You observe the place which this Beatitude holds in the linked series of
these precious sayings. It follows upon 'poverty of spirit' and
'mourning.' And it follows, too, upon the 'comfort' which the mourner is
promised that he will receive. It is the conduct and disposition towards
God and man which follows from the inward experience described in the
two former Beatitudes, which had relation only to ourselves.
The only thing that can be relied upon as an adequate cold water
_douche_ to our sparks of anger, resentment, retaliation, and rebellion
is that we shall have passed through the previous experiences, have
learned a just and lowly estimate of ourselves, have learned to come to
God with penitence in our hearts, and have been raised by His gracious
hand from the dust where we lay at His feet, and been welcomed to His
embrace. He who thus has learned himself, and has felt repentance, and
has received the comfort of forgiveness and cleansing, he, and he only,
is the man who, under all provocation and in any and every circumstance,
can be absolutely trusted to live in the spirit of meekness.
If I have found out anything of my own sin, if my eyes have been filled
with tears and my heart with conscious unworthiness before Him, oh,
then, surely I shall not kick or murmur against discipline of which the
main purpose is to rid me of the evil which is slaying me; but rather I
shall recognise in the sorrows that do fall upon me, in the losses and
disappointments and empty places in my life and heart, one way of God's
fulfilling His great promise, 'From all your filthiness, and from all
your idols, I will cleanse you.' The man who has thus learned the
purpose, the highest purpose, of sorrow, is not likely to remonstrate
with God for giving him too much of the cleansing medium.
In like manner, if we have, in any real way, received for our own the
comfort which God gives to the penitent heart, we shall be easily
pleased with anything that He sends. And if we have measured ourselves,
not against ourselves, but against His law, and have found out how much
we owe unto our Lord, it is not likely that we shall take our brother by
the throat and say, 'Pay me that thou owest.' If any treat me badly, try
to rob me, harm me, sneer at me, or turn the cold shoulder to me, who am
I that I should resent that? Oh, brethren, we need, for our right
relation to our fellows, a deeper conviction of our sinfulness before
Him. Many of us are blessed with natural tendencies to meekness, but
these are insufficient. Many of us seek to cultivate this grace from
true and right, though not the deepest, motives. Let us reinforce them
by that which comes from the consideration of the place which this
Beatitude holds in the wreathed chain, and remember that 'poverty of
spirit' and 'mourning' must precede it.
Now, _there_ is a sharp test for us Christian people. If I have learned
myself, and have penitently received God's pardon, I shall be meek with
God and with man. If I am not meek with God and with man, have I
received God's pardon? One great reason why so many of you Christian
people have so little consciousness of God's forgiving mercy, as a
constant joy in your lives, is because you have so little obeyed the
commandment, 'Be ye imitators of God, and walk in love, as God hath
forgiven and loved us.'