Laws of The Spiritual Life

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TORONTO
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LAWS OF THE SPIRITUAL LIFE
BY THE SAME AUTHOR.
SOME PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICES OF THE SPIRITUAL LIFE. Crown 8vo, 45. 6d.
PRACTICAL STUDIES ON THE PARABLES OF OUR LORD. Crown 8vo, 55.
SELF-KNOWLEDGE AND SELF-DISCIPLINE.

Crown
8vo, 55. net.
LONGMANS, GREEN, AND
CO.
LONDON, NEW YORK, BOMBAY, AND CALCUTTA.
LAWS OF
THE SPIRITUAL
LIFE
B.
W. MATURIN
ST. JOHN,
FORMERLY OF COWLEY
OXFORD
NEW
IMPRESSION
ST.
No.
EX LIBRIS BASIL S SCKULASTiCATE
A
CO.
LONGMANS, GREEN, AND

39
NEW
PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON YORK, BOMBAY, AND CALCUTTA

1908
JUK
ihil obzt&t.
2 1954
HERBERTUS THURSTON,
S.J.,
Censor deputatus.
Imprimi
yottzt.
>J*
GULIELMUS,
Episcopns Anndelensis, Vicarius Genera Us.
WESTMONASTERII,
die 14 Jan., 1907.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
I.
THE PRINCIPLES OF THE BEATITUDES

BLESSED ARE THE POOR
IN SPIRIT,
II.
KINGDOM OF HEAVEN
III.
BLESSED ARE THE MEEK, FOR THEY SHALL INHERIT
THE LAND
IV.
BLESSED ARE THEY THAT MOURN, FOR THEY SHALL BE
COMFORTED
V.
...... ........ ........

.
FOR THEIRS
is
THE
35
65
gi
BLESSED ARE THEY THAT HUNGER AND THIRST AFTER

JUSTICE, FOR
THEY SHALL HAVE THEIR FILL
117
VI.
BLESSED ARE THE MERCIFUL, FOR THEY SHALL OBTAIN
MERCY
VII.
BLESSED ARE THE CLEAN OF HEART, FOR THEY SHALL

SEE GOD
......... .........
.
.
I4g
^3
VIII.
BLESSED ARE THE PEACEMAKERS, FOR THEY SHALL

BE CALLED THE CHILDREN OF GOD
.215
IX.
BLESSED ARE THEY THAT SUFFER PERSECUTION FOR

JUSTICE
SAKE, FOR THEIRS
HEAVEN
.....
is
THE KINGDOM OF
,
29
I.
THE PRINCIPLES OF THE

BEATITUDES.
I.
THE PRINCIPLES OF THE BEATITUDES.

ONE
in
of the greatest achievements of the
human mind
that under
modern times has been the discovery

all
is
lying and controlling
the apparently disconnected
phenomena of nature
presented to
Law.
For ages the universe
men
a vast panorama of constant change,

alone,
each of
its
phenomena standing
in
some of
these
changes coming
orderly sequence,
many
of
them
apparently capricious.
The
silent
heavens and the
storm-swept earth, what had they to say to one another? The seasons marched with steady tread,
but often indeed interrupted and held back by violent
outbursts that betokened the presence of
some angry
But why the changes followed in regular sequence was known no more than why the sun rose and set, or
God.
why
It
the wind blew from north or south.
has been the result of careful and patient study to

all
discover that underlying and causing
the
phenomena
LAWS OF THE SPIRITUAL

of Nature and governing
all
LIFE
her actions, there
is
Law.
Caprice gives way, the more
we know
her, to order,
and order
this
is
the result of Law.
We
feel so sure of
fitful
now
that
we
are certain that her most
moods
and her most exceptional acts can be reduced to the

controlling
power of law.
Of some
of the laws as yet
we know
little
or nothing, but of their existence
we
have no doubt.
Indeed, so great
is
the change that
has passed over the

years that
it
human mind
within the last few
would
baffle the imagination of a
man
of ordinary education to conceive of any part of the

universe,
however
distant, in
which
Law
did not reign.
Through the length and breadth of her vast domain, into

the minutest parts of her system, like nerves in the
human body, run
the forces that rule her alike in the

infinitely great,
infinitely small or in the
and as the
behind
nerves convey the
commands
of the
will, so,
these forces, stands a
mighty Will whose
rule they
represent and carry out.

It is the
same
in the
moral world.
We
know
less of
the laws that govern the workings of the
mind and
heart and
will,
but we
know enough
to feel confident
that this higher and
more mysterious world forms no
exception to the principle of law and order that reigns
everywhere
in the
physical universe.
Whatever we
may
ment
allow ourselves to think in

at our
own
failures,
or at
moments of discourage times when we seem to

and the degradation
evil,
see the darker side of
human
and
life
of character and the triumph of
yet in calmer
full
moments of
reflection
is
insight
we know
well
that character
not the mere result of the accident of
circumstances and environment, nor the product of

the action of external forces.
Within the mysterious
world of personality
Law
reigns,
and controls the move

desire, the
ment of every thought, the growth of every

development of every passion.
impulse tossed hither and thither
desire
The poor
creature of
by every uncontrolled
and passion, the plaything of circumstance and
external influences, has sunk to this state, in which
personality has
become but the
loose
bond that holds
together the most destructive forces, as truly under the

control of
Law as the strongest and most self-controlled.

accurately,
Did we but know these laws more

analyse and
falls
we
could
define every step
by which the prodigal

rise
and by which the noblest
and grow strong.
Yet however limited our knowledge of psychology,

every one of us knows enough to be fully aware of the
fact
whenever we
violate
any of the laws of our moral
nature.
test
Those laws cannot be broken without a pro
which vibrates throughout our whole being.

