BEING LESSONS FROM THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW.

CHAPTER V. (Continued from page 121.)

The "sermon on the mount " is the manifestation of the kingdom in its inner spirit and holiness, – still, of course, as a kingdom to come, and not actually come. There are seven parts :the first (vers. 1-16), fittingly, consisting of the "beatitudes," blessings pronounced by the Lord Himself upon the heirs of it:first, in view of their personal character (1-9); then as sufferers in the midst of a world hostile to them (10-12); and lastly, as ministers, in the face of that hostility, of a blessing which shall be realized in the world, when the long-expected kingdom comes (13-16).

The old covenant also had its blessings, which were conditioned upon legal obedience, in result proving only the utter hopelessness of blessing under it, so that the very "song" of the law-giver is a witness against the people, and his blessing of the tribes has to look for its fulfillment in times beyond the law:in fact, in the very times of the kingdom which the Lord here announces. How suited that the Messenger of the new covenant should begin with blessing, – blessing still upon obedience, (for in the nature of things there can be no other,) but now with a positiveness and assurance which imply the grace that the covenant, with its glorious "I will"s, so royally expresses (Heb. 8:8-12). For those under it there is no Mount Ebal, no curse or woe at all. The sweet authority of divine love constrains and restrains together. Christ is king of a kingdom like which there is no other, where the ingrafted Word is "law," yet a "law of liberty," and every individual conscience is His throne.

There are seven blessings pronounced on character, and as in most sevens elsewhere throughout the Word, the first four arc distinguished from the last three here, by being connected with what is more negative and related to outward position; while the last three give us the more specific divine lineaments which are found in all the children of God as partakers of the divine nature. The first four show us the heart set upon a blessing which is not yet come, upon the kingdom of heaven itself, and thus distressed at all that which is the moral opposite of this in the world around them. The last three give us the positive energy and activity of good amid the unceasing conflict of evil with it. But let us look at them more particularly in their order and connection with one another, all which has its meaning and importance for interpretation and spiritual application.

First, and therefore of first importance here, we have "Blessed arc the poor in spirit." This is in contrast with mere external poverty, but like it in its own sphere. When the heart is set upon things to come, present things of necessity lose their power to satisfy. There is "absence of mind," as we say; the gaze is on the unseen. And this is characteristic of faith, which is "the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." With this, therefore, we must begin, for '' without faith it is impossible to please God." Yet this poverty of spirit is only the negative side of faith, the emptying and not the filling. There is power in it, however,- deliverance from a world which is known as vanity,- from the vain show in which men walk and their equally vain disquiet,- from the temptations, therefore, and distractions of it. The soul's bonds are cut; it can move, it can make progress. To such an one God's word becomes a necessity, as the one link with the invisible. And such a seeking has its invitation and blessing from the Lord Himself:"theirs is the kingdom of heaven."

How much more, not less, forceful for us should this be, than for those to whom the Lord was directly speaking, or even for the people who will stand upon the threshold of the kingdom in days soon to come! True, the earth's crisis will be upon it, and Israel's travail-time of intense anguish, out of which, as in a day, a nation will be born to God. But for us is the revelation of a brighter inheritance, higher as heaven is above the earth, the meeting-place of the redeemed, the dwelling-place of God and of the Lamb. Had we divine affections, such as should be formed by the revelation, how little would mere circumstances have power over the formation of a character like this! Granted that Satan's tactics for us have changed, and that instead of funeral pyres for martyrs, there are now premiums in abundance for unfaithfulness to Christ,- a condition of things formed indeed by a compromise between the Church and the world,- should this have power to dim the eyes of faith? What would it be to say this, but to own it right and reasonable that Satan should gain his object?

Christ in the world at least must be poor in it. It was the place, without any question, of His poverty. If, then, He be the example for us, how much does this imply? If He, too, gone out of the world, is the object for our hearts, where will our hearts be ?

Approached from this direction, the next point is soon attained, the character of "the meek." Amid the lusts and strife of earth, if like others you have your portion to contend for, you must strive as they do. If you have nothing here to live for but God's will, it is sure, beyond doubt, that this will be done:you can afford to be quiet. Be sure for yourself of a Father's love and care always over you,-the infinite love and wisdom concerning itself with all your path, and such knowledge will of necessity subdue all the rashness of self-assertion, and make you careful only to give God His way, to cease from the folly of your own. Here, too, the Lord leads His own:" Learn of me," He says, "for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls." There is the blessing of it now, and how great it is, "rest to your souls"! – rest from all restlessness, quiet in the knowledge that God is God:what an in-estimable joy is this.

