"Blessed are the poor in spirit; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. 5:3).
The first beatitude lies at the basis of all the others. It is not only a distinct feature in itself, but
it should characterize all the others and all who belong to Jesus. Surely nothing can be so
necessary to a soul that has to do with God as poverty of spirit. Not poverty in circumstances
merely, or poverty in words and ways, but in spirit_in the heart, the feelings, the inward
man_and all before the living God. How often we may have said concerning one who has injured
us, "I freely forgive him, and I will be the same to him as ever, but I cannot forget it for all that."
This is not being "poor in spirit"; it is being outwardly so, but not "in spirit." It comes from the
same root as the spirit of the world which says, "I will have it out with him; I am determined not
to be beaten." How different from the state of the blessed man, here described by the Lord _
"poor in spirit"; not in outward conduct merely, but in spirit! The outward ways should be the true
expression of the inward state. This is God’s pleasant sacrifice. "The sacrifices of God are a
broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise" (Psa. 51:17). This was
ever the spirit, in all divine perfection, of the lowly, dependent, Son of man. But the grace that
has brought down the proud spirit of man, and laid him in the dust, humbled and broken, before
God, has laid the foundation of a true Christian character, and of the soul’s richest blessing. True,
alas! a Christian may one day forget his right place, and the old spirit of the natural man may be
allowed to appear for a time; but the Lord knows how to bring him back and how to break him
down again. Nothing can be more sad than for one who has been down in this place ever to leave
it, even during a moment’s temptation. It is to lose sight of that Christ-like grace which God
especially delights to honor in every dispensation.
"Oh to be nothing_nothing,
Only to lie at His feet
A broken, emptied vessel,
Thus for His use made meet!
Emptied, that He may fill me
As to His service I go,
Broken, so that unhindered
Through me His life may flow.
"Oh to be nothing_nothing,
An arrow hid in His hand,
Be a messenger at His gateway
Waiting for His command:
Only an instrument ready,
For Him to use at His will;
And should He not require me
Willing to wait there still"
When all is gone from us, when we are nothing_nothing at all_even in thought and feeling, then
all comes into us from God. Think of the prodigal son:When he was brought down to the husks,
and even these kept from him, he thought of his father’s house, the only place where he could find
the fatted calf. When Naomi returned as an emptied one to the land of Israel, she found it was the
beginning of barley harvest. When Abram fell on his face before God, then the many streams of
grace flowed from the ocean of love. God’s promises flow freely. It is all grace now. name shall
be Abraham; for a father of many nations I made thee. I will make thee exceeding fruitful . . . I
will make nations of thee … I will establish My covenant between Me and thee . . . And I will
give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of
Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God" (Gen. 17:1-8). And so with the
leper:When his disease (a type of the evil energy of the flesh) ceased to work, he was pronounced
clean. The priest could now go forth to the unclean place and bring him into the camp, with the
full blessing of death and resurrection (of which his illness and healing were a type), and in due
time, the eighth day, the consummation of blessing, he comes into his tent. (See Lev. 14.) So long
as we are seeking to maintain anything of our own, to cherish an unbroken spirit as to some
favorite opinion or object, we are resisting God’s will and shutting out His grace. But when we
are brought down to our real nothingness, and have nothing to maintain but Christ and His glory,
the flood gates are thrown open and grace flows in.
Some have thought that literal poverty, in its ordinary sense, is connected in the Lord’s mind with
the blessings of the kingdom, and so have parted with their property at once, and become poor
for the kingdom of heaven’s sake. In place of distributing their income as the Lord’s stewards, and
as He might call for it, they have entrusted it to others and have taken the place of dependence
themselves. Which is right? To hold property for Christ and His service in this world, and to give
it out as a steward according to His mind, is a Christian service that requires much waiting on the
Master, and great liberty of soul in His presence.
We would only further add on this beatitude that the poor in spirit are heirs of the kingdom of
heaven. The riches of the King and the glories of His kingdom have come down to enrich the poor
in spirit. Who would not be poor in spirit? we may well exclaim. Who would not willingly be self-
emptied before the Lord? But oh! the danger of being preoccupied when the invitation comes.
Houses, lands, oxen, the home, the world, and_what is worst of all, deadliest of all_self-
occupation in a thousand ways:all these come between us and the Lord. But to the poor in spirit,
to those who have reached the end of self, to those who are in the dust before God, yet cling by
faith to Jesus and His cross, to those whose fair forms of religiousness are laid aside and can only
say, I have nothing now but Christ:The whole riches of His kingdom and_better far_Christ
Himself is theirs, theirs now, theirs for ever. Praise His name!
"Enough_give thou the humble heart, and I consent;
Oh, make me nothing, and therewith content.
My gain is loss, my trust is in the cross;
Hold me! I’m weak, I fall; be thou mine all in all.
"I will be nothing still,
That Christ alone my heaven of heavens may fill.
Yet set me, Lord, a little glowing gem
Upon His diadem; to shed my tiny ray
Among the splendors of His crowning day;
Though unperceived, I still should like to shine,
A tribute glory on that brow divine."
(To be continued.)