adverse it may be, they have in heaven a better and a more enduring substance. This sanctified hunger will prove a far greater blessing than surfeiting fulness. He whose appetites are confined to earthly food, will hunger and thirst again. The water which Christ gives, is a fountain which springs up into everlasting life: the manna which he affords, is the bread which cometh down from heaven.

§ 6. Happiness of the Merciful. MATTHEW, V. 7: HAPPY are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy from God.

MERCY is that mental quality which comprises not merely an idle pain at viewing the sorrows of others; but a sincere and ardent desire to relieve them. Hence the objects on which mercy is exercised, are as numerous as the wants and calamities incident to human nature. The merciful man labours, as far as his means allow, to instruct the ignorant; to reclaim the wanderer; to shelter the persecuted; to console the mourner; to forget injuries; to relieve the indigent; to comfort the sick. If this world's goods are wanting to him, he offers the tribute of Christian sympathy; and beseeches God, with earnest supplication, for their support.

But this pleasing duty is not an irregular impulse: but let the manner and motive of mercy be carefully considered. We must bestow with a willing cheerfulness; with unostentatious modesty; with no interested expectation of a return; and with a liberality proportioned to our means. Above all, acts of mercy must be performed with minds full of gratitude to God, who gives both ability and will; and from a principle of affectionate obedience to the great Redeemer who upon us hath bestowed all, even himself.

To the merciful is annexed the promise, that they shall obtain mercy this promise, even in relation to this world, seems very

extensive.

1. A deliverance out of trouble is promised. If thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, then shall thy light rise in obscurity.' (Is. lviii. 10.) 2. The divine blessing is promised. Thou shalt not shut thy hand from thy poor brother: and thine heart shall not be grieved: because that for this thing the Lord

thy God shall bless thee in all thy works.' (Deut. xv.) 3. Mercy is accepted by God as a fruit of contrition: 'Break off thy iniquities by shewing mercy to the poor.' (Dan. iv. 27.) 4. Plenty is promised to the merciful: He that gives unto the poor, shall not lack.'-'He that hath pity upon the poor, lendeth unto the Lord; and he will pay him again.' (Prov. xix. 17.) 5. Honour is promised: 'He hath given to the poor: his horn shall be exalted with honour: he shall be had in everlasting remembrance.' (Ps. cxii.) 6. Deliverance from enemies is promised: Him who considereth the poor, the Lord will not deliver unto the will of his enemies.' 7. God's comforts are promised on a sick bed: The Lord will strengthen him upon the bed of languishing: thou wilt make all his bed in his sickness.' (Ps. xli. 3.) 8. A blessing is promised to the posterity of the merciful man: 'He is ever merciful and lendeth and his seed is blessed.' (Ps. xxxvii. 26.)

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Many and powerful are the obligations for the observance of

mercy.

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It is inculcated upon us as a duty. Be ye merciful.' 'Love as brethren, be pitiful.' (1 Pet. iii. 8.) What doth the Lord require of thee, O man, but to do justly, and to love mercy.' Whoso shutteth up the bowels of compassion, how dwelleth the love of God in him?' (1 John, iii.) Bear ye one another's burdens; and so fulfil the law of Christ.' (Gal. vi. 2.)

Mercy is made an express term of our acceptance with God. With the merciful, thou wilt shew thyself merciful.'' He shall have judgment without mercy, that hath shewed no mercy.'-'God is not unrighteous to forget any labour of love, shewed towards his name, in ministering to his saints.' (Heb. vi.)

We are fully taught our own need of mercy. None of us can come to God as innocent creatures, but as penitents, who must be beholden to infinite mercy for the pardon of innumerable offences. And how can we have the confidence of saying, 'Forgive us our trespasses,' unless we have previously had mercy on our fellow-servants?

God's actual mercy is, therefore, exhibited in Scripture, as our pattern. He is the father of mercies: rich in mercy: full of compassion: his mercies are over all his works.' He remembered us in our low estate of apostasy: and when no other eye pitied us, and no other hand could save us, gave out of the

riches of his grace, his only-begotten Son to be the propitiation for our sins. All his mercy is disinterested: nothing but our misery could have moved his tender regard. St. Paul, therefore, urges, 'Be tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you.' (Eph. iv. 32.)

sorrow.

