Does Matt. 5:3-11 apply to children of God to-day? An affirmative answer might be given to this question, and the matter left there; but as this also might raise other queries it may be better to consider the question in its dispensational and moral relations.

The passage referred to gives the nine beatitudes with which the Lord opens His teaching. In it He unfolds the moral character and principles which are to govern the action and relation of His disciples in a time preceding the kingdom come in power. During this time there will be the suffering and rejection of which He speaks.

The Lord does not speak of the manifest glories which belong to the kingdom when set up in fulfilment of the promises made by the prophets, as, for example, Isa. 2 and Zech. 14, all of which will be accomplished in the time appointed of the Father. His teaching was rather as to the kingdom before it is in that form.

It is plain that much of the Lord's teaching has in view a time of suffering, rejection, and persecution – conditions such as we know in the present age, not those of the time when the glory of the kingdom fills the earth. The kingdom in glory could not come without a people being prepared for the Lord. To the time during which this takes place the Lord's teaching applies, making plain the moral character and holy principles which govern those to whom the kingdom in reality belongs whether viewed in its aspect of present spiritual blessing, or of future manifestation in glory in either the earthly or heavenly spheres.

Let us consider the expression, "kingdom of heaven," or "the heavens," as it is literally. When John announced it at hand he could not have had any knowledge of Christianity, his thoughts would be governed by the prophetic testimony of old-Daniel for example, the 69th week of whose great time-prophecy was then running its course, but after that, Messiah was to be cut off and have nothing. Following this there is His session on the Father's throne until His enemies should be made the footstool of His feet, according to Ps. 110, and this would be the time during which opportunity is given to kiss the Son before His anger burned-an opportunity given between the time of His rejection and the day of His wrath-as in Ps. 2 (New Trans.).

Further, if One like a son of man comes in the clouds of heaven, having received the kingdom from the Ancient of Days (Dan. 7), and yet this One was to be the Child born and the Son given (Isa. 9:6), born in Bethlehem (Mic. 5:1,2), it is evident that in some way He who thus came of Israel according to the flesh must go to heaven to come from there.

Again, from the prophecy of the 70 weeks it is plain that a period of time elapses between the cutting off of Messiah after the 69 weeks and the accomplishment of the purposes mentioned in Dan. 9:24-a period of which the 70th week is only the end.

Confirming these Old Testament intimations of an interval we have Peter's testimony by the Spirit in Acts 3:17-21. This was not understood in the days of John and the Lord. The Jews looked for the Messiah to be born of the seed of David in Bethlehem, and when come to years to take the throne; smiting down all Gentile power and making them the head of the nations. Thoroughly carnal in their expectations, they also rested all their claims upon natural lineage. They ignored, or passed over, as Nicodemus seemingly did, those moral and spiritual requirements which must accompany the enjoyment of the blessing and glory of the kingdom as God had testified by the prophets. As to their expectation of the kingdom being set up in this way, note Luke 19:11; 24:21; and even John seems to have become disappointed, as shown by the question he sent to the Lord (Matt. 11:2-6).

Now this interval, the duration of which was not specified, yet to the fact of which the Old Testament gave witness, comes out clearly in the Lord's teaching. Compare Luke 19:12; Mark 13:32-37; Matt. 23:38,39; 26:64; 16:27; John 6:,62; Matt. 24 and 25.

Since then the Lord's rejection was a matter of prophecy, with His ascension to God's right hand, and later coming in glory, so that an interval must be contemplated between His first coming as born King of the Jews and the actual setting up of that heavenly kingdom of which Daniel had specifically spoken, what did the message mean which both John and the Lord delivered, "The kingdom of heaven is at hand," or, has drawn near?

First, it was evident that the King Himself had come. His works of power witnessed to Him. He was master over all creation, and of Satan too. Yet He was rejected-"His own received Him not." Did this necessitate the postponement of the announced kingdom, or put in abeyance what would have then been set up if He the King, had been treated otherwise? No, for there was the predeterminate purposes of God to be fulfilled in any case.

Though we may not speak of man's fall and evil course as part of those purposes, all was fully known to God when they were formed, and indeed had a distinct bearing upon the formation of those purposes. As God moved forward in the carrying out of His plans, and along with this dealt with men in their condition which resulted from sin, His successive revelations whenever brought to men tested them, especially that given in the Son. Thus their real condition and attitude toward God was manifested. Yet He in His wisdom and mercy makes use of all in accomplishing His purposes which have to do with the glory of Christ and man's redemption, Israel, the Church, and the blessing of all creation under the headship of the Son of Man.

It was not His purpose to then set up the kingdom in glory, for it could only come when the Son of Man should come from heaven, as we have seen. Men because of their fleshly desires and carnal interpretations were entirely mistaken in their expectations. They had missed God's mind in at least one important feature as made known in the Old Testament. This was one reason they saw no beauty in Jesus that they should desire Him, and in due time their cry was, "Away with Him." He was not the man to rule over them.

