4 Blessed are they that mourn : 1 for they shall be comforted.

1 Isa. Ixi. 3. Ezek. vii. 16. 2 John xvi. 20. 2 Cor. i. 7.

produce care, anxiety, and dangers, and not the least is the danger of losing heaven by them. To be poor in spirit is to have an humble opinion of ourselves; to be sensible that we are sinners, and have no righteousness of our own; to be willing to be saved only by the rich grace and mercy of God; to be willing to be where God places us, to bear what he lays on us, to go where he bids us, and to die when he commands; to be willing to be in his hands, and to feel that we deserve no favour from him. It is opposed to pride, and vanity, and ambition. Such are happy: 1. Because there is more real enjoyment, in thinking of ourselves as we are, than in being filled with pride and vanity. 2. Because such Jesus chooses to bless, and on them he confers his favours here. 3. Because theirs will be the kingdom of heaven hereafter. It is remarkable that Jesus began his ministry in this manner, so unlike all others. Other teachers had taught that happiness was to be found in honour, or riches, or splendour, or sensual pleasure. Jesus overlooked all those things, and fixed his eye on the poor, and the humble, and said that happiness was to be found in the lowly vale of poverty more than in the pomp and splendours of life. Their's is the kingdom of heaven. That is, either they have peculiar facilities for entering the kingdom of heaven, and and of becoming Christians here, or they shall enter heaven hereafter. Both these ideas are probably included. A state of poverty a state where we are despised or unhonoured by men-is a state where men are most ready to seek the comforts of religion here, or a home in the heavens hereafter.

4. Blessed are they that mourn. This is capable of two meanings: either that those are blessed who are afflicted with the loss of friends or possessions; or that they who mourn over sin are blessed. As Christ came to preach repentance, to induce men to mourn over their sins and to forsake them, it is probable that he had the latter particularly in view. 2 Cor. vii. 10. At the same time, it is true that the gospel only can give true comfort to

5 Blessed are the meek: for they 3 shall inherit the earth.

3 Psa. xxxvii. 9, 11, 22, 29, 34. Isa. lx. 21. Rom. iv. 13.

those in affliction, Isa. Ixi. 1-3; Luke iv. 18. Other sources of consolation do not reach the deep sorrows of the soul. They may blunt the sensibilities of the mind; they may produce a sullen and reluctant submission to what we cannot help; but they do not point to the true source of comfort. In the God of mercy only, in the Saviour, in the peace that flows from the hope of a better world, and there only, is there comfort. 2 Cor. iv. 17, 18; v. 1. Those that mourn thus shall be comforted. So those that grieve over sin; that are full of sorrow that they have committed it, and are afflicted and wounded that they have offended God, shall find comfort in the gospel. Through the merciful Saviour those sins may be forgiven. In him the weary and heavyladen soul shall find peace, Matt. xi. 28-30; and the presence of the Comforter, the Holy Ghost, shall sustain us here, John xiv. 26, 27; and in heaven all tears shall be wiped away, Rev. xxi. 1.

5. The meek. Meekness is patience in the reception of injuries. It is neither meanness, nor a surrender of our rights, nor cowardice; but it is the opposite of sudden anger, of malice, of long-harboured vengeance. Christ insisted on his right when he said, "If I have done evil, bear witness of the evil; but if well, why smitest thou me?" John xviii. 23. Paul asserted his right, when he said, "They have beaten us openly uncondemned, being Romans, and have cast us into prison; and now do they thrust us out privily? nay verily, but let them come themselves, and fetch us out," Acts xvi. 37. And yet Christ was the very model of meekness. It was one of his characteristics, "I am meek," Matt. xi. 19. So of Paul. No man endured more, and more patiently than he. Yet he was not passionate. He bore patiently. He did not harbour malice. He did not press his rights through thick and thin, and trample down the rights of others to secure his own.

Meekness is the reception of injuries with a belief that God will vindicate us. "Vengeance is mine; I will repay," Rom. xii. 19. It little becomes us to take his

for they shall see God.

9 Blessed are the peacemakers:

1 Psa. xxiv. 3, 4. Heb. xii. 14. iii. 2, 3. 2 Psa. xxxiv. 12-14. Rom. xii. 18. Jas. iii. 17, 18.

dren of God.3

Acts vii. 26.

his creatures. Then he will regard it as done to him, and will reward us. See the sentiment of this verse, that the merciful shall obtain mercy, more fully expressed in 2 Sam. xxii. 26, 27; and in Psa. xviii. 25, 26.