inflicts
The
broken law
a pain, in a way, more acute and
more
lasting than
any physical
is
pain,
and
it
may
be
questioned whether there
that which suffuses the soul

to
any joy that is greater than when for the sake of fidelity
it
the law of
It
is
its
moral being
makes some
costly
sacrifice.
good no doubt
to
know
as
much
as
can be known about these laws and the method of

their action
;
it is
good
to understand the
;
working of
the machinery of our inmost being
but our nature by

it
God s goodness
test against
is
so constituted that
its
works, so to
speak, automatically, and gives
clear
and sharp pro
any infringement of her
laws.
And
God
the same principle of Law reigns also in the spiri

It
tual sphere.
would be
difficult to
imagine that the
of law and order had
exempted our nature from
the government of
Law
in its highest operations.
And
yet there are not a few
who
to be
while they are orderly and

life
regular in every other department of

that the spiritual
life is
seem to think
an exception,
The proper
dread of anything like mechanicalness or routine be
comes exaggerated
into a rejection of all method, system
or regularity in spiritual things.
They
refuse to lay
down
ments.
rules for prayer or the frequenting of the sacra
They
profess that their relations with
God
can be controlled by no rule and ought to be the spon

taneous utterance of Love, and that
it is
useless to try
it is
and force themselves
to
pray simply because

as
it
the
hour of prayer, just as
much
would be
useless to
bind themselves to certain times for conversation with

a friend
;
that to force themselves to receive the sacra

in the
ments because a certain day
week or month has
come round
is
to run the risk of pure formalism in the

life.
holiest actions of
The
soul will not rise to order,
and
if it
has not
risen,
we had
better wait
till it
does.
But such arguments, while
it is
easy to see and respect

life
the truth in them, ignore the fact that the spiritual

is
a Life, a Life imparted to the soul, which has to
be tended, developed, nourished, disciplined. "The Kingdom of Heaven is like unto a seed which a man
took and cast into a
laws,
first
field
and which grows by
its
own
full
the blade, then the ear, after that the

ear."
corn in the
This
life
is
imparted
in
Baptism,

strengthened in Confirmation, nourished in Holy Com munion, healed and cleansed in the Sacrament of Pen
ance.
As
the natural
if
it is
life
must be
fed,
developed and
disciplined,
to attain
to its full strength

life.
and
the
usefulness, so must
the spiritual
And
as
natural
spiritual
life, if
neglected, will
run to seed, so
will the
life.
It is necessary, therefore, that there
should be order
and system
in the spiritual
life,
as necessary as in the
will
physical or intellectual.
is
He who
what he
only eat
when he
fall
hungry and
eat only
likes will
soon
into
ill-health.
And
he
who only
for
it,
studies
and thinks when
he
is
in the
humour
will
soon find his intellectual
life fall
into decay.
And he who
when he
feels
prays and receives

to
it,
the sacraments only
drawn
will
soon
find his spiritual desires
and vision grow weak and dim
and uncertain and gradually die away.

But, moreover, the necessity for this external habit
of order and discipline

the spiritual
is
based upon the principle that
life is itself
controlled
by Law.
infinite
There
is
nothing more beautiful than the
variety of the lives of the Saints.
Each
itself.
is
a study,
indeed
we may say
a revelation, in
There does
not seem to be any fixed rule that binds them, any
method upon which
their
lives
are
formed.
Each
stands alone, letting his

torrent that
is
life
flow
forth in a reckless
apparently controlled only by the un
controllable passion of love to
God and
love to man.
is
There
is
a daring, a freedom and a freshness that
startling.
liberty that surprises,

natures.
perhaps a
little
scandalises,
more timid
The
ordinary plodders
on the well-worn path to Heaven are not prepared to find these Saints plunge into thickets and climb by
unknown
and
their
paths,
and
outstrip
them by
;
their
very daring
to all
dominant individualism
they,
ap
pearance, take liberties with prescribed methods,
show
a fearlessness of the ordinary dangers that beset the

spiritual
life
and exhibit a confidence
in
God
;
that
looks to timid eyes startlingly like presumption
yet
somehow they come out

others
fail,
right,
they succeed where
and leave the
rest of the
world far behind.
Indeed not only are the
lives of the Saints
marked
by
this
extraordinary variety and individualism, but

different
the same virtues in

different that often
men
are so
markedly
we can
scarcely recognise
them
as
the same.
The
zeal of St. Paul, in its inexhaustible
io

its
energy, content with nothing short of the world as

sphere, and the
tive,
zeal of St. John, the great
contempla
in
seem scarcely to have one characteristic

difficult to
common.
St.
It
would be
compare the humility of
Francis of Assisi with, say, the humility of St. Ignatius
of Loyola, each gives us his
own
revelation of the
same
virtue,
stamped deeply with

again the
Spirit
his
own
personality.
Or compare
St.
of
Prayer
the very
source and fountain of
all
spiritual life
as portrayed
St.
by
John of the Cross and by the exercises of
Ignatius.
to his
Each draws with a master s hand, according own experience, his method of communing with
is
God, and the most striking thing

