The Pulpit Commentary — Matthew — Volume 1 — Section 197

h~rt has. it betrayed I And wha.t irresistible energy ha.s it argued in tha.t ma.jeetio frie_nd of silent persua.siveness-God'e Holy Spirit I 6. Once more, there is the mourning which ma.y be called specially that of Christ-the mourning over sinnera, and because qf Bffl. B:e who had no sin for which to reproach himself is he who wept most freely over the sms of others. "He beheld the city, a.nd wept over it." "He groaned in the spirit, and was t:0ubled, and wept." In proportion as any disciple of Christ a.tta.ins resemb~nce to him, h_!l will be ma:ked by the same hatred of sin and its work, by the same gnef over the sinner and h18 folly. Holy men of old moved by God's Spirit knew such grief. "I beheld the transgressors, and was griev;d, because they kept not thy Word. • . • Rivers of waters run down mine eyes, because they keep not thy Law." Our genuine mourning over sin will bring us into some fe.int resemblance, at least, to him of whom we thus sing- " The Son of God in tealll, Angels wit.h wonder see. Be thou e.stonished, 0 my soul I He shed those tears for thee." IV. Momm1NG HAS ITS PERIOD DIVINELY FIXED. There is this particular "com- fort" attached to it-that, though painful at present, it is useful; and that when its main uses are ga.ined, itself is lost in "comfort." To the believer in Christ mourning cannot be unalloyed, for he knows its present sacred advantages, and he believes its early t.ermination. "Blessed are the mourners: for they shall be comforted." Com- forted, indeed, now by many a sanctified use and fruit of affliction, and by many a sanctified suggestion, but most of all by the sanctified assurance that ere long, nay, right early, God shall abolish i~ and shall "wipe away all tears from the eye." So it is no mere end to which mourning comes; it is not the mere extinction of nature; it is the doing of God's own kind hand, moved by his own kind heart. This Beatitude is good as a rainbow covenant between heaven and earth, for souls and their inner skies. Whether any Christian sorrow more or less, he may now, with this Bee.titude of sorrow, "rejoice with joy unspeakable, and full of glory."-B. Ver. 6.-The blessedneas of the me,ek. This Beatitude asks at the outset to be dis- tinguished from the first, that spee.ks of the "poor in spirit." It is a quote.tion from ihe far-seeing, even if dim-seeing, gospel of the Old Teste.ment (Ps. xxxvii. 11). 'l'he promise attached to the Beatitude is one the special habitat of which is the page of the Old Testament. And this helps to guide us to the genius of the present passage. :Meekness must be indeed a quality _of the person; it must undoubtedly be in the most essential sense a personal, quality. It is nowhere, unless it is deep down in a man's heart, and in genuine possession of it. Though this be so, however, it is here a virtue that /aall less to the individual character and life the.n to the social, collective, nationaL Let a man be more than as meek as Moses, he and his individual solitary meekneu would never make that conquest of the heritage of the earth which is here extolled and set up as a mark and e. goal. Had, however, the chosen people been meek, true to meekness, continuously and growingly meek, meek subjects of the heavenly and theocratic rnle, then dispossession would not have been their heritage of shame. A growing herite.ge of the earth would have been their glory and pride. Now, all this, unobtained by the Law of Moses and Sinai, with its commandments and .the prophets, remains to be obtained. It is yet to be. The earth is to be inherited, and it is to be inherited by men whose conquest of it shall be, not by might, nor by power and pride, but by 'ITl.e£kness I We may read, therefore, in this Beatitude- L CJIEATION1S CHARTER PROCLAIJ(ED ANEW, OF MAN'S RIGHT IN THE EARTH, II. DEEPER AND FAB MORE SIGNIFICANT INTUIATION OF THE REAL WAY IN WillOH THE OONQUEBT OF THE EARTH SHOULD BE EFFECTED. The whole earth e.nd mankind themselves, alike in their most scientific aspects and their moral aspects, are best understood, and certainly best mastered, by those methods of observation rath_er than of dictation, of induction rather than presuming speculation and hazardous conJecture, which the greatest, truest philosophers (like Lord Bacon) came at last to recognize and tee.eh. This meekness is, eveD for the physical conquest of the earth and all things in it, thu me.eterly meekneaa. on. v. 1-48.) THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MATTHEW, 189