Nowhere do we imitate God more than in showing mercy. In nothing does God more delight than in the exercise of mercy. Exod. xxxiv. 6. Ezek. xxxiii. 11. 1 Tim. ii. 4. 2 Pet. iii. 9. To us, guilty sinners; to us, wretched, dying, and exposed to eternal woe, he has shown his mercy by giving his Son to die for us; by expressing his willingness to pardon and save us; and by sending his Spirit to renew and sanctify the heart. Each day of our life, each hour, and each moment, we partake of his undeserved mercy. All the blessings we enjoy are proofs of his mercy. If we, also, show mercy to the poor, the wretched, the guilty, it shows that we are like God. We have his spirit, and shall not lose our reward. And we have abundant opportunity to do it. Our world is full of guilt and woe, which we may help to relieve; and every day of our lives we have opportunity, by helping the poor and wretched, and by forgiving those who injure us, to show that we are like God. See Note on ch. vi. 14, 15.

a Luke vi. 35. 4 Acts v. 41. 1 Pet. iii. 13, 14.

before kings, &c. See also 2 Kings xxv. 19. "Those that stood in the king's presence;" in the Hebrew, "those that saw the face of the king" that is, who were his favourites and friends. So here, to see God, means to be his friends and favourites, and to dwell with him in his kingdom.

9. Blessed are the peace-makers. Those who strive to prevent contention, and strife, and war. Who use their influence to reconcile opposing parties, and to prevent lawsuits, and hostilities, in families and neighbourhoods. Every man may do something of this; and no man is more like God, than he who does it. There ought not to be unlawful and officious interference in that which is none of our business; but without any danger of falling into this evil, every man has many opportunities of reconciling opposing parties. Friends, neighbours, men of influence, lawyers, physicians, may do much to promote peace. And it should be taken in hand in the beginning. "The beginning of strife," says Solomon, "is like the letting out of water." ounce of prevention," says the English proverb, "is worth a pound of cure.' Long and most deadly quarrels might be prevented by a little kind interference in the beginning. Children of God. See Eph. v. 1. Those who resemble God, or who manifest a spirit like his. He is the Author of peace, 1 Cor. xiv. 33; and all those who endeavour to promote peace are like him, and are worthy to be called his children.

An

10. Persecuted. To persecute means literally to pursue, follow after, as one does a flying enemy. Here it means to vex, or oppress one, on account of his religion. They persecute others who injure their names, reputation, or property, or endanger or take their life, on account of their religious opinions. righteousness' sake. Because they are righteous, or are the friends of God. We are not to seek persecution. We are not to provoke it by strange sen

for their's is the kingdom of heaven.1

11 Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.

12 Thess. i. 5-7. Lying; 1 Pet. iv. 14-16.

timents or conduct, or by violating the laws of civil society, or by modes of speech that are unnecessarily offensive to others. But if, in the honest effort to be Christians, and to live the life of Christians, others persecute and revile us, we are to consider this as a blessing. It is an evidence that we are the children of God, and that he will defend us. 1 Pet. iv. 12-14, 19. All that live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. 2 Tim. iii. 12. Theirs is the kingdom of heaven. They have evidence that they are Christians, and shall be brought to heaven.

11. Revile you. Reproach you; call you by evil and contemptuous names; ridicule you because you are Christians. Thus they said of Jesus, that he was a Samaritan and had a devil; that he was mad; and thus they reviled and mocked him on the cross. But being reviled he reviled not again, 1 Pet. ii. 23; and thus being reviled, we should bless, 1 Cor. iv. 12; and thus, though the contempt of the world is not in itself desirable, yet it is blessed to tread in the footsteps of Jesus, to imitate his example, and even to suffer for his sake; Phil. i. 29. All canner of evil-falsely. An emphasis -hould be laid on the word falsely in this [assage. It is not blessed to have evil poken of us if we deserve it; but if we Cserve it not, then we should not consider it as a calamity. We should take patiently, and show how much the Christian, under the consciousness of innocunce, can bear. 1 Pet. iii. 14-17. For my sake. Because you are attached to me; because you are Christians. We are not to seek such things. We are not to do things to offend others; to treat them harshly or unkindly, and court revilings. We are not to say or do things, though they may be on the subject of religion, designed to disgust or offend. But if, in the faithful endeavour to be Christians, we are reviled, as our Master was, then we are to take it with patience,

12 Rejoice, and be exceeding glad; for great is your reward 3 in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.

13 earth

Ye are the salt of the

but if the salt have lost his 32 Cor. iv. 17. 4 Lev. ii. 13. Mark ix. 50. Col. iv. 6.