I.
their dissimilarity.
And
yet,
with
all this
freedom and individualism
the lives of the Saints did not develop by haphazard

efforts to
be good.
individual souls
They were not the mere result trying each in his own original way
of
to
draw near
examine
to God.
As we
more
get beneath the surface and

carefully
their lives
we
shall find that
they were each and
all built
upon and developed under

life.
a system of laws as truly as the organic world of
What more varied, what more apparently free than

yet
it
life ?
grows, develops and matures by law.
So does

the spiritual
is
life
of the Saints.
it is
Law
in the highest sense
not opposed to liberty,

is
the principle upon which

as
liberty
based.
"
St.
James speaks of the Christian

".
being judged by
portion as
the perfect law of liberty
In pro
moral or
any of the laws of our physical, intellectual nature we lose some of our freedom
violate
we
of action; in proportion as
we know and obey
their
laws
we
are free.
Perfect health,
perfect
and vigour of mind

conformity to law.
of the
action,
and body depend upon
And
perfect spiritual liberty,
the possession
power of complete
spiritual self-expression
and
depends upon perfect conformity to those laws upon which the spiritual life is based and by which it matures.
The cramped and

Christian s
life is
timid scrupulousness of
many
in
the result of the lack of the knowledge

"
of or obedience to these laws.

sphere,
"shall
The
Truth,"
every
large
make you
if I
free."
The wonderful
so,
ness and daring, and,
may
say
roominess, of the
elasticity
lives of the great Saints
sprang from the
and
adaptableness of their individual characters
when brought
into complete response to the laws of the spiritual life. As the great musician handles his instrument with an
ease and freedom that astonishes one less skilled.
12
And
the laws of the spiritual

life,
life,
like
the laws
infinite
of the physical
are
is,
common
to
all.
The
variety of character
partly at least, the result of the
difference of material
and temperament upon which

Just as the
electricity
these
laws are acting.

light,
same
forces in
different
Nature
effects
heat,
produce
upon
different substances.
So
same
those
in the spiritual life the
fundamental laws are the
for
all.
If
we
could analyse the characters of
who have
attained to the most different forms of

find notwithstanding their infinite
principles.
sanctity,
we should
all
variety that
were governed by the same
Take
to pieces the
life,
most varied and complicated forms

shall
of organic
and we
all
be able to trace the growth

to a
and structure of
all.
of
them
few laws
common
to
So we may
trace to the operation of the
same
clois
;
spiritual laws the sanctity
and hiddenness of the
tered contemplative, and the zeal of the missionary

silence of the hermit,
the
and the fervour that inspires the

It
burning eloquence of the apostolic preacher.
was the
same
principle that drove St.
Anthony
into the wilder
ness that sent St. Francis into the towns and villages
of Italy.
Under the moulding power
of the
same law

St. Ignatius drilled
13
and disciplined
his great
army of
the Society of Jesus to deal with the cultured world of

his day,
and
St.
Theresa drew her daughters out of the

grills
world and placed them behind

plead for the world they
in a life
left,
and
barriers to
for
it
and
to
do penance
hidden with Christ
in
God.
St.
Francis Xavier
in a life of
unwearied activity preaching to the heathen,

St.
and
St.
John of the Cross, or
Peter of Alcantara,
life
shutting themselves out from the world in a
of
mystic contemplation, were very different types of

in
men
many
ways, and very different in the circumstances

yet they were the product of the self-same
of their
laws.
lives,
Many no
all
doubt have grown
in holiness
without any
technical or scientific
knowledge of these laws.
For as
the forces of Nature run up into and are the expres
sion of the Will of

self
God
s
"Creation s
secret force
all
Him
unmoved
all
motion
source
"
so do
the laws of
the love
the spiritual
of
life
run into one great force
God
the love of the Law-Giver.

the Decalogue
like unto
it,"
As our Lord
God,
So,
"
summed up
that which
in the love of
and
is
the love of man.
many
a humble and unlettered Saint has instinctively and
i4

in the
almost unconsciously learnt,

his love to
absorbing passion of
to those laws of
God,
life
to
conform himself
the spiritual
which he could not define or analyse.
He
if
simply followed as the love of God led him.

could analyse his
life
Yet
we
and the method by which

have matured and
the virtues that adorn

ripened,
his character
we
could trace
to
them
to the action of those laws
which are
It
is, I
common
all.
think, a great help to
remember
this.
To
remember
that the spiritual
life is
not an exceptional
department of life, dependent largely upon emotion and

largely
control.
upon circumstances over which we have no
But that
it
is
life,
possessed
by us
all,
growing and developing under laws which are made
known to us,
be attained.
to which, if we will conform, the result If each of us
must
had
to strive
on
;
in his
own
way, and perhaps as none ever strove before if holiness were a purely individual thing, and depended upon wild
and random
efforts to control ourselves
and to draw
But
if,
near to God,
we might
well despair.
as
is
undoubtedly
true, order reigns

if
amidst
all
the variety of
the spiritual world,
the spiritual
life
depends upon
not to discover
conformity to certain laws, and
we have

these laws for ourselves, but they are revealed to
that
15
us,
so
we know them with an

if
absolute certainty, a cer
tainty
cal
possible
world around
more assured than that of the physi us, inasmuch as they are revealed to
to place our
us
by God Himself, then we have but

into conformity with them,
certain. this
it
selves
life
under obedience to these laws and to bring our
and holiness
is
assured
and
Let us once grasp

aspect of
life.
and
it
changes the whole

all.
It
makes
possible for
What
an
encouragement
that
to one wearied out with vain efforts

to
seem to bring him no nearer
God
or to give
is
him
more power over

which leads
which he
himself, to be told that there
way
to life;
that there are laws

in holiness,
of,
will
grow
by obeying and that his failure

to,
springs from ignorance
or lack of submission
these laws.
And
these laws our
Lord has given us
in the
open
ing verses of the
Sermon on the Mount.

