative in its nature. It is the offspring 
 and flower of love. v/ ^he motive that lay 
 back of the Incarnation, God's overture 
 of peace, was love. The Infinite One so 
 loved the world that he gave his best- 
 beloved. Beyond this, the mind cannot 
 denetrate, for this love was uncreated, ele- 
 mental. This motive reappears in the 
 mission of the Christ, and again in the 
 peacemaking of those who profess and 
 call themselves his disciples. Under its 
 holy impulse, and by its informing grace, 
 the peace of God, ruling the peacemaker's 
 heart through love, becomes the disciple's 
 noblest spiritual asset, as well as his 
 equipment for his task. 
 
 On the other hand, if love provides the 
 motive and creates the impulse, it is a 
 grace equally efficient in defining the 
 manner in which every work of recon- 
 ciliation must be done. Think of the gold- 
 en fruitage of this rare growth from the 
 garden of the soul ! The fruit of the spirit 
 
 115
 
 The Beatitudes of Jesus. 
 
 of love is love, joy, peace, patience, kind- 
 ness, goodness, faithfulness, humility, 
 self-control. The peacemaker, rooted and 
 grounded in love, will express these in 
 every activity and relation. The prin- 
 ciple upon which he works will be the 
 identical principle which inspired the 
 Incarnation, and animated the Christ. 
 Thus equipped, he will be qualified for 
 unfailing service in the broad field of 
 effective peacemaking. 
 
 THE SPHERE OF HIS INFLUENCE. 
 
 The sphere of the peacemaker's in- 
 fluence and activity, which at first glance 
 appears quite obvious, is not unfrequently 
 narrowed by misconceptions. We picture 
 the traditional peacemaker an amiable 
 individual, adjusting surface differences, 
 deprecating impending quarrels, ever in 
 the act of pouring oil upon the troubled 
 waters of incompatibility in its varied 
 aspects, by gentle speech and soft appeal. 
 In such a nature, many of the elements of 
 which we have previously spoken are 
 
 116
 
 Of the Peacemakers. 
 
 surely mixed, but the picture falls short 
 of that which is framed for us in the 
 Beatitude of the Peacemakers, far short 
 of the portrait of the Great Peacemaker 
 as painted in the gospel narratives. The 
 reason for the colorlessness of the tra- 
 ditional conception appears the moment 
 our eyes rest upon the wider horizons 
 contemplated by the Master in appoint- 
 ing to his followers the ministry of rec- 
 onciliation. If the disciple was not to 
 be above his Master respecting spiritual 
 privilege, neither was he to be below his 
 Master in the furtherance of the peace 
 mission of the Son of God, this latter 
 term, Son of God, being applied freely 
 and without reserve to the obscurest 
 of his followers, who, led by his example 
 and inspired by his vision, should seek 
 to usher in the Kingdom of his peace. 
 The boundaries of this Kingdom, which 
 we must now define, determine for us the 
 precise region wherein the peacemaker 
 of the Beatitude must fulfill his appointed 
 task. These boundaries, which compre- 
 
 117
 
 The Beatitudes of Jesus. 
 
 hend the entire field of man's broken 
 peace, extend from their common center 
 in man's inner spiritual consciousness, in 
 a two-fold direction or relationship, that 
 is, towards his fellow-man, and towards 
 his Father-God. Peace, in its last analy- 
 sis, is a matter of adjustment, and the 
 process of this adjustment is ever fraught 
 with pain and disquietude. Thus the 
 Great Peacemaker is heard to declare that 
 he came not to send peace on the earth, 
 but a sword; to develop antagonisms, to 
 foster variance, to engender strife. In the 
 sphere of man's relation to the problem 
 of his own self-realization, the classic 
 statement of the case of man's struggle 
 for peace is found in the self -revelation of 
 a later Apostle, who vividly portrays the 
 conflict which he discovers in his nature 
 between what he terms the law of his 
 mind and the action of those baser im- 
 pulses which are leagued against him, 
 condemning him to an ignoble captivity, 
 the eternal enemies of his peace. He rises 
 upon stepping-stones of his dead or dying 
 
 118
 
 Of the Peacemakers. 
 
 self to the higher things of the spirit, by 
 association with a power, which he finds 
 to be resident in the living Christ, who 
 becomes the instrument of his peace. 
 
 THE INWARD HARMONY. 
 
