The Pulpit Commentary — Matthew — Volume 1 — Section 201

shall see God." If the foregoing Beatitude were one that turned its face principally to man, and looked a.s it were fixedly on him, yet with most undoubted a.speot Godwa.rd, this, on the other hand, the eighth in order, must certainly be held (and a.11 the more so by force of the latter clause of it) to place us face to face with God-how certainly, also, to the subsequent advantage of our fellow-man none can doubt. Simple as a.re the words of this Beatitude, the central word, that one on which the meaning of all hinges, may be rendered yet a. little more expressively and unmistakably by the word "cl<>im," which is the _.Authorized Version rendering ten times out of the twenty-eight times of its occurrence in the New Testament. Three other times is this "clean heart" sJ?Oke~ of, viz. : ." The end of the commandment is charity out of a. clean heart" (1 Tim. L 5); "With th~m that call on the Lord out of a clean heart" (2 Tim. ii. 22); "Love one another with a clean heart fervently" (1 Pet. i. 22). And in addition twice is a " clean conscience " spoken of, viz. : " Holding the mystery of the faith in 11 clean conscience" (1 Tim. iii. 9); "God, whom I serve from my forefathers with a clean conscience" (2 Tim. i. 3). It is a " clean linen cloth" in which the sacred body is wrapped (eh. xxvii. 59); the "seven angels" are "clothed in clean and white linen" (Rev. xv. 6); the "Lamb's wife" is "arrayed in fine linen, clean and white" (Rev. x.ix. 8); and "the armies, which followed the Word of God," were "clothed in fine linen, white and clean" (Rev. xix. 14). If it were possible to hesitate as to what " the pure heart" of this Beatitude might mean, few could hesitate as to the chief meaning of a "clean" heart. I. THE CLEAN IN HEART ABE THOSE WHOSE .A.FFE0TIONB1 THOUGHTS, WISHES, ABE CLEAN. David's prayer, "Create in me a clean heart, 0 God," is ever a most practical commentary on the too solemn, too dangerous subject. .And St. Peter's earnest entreaty to those whom he counts even as "dearly beloved," that they " abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul," is another. This unclean heart is described by the lips of Jesus Christ himself: "Out of it proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies'' (eh. xv. 19). .And the description is followed on by St. Paul, when he speaks of the " works of the flesh" (Gal. v. 19). Human affections, pure, clean, innocent (partial and imperfect and temporary though they be), lead on to the Divine and eternal; but human passions and the desires of the flesh are the worst foes to the spirit. Into the heart contaminated by entertaining such guests, higher and purer cannot, will not, come. It cannot be pronounced "blessed ; " it cannot be " blessed." It has its own eyes indeed, but they are not eyes with which God can be seen. Purity of heart must mean first of all pure thoughts, pure desires, pure affections. Love of the visible, the near, the present, always takes advantage to hinrler the love of God, but impure affections fail not to destroy it absolutely. II. THE PURE IN HEART ABE THOSE WHOSE filGHER JUDGMENT, BETTER FEELING, TRUER VISION, ABE NOT DISTURBED BY THAT ILLUSION OF SELF-INTEREST WHICH BAB SO BRITTLE, .U.""D AT THE DEBT 80 BRIEF, A TENURE OF LIFE. The larger examples of the disastrons interferencea of what for a while wears all the semblance of expedience, policy, self-interest, and even justi.fi.able self-regard, speak distinctly for themselves when they occur. But the amazing, the incredible work of mischief, invisibly, some- times unconsciously, rarely enough confessedly, piled up with the effect of crushing unsnspectedly all that is best in the individual heart, it would seem only the plunge into the eternal world can reveal, whether to others or to the victims themselves, whose name is legion. Souls could not have been gambled away more mercilessly or in more ruinous number than they have by these ways committed suicide. They have melted down like the snow, and vanished like phantom troops. 'l'he pure in heart know and abide by the right, though it be dressed in rags, and they have no fellowship with the plausible, though arrayed in purple. The pure in heart have an instinct, which holds them faithful adherents to that higher judgment, that better feeling, that • truer vision of which the world thinks so little, and which it sells for a delusive nothing• .A pure heart believes in it all, without a sidelong glance and withou_t" looki~g back;" guides itself by what it knows to be the right, and brushes off soph1Btry as it would a detected traitor-friend. That heart is training to "see God." ill. THE PURE IN HEART ABE THOSE WHOSE HEABT ANBWEBB AB 11" AR AB POBBIDLB TD PUBE •OTIVJI 0l!ILT. Motivea are those hidde1' impulses and inducements of CR. v.1-48.J THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MATTHEW. 193