219. Jones (J. S.), The Invisible Things, 34. Keimett (R. H.), In Our Tongues, 51. Lightfoot (J. B.), Cambridge Sermons, 34. Tjockyer (T. F.), The Inspirations of the Christian Life, 144. Maclaren (A.), The Beatitudes, 53.
Bieyer (H. H.), in Drew Sermons on the Gulden Text* fur 1910, 19. M iiler (J. R.), The Master's Blesseds, 125. Momerie (A. W.), The Origin of Evil, 283. Neale (J. M.), Sermons for Children, 105. Parkhunst (C. II), The Blind Man's Creed, 205. Peabody (F. O.), Mornings in the College Chapel, i. 69. Smith (W. C), Sermons, 50. Thompson (J. R.), Burden Bearing, 187. Vanghan (C. J.), University Sermons, 425. Wanlell (R. J.), Studies in Homiletics, 106. Wilberforce (B.), Spiritual Consciousyiess, 88. Wray (J. J.), Honey in the Comb, 59.
British Congregationalist, February 2, 1911 (J. H. Jowett). Cambridge Review, v. Supplement No. 126 (G. Salmon). Christian World Pulpit, xxix. 238 (J. Lloyd) ; xxxix. 12 (C. A. Vince) ;
lxvi. 337 (VV. T. Davison); lxxxiii. 33 (J. S. Holdun).
The Pure in Heart.
Blessed are the pure in heart : for they shall see God.— Matt. v. 8.
If there be in the bright constellation of the Beatitudes one particular star, it is this text. If in blessedness there be a crown of blessedness, it is here. If there be a character that in its very quintessence is spiritual, it is this. And if there be a delight above all conceivable delights, it is that which is promised in these well-known words. So lofty a verse is this, that it is one of the texts which the preacher trembles to take, and yet is continually impelled to take, that at least he may teach himself if he cannot teach other people, and that preacher and congregation together may do a little towards climbing up to summits which seem like the far-off Alpine heights.
Oh, snow so pure, Oh, peak so high, I shall not reach you till I die.
Yet lofty and remote as they seem, these words are in truth among the most hopeful and radiant that ever came even from Christ's lips. For they offer the realization of an apparently im- possible character. They promise the possession of an apparently impossible vision. They soothe fears, and tell us that the sight from which, were it possible, we should sometimes shrink, is the source of our purest gladness.
I.
The Vision.
" They shall see God " ; what do these words mean ? In their widest and fullest significance they must remain to us au eternal mystery. They express the object around which all the hopes and fears of the best men of the human race have always gathered, and
86 THE PURE IN HEART
around which they are gathering still. To see God has been the ultimate aim of all philosophy ; it is the ultimate hope of all science, and it will ever remain the ultimate desire of all nations.
T| In all the nobler religions which the world has seen, we can trace an endeavour to rise to a vision of God. The Brahmin on the burning plains of the East gave up all the present charm of life, and, renouncing ease and love, passed his years in silent thought, hoping to be absorbed into the Eternal. The Greek philosopher spoke of passions that clogged the soul's wings, and desires that darkened its piercing eye, and he strove to purge his spirit from them by philosophy, that he might free its pinions and quicken its sight for beholding the Infinite. And in this light we can understand how the monks in the Middle Ages became so marvellously earnest. These men felt a Presence around their path which at one time appeared to reveal itself like a dream of splendour, and at another swept like a vision of terror across the shuddering heart ; and to behold Him they crushed their longings for fellowship, steeled their hearts to the calls of affection, and alone, in dens and deserts, hoped, by mortifying the body, to see God in the soul. In a word, the dream which has haunted the earnest of our world, has ever been this — to be blessed, man must know the Eternal. Christ proclaims that dream to be a fact — they are blessed who see God.1
1. To see God is to stand on the highest point of created being. Not until we see God — no partial and passing embodiment of Him, but the abiding Presence — do we stand upon our own mountain- top, the height of the existence which God has given us, and up to which He is leading us. That there we should stand is the end of our creation. This truth is at the heart of everything, means all kinds of completions, may be uttered in many ways ; but language will never compass it, for form will never contain it. Nor shall we ever see, that is, know, God perfectly. We shall indeed never absolutely know man or woman or child ; but we may know God as we never can know human being, as we never can know ourselves. We not only may, but we must, so know Him, and it can never be until we are pure in heart.
Tf Religion largely lies in the consciousness of our true relation to Him who made us ; and the yearning for the realization of this