 This reflection upon the peace of the 
 soul in the perfect adjustment of the 
 motions of the inner life to a higher law, 
 at first sight appears to have little bear- 
 ing upon the mission of the peacemaker, 
 so accustomed are we to conceive the 
 latter in the role of an intermediary, pure 
 and simple. Yet it is the realization of 
 this inward harmony which qualifies for 
 peacemaking, for it opens to the peace- 
 maker's vision the wide field of man's 
 deepest spiritual need, the need for in- 
 ward unity, while at the same time, it 
 provides him with a gospel of peace ex- 
 pressed in terms of experience. And what 
 a gospel is here! The Beatitude of the 
 Peacemaker is the blessedness of the soul 
 which whispers to another soul the mes- 
 sage of the power of Christ to create har- 
 
 119
 
 The Beatitudes of Jesus. 
 
 mony in a region where all has been jar- 
 ring discord and the tumultuous restless- 
 ness of despair. How beautiful upon the 
 mountains are the feet of those who bring 
 such tidings ! To be at peace within one's 
 self is to be at peace with God, and to be 
 at peace with God is to be at peace with 
 the world. If it be objected that such a 
 view is individualistic, and formulates no 
 program of peace, no consummation such 
 as the ancient seer had in vision, when 
 he dreamed of a far-off time when war 
 should be no more, and over broken sword 
 and shattered spear should rise the sym- 
 bols of a renewed social and industrial 
 order, the answer is that while Christian- 
 ity claims this vision as her very own, 
 and is committed to its advancement by 
 every means known to her organized 
 consciousness, her program of peace must 
 avail but little apart from the reality of 
 a conscious personal experience, based 
 upon an underlying spiritual principle, 
 interpreting the essential elements of the 
 gospel of peacemaking. The Kingdom 
 120
 
 Of the Peacemakers. 
 
 of peace is both within and without, but 
 it is first of all within, and cometh not 
 with observation. Christ himself ushered 
 in no universal order, only the begin- 
 nings of a reign of peace in the hearts of 
 such as would acknowledge his sway. 
 The sphere of the peacemaker's activity 
 is' limitless. No task too humble, no sit- 
 uation too lowly, to enlist his noblest 
 powers of mind and heart. On the other 
 hand, no problem of human condition or 
 circumstance so great as to be beyond the 
 range of his solicitude and concern. 
 
 THE REWARD OF HIS SERVICE. 
 
 We are now led to consider briefly the 
 reward of the peacemaker's service. In 
 the previous Beatitudes, the blessedness 
 affixed told of spiritual possession, as of 
 the heritage of the earth, or of admis- 
 sion to spiritual privilege, as of the vision 
 of God. In the present instance, both 
 privilege and possession are implied, 
 while a further element is introduced, 
 namely the world's acknowledgement of 
 121
 
 The Beatitudes of Jesus. 
 
 spiritual nobility. The peacemakers are 
 to be called Sons of God, that is, outward- 
 ly accredited as such. Viewed in the light 
 of his life-story, as we have it in the 
 gospel narratives, there is something 
 bordering upon the pathetic in this as- 
 surance as it falls from the lips of the 
 Master. The evangelists, working over 
 their reminiscences nearly half a century 
 later, present the picture of the Christ 
 in a framework of the supernatural. 
 They report the tradition of an annun- 
 ciation made to the virgin of Nazareth 
 concerning the Christ -child, that he 
 should be called the Son of God. They 
 recall, as they picture the baptismal and 
 transfiguration scenes, a voice from the 
 skies attesting the verity of that Sonship. 
 But a hope and yearning that lay deep in 
 the heart of Jesus was that his contem- 
 poraries should perceive his Sonship, and 
 that acknowledgement should come from a 
 human, rather than from an angelic or di- 
 vine, source. When, in a supreme hour, 
 such an acknowledgement came, it marked 
 122
 
 Of the Peacemakers. 
 
 the highest level of his self-revelation 
 to the world, the summit of a human joy, 
 which even the approaching mystery of 
 the passion and the cross could not dim 
 or overcast. We have already traced an 
 identity between the Great Peacemaker's 
 task and that appointed his followers in 
 the ministry of reconciliation. We now find 
 an identity in the reward for the service 
 rendered. The blessedness of the Peace- 
 maker, according to this Beatitude, con- 
 sists not merely in a consciousness of 
 sonship, but in the recognition of that 
 sonship by the world. Yet the secret 
 joy of the peacemaker has its spring in 
 that which makes such recognition pos- 
 sible on the part of the world, namely, 
 the world's power to discern and appraise 
 those nobler traits and finer excellences 
 which, in the peacemaker's character, 
 speak of a sonship beatific and divine. 
 