The Son of God gave us a most illustrious pattern of mercy. The great inducement to vail his original glory in assuming our nature, was not our merit, but our misery. He came to seek and to save them that are lost. When he beheld the multitudes wandering as sheep without a shepherd, he was moved with compassion. (Matt. ix. 36.) When his hearers opposed the designs of his instructions, he is grieved for the hardness of their hearts.' (Mark, iii. 5.) When he saw Jerusalem on the point of filling up the measure of her iniquities, he shed tears of His sympathy with the bodily wants of men is conspicuous he heals a sick multitude (Matt. xiv. 13); he cures the blind men that cried after him; he restores to life the son of the widow of Nain. He bears an affectionate part with the sisters of Lazarus: he wept and groaned in spirit. Though he was reluctant to offend, in the opening of his ministry, the prejudices of his countrymen, yet he extends his mercy towards the woman of Canaan. Even his enemies felt the benefit of his miraculous powers; as when he healed the ear of Malchus, who had come, with others, to apprehend him. Nor did he always stay for an application from the wretched: he anticipated the expression of their wants; as when he said at Bethesda, Wilt thou be made whole?' Nor is the benignity of Jesus lessened by ascending to the right hand of God: the Preceptor and Redeemer has become a Mediator; who can be deeply touched with the feeling of our infirmities.

If the Gospel lay us under so various engagements to a merciful disposition, where shall the cruel appear? What must become of the spiteful and malicious and injurious? Shall others be induced, by some ignoble motive, to shew mercy to the miserable; and shall we, who profess the Gospel, be inferior to them? Thus will heathens rise up in judgment and condemn the nominal disciples of a merciful Redeemer. In the last great Day, what acceptance can the unmerciful find before the Judge, who places on his right hand those only who have given meat to the hungry, and clothing to the naked; who have

visited the sick and the prisoner? The merciful will then be gladdened with the words, "Inasmuch, as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me : come, ye blessed of my Father; inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world."

§ 7. Happiness of the clean in heart. MATTHEW, v. 8: HAPPY are they who are clean in their heart: for they shall see God.

THE expression pure justly conveys the sense of the precept: but clean, the more literal translation, preserves the allusion to be found, in the moral maxims of the New Testament, to the ancient ritual; from which the metaphors of the Sacred Writers are frequently borrowed. The laws in regard to the cleanness of the body and even of the garments, if neglected by any person, excluded him from the Temple. He was incapacitated from being even a spectator of the solemn service at the altar. The Jews considered the empyreal heaven as the archetype of the Temple at Jerusalem. In the latter, they enjoyed the symbols of God's presence, who spoke to them by his ministers: whereas in the former, the blessed inhabitants have an immediate sense of the divine presence; and God speaks to them, face to face. Our Lord, preserving the analogy between the two dispensations, intimates that cleanness will be as necessary in order to procure admission into the celestial Temple, as into the terrestrial. But as the privilege is inconceivably higher, the qualification is more important the cleanness is not ceremonial, but moral; not of the outward man, but of the inward.

What is the scriptural meaning of purifying ourselves, may be made out thus: the contrary of purity is defilement. Our Saviour has told us what the things are which defile a man: "evil thoughts, adulteries, murders, fornications, thefts, covetousness, deceit, wickedness, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: all these things come from within, and defile the man." (Mark, vii. 21.) The scat, therefore, of moral defilement is the heart: by which our Saviour means the affections and the disposition. The seat, therefore, of moral purity must be the same: consequently to purify ourselves is to

be cleansed from the presence and pollution of sin; and of those sins particularly which reside and continue in the heart.

This test of purgation goes beyond the control of the mere external action; but includes the duty of purifying our thoughts and affections. Though the instances, adduced by our Saviour, are rather a general illustration of his meaning than a complete catalogue of vices to the exclusion of such as are not distinctly specified; yet even this enumeration shows that our Saviour's lesson extends beyond mere external action; but adds the duty of purifying the thoughts and affections. Not only are adulteries and fornications mentioned, but evil thoughts and lasciviousness; not only murder, but an evil eye; not only thefts, but covetings. Thus, not by lopping off the branches, but by laying the axe to the root, our Saviour has fixed the only rule which can ever produce good morals. (PALEY.)

To purity of heart, is annexed the privilege of seeing God. The expression is a Hebrew idiom implying to possess God; to enjoy his felicity; and, as favourites and friends, to stand in his presence.

not.

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Even in this lower world, earthly affections, carnal thoughts, and sensual desires, spread a veil of spiritual darkness over the mind God is everywhere: but sinners have eyes and see him On the other hand, the true Christian studies the word of God, which is pure, enlightening the eyes. He invokes the aid of the Holy Spirit, for the sanctification of the heart. He feels how odious sin must be to the nature of a God, purer than the sun, purer than angels, and dwelling in light inaccessible. To minds, thus disposed, God will make a nearer approach. The pure in heart will see God in his word, as suitable to their spiritual needs; in his ordinances, as channels of grace; in his providence, as protector of his Church; in his mercies, as the tender shepherd of his flock; and even in his chastisements, as corrections of their infirmities.

The pure having their hearts cleansed from every evil passion which clouds the mind, are favoured with peculiar manifestations of God, even in this world: but hereafter they shall see God. As in Eastern kingdoms, few were admitted into the immediate presence of the monarch; to see God has been explained as expressive of the highest possible happiness derived from his favour in the life to come. Yet the phrase to