life
He
has there
analysed in advance the Christian
of perfection and
it.
disclosed to us the laws that govern
He
tells
us
the secret of Beatitude.
If
we would
gain the Beati
tude
we must
place
ourselves under
the law that
16

it.
develops
Let the law work
itself
out and the bless
ing must follow.
Every
rule
therefore
of self-discipline
and prayer
which individuals make for themselves should have
some
relation to these laws, they should
have as their
object the bringing of oneself

control, that they
more
entirely under their
may work
It is
themselves into one s whole

is
nature.
The law
of poverty of spirit
the key-note
of the spiritual
life.
the
first
step that the soul
must take
if it
would enter upon the path that leads to
the blessings promised
by our Lord.
But each person

to the law in his
must bring himself under obedience
own way.
tion
What would
help one would not necessarily
help another.
For temperament, circumstances, educa
and many other things must be taken into con
sideration,
and so with the
rest.
But the great thing is to have the law clearly before To know what one is aiming at, and the result one.
that
is
to be expected.
If a
man knows
that undue
attachment to created things clouds the vision of the
Kingdom
of Heaven, and that poverty of
spirit,
the
keeping oneself free and allowing none of these things to master him is the condition of possessing it, then he

knows what he
is
is
17
to
aim
at.
The
issue is clear.
air,
is
He
not fighting as one that beateth the
but his
definite.
energies are concentrated and the struggle
He must be
left
to carry out the struggle in his

rules.
own way.
There are no prescribed

road upon which
all
There
is
no straight
the world can walk to Heaven.
There
is
in all the teaching of our
Lord a
singular
absence of detail
great principles are laid down, but
each has to work them out for himself.
But
it is
all-
important that those
who
are striving should

it is
have
very definitely before them what

for.
they are striving
And
the Beatitudes considered as the laws of
perfection reveal this and
make both
the end, and
the
means of
attaining the end, quite clear.

in
harsh
asceticism
in this
may end
stripping one of everything

in its place,
world and giving nothing

its
but an
asceticism that has as
end the possession of heav

fruitless.
enly riches can be neither harsh nor
Self-
repression, self-effacement, self-distrust, practised for

definite end, or
no
on the general principle that one ought to annihilate oneself, often ends in making a person
feeble
and characterless and one that
is
generally and
;
rightly annihilated
by
those around
him
but that
self-
i8

for in the
its
conquest fought
name of meekness makes one
strong and gives as
reward the possession of the earth.
Mourning
mentally
for
mourning s sake and with the funda
false idea that
God Almighty
is
more pleased
with us when
we
are sad
than when
we
are glad
produces the grumbler, the cynic and the pessimist,

but the mourning that looks for and will be satisfied
with nothing but the Divine Comforter takes

bitterness
all
the
and gloom out of sorrow
and so on.
striving
In the one case

for,
men do not
life,
see
what they are

is
the heart, the
the inspiring force

is
wanting, in
the other case the struggle
for a definite
end and
prosecuted with unfailing purpose.
The law under
which they would place themselves stands clearly de

fined before their eyes.
But so strong and

is
so potent a factor in the struggle
individual character and temperament that every

in
man engaged
different
the conflict
may
be fighting
in
in
way
for the
same end, sometimes
ways
that
seem opposite.
For
instance,
one who
is
naturally hard and stern

in dealing cruelly
if
and takes a certain pleasure

himself,
will
with
soon learn that
he
is
to
gain the

blessing of the poor in spirit he
19
must become gentle
that
Heaven does not open

if
its
doors to those
who
hate,
even
the hatred be only directed against themselves
or the material things of

to
God s creation. He must
learn
deny himself for love, not hatred, and the effort to
place himself under the law of poverty gradually but
surely eliminates every remnant of harshness from his

nature.
On
the other hand, one
who
self-indulgent will find that
by nature soft and he must brace himself and

is
learn to be stern
and unyielding with himself
in
the
school of poverty.
virtue
Thus two men
striving for the
same
and with the same
ideal before
them
strive in
directly opposite ways.

is,
But each knows what
his
aim
and so he makes
his
own
rules,
and practises with a
view to that end.
Thus the Beatitudes keep before

that are to rule our lives
if
us the principles
follow the
we would
ex
ample of our Lord.

follow
If
ye would be
follow
perfect, said Christ,
Me, and
if
we would
Him
it
must be not
but by
by a mere copying of His words and

ruling ourselves
acts,
by the inner
principles
which governed
His
life.
20

2.
But again, the Beatitudes,

sin.
is
it
will
be noticed, say
nothing about
at virtue.
They command
us rather to aim
There
a vast difference between doing
right
and not doing wrong.
person
may
not do
anything very wrong and

colourless
to
may
nevertheless be quite
it
and
is
characterless.
Indeed
is
possible that
do what
definitely sinful
may need more

Goodness
character
is
than simply not to do wrong.
not a
negative but an intensely positive thing.

active, strong.
It is energetic,
The very word
virtue implies effort.
Effort of the
are
most constant and strenuous kind.
There
no such things as negative virtues. The powers of our mind and body were not given us that we might simply keep them from mischief and hold them in
check so that they should not harm ourselves or others.
They were
love, the
all
given us for action.
The tongue
to
speak, the eye to look, the
hand
to work, the heart to
mind
to think, the will to choose.
Everything
is
about us speaks of an output of power.