 123
 
 OF THE PERSECUTED.
 
 "Blessed are they that have been 
 Persecuted: for Righteousness' 
 sake: for theirs is the Kingdom 
 of Heaven.' 1
 
 VHL 
 
 OF THE PERSECUTED. 
 
 THE: life of the spirit in relation tQ y 
 its. environment, anticipated, as we 
 have., seen, in the character and work off 
 the Peacemaker, may be said to be the, 
 theme of the eighth and concluding Bea- 
 titude, "Blessed are tfyey that have been 
 persecuted for, righteousness' sake, for. 
 theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. " Apart 
 fr,om iits own clear- message, which we 
 shall presently consider, the positipn^ 
 assigned this Beatitude of the Persecuted 
 in the octave of blessedness is in itself 
 instructive. The portrayal of the inner 
 life, in its previous stages has peen invest- 
 ed with an atmosphere of mysticism. 
 ''Tempers and dispositions of the soul" 
 have been appraised, and their spiritual 
 equivalents given. To the coldly matter- 
 
 127
 
 The Beatitudes of Jesus. 
 
 of -fact and unspiritual,this expression, "an 
 atmosphere of mysticism," is very nearly 
 synonymous with "an air of unreality." 
 It suggests a region veiled from sight and 
 sense, unrelated to the actualities of the 
 world's life. Keenly conscious of this, 
 and with a just valuation of the ministry 
 of environment in the final development 
 of the life of the spirit, the Master closes 
 his eight-fold pronouncement of bless- 
 edness by objectifying the Christian 
 character in an apotheosis of martyrdom : 
 "Blessed are ye when men shall reproach 
 you, and persecute you, and say all man- 
 ner of evil against you falsely, for my 
 sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad : for 
 great is your reward in heaven." The 
 character formed in secret now emerges 
 into the light, becomes a factor to be 
 reckoned with by the world, whose hos- 
 tility it provokes, and finds its reward in 
 the discovery that it is no shadowy and 
 unsubstantial thing, but the enduring 
 workmanship of God. 
 
 128
 
 Of the Persecuted. 
 
 ITS PLACE IN THE OCTAVE. 
 
 The impression that we have in this 
 final Beatitude an element which impairs 
 the spiritual sequence" and violates the 
 structural unity of the octave, results 
 from a failure to perceive the intention of 
 this last touch of the Master in his scheme 
 of blessedness, namely, to objectify and 
 visualize the spiritual life and character, 
 and thus to cause the environment into 
 which it is projected to minister to its 
 completeness. It would be difficult to 
 conceive an ending more thoroughly in 
 keeping with the body of Christ's teach- 
 ing, both in the Sermon on the Mount, to 
 which the Beatitudes form a sort of pro- 
 logue, and in the gospel narratives gen- 
 erally. Moreover, this teaching is a tran- 
 script from his own experience in the 
 field of the spiritual life. The patient 
 years of his preparation, "all touched by 
 awe and serious thought," are reflected 
 in the earlier Beatitudes, while his active 
 ministry, with its deeds of mercy, and 
 
 129
 
 The Beatitudes of Jesus. 
 
 persecution encountered in the path of 
 peacemaking, are imaged in the later ones. 
 With 'these thoughts in mind we are 
 prepared to examine more closely the 
 particular beatitude before us. Perse- 
 : ctrti6h considered with respect to its sig- 
 nificance as 'a factor in spiritual devel- 
 opment, its essentially ethical quality, 
 and its purely spiritual reward, suggests 
 a division of the subject that will assist us 
 to develop its meaning and apply its 
 teaching. 
 
 ITS SIGNIFICANCE. 
 
 The significance of persecution, that 
 is, of the unfriendly, inhospitable attitude 
 of the world towards those traits of life 
 and character that judge and condemn 
 it, cannot be overlooked as a factor in 
 : spiritual development. The Founder of 
 Christianity clearly foresaw that the 
 introduction of a new and higher type of 
 spiritual manhood would inevitably of- 
 fend and antagonize, where it failed to 
 assimilate or alter, and as an incentive to 
 
 130
 
 Of the Persecuted. 
 
 courage and steadfastness on the part of 
 his followers, showed that such antago- 
 nisms would not only serve the interests of 
 that higher life which it sought to destroy, 
 but would seal its blessedness. This he 
 had tested in his own experience, and the 
 disciples were 1 to drink of 'his cup and to 
 be baptized with his baptism. 
 
