Now, it is a wretched weakening of that great thought to suppose that it
means that if A. is merciful to B., B. will be merciful to A.
That is sometimes true, and sometimes it is not. It does not so very
much matter whether it is true or not; that is not what Jesus Christ
means. All these Beatitudes are God's gifts, and this is God's gift too.
It is His mercy which the merciful man obtains.
But you say: 'Have you not just been telling us that this sense and
experience of God's mercy must precede my mercy, and now you say that my
mercy must precede God's?' No; I do not say that it must precede it; I
do say that my mercifulness is, as it were, lodged between the segments
of a golden circle, and has on one side the experience of the divine
mercy which quickens mine by thankfulness and imitation; on the other
side, the larger experience of the divine mercy which follows upon my
walking after the example of my Lord.
This is only one case of the broad general principle, 'to him that hath
shall be given, and from him that hath not shall be taken even that
which he hath.' Salvation is no such irreversible gift as that once
bestowed a man can go on anyhow and it will continue; but it is given in
such a fashion as that, for its retention, and still more for its
increase, there must be a certain line of feeling and of action.
Our Lord does not mean to say, of course, that this one isolated member
of a series carries with it the whole power of bringing down upon a man
the blessings which are only due to the combination of the whole series,
but that it stands as one of that linked band which shall receive the
blessing from on high. And the blessing here is stated in accordance
with the particular Grace in question, according to that great law of
retaliation which brings life unto life and death unto death.
No man who, having received the mercy of God, lives harsh, hard,
self-absorbed, implacable, and uncommunicative, will keep that mercy in
any vivid consciousness or to any blessed issue. The servant took his
fellow-servant by the throat, and said, 'Pay me that thou owest,' and
his master said, 'Deliver him to the tormentors until he pay the
uttermost farthing.' You receive your salvation as a free gift; you keep
it by feelings and conduct correspondent to the gift.
Though benevolence which has an eye to self is no benevolence, it is
perfectly legitimate, and indeed absolutely necessary, that whilst the
motive for mercifulness is mercy received, the encouragement to
mercifulness should be mercy still to be given. 'Walk in love, as Christ
also hath loved us'; and when you think of your own unworthiness, and of
the great gifts which a gracious God has given, let these impel you to
move amongst men as copies of God, and be sure that you deepen your
spiritual life, not only by meditation and by faith, but by practical
work, and by showing towards all men mercy like the mercy which God has
bestowed upon you.