forth
Life
to flow
is
through mind and body.
The body
is
is
the
machinery through which the inner force

itself.
to express
life.
The most
one
in
mortified
life
not a passive
It is rather
which the whole nature has been

brought under the control of the
will,
life
21
and the
will
under obedience to God.
It is
the
of one
who
has
It is
died to sin that he might live to righteousness.
the Resurrection
life,
life
in
which
all
our powers are

is
used for the very highest purposes.
Mortification
dying that we
may live; a refraining from we may do good. To die to evil is indeed

goes good, but
if
evil that
so far as
into
it
there be
is
no new
it is
direction
which the energy of life
turned,
to
be feared that
unclean spirit
the evil will soon regain control.

that
is
The
cast out of a
man
waits
till
he finds the house of

goeth and taketh to
himself,
the soul empty, and then
"he
him seven other
spirits
more wicked than
and
of
they enter in and dwell there: and the

that
last state
man
The
is
worse than the
first
".
The
effort
merely
not to do wrong may, and often does, lead to greater

sin.
listless,
uninterested and unoccupied

It is better to
life
is
the
most dangerous of all.
be interested
Life
life
is is
in frivolities
than to be interested
in nothing.
too strong merely to be held in check.
For
movement, and movement implies
direction,
and the
soon
moving stream that

sweep away
is
simply held back

it
will
the barriers that restrain
with a
mad and
reckless torrent.
22
LIFE
Therefore the only remedy against doing
evil is to
do good.
To
use the gifts
we have
in the service of
is
God, to overcome vice by
virtue.
There
in fact
no
intermediate state of inactivity in which having driven
away
good.
evil
we
rest,
before employing ourselves in doing
Disease will only be overcome by health, light
by darkness.
The mind
is
won from wrong

current of
life
thoughts
by
right thoughts, the heart from the love of evil
by
learning to love good.
The
cannot be
stopped,
it
can but be directed into another channel.

sin,
And
thus the Beatitudes say nothing about
but
they imply a great deal, for they are addressed to

sinners, yet
only speak of
virtue.
They
bid the
fol
lowers of Christ overcome

the world
sion of a
is
evil
by good.
The
lover of
to
overcome the world by gaining posses
better world.
self-assertion,
is
The man who would gain

to gain a better
is
power by
meekness.
power by
The man of sorrows
not to sink into
melancholy but to seek the consolation of the Divine

Comforter.
They all speak
of a vivid, active, intense
life,
a clearly
defined and positive aim, a turning from evil to do good,
a search for happiness in right which
wrong has
failed

to give.
23
They
utter
no blessing upon negativeness.
Even
volve
the mortification and self-discipline that they in

is
lost sight of in the brilliant light
of the Beati
tude which they promise.
As
St.
Paul says of our
Lord,
"For
the joy that was set before Him,

".
He
endured the cross

3.
But
reaches further. again, this positive principle

us that each of these virtues has behind
itself
It declares to
it
a definite spiritual consolation which the virtue
brings to the soul.
As
the virtue
is
developed
it
suf
fuses the soul with the
glow of
its
Beatitude.
In pro
will
the spirit of poverty portion as you have

lie
Heaven
open to you.
Meekness
will
put you in possession
of the earth from which you have turned away.
Mourn
The virtue is the comfort. ing gains for you heavenly in upon channel through which these blessings flow
the soul.
We
have the right therefore to look

virtue.
for these re
wards of
We
are not to fight our
way through
to the trials and temptations of earth, strengthened
soon endure them only by the thought that we shall will then be done with them and the reward of Heaven with the be ours. No, we are to strive for these virtues
24

own
special re
it
assurance that they will bring us their
wards here on
earth.
As
the virtue
is
formed
fills
the soul with the sweet perfume of

the natural order even, virtue
to say in proportion as
is its
its
blessing.
;
In
is
own reward
that
one
is
true to the order of nature
one gains the blessing which order brings.
The man
who
is just,
prudent, temperate, will be a happier

is
man
than he
who
not.
But he who
is
living according to
the principles of the supernatural order, finds amidst

his
struggles
here
on earth and
his
sufferings
the
rewards of Heaven.
There
is
a natural purity that brings tranquillity of

clearness of thought
mind and
affection,
and a deepening of
and there
the
soul
is
a purity of another order that
gives
to
the vision
of God.
There
is
poverty
that gives a
for the sake of gaining strength diminishes his outward wants to
over others, the
man power over poverty of the man who

is
himself and
the fewest possible, but there
a poverty that opens
Heaven
to man.
But
all
as the virtues inculcated
by
the Beatitudes are
supernatural, so are the bless
ings which they bring.
As
the soul
therefore rises
under the action of grace and prayer and develops
25
those virtues which belong to the supernatural order,

it is
will find that
it
has already attained a reward which
not of earth.
is
Such a view of the happiness of the Christian life very different from, and far more inspiring than,
comes from the mere sense of duty which
that
that which
has been the sole principle
has ruled
many.
if
There are not a few who act and speak as

pleasant things were always
things mostly right,
self for not
the
wrong and the unpleasant

a reason sufficient in
it.
who
feel it
it
doing a thing that they like
Before their
eyes there ever stretches, the dreary and barren road of duty, encircled on all sides by the rich and fair pastures
that are forbidden.
As soon even
as a duty
becomes
its
a pleasure they
feel that it
has begun to lose
value.
Such
is
not the teaching of our Lord in the Beatitudes.

realise that the
He
is
would have men
pathway of
virtue
rich
with happiness, that the struggle after the virtues
which
He commands
is
the struggle after the truest,
highest and most enduring form of happiness.

virtue gained
Each
real
makes the Heaven of

soul
eternity
more
by giving to the Heaven here on
some new
foretaste of the joys of
earth.
26