and to remember that thousands before us have been treated in like manner. When thus reviled or persecuted, we are to be meek, patient, humble; not angry; not reviling again; but endeavouring to do good to our persecutors and slanderers. 2 Tim. ii. 24, 25. In this way, many have been convinced of the power and excellence of that religion which they were persecuting and reviling. They have seen that nothing else but Christianity could impart such patience and meekness to the persecuted; and have, by this means, been constrained to submit themselves to the gospel of Jesus. Long since, it became a proverb, that the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. 12. Rejoice, &c. The reward of such suffering is great. To those who suffer most, God imparts the highest rewards. Hence the crown of martyrdom has been thought to be the brightest that any of the redeemed shall wear; and hence many of the early Christians sought to become martyrs, and threw themselves in the way of their persecutors, that they might be put to death. They literally rejoiced, and leaped for joy, at the prospect of death for the sake of Jesus. Though God does not require us to seek persecution, yet all this shows that there is something in religion to sustain the soul, which the world does not possess. Nothing but the consciousness of innocence, and the presence of God, could have borne them up in the midst of these trials; and the flame, therefore, kindled to consume the martyr, has also been a bright light, showing the truth and power of the gospel of Jesus. The prophets, &c. The holy men who came to predict future events, and who were the religious teachers of the Jews. For an account of their persecutions, see Heb. xi. 25-27, 33-38.

13. Ye are the salt of the earth. Salt renders food pleasant and palatable, and preserves from it putrefaction. So Chris

tians, by their lives and instructions, are keep the world from entire moral rruption. By bringing down, by their prayers, the blessing of God, and by their influence and example, they save the world from universal vice and crime. Salt have lost its savour. That is, if it has become insipid, tasteless, or have lost its preserving properties. The salt used in this country is a chemical com- | pound, muriate of soda, and if the saltness were lost, or it were to lose its savour, there would be nothing remaining. It enters into the very nature of the substance. In eastern countries, however, the salt used was impure, mingled with vegetable and earthy substances; so that it might lose the whole of its saltness, and a considerable quantity of earthy matter remain. This was good for nothing except that it was used, as it is said, to place in paths, or walks, as we use gravel. This kind of salt is common still in that country. It is found in the earth in veins or layers, and when exposed to the sun and rain, it loses its saltness entirely. Maundrell says, I broke a piece of it, of which that part that was exposed to the rain, sun, and air, though it had the sparks and particles of salt, yet it had perfectly lost its savour. The inner part, which was connected with the rock, retained its savour, as I found by proof."

66

14. The light of the world. The light of the world often denotes the sun. John xi. 9. The sun renders objects visible, shows their form, their nature, their beauties, and deformities. The term light is often applied to religious teachers, See Isa. xlix. 6. Matt. iv. 16. Luke ii. 32. John i. 4; viii. 12. It is preeminently applied to Jesus in these places, because he is, in the moral world, what the sun is in the natural world. The apostles, and Christian ministers, and all Christians, are lights of the world, because they, by their in

A.D. 31.

15 Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.

16 Let your light so shine before

1 The word in the original, signifieth a measure containing about a pint less than a peck.

structions and examples, show what God requires, what is the condition of man, what is the way of duty, peace, and happiness, the way that leads to heaven.

city that is set on an hill, &c. Many of the cities of Judea were placed on the summits or sides of mountains, and could be seen from afar. This was the case with Jerusalem; and it is said by Maundrell, that near the place where our Saviour is supposed to have delivered his sermon, there is still such a town, called Saphat, anciently Bethesda. This can be seen far and near. Perhaps Jesus pointed to such a city, and told his disciples that they were like it. They were seen from far. Their actions could not be hid. The eyes of the world were upon them. They must be seen; and as this was the case, they ought to be holy, harmless, and undefiled.

15. Neither do men light a candle, &c. Jesus proceeded here to show them that the very reason why they were enlightened was, that others might also see the light, and be benefited by it. When men light a candle, they do not conceal the light, but place it where it may be of use. So it is with religion. It is given that we may benefit others. It is not to be concealed, but suffered to show itself, and to shed light on a surrounding wicked world.

A bushel. Greek, a measure containing nearly a peck. It denotes any thing, here, that might conceal the light.

16. Let your light so shine, &c. Let your holy life, your pure conversation, and your faithful instruction, be everywhere seen and known. Always, in all societies, in all business, at home and abroad, in prosperity and adversity, let it be seen that you are real Christians. ¶ That they may see your good works. This is not the motive to influence us, simply that we may be seen, comp. ch. vi. 1; but that our heavenly Father may be glorified. It is not right to do a thing