'Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.'--MATT. v.
8.
AT first hearing one scarcely knows whether the character described in
this great saying, or the promise held out, is the more inaccessible to
men. 'The pure in heart': who may they be? Is there one of us that can
imagine himself possessed of a character fitting him for the vision of
God, or such as to make him bear with delight that dazzling blaze? 'They
shall see God,' whom 'no man hath seen at any time, nor can see.' Surely
the requirement is impossible, and the promise not less so. But does
Jesus Christ mock us with demands that cannot be satisfied, and dangle
before us hopes that can never be realised? There have been many
moralists and would-be teachers who have done that. What would be the
use of saying to a man lying on a battlefield sore wounded, and with
both legs shot off, 'If you will only get up and run, you will be safe'?
What would be the use of telling men how blessed they would be if they
were the opposite of what they are? But that is not Christ's way.
These words, lofty and remote as they seem, are in truth amongst the
most hopeful and radiant that ever came from even His lips. For they
offer the realisation of an apparently impossible character, they
promise the possession of an apparently impossible vision; and they
soothe fears, and tell us that the sight from which, were it possible,
we should sometimes fain shrink, is the source of our purest gladness.
So there are three things, it seems to me, worth our notice in these
great words--How hearts can be made pure; how the pure heart can see
God; and how the sight can be simple blessedness.