It is
LIFE
then no stern stoic view of duty that inspires

after Christian perfection, but the
;
the
man who aims
vision of the supernatural, rising before his eyes
gifts
of the supernatural endowing him with substantial

blessings.
There
is
a joy that
regret,
is
ever closely followed

is
by the dark shadow of

that
and there
a sorrow
wakens the
soul
first
to the possibility
and then
can face
its
to
the reality of Divine consolation.
Men
that sorrow with calmness as they enter beneath
shadow
they
is
if
they have the certainty that in
its
gloom
There
shall
have the sweetest of
all
comforts.
a self-assertion that, inconsiderate of the claims of
others, pushes out of its path all that
comes
in its
way
;
and gains its end to find itself alone and dissatisfied and there is a gentleness that ever considers the claims
of others more than
its
own, and ends by gaining
all
and more than
all
that
it
it
gave up, even the possession
of the earth, while of peace.
is
refreshed with the abundance
The
lie
Beatitudes thus disclose to us the blessings that

in the
hidden
rugged pathway of
virtue,
and bid us
lies
boldly and gladly face before

us.
difficulties for
the joy that

religion
It is
no stern and gloomy
that

our Lord teaches, but one
full
27
of present consolations
and capable of kindling the noblest enthusiasm. The Christian whose life is all sadness, and whose only
hope
is
lies
that there beyond the grave, may then be sure

in his life or in his
something amiss
method.
We
know upon the highest authority that though the de mands upon the soul are great and ever increasing, yet
that the blessings even in this
life
are
still
greater.
Indeed
we may go
by the
further,
we may
test the reality of If

is
the virtue
reality of the blessing.

it
we have
none of the rewards of the Beatitudes
because
we
are
have not the virtues which they command.

as
little
We
the blessings without the capable of having the bless virtues as we are of having the virtues without
ings.
fore,
They
are inseparably linked together.

in spirit,
if
There
however poor
our poverty merely shuts
out the comforts of earth and does not open to us any

of the joys of Heaven,
we may be
in
sure
it
is
not the
if
the Beatitude speaks. poverty of which
So
our
mourning leaves our heart

it is
gloom and despondency
not the mourning of the Beatitude.
As well might
never the student persuade himself that study which increased knowledge or power of brings the reward of
28

is
thought
real study.
On
is
the contrary, the student in
entering upon his studies
knows
well
that the
goal
towards which he aims

step of his path
is
knowledge, and that every
blessed
by an opening
of the
mind
and some fresh increase of knowledge that stimulates and inspires him.
So must the
Christian, in the school of perfection,

is
have true foretastes of the Heaven which

in the blessings
his
aim
which flow out upon him

which
fits
in
the ac
quisition of each virtue
him
the
for
it.
The
points
old law pointed out the curse of
sin,
new law
out the blessings of virtue.
The
old law blocked the
road to sin by a threat, the new law opens the door

to virtue with
a blessing.
There are passions and
inclinations in
man s
nature that
when
gratified bring
moment s
thrill
of pleasure, followed
by an ever deep
ening misery.
The old Law set up fences against the out

in these directions,
going of
life
and upon these fences

all
wrote stern prohibitions, and a warning that

indulgences would meet with a
tions in
curse.
such
There are aspira

its
man s
nature after aims far beyond
reach,
there are ideals that haunt the
mind of
possibilities that
experience seems to prove to be impossible
the Beati-

tudes point the
29
way
to the realisation of these ideals.
They mark
and
clearly
and
definitely the road that
must
be trodden, and the entrance to that road being narrow

painful,
it
and since human nature shrinks
at the cost
which
the
demands, upon these sign-posts are written
promises of
many
it
blessings.
Men
to
could
to
certain extent find out for
themselves the curse and
misery of
its
sin,
but
it
needed Revelation
show
it
in
fulness,
and
needed the sanctions of the law
to
warn men when Nature would seek a wrong

for its
outlet
enjoyment.
So men could
find out for
them
lasting
selves that virtue in the long run brings
more
happiness than
vice,
but
it
needed the clear voice of

of temptation,
to
Revelation, amidst the seductions

substantiate
and quicken
this instinct,
and
it
needed
the Finger of
of perfection
selves.
God
to point out clearly the
pathway
which men
a world
in
could not find out for them
In
which riches
is
an
almost
unfailing
source of power and an

it
almost universal
object of adulation,
possibility or
needs something more than a
a guess to induce a
all
man
to
turn his
back upon
to believe,
it
and to assure him, and himself

lies
that
happiness
in exactly the
oppo-
30

Yet
this the Christian
is
site direction.
can do.
He
can
do
it
with a certainty that
free
from a doubt or a
hesitation.
He knows
if
it
upon the authority of God,
and that authority,

tested
he needs anything more, has been
and proved by a long line of witnesses. He can tread the hard and barren road of self-denial and
poverty when as yet no faintest sign of that other
Kingdom towards which he
has turned his gaze
is
to
be seen upon the horizon, with calmness and certainty.
He
can strip himself of
all
the world holds most worth
possessing while as yet he sees nothing of these other

riches
which
faith tells
him are more
true and lasting,
and face the barrenness that surrounds him, saying to I do not himself, hope, I know that I am on the road
"
to true
happiness".
He
does not look with the eye
of envy upon
willingly
the wealth that others possess.

all
He
and deliberately abandons
prospect of
such possessions.
out
is
clear
The path upon which he has set and well defined, hard beaten with the
footprints of a vast multitude, not one of
whom
has
ever found that he was misled.
So
it is
with each of the Beatitudes.
They
are the
doors thrown open by the
Hand
of our Lord for
men

to walk forth in
life
31
upon the
true road to happiness

in the hearts
upon which lurk no deceptions, and

those
of
who
pass through these doors
there are no
doubts, no fears of deception.
They cannot be deceived.

