There lives a glory in these sweet June days Such as I found not in the years gone by, A kindlier meaning in the unclouded sky,
A tenderer whisper in the woodland ways;
And I have understanding of the lays, The birds are singing, forasmuch as I Have learned how love avails to satisfy
A man's whole heart, and fills his lips with praise.
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The morning air is laden with the scent Of roses; and within my garden grows A rosebud that shall some day be a rose,
Whose bloom and perfume never shall be spent — The flower of love: and he who hath it knows
The endless summer of complete content.1
3. The most impressive illustration of the principle is the blessedness of receiving the grace of God. The secret of receiving from the living God what is neither earned nor merited, and, moreover, that to which we cannot lay the smallest claim ; nay, further, that which we have madly, meanly, gracelessly, forfeited, is a secret which some are slow to learn. Human pride conies in and resents unmerited compassion, and disputes the necessity for mercy. Philosophy helps to minimize the peril of sin, and a shallow science throws all the blame of sin on nature or matter or on God Himself. The blessedness of receiving Christ's supreme gift is disputed, because it involves too severe a self- scrutiny. The flesh which crucified Him once, resists the crucifying process when faith begins to drive the nails into its own quivering hands. The world must be crucified by the cross of Christ, but the world in our hearts dies hard.
Thou sayest, " Fit me, fashion me for Thee."
Stretch forth thine empty hands, and be thou still; 0 restless soul, thou dost but hinder Me
By valiant purpose and by steadfast will, Behold the summer flowers beneath the sun,
In stillness His great glory they behold; And sweetly thus His mighty work is done,
And resting in His gladness they unfold. So are the sweetness and the joy divine Thine, 0 beloved, and the work is Mine.2
ii. It is more blessed to give.
1. " It is more blessed to give than to receive." These golden words of Christ admit and enforce all that has been said about receiving, but they authoritatively proclaim a deeper truth, and promise a blessedness which surpasses that of receiving from nature
1 P. C. Ainsworth, Poems, 87.
2 Gerhardt Tersteegen, trans, by Frances Bevan. ACTS & ROM. — 12
178 THE BEATITUDE OF THE GIVER
and human love their best gifts, or even that of receiving Divine grace. Can any reason be assigned for such a sweeping and comprehensive inversion of all ordinary maxims? Why should the bestowal of joy be a greater blessedness to the giver than to the receiver ?
2. Our Lord does not say it is more natural or more pleasant. He lifts our thoughts into a new region. He appeals to the spiritual and the eternal. He bids us consider the issue and the permanence of conduct. And we cannot understand His words till we feel that they are of universal application. The principle is not to be limited to the material bestowal of alms, to the help of the needy and the suffering. It does indeed apply here, but in such cases we can see that the power of giving involves an obvious superiority, an abundance of resources, a freedom from distress, which tend to hide the true nature of the benediction. The blessedness of which the Lord speaks is far deeper than ease and comfort. The giving which He contemplates is not measured by any outward standard. The spirit which the giving embodies finds countless forms under which it shows itself. It reaches through the whole fabric of our lives. It is true of thought, true of feeling, true of action, that it is more blessed to give than to receive. And this blessedness is not for one, but for all. We can all be givers as we are all receivers. In the unity of the State he who gives recognizes in giving that he himself receives, and he who receives learns to give even in receiving.
(1) Few things can be more delightful than to enrich the mind with new truths ; to apprehend a little more clearly than before the laws by which the world is governed; to discern a little more intelligently the marvels of beauty which lie every- where about our feet; to rise to a larger understanding of the conditions of human progress ; to feel that we have made our own that which great men have established for the ennobling and the enlightening of life. Few things can be more delightful, but our experience will teach us that at least one thing is — if ever we have been enabled to make some simple fact plainer to a learner , to bring from our treasures a thought which another has required ; to expose a falsehood which a friend has unwarily admitted ; to see the seed of good which we have scattered ripening to a
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fruitful harvest. We compare the two joys of learning and teaching, both pure, and generous, and abiding, and our judgment is beyond appeal. In thought, it is more blessed to give than to receive.