What shall I render to Thee, O LORD, for all Thy benefits towards me?

O Divine Saviour! since Thou hast sought sinners with so much labour, grant that it may not be lost on me. I am not less miserable than those amongst whom Thou didst live, and Thou art not less my Saviour than theirs. As Thou didst vouchsafe to be present at the table of Matthew, and in the house of Zaccheus, so let Thy Presence be in my house, and at my table, that I may, with Magdalen, embrace Thy Feet, and water them with tears of true contrition. I ask, with the Canaanite, for some crumbs of that Celestial Bread which nourishes to eternal life, and, with the Samaritan, for that living water which satisfies the thirsty soul.

But if I am unworthy of Thy grace, hear, O Charitable Shepherd! the voice of Thy sick sheep, which cries after Thee; speak the word only and I shall be healed. Thou, LORD, dost assure us that though sent first to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, Thou hast however others whom Thou drawest from the east and west, that they perish not. I am one of these; Thou knowest my miseries and sins, and the pitiable state to which the infernal wolf has reduced me, since I have wandered from Thee. O bring me back to Thy fold, that I may hear Thy Voice, and always follow Thee, and go only in the pastures where Thou leadest me.

When I see men so like myself, without reason, and repulsing Thee, when Thou wouldst come to them, I can only cry, O blindness of the human heart! O insensible rashness! to think that our happiness

consists in losing Thee! Come quickly, O my Saviour! for my heart sighs after Thee; enter therein, and consecrate it to Thyself; succour me since I invoke Thee; receive me, since I come to Thee; lead me, since I give myself up to Thee; begin, from this moment, to reign for ever in my soul, which would serve Thee, which desires, seeks, embraces Thee, O my Saviour! my LORD! my Sovereign good!

Prayer.

I adore Thee, I praise and glorify Thee, O LORD JESUS CHRIST! I bless Thee, I give thanks unto Thee, O SON of the living GOD! for Thy great love, which made Thee sustain such manifold labours, that Thou, the Saviour of the world, thirsting for the salvation of souls, didst pass whole nights in prayer, wast wearied with journeyings, didst go from one region to another, from city to city, from village to village, from house to house; Grant, I pray Thee, that the love of Thee may make me ever ready and zealous to every good work, that I be not slothful in Thy service. Make me to seek with ardent desire, and to promote, as far as possible, the salvation of all men ; and grant that I may always be zealous for Thine honour, and be wholly spent in promoting Thy glory, and the advancement of Thy kingdom. Amen.

CHAPTER XX.

THE TEACHING OF OUR LORD.

Gospel Narrative.

See S. Matt. v. vi. vii. S. Luke vi. 20-49.

Reflections.

ON THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT.1

The thunder and the earthquake of Mount Sinai and of Mount Horeb have ceased, and nothing is heard but that "still small voice" that spake to Elijah ; the voice of that Prophet like unto Moses, the most meek of all men on the face of the earth. Moses and Elijah have departed, and He is there Himself alone; nay rather, they have returned to be seen with Him in the Mount, partaking of His glory, in light such as no fuller on earth could whiten them. For He is not come to destroy the Law, or the Prophets, but to fulfil. Thrice hath the Law been given to us from heaven; first, on Mount Sinai, amid the thunderings and the lightning, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud; all of which spoke of the judgment to come, when the thunder shall be heard, and CHRIST seen like the lightning, and the Trumpet again shall sound. The second, in the Sermon on the Mount, when CHRIST throughout speaks of the same Judgment to come, but with human voice of persuasion. And the third on the day of Pentecost, when the New Covenant was fulfilled, "I will put My laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts." It was that voice of GOD within the heart that speaks of Judgment to come. The first is the Mount of Terror, the second is the Mount of Blessing, and the third is the

1 From Williams on the Nativity.

Mountain of Holiness, the Mount Sion and Church of GOD. But these are all three the promulgation of the same Law; they are like their Divine Author, if we may with reverence say it, One in Three, and Three in One. Each is the fulfilment, but each in a higher sense than the preceding, of the expression, "they shall be all taught of God."

Thus the preaching of CHRIST begins and ends with "the Kingdom of Heaven;" which is the crown of the first and of the eighth Beatitude: such is CHRIST, the First and the Last, the first day and the eighth day, the true Sabbath and the true Light. The sixth Beatitude speaks of seeing GOD in purity, as on the sixth day man is made in the Image of GOD, and on the sixth is again renewed after the likeness of Him That made him. The seventh Beatitude speaks of the Sabbath of peace. The eighth, as S. Jerome observes, of " the true circumcision, terminated by martyrdom."

These eight Beatitudes are the opposite to what the world supposes. Poverty of spirit is thought the last qualification for a kingdom; meekness, least likely to obtain earthly inheritance; mourning, most opposed to consolation, by them who say, "Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die.” The righteousness which continues to hunger and thirst is most unlike the self-satisfaction and self-complacency of Heathen and Jewish righteousness.

The pure in heart seek not pleasure as their end, but enjoy the infinite delight of seeing GOD. Persecution and a kingdom, suffering and reigning, were never found united before they were so found in this Sermon.