them
at every turn are
The
sign-posts which guide
written
by the Finger of God; others are

have believed they could
deceived.
Many who
find happiness in
the attainment of wealth, or the satisfaction of their
ambitions, or in the joys of the domestic
life,
have
in
the end missed their aim, and even though they
may
have gained what they set before them they have found in it only restlessness and dissatisfaction. But
those
who have
ruled their lives
by the laws of the

his life to that
Beatitudes, have been guided
by One who has never
yet misled any one
who has submitted
divinely revealed rule.
To many
contrary
to
at
first
sight
it
seems as
mourning,
it
if
it
were
nature.
Poverty,
tries
meekness,
persecution.
it is
But he who
will find that

it
though
above the power of unaided nature,
is
not con
ennobles,
trary to but in strict conformity to nature.

enriches, sanctifies, perfects
It
our nature.
For nature
cannot find
its final satisfaction in
the things of earth.
32

Beatitudes
to
lift
The
him
man up
again
is
to
God and
then force
turn back
to the
world from whose

it
fascination
bless
it.
and power he
set free, to help

life,
and to
They
are the laws of
not of a solitary
ascetic living as a hermit possible, seeks his
who,
if
such a thing were
own
sanctification regardless of the
welfare of his brethren.
No, they are the laws of
life,
of
men who
live
and move and have
their being
amongst
their fellow-creatures,
who make
the world
the better and
men
the happier by their existence,
who cannot
ignore or forget others,
who having
found
it
the key to happiness for themselves have found

others also.
for
The men who are

in
fittest to live.
The
in
best
type of
men
every sense of the word and
every re
lation of life.
The men who see time in the
perspective of
eternity,
who see the creatures in the light of the Creator,

gained complete mastery over themselves
false ambition,
who having
can be misled by no
who having
faced
sorrow and suffering have learned the true secret of
courage and the true source of consolation,
who possess
the earth, not through self-assertion but by meekness,
who
and
in the vision
of
God
are proof against the delusions
fascinations of the senses,
who
never intrude them-

selves in the
33
way
of others, nor cross their ambitions,
nor stimulate their envy, but go about through a world of strife and selfishness as peacemakers. Place such
men
in
any position and they are above reproach
or suspicion.
They
will ever
be the strongest, the

truest
liberty.
most
fearless,
the possessors of the
Their nature set free from mere temporal interests and

ambitions,
devoid of selfishness, purified
from the
taint of sensuality, uplifted
above the world, so as to

all
take the largest and highest views of

fittest to
things,
is
do the work of
life
in the best
and noblest
way.
These are the men formed by the laws of the
Beatitudes.
ness,
They have found
the key to true happi

to the world in
and they are a blessing

live.
which
they
II.
BLESSED ARE THE POOR IN SPIRIT, FOR THEIRS IS THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN.
II.
BLESSED ARE THE POOR IN SPIRIT, FOR THEIRS IS THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN.
THE
first
law of the spiritual
life
has to do with
man s
daily
relation to the manifold things with

in contact in the
which he
is
world around him.
No
sooner does
consciousness
awaken than he
finds the outside world
touching, pressing upon
him, appealing to him in a
thousand ways.
created
He
stands in the midst of a world
for him, supplied
with
infinite resources
and
capable of being put to various uses.
He
it
finds this
it,
world a captivating and alluring mystery, studying

questioning
fascination
it.
From
the very
first
it
is
exercises
upon him from which

It
impossible to
escape
if
he would.
has secrets to disclose that he

till
longs to discover, mysteries that he cannot rest

solves.
It sets his
he
mind and heart and

ever-increasing
will at
work.
It allures
him on with
it
hope of under
standing
better,
keeps him waiting long for an answer

37
38

his questions,
to
teaches
it
him
opens
patience,
its
self-control,
humility.
Sometimes
lips to speak,
is
and
with
with beating pulses he listens and
greeted
it
mocking silence; sometimes

upon
his
in
moment
flashes
mind a
light that
reveals
secrets
he has
been waiting for years to
learn.
veil
To some
all
Nature appears but the thinnest

felt
through which a mysterious Presence can be
and
almost seen, a vestment that clothes, half-revealing,

half-concealing, a great Personality.
A
;
mind
pierces
intel
through
lect,
its
marvellous mechanism, arresting the

it
and
calling
it
into close
communion
a heart throbs
vibrating in
through
response.
that sets the hearts of
men
To
others
it is
but a vast and complicated
machinery, governed by changeless laws, self-acting,

self-evolving
;
nothing stands behind, nothing at least

is
that the
human mind
It
capable of knowing anything
about.
presents riddles
it
is
which men must set them
selves to solve,
capable of being understood and
used in the service of man, who, though evolved by

the mechanical working of
its
laws and forces, and
shaped and moulded by the things around him, and but

the creature of yesterday, believes he
is
capable not
BLESSED ARE THE POOR IN SPIRIT

but of ruling
it
39
only of understanding
it
it,
and using
in his service.
But whatever our
theories,
no sooner does man
awaken
to the existence
of the world around

it
him
than he quickly learns what an influence
has upon
him
for
affect
good or evil, that all these material things him in a most remarkable way, that in fighting
strong, in studying
them he grows over him wise, in conquering them he gains victory That not only does the development of his self. mind to a large extent depend upon them, but what is
them he grows
more strange, the formation of his character. Naked indeed he comes from his mother s womb, and naked
he returns, but not as he came.
He
leaves the world,
the marks of his con bearing upon himself eternally

flict
influence of the material with, or his yielding to, the
to do during his sojourn things with which he had