 Efforts are sometimes made to recon- 
 struct the earliest period o"f Christian his- 
 tory with a view to the discovery of the 
 true nature of the dynamic which in the 
 first centuries endued Christianity with 
 a peculiar and unique potency. The pro- 
 blem, as we know, is many-sided, and 
 there are -countless avenues of approach, 
 yet it is possible that its very simplicity 
 confuses us. Viewed from its positive 
 side, the dynamic of Christianity is the 
 living Christ, known to us as a fact of con- 
 scious experience, vitally ~ related to all 
 that we' thiilk or do, the vision of all that 
 we may hope to be. This was the faith 
 once delivered to the saints. But the 
 earliest saints did not rest in contempla- 
 
 131
 
 The Beatitudes of Jesus. 
 
 tion of the greatness of this disclosure, 
 nor were they satisfied to hand it down to 
 future ages in sacrament, in creed, in 
 word of testimony, as a trust inviolate. 
 They were not theologians; they were 
 martyrs, confessors. As Christ had been, 
 so were they in the world, witnesses to 
 an unseen spiritual order ; with this clear 
 difference, that while to him this order 
 had been the reign of an invisible Divine 
 Father, whom no man had seen at any 
 time, nor indeed could see, to them it was 
 the presence of their living Lord, whose 
 bodily withdrawal had been the signal of 
 a glorious return with renewed power to 
 help, to sustain, and to bless. Therefore, 
 when the world reproached them, and 
 persecuted them, and uttered all manner 
 of evil against them falsely, they believed 
 it was for his sake, and they rejoiced, 
 and were exceeding glad. Is there not 
 room for self-criticism as we recall the 
 suffering triumphs of these early Chris- 
 tians? With what keen irony did Christ 
 say to the Pharisees, "the world cannot 
 
 132
 
 Of the Persecuted. 
 
 hate you, but me it hateth, because I 
 testify of it that its deeds are evil?" 
 
 THE PERMANENT ELEMENT. 
 
 Assuming that the v beatitude before us 
 contains a permanent element, what 
 inference must be drawn from the reflec- 
 tion that Christian experience affords no 
 equivalent to this persecution for right- 
 eousness' sake, no distant semblance of 
 martyrdom, no faint shadow of reproach 
 for the name of Christ? Either that the 
 spirit of Christ has finally conquered, 
 and the Kingdom of Righteousness, over 
 which he shall reign forever, is at the 
 point of realization, or else that the vigor 
 of Christian character has become en- 
 feebled, its authority impaired, its power 
 to make the cause of righteousness a living 
 issue in the affairs of life, discredited or 
 denied. When the Christian life is lived 
 upon its higher levels, and Christ's abso- 
 lute standards become intimately related 
 to each problem of experience, because 
 his living Presence is the central fact of 
 
 133
 
 The Beatitudes of Jesus. 
 
 that experience, then Christian character 
 reverts to the simplicity of its earliest and 
 purest type; the world takes knowledge 
 of Christian men and women that they 
 have been with Christ, and some attitude, 
 other than that of mere indifference, in- 
 variably results. Sometimes a mysterious 
 spiritual awakening ensues; oftener a 
 disposition of hostility is developed. The 
 fact remains that whenever the Christian 
 life, or Christ-life, is lived in earnest, the 
 permanent element in the Beatitude of 
 the Persecuted is discovered. 
 
 ENRICHMENT OF EXPERIENCE. 
 
 -The significance of persecution as a 
 factor in spiritual development may be 
 seen both in its power to make Christian 
 experience joyously conscious of itself, 
 and in its mission to heighten and enrich 
 the quality of that experience. Thus St. 
 Peter writes: "Beloved, think it not 
 strange concerning the fiery trial among 
 you which cometh upon you, as if a strange 
 thing happened unto you; but rejoice, 
 
 134
 
 Of the Persecuted. 
 
 insomuch as ye are partakers of Christ's 
 sufferings; that at the revelation of his 
 glory ye may rejoice with exceeding joy. 
 If ye are reproached for the name of 
 Christ, blessed are ye; because the spirit 
 of glory and the spirit of God resteth 
 upon you. ' ' With what distinctness does 
 the Apostle in this glowing passage re- 
 produce the Beatitude of the Persecuted ! 
 The thought glows with the intensity of 
 personal feeling, and each word throbs 
 with meaning! "Beloved," he declares, 
 "a fiery trial awaits you, but think it not 
 strange, rather rejoice, and be exceeding 
 glad. ' ' He then adds, "If ye are reproach- 
 ed for the name of Christ, blessed are ye!" 
 alleging as a reason, that "the spirit of 
 glory and the spirit of God resteth upon 
 you!" In the light of Christ's accom- 
 plished work, and of the Apostle's ap- 
 proaching martyrdom, the 'Beatitude of 
 the Persecuted in this later setting is 
 clothed with a richness of meaning, and a 
 spiritual elevation, which its earlier form 
 could but dimly forecast, yet all of its un- 
 
