ERRATA.

Page 4, note 2, line 7. Add "the" before "history."
For "not in Luke," read "Luke xiii. 35."
For "for those," read "from those."

18, note 2.

56, line 5.

COMMENTARY

ON THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT.

CHAPTER I.

THE BEATITUDES.

§ 1. The Moral Characteristics of the Blessed People of God. MATT. v. 3—9.

HE characteristics of the truly happy, and the

TH

corresponding promises, in which they are specially interested, are here stated in simple and authoritative detail by the Lord. No doubt his opening sentence must have struck his hearers with a deep feeling of solemn awe and thrilling amazement; since it presented such a striking contrast to the practice and walk of other Teachers, and to the ordinary tone of their doctrine. Nor would this feeling have been weakened, as he proceeded to recommend so many qualities, equally inconsistent with the customs and notions of the world. But these are all necessarily combined in the portrait of

* The expressions in ver. 2, "he opened his mouth," are regarded as emphatic, and introductory to "a discourse more than commonly weighty and full." Compare Job iii. 1: Acts viii. 35, &c. Trench, p. 161.

B

a consistent christian. To mar, or to blot out, one feature would be to obscure the glory of the new creature, or to prove that the workmanship of the Almighty Spirit was still unknown. For, although none have ever been endowed with such moral beauty, as to present the lineaments of each feature in equal perfection, or to exhibit the combined whole without some observable defects, every heir of the kingdom must be brought into more or less exact conformity to this image. The operations of divine grace render every believer more or less poor in spirit, meek, and contrite in heart, teaching him still to hunger and thirst after a higher degree of righteousness, to exercise invariable kindness and compassion, to cherish purity of mind, and to labour as far as possible to diffuse peace and goodwill amongst his fellows. All, therefore, without exception, who have really put on this new man, however feeble or imperfect in its development, shall be comforted, and ultimately endowed with perfect righteousness, in the enjoyment of the promised land, and of consummated mercy, in the vision of the Godhead, as the acknowledged sons of God, and joint heirs with Christ.

But this subject will be rendered plainer by division, and we shall thus rise from the more earnest pursuit of particulars separately considered* to the fuller realisation of the whole.

* Trench illustrates their union by reference to a cluster of grapes, of various sizes, and perhaps not all ripening exactly together, but all hanging on one stalk, &c.-p. 181.

"Blessed are the poor in spirit; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." (v. 3.)

When the Lord stood up to read in the synagogue at Nazareth, he opened the roll at that striking passage of Isaiah, which commences in a similar strain. "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He hath anointed me to preach the Gospel (or, good tidings) to the poor."* We here see how Jesus began to fulfil this prophecy by first addressing himself to those,† who were most in need of consolation and support.

Campbell, however, contends that those literally poor are now intended, who bear their affliction without repining; for such, no doubt, were especially chosen, as St. James intimates, to be "heirs of the kingdom, which the Lord has promised to them that love him." This, indeed, affords a very beautiful illustration of the characteristic superiority of Christianity to all human systems of philosophy in the ancient world. Their proud teachers either despised the poor, or (at least) looked upon them as incapable of privilege; but our divine Master pointed not only to his miracles as sufficient credentials of his Messiahship, but also to the novel fact that the poor

* Anav is variously rendered humble, meek, poor, or afflicted, as the context seems to require. Anava signifies humility in Prov. xxii. 4; xv. 33.

† Honour shall uphold the humble in spirit. Prov. xxix. 23. (Shephal ruach: see Isaiah lvii. 15.) Better is it to be of an humble spirit with the lowly, than to divide the spoil with the proud. Prov. xvi. 19.