It seems clear then that no matter what the Jews expected, it was not the kingdom in glory which was being proclaimed as near. God's purposes were in process of accomplishment, and the test for Israel in particular, yet also for the world, at this juncture, was not whether would they have the kingdom in glory but would they have God's King of that kingdom? He was rejected. Did that mean that the kingdom He announced as at hand was pushed off into the distant future? No; it came, now exists, and in the form that was according to the purpose of God for that foreshadowed interval which continues until the coming of the Son of Man in the clouds of heaven to take His own throne. In its present form, as fully revealed in the Lord's parables, it fills the interval of which we have spoken, and then continues in its form of manifested glory and power in what is called the kingdom of the Son of Man.

What is the present form of the kingdom which fills this interval? Its moral character, governing principles, and condition in various ways is what very largely made up the Lord's teaching. To this belong the mysteries of the kingdom, those similitudes found in the parables, and things new and old. The kingdom in this form embraces all who profess allegiance to Christ. Such are responsible to show conformity to the moral character which the King Himself made known in His teaching concerning the kingdom. This is surely to find manifestation in and among those who gather together unto His name-His disciples. To them in particular Matt. 5-7 is addressed.

The kingdom of heaven was at hand during the Lord's ministry on earth. It actually came when in resurrection He could proclaim that all power in heaven and on earth was His (Matt. 28:19, 20), though that still did not mean the immediate restoration of the kingdom to Israel (Acts 1:6,7). For during the course of the kingdom now come other purposes were to be fulfilled which were then unknown and were not made known until Paul was raised up to reveal the mystery of Christ and the Church (Eph. 3); but these purposes also belonged to that interval already foreshadowed in the Old Testament. The kingdom of heaven is not the Church, which is the Body of Christ, but this Church is in the kingdom. The kingdom embraces Christendom, the sphere of profession which may be real or not, but all true disciples of the kingdom since Pentecost and until the rapture (1 Thess. 4) are in the Body of Christ which is the Church.

Now whatever may be the high and heavenly calling and position of the Church as revealed by Paul, it remains true that the assembly of those who gather together unto Christ's name, whether before or after the raising up of Paul, is that company in which the kingdom should find manifestation in its moral and spiritual features and holy principles as made known by the King. This remains true, no matter what higher and more intimate relation Church truth makes known. In fact all the practical teaching of the epistles is in agreement with and but emphasizes that of the Lord Himself in relation to the character and conduct of disciples of His kingdom. This may have been too little observed and heeded in as far as it applies to practical Christian walk, while firmly holding to the precious truth of the Body and Christ the Head in heaven. Surely we, of all people, should show ourselves good citizens of the kingdom of the heavens, for our commonwealth is in the heavens (Phil. 3:20, New Trans.). In this connection, as having a present application, compare Col. 1:13; Eph. 5:5-10; Rom. 14:16-18; 2 Pet. 1:10,11; Rev. 1:5, 6, 9, New Trans. And though the expression, "the kingdom of the heavens," is dispensational in its relation to the course of time, and by way of distinction the often parallel expression, "the kingdom of God," is of moral and spiritual significance, it must be clear that they are not essentially different in character.

With these considerations before us we may see that while parts of our Lord's teaching may primarily relate to Israel, or the nations, or to the time after the removal of the Church when another Jewish remnant will be raised up, and some to the Church itself,* yet there is that which applies in moral and spiritual ways to the believer to-day. *For example:as to Israel-the parable of the treasure. As to the nations-the parable of the net cast into the sea. As to after the church-Matt. 10 in which the remnant of the Lord's Day and the future are in view; and the Lord's prophetic discourses. As to the church-the parable of the pearl, Matt. 16, John 10, chs. 13-17.* So it is with the beautiful portion to which the question at the head of this paper refers. This is true even where the reference is evidently to the Millennial form of the kingdom as in ver. 5, for is not the earth part of His inheritance, and are not those who now believe, members of Christ, His co-heirs? Hence may not even such a word apply to them who as meek do not put forth present claim as to inheritance here, but await the hour when He takes possession as the Son of Man, the appointed Heir of all things (Ps. 8; Heb. 2)? Surely it is so, even though they are distinctly heavenly in destiny as the Body and the Bride.

A further question is asked, "Is a man not saved if there is no mercy in him?" the reference being to the fifth beatitude-"Blessed are the merciful :for they shall receive mercy." Now God is rich in mercy, and those who are His children are to be imitators of Him (Eph. 2:4; 5:1). To find a man implacable, merciless, unforgiving, unmercifully pursuing the erring, refusing to show mercy and forgiveness to those who have fallen or injured him, raises serious question as to whether that man's sin-hardened soul has ever been softened by the blessed inflow of God's mercy meeting his own great need as ungodly and without strength, no matter how loud the profession of the lips. It is by his fruits that we know the real, the true believer. In this both Paul and James agree. That believers should be merciful is to be expected. That alone is consistent with the knowledge of how God has been rich in mercy for them. Thus they will glorify their Father who is in heaven, and receive mercy according to His perfect love and interest in His children, while also to show mercy to another is the sure way to reap it in our own time of need. Not to show mercy is to lack in righteousness, which is to act in consistency with the place we are in and the way we have been put into it. Compare Matt. 18:21-35.

"Be ye therefore merciful as your Father also is merciful" (Luke 6:36).

"Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering" (Col. 3:12). John Bloore