be that he observes with an ever-open eye whether we observe it, and how liberally or otherwise we observe it to others I He taught the petition and its very wording, IC Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against ns," Consider- I. 'l'HE OBJECTS OF THIS BEATITUDE. They are the "merciful," i.e. those who have mercy of heart; and H they have this, it must be that they will show and practise it. .A man may have money in his pocket and not show it. He may have some skill, some knowledge, some talent, in his composition, and may not show them. But mercy is that which, to have it, is to show it and "do" it, So a man cannot be credited with the IC forgiving" disposition unless he habitually practise forgiveness. Mercy in itself is (with Remigius, presbyter, and monk of .Auxerre, A.D. 880) "to count another's misery or want one's own, and to be sad at all another's grief as at one's own," The spring of it lies perhaps far away, concealed certainly from general sight and from feeble sight, high up in the hills. Sympathy is its twin rill, and its ever-fresh, crystal, {lowing tributary. Its stream now has somehow become deep and full, and circles the world around; for it has become a vital necessity for human-kind. Its compass extends from the freshest, youngest possibilities of the works of the sweetest charity, to the anguished, shamed, smnrting sense of pity awakened by and for the worst of sinners. Point special attention to: 1. 'l'he grand Exemplar of this quality, the mercy of God in Jesus Christ, 2. The crying, awful, supreme need of it, as poured on a world by him; and as multiplying itself then by the myriad (however weak and small yet) genuine reproductions of its own spirit. 3. The wide, universal use of it-every- where, in everything, in the home, the city, the Church, the nation, for the body and for the soul-where is there the variety or where the grouping of society which does not hang precarious on mercy and its works? 4. The deep degradation signified by the absence of it; and illustrated so patently, so lamentably, wherever in the world, on smaller or larger scale, the level of it is now lowest. Contrast the world of Christian mercy with all its imperfection, and every blot that lies upon it, and all its wayward inconsistency, i.e. at its worst, with the unchristian world, to which mercy is a stranger all but absolute. Mercy is indeed "mightiest in the mightiest; " but of the mightiest earth has not B pattern to show, unless mercy be there to give the solid strength and enduring framework. Only mercy has in it to find what can meet a.nd bear the strain. II. THE PROMISE ON WHICH THEm BLESSEDNESS 1B BASED. "They shall obtain mercy." This assurance is the justification and the original of that claim on behalf of mercy that it is "twice blessed," blessing him that gives as well as him that takes. Point forcible attention to the fact that here it is signified: 1. That " to obtain mercy " is indeed blessedness. Is it not the necessary deep foundation of all individual and o.11 real blessedness? Quote acd compare the beautiful and encouraging exhortation, "Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy," as if to say that it is the first and last great effect of the throne of grace. 2. That as "God is not unrighteous to forget the work and labour of love" which is "showed toward his Name" when any "minister to the saints," so certainly he specially appraises this ministry, whether showed to the saints, or possibly yet more, when not shqwn to saints at all, viz. the ministry of mercifulness. 3. That the reward apparently set forth here, as the return of mercy for mercy, is no mere equivalent. Far otherwise; for, as Chrysostom says, "human mercy acd Divine mercy cannot be put on an equality." 'rhe latter is "much more "-nay, is it not infinitely "much more"? 'l'be two are compared by the warrant of this very passage. But is it not only in one sense, important and significant indeed, but yet limited, that they are compared, viz. for the motive of them? Intrinsically are they not incomparable1 The mercifulaess of a human heart taught of God, touched by Jesus, is indeed the evidence of its parentage, and a most gratelul one. But what mercy of human action can for a moment comparo with that here in view when it is said, "for they shall obtain mercy"? CoNoLUSION. Let all lay to heart what, in the estimate of Jesus Christ, must be the place in the world, and in human life acd all the compass of its social relations, for this grace of mercHulnes11 that it should be enshrined in this elegant, chaste temple of the lloatitudQ, and fill one niche out of so sacred a ninel-B.
Ver, 8, -'I'M Beatitude of the pure in heart. "Blessed are the pure in heai t: for they 192 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MATTHEW. [cu. v. 1-48