 135
 
 The Beatitudes of Jesus. 
 
 told depth of beauty and preciousness must 
 have been real to the Master's heart 
 when he first uttered it, amid the peace- 
 ful scenes, and in the sweet security, of 
 his dawning Galilean ministry. The 
 experience of Peter is an experience com- 
 mon to all of the disciples whose words 
 have come down to us. The records of 
 their sufferings are pervaded with a seren- 
 ity and a joyousness that rise ever into 
 rapture as the ministry of pain mediates 
 to consciousness the presence and the 
 glory of the unseen yet living Christ. 
 
 ITS ETHICAL QUALITY. 
 
 Our examination of the significance of 
 persecution as a factor in spiritual devel- 
 opment leads us to consider next the 
 Beatitude of the Persecuted in respect to 
 the essentially ethical quality which lies 
 at the heart of it. With a single character- 
 istic touch Christ lifts it from the low 
 level of persecution for its own sake, 
 where he might conceivably have left it, 
 to the nobler plane of persecution for 
 
 136
 
 Of the Persecuted. 
 
 righteousness' sake, where he leaves it 
 for all time. Had no lofty words of quali- 
 fication been introduced, had blessed- 
 ness been invoked upon the persecuted of 
 mankind as such, assuredly a Beatitude 
 had been framed in accordance with that 
 universal instinct of pity which so often 
 closes its eyes to moral distinctions, and 
 fancies suffering and reproach as in them- 
 selves the mark of heaven's favor. This 
 is the situation so justly analyzed in the 
 earlier part of the Epistle from which we 
 have quoted, where the Apostle declares 
 "This is acceptable; if for conscience to- 
 ward God a man endureth griefs, suf- 
 fering wrongfully." "For what glory is 
 it," he asks, "if when ye sin and are 
 buffeted for it, ye shall take it patiently ? 
 but if when ye do well, and suffer for it, 
 ye shall take it patiently, this is 
 acceptable with God." Without under- 
 valuing the ministry of pain in the 
 spiritual life, the Apostle would have 
 us keep clearly in view the distinc- 
 tion between suffering for well-doing, 
 
 137
 
 The Beatitudes of Jesus. 
 
 that is, for righteousness' sake, and suf- 
 fering for wrong-doing, that is, as a result 
 of our own folly or ignorance, the former 
 being Christ-like, the latter devoid; of 
 spiritual significance. Suffering in itself 
 may make for righteousness; the lone- 
 liness, the, famine, and the heartache, may 
 drive the soul back to God ; but righteous r 
 ness in such a case is the outcome of the 
 reproach inflicted or the suffering borne, 
 not the. condition, that provokes it. The. 
 Beatitude of the Persecuted, on the other 
 hand, is based upon the reproach of 
 Christ, the offense of the Cross, the pen- 
 alty inflicted by the world upon a life 
 lived above, its maxims of right, its stan- 
 dards of duty or of truth. 
 
 FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS^' SAKE. 
 
 More pertinent to our discussion of the 
 ethical- principle that lies at the heart of 
 the Beatitude is the question, what mean- 
 ing shall we attach to the clause "for 
 righteousness' sake?" What did Christ 
 wish to convey by the term " right eous- 
 
 138
 
 Of the Persecuted. 
 
 ness" in the connection in which he used 
 it? He himself anticipates the apparent 
 difficulty here, and offers an equivalent 
 expression which greatly simplifies the 
 practical applications of the Beatitude. 
 In the secondary form of the Beatitude 
 (verse 11) he substitutes the personal 
 term "for my sake" for the general term 
 "for. righteousness' sake," and thus inter-, 
 prets his thought, giving concreteness 
 to his meaning. "Blessed are ye when 
 men s.hall reproach you, and persecute 
 you, and say all manner of evil against y.ou 
 falsely, for my sake." Had no such pro-, 
 vision been made ; had Christ not saifij in- 
 effect, "the cause of righteousness is my 
 cause;" it is not an abstract formula of 
 truth, or a visionary dream of righteous- 
 ness, but a living spiritual Presence, that 
 invokes your personal loyalty; is it not 
 conceivable that we should have framed 
 some narrower and less lofty equivalent 
 to ; suit our needs ? "Blessed are they that 
 have been persecuted for conscience 
 sake", might suggest itself as a convenient 
 
