The Beatitudes

The Beatitudes form the introduction to the Sermon on the Mount a part of Scripture which all good Christians value as one of their dearest possessions. Nor is the reason far to seek. The Great Teacher, whom Nicodemus with a true instinct recognized as having come from God, has opened his mouth; and salvation is flowing from his lips. Here, too, we stancT at the source of Christian ethics. Never before were such truths uttered, such duties inculcated, or such blessedness revealed. Two things at once strike us with reference to the Beatitudes their beauty and their impressiveness. I. Their beauty is apparent o all. They are entirely in keeping with the fascinating character of the upland scenery amid which they were delivered. There is nothing like them in literature. No Greek philosopher, no ancient sage, no modern orator ever approached the divine attractiveness of this brief section of Holy Scripture. \hat gives to it such surpassing beauty ? Three things at least contribute to this. It has the beauty of eloquence. Human speech is capable of exerting an incalculable influence. Every generation has a few men with the voice of the charmer, able to sway multitudes by the power and persuasiveness of their speech. But no one ever possessed this influence to the same extent as the Lord Jesus Christ. "Never man spake like this man." Be have many proofs of this, but none stronger than that furnished by these opening sentences of the Sermon on the Afount. Eloquence has been described as the full expression of all that is within. This definition enables us to understand the unapproachable eloquence of these words. They are the manifest expression of the soul of Jesus. It has the beauty of simplicity. Nothing could be simpler than the language in which Jesus introduces his gospel and clothes his ethical teaching. It is the language of the people, conveying his