Page images
PDF
EPUB

XXXII.

MATTHEW V. 9.

"Blessed are the peace-doers: for they shall be called the children of God."

WE now approach the last beatitude, which positively unfolds the Christian character. In these beatitudes the covenant is realised and demonstrated. They set forth the sevenfold graces of the Christian. The first three, with the fifth, sixth, and seventh, form two triads. He, then, who is built up into the covenant, hungers and thirsts after righteousness. As we have already seen, the first honours the Father in a living faith, being dead to that whence all abomination springs, and drawing from that fulness, that one source, whence all our fresh springs arise. Its effect is brought out in the fifth, wherein we attest the great and distinguishing feature of His character, as Jehovah showing mercy, not in a compromise of Himself, but, whilst upholding His holiness, in the overthrow of all that is not of Him. The second honours the Christ, who mournfully contemplates the prisoners in the prisonhouse, blind and in darkness; and who, in all His compassionate love, manifests Himself in bringing forth judgment unto victory. And what, indeed, should be the result, but that purity of heart without which we cannot see God? The third honours the Spirit in that holy and lovely character that does not upbraid for the past, nor strive for the things of this life. And where this is, there will be found a peace established and operating to the glory of God.

Before we pass on to the consideration of this beatitude, we

may remark that the fourth implies, not a mere inclination for something, but that condition which they possess who are built up into the covenant of a Triune God. They hunger and thirst after that which they already possess, and which is freely given to them of God. What then should be the eighth, the effect of this longing desire of the soul? What of that hungering and thirsting for all that the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, can give or bestow here on earth? Or, rather, what is their experience in this world of error and wrong-doing? What but, alas! persecution, and that not for their own sakes, but for the sake of Christ, the Son of God,—for the sake of what they possess and demonstrate? Here, in this life, motives are misconstrued and misunderstood. He, then, that

will make the will of the Father the joy and the law of his life, will have not only avowed enemies, but professing friends antagonistic, ever ready to lay hold of his expressions of godly fear and religious sincerity, and to turn them as barbed shafts against him.

In the seventh beatitude, the Lord gathers up all that constitutes the Christian character: Blessed are the doers of peace; for they shall be called the children of God.

The mind of the great Teacher of mankind is not perceived when it is rendered 66 peace makers." Such a rendering cannot convey the deep and important sense of the original. We repeat it, we must take the Lord's ground and that of the writers of His Word, and then, as we understand what is "doing truth" or "doing righteousness," so shall we what is peace-doing. He that doeth truth does it not objectively, but subjectively. It is truth itself working within. He

realizes all that Nicodemus failed to do. He comes out of darkness. He has the cross lifted up in him, even as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness. Sin is crucified, that

he may believe into the Son, and so possess life ; and thus coming to the light, he makes manifest that His works are wrought in God. Hence, in him that doeth righteousness, it is God working, both to will and to do of His good pleasure. Such only are peace-doers. It is peace working; and blessed are they in whom it works, for they shall be called the children of God.

What is this peace? It is like the dew of Hermon, which descended upon all, the lowest as well as the highest. It binds together, in the bonds of an everlasting blessing, the children of a common Father. It is the unity of the Spirit.

If, then, God has called us to peace, it is because He has called us to be holy, ever resting in Christ, that in the Spirit of the Son we may ever exhibit a never-failing love. Without such a condition there can be no peace. Moreover, it is no imperfect peace-it passeth understanding.

Peace, then, is no mere quality, as pertaining to a good disposition, nor something extrinsic to the grace of God. It is, in truth, the grace of God itself; it is the indwelling of Christ and the Spirit, in whom we abide in the Father and the Son. It is the wisdom of God, which is first pure, then peaceable. All other wisdom, however it may claim the admiration and praise of a self-complacent world, is only vanity. Knowledge, indeed, puffeth up; but love, a holy love, edifieth. So, then, where this love fails there is no peace.

If men did but consider the nature of the everlasting covenant exhibited in the boundless mercy, self-denying love, of the ever-blessed Trinity, their own glorious destiny, created for a little while lower than the angels, and hereafter to be crowned with honour and glory, would they rest in that which is made subject to vanity, having upon it the stamp of death and corruption?

U

The writer of the Hebrews, speaking of the Father, says, He is the same, and His years fail not; but, that His works wax old and pass away. Of the Son, that He sits in the glory of the Father, and will put all enemies under His feet. Then, of those who will inherit this glory, that, as peace-doers, children of God, the hosts of heaven are their ministering spirits.

The peace of the Gospel is that of the covenant, which was set up before the foundation of the world, and the eternal principles of which are creation's and redemption's law. In them man was created and ordained so to walk. He was created a son of God. He had the adoption: from it he fell. To it he is restored by the Restorer of all things, who is already come. Hence, all men are sons of God, whether they love darkness or light, confusion or peace. Creation's law is the subjugation of the inferior nature. Redemption's the same. The elder is to serve the younger. order, and there is no peace in heaven or earth. man's ministering spirits. Of man, in his complex nature, the flesh, created before it received the breath of lives, is the elder. But the elder of the two races of intelligent beings having rebelled, has, through the flesh, enslaved man. Still unfallen angels attest the truth, and are, while man obeys the truth, his ministering spirits.

Invert this

Angels are

99 as

"Thou

The true Elias is come, and has restored all things; and it is very easy to perceive how the writers of the Old and New Testaments regard "speaking peace" and "doing peace identified with the operations of an indwelling God. wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee, because he trusteth in Thee. for Jehovah is a strong city. vation is its walls and bulwarks.

Trust ye in Jehovah for ever,
He is everlasting strength, sal-
Its gates are open, and the

nation which keepeth truths-the righteous nation, enters" (Isa. xxvi. 1-4). Whereas, the proud nation that would dwell on high, "the lofty city, is laid low and brought down to the dust." What is said of all as a nation, is also said of individuals, "The way of the righteous is uprightness, and Jehovah, the most upright, doth balance his path." The truths and their order is here distinctly stated by the prophet: "Yea," he says, "in the way of Thy judgments, O Lord, have we waited for Thee: whom to possess is righteousness. The desire of our soul is to Thy name, and to the remembrance of Thee. With my soul have I desired Thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek Thee early; for when Thy judgments are in the earth the inhabitants will learn righteousness" (Isa. xxvi. 9). They who are kept in perfect peace rest in this righteousness. Why, then, is it that the wicked does not learn righteousness, though favour be shown unto him? Is it not because he regards not the judgment of God? Men cannot learn righteousness, know the true and abiding peace that passeth understanding, so long as they regard not practically the judgment of God.

But,

It is said, peace is submission to the will of God? what is submission to the will of God? Is it to be one with it; or, in other words, the will of God alone working within? We are to possess the mind that was in Christ Jesus, in a death the most real, and in a life the truest, even the resurrection life of Jesus, who is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Thus, only, do we purge away the dross of earthlymindedness, and prove the good, perfect, and acceptable will of God. Thus we 66 acquaint ourselves with God, and are at peace" (Job xxii. 21). We know Him, and only so by His indwelling and working in us. In this way, only, can there

« PreviousContinue »