 139
 
 The Beatitudes of Jesus. 
 
 gloss upon our Saviour's words. Thus, to 
 the conscience of the individual, fidelity to 
 received opinion, or subservience to the 
 dictates of mere tradition, might wear the 
 aspect and claim the blessedness of devo- 
 tion to truth; bigotry in the face of just 
 reproof might mistake itself for martyr- 
 dom for righteousness' sake. Doubtless 
 fidelity to conscience in whatever cause is 
 not without its reward. Furthermore, it 
 is closely akin to righteousness when it is 
 loyalty to its own inner light and leading. 
 But the Beatitude of the Persecuted for 
 Righteousness' sake is removed from this 
 region of relativity by the foresight of 
 Christ himself, who gathers all lesser loy- 
 alties into one absolute and supreme 
 loyalty, making devotion to truth and 
 righteousness a matter of simple and 
 consistent devotion to himself. This it 
 was, as we have already shown, that gave 
 beauty and significance to the earliest 
 Christian martyrdoms, before truth be- 
 came veiled under the forms of truth, when 
 Christians, in the confidence of a certain 
 
 140
 
 Of the Persecuted. 
 
 faith, "endured as seeing him who is 
 invisible." 
 
 THE REWARD OF THE PERSECUTED. 
 
 Our closing reflection upon the Beat- 
 itude is concerned with the reward of the 
 promised blessedness, "for theirs is the 
 Kingdom of Heaven." This expression 
 "the Kingdom of Heaven," as the final 
 word in Christ's scheme of blessedness, 
 brings us back to the point from which we 
 started in the earliest of the Beatitudes. 
 "The keynote touched by the Master in 
 the opening chord is heard with 
 added richness of meaning in the closing 
 strain." Each of the intervening varia- 
 tions of blessedness stands related to this 
 central theme, "The Kingdom of Hea- 
 ven," which, as we have seen, Christ 
 weaves into the texture of all his teaching, 
 and makes the final goal of the spiritual 
 life. That the expression is symbolic- 
 figurative is evident beyond question. 
 What, then, is the spiritual life-thought 
 
 141
 
 The Beatitudes of Jesus. 
 
 that lies beneath the figure, veiled in its 
 symbolism? In its most primary aspect 
 it is the truth of the 'Divine Indwelling; 
 of the soul's hidden life in God, and of 
 God's living presence in the soul. 
 
 "More present to faith's vision keen 
 Than any other vision seen; 
 More near, more intimately nigh 
 Than any other earthly tie." 
 
 THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 
 
 This phrase, "the Kingdom of Hea- 
 ven" despite the limitations imposed by 
 associations of Jewish history and tradi- 
 tion, of which it is difficult to divest it 
 appeared to the mind of Christ the 
 most available term in which to express 
 the truth of the Divine Indwelling, to- 
 gether with the correlative truth of the 
 soul's relation to this source of its life and 
 blessedness. The "Kingdom" meant more 
 than the enthroned presence and acknow- 
 ledged authority of its Invisible King. It 
 implied allegiance ; God's royalty was to be 
 met by the soul's loyalty, and this not by 
 
 142
 
 Of the Persecuted. 
 
 the influence of compelling duty, but by 
 the power of constraining love. "If any 
 man love me, he will keep my word ; and 
 my Father will love him, and we will come 
 unto him, and make our abode with him." 
 The significance of the Kingdom as the 
 reward of the persecuted may be found 
 in the fact that this inner realm of God's 
 presence and rule, at first dimly appre- 
 hended through a sense of spiritual need 
 and desolation (Blessed are the poor in 
 spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Hea- 
 ven) is now completely realized as a fact 
 of conscious experience. Man becomes 
 conscious of God, even as knowledge of 
 whatever sort becomes real to the mind, 
 that is, defined to consciousness, through 
 expression. As persecution and reproach 
 are inflicted from without, the soul's God- 
 consciousness is intensified within, obe- 
 dience is expressed in terms of personal 
 loyalty, and duty is glorified by love. 
 "Blessed are ye when men shall reproach 
 you and persecute you, and say all man- 
 ner of evil against you falsely, for my 
 
 143
 
 The Beatitudes of Jesus. 
 
 sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad ; for 
 great is your reward in heaven: for so 
 persecuted they the prophets which were 
 before you." 
 
 144