When "the meek shall inherit the earth" is again the blessedness of that future time when judgment shall return to righteousness, the reins of government being in the hands of the Righteous One. It will be a wonderful thing in this world, whose history has been one long strife of ambition, and whose heroes have been so often made such by the hecatombs of their slain, to have the inheritance belong to the meek! Promise for the earthly people as it is, we shall still enjoy it, and in a better way. We are "heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ," and shall reign with Him over the earth. We have no need, therefore, to covet Israel's promises, and should not be enriched by them in the least. Whether to them or to us, '' the gifts and calling of God are without repentance."

The third blessing is that of those that mourn; and here we are not to think, as exhaustive at least, of sorrow over our sins. Christ was "a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief," and, necessarily, as the Son of God in a world astray from Him. '' For the zeal of thy house hath eaten me up," He says, "and the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me." (Ps. Ixix. 9.) His tears fell over Jerusalem. The cross He bore for men was fullest witness to the intensity of His anguish upon their account, while justifying the holiness of God in all He suffered for them.

Little need to dwell upon the causes for mourning in the world, such as we know it. Its open sores are revealed enough day by day, in a time when the most hidden things are exposed as a matter of course before the public gaze, as having unquestioned right to know everything! And yet, after all, these are only specimens from the mass of evil and of misery too great to be gaged or realized. What must have been the oppression of it to Him whose eye saw through all, and whose heart had none of the callousness with which we throw off or the weakness which makes us faint under too great a burden.

But "they shall be comforted." There is a rest of God to come, a rest into which we shall enter; a sabbath-rest, where rest shall be not only allowed but sanctified. How sweet the thought of a "rest of God," where He with His holiness, He with His love, shall rest, and "rest in His love." Yes, this is possible still, and shall at last be actual.

There is yet one special form of sorrow to be noted, and it is one that men are feeling intensely to-day; not because there is more of it than in the past ages, or at least not that there is necessarily more. Rather, perhaps, because all these questions are coming up for answer, as the day of settlement nears, and the harvest of the earth approaches ripeness. '' Judgment shall " yet "return to righteousness," long divorced as they have been, but it is not yet so:still the cry of oppression goes up into the ears of God, and He is quiet, and men think He regards not. And because they think so, they are rising up to-day, to take things into their own hand, and settle them with their own hands, and after their own fashion. Yet they can never be so settled. Where are the righteous that arc fit to rule ? Arc the few who have shown their unfitness other than fair samples of the many that have never had a chance to try ? Ah, no ! ' 'As in water face answereth to face, so the heart of man to man." "Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest:for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things."

There is no hope in the rule of the many, then. There is no hope but in the rule of One whom men long since rejected, and whom they reject to-day. The cry, "We have no king but Caesar," has been answered by the long reign of Caesar. Men have chosen, and to-day choose, as of old:they may say, no doubt, "rather myself than Caesar," but if that cannot be, "rather Caesar than Christ." Try experiments and politics they may, and dethrone Caesar! Christ they do not want.

Yet "blessed are they that do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled." "Be patient, therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. . . . stablish your hearts:for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh."

This is the remedy,-the only and unfailing one :and blessed, meanwhile, is the hunger after that which only the clay of Christ will bring. There is One who can safely be trusted, only One; and He sits even now upon the throne of God, and waits till His enemies are made His footstool. While He waits, we can wait. The general state cannot be remedied until He comes; but even now abundant power is His, which He delights to use, in His way of fullest wisdom, for the good of His own. His long-suffering is salvation. He waits, not in helplessness, nor in inactivity, but to secure designs of perfect goodness, which eternity will unfold to us. Meanwhile this waiting becomes for us the discipline of faith, the opportunity to trace a little more on earth the path he has trodden, the extension of a special time of service, which He will remember. '' Blessed are those servants whom the Lord, when he cometh, shall find watching :verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them sit down to meat, and will come forth, and serve them." (Luke 12:37.)
(To be continued.)