earth.
upon
The
sight of
and contact with these things excites
our minds and hearts, forces us to think about them,

leave the whole person study and use them, and they
stamped with the
effect of their influence.
The
has history of civilisation
two
sides.
It tells
us
40

many
things, of the
of development and progress in
steady growth
laws
;
in the
it
knowledge of Nature and her

records victory after victory in
of late years
the sphere of physical science that has well-nigh turned
men s heads and made them

thing
is
is
possible.
It
any shows how every new discovery
believe that almost
put at the service of
man
It
to
make
the wheels of
life
run more smoothly.
discloses the
power of the
human mind and

tive
will,
seizing
upon the most destruc
forces of
Nature and making them the kindly
ministers of his service.
We
who
look on, and into
whose hands these

not
the
gifts are so
generously poured, do
at the greatness of
know whether
gifts,
to
wonder most
or the energy and mental vigour, the un
wearied patience and perseverance of the

discover them, and prepare
men who
Cer
them
for our use.
tainly the study of the sciences has developed the mind, and up to a certain point the characters of the
men who have
given themselves to these studies and
have enriched the world by their gifts. But there is another side to the
It is
history of civilisation.
undoubtedly true that in every victory which has
been won over Nature
men
run the risk of a more
IN SPIRIT
41
serious defeat.
The
intellectual victory of
one man
leads to the danger, to say the least, of a moral
weaken
For every new discovery, every new convenience, tends to make life more luxurious and to
ing of many.
bind
men more and more under
the influence of
ma
terial things,
and these things tend to waken and supply new and often artificial wants. The child of modern
back upon a
civilisation that is past
civilisation looks
and wonders that men could have lived
in
such poverty
if
and such meagre surroundings.
Certainly
is
we
are
made
for eternity
and man
true end
the knowledge
and love of God, the fewer our material wants and the
more
spiritual
our
its
life
the better.
And we know how

spirit
the flesh with
clamorous demands, and the
with
its
lofty aims, are ever in conflict
one with the
other,
and that the more we give

spirit is likely to
to the flesh, the less

;
vigorous the
be
and thus as the

life
dis
coveries of science tend to
make
more luxurious
its
and more easy, there

influence
is
the danger of
deadening
are to live
upon men
as spiritual beings,
who
on earth as strangers and pilgrims, journeying to that

City which hath foundations, whose Builder and
is
Maker
God.
42

Following therefore upon the victories of modern
civilisation
there treads an
than any that
enemy more dangerous has been overcome, who by awakening

wants binds us to the
earth.
and
satisfying our material
For we
scarcely realise
how wealth and luxury and

modern world
is
ease
rob us of our truest liberty and enslave us to material

things.
In one
way
the
greater than
the ancient world, the poorest have a knowledge of
Nature and a power of drawing upon her exhaustless

resources that the old world never
dreamed
of,
but
with
all this,
the
modern world has needs and
require
ments of which our forefathers knew nothing.

nature
is
Our
bound by a multitude of bonds which every
new
discovery supplies.
The men
of the past trod
the earth with a freer step, their wants were fewer, they
were
less
entangled in material things.
We
is
talk
much
bind
of our mastery over Nature,
how we conquer and
her forces to do us service, but there
another and
a greater victory, the victory which reduces material
wants to a
minimum and
It
leaves the heart and
mind
it
free for higher things.
was a great
victory, as
has been well said, which encircled the world with the
telegraph wires, and almost annihilated space and time,

but
IN SPIRIT
43
who
can doubt that
it
is
a greater victory which
enables a
man
to bear with fortitude and calmness the
message borne by those wires which tells him he has lost everything that the world had to give him.
The problem
an increase of
therefore
becomes a serious one.

it
Is
scientific
knowledge, leading as
inevit
ably does to an increase of luxury, and consequently

entangling
evil?
men more and more

is
in material things,
civilisation,
an
If science
the
handmaid of
and
civilisation
means, at any rate on one

is it
side,
a develop
ment of material comforts,

by devout Christians?
a thing to be discouraged
Shall
we
boldly say,
"the
fewer our needs the better, the freer from the world
the better, the
more we look upon this earth as the it is not place of our pilgrimage, and remember that our home, but that our home lies beyond, the more
we
shall
resemble
Him who
air
<
said,
The
foxes have holes
and the birds of the
have
nests, but the
Son of Man
let
hath not where to lay His Head, and therefore

discourage in every
us
way
that kind of knowledge which
tends to
entangle
make
life
on earth more luxurious and to

snares
".
men
in its
We
know
well
enough
that this
is
no merely specu-

lative consideration,
it
is
one that presses upon every
thoughtful Christian with increasing insistence under the
perplexing conditions of modern
life.
Undoubtedly
work, study, the struggle with Nature, develops the
mind, hardens the muscles, and produces

lent
many
excel
;
moral results
in the
men who
so use their powers
yet the fruits of
all this
labour, thought
and struggle
is
I am discontented undeniably materialising. to-day with the discomforts of travel which a few years ago I
should have thought luxurious.
can
get on out of
reach of telegraph and telephone of which our grand

fathers
knew nothing
a few years
residence amidst
the
manifold conveniences of a great town utterly
unfits
me
for living in the country.
Every year some

life
new discovery shows me the possibility of making more comfortable and makes me impatient of its
comforts.
things,
dis
Have
then the right to
make
use of all these
having before
?
me
I,
the example and teaching of
our Lord
or should
as one
said
who
"
desires to follow in
any man will come him deny himself and take up his Cross and follow Me," set them all aside, and discourage that
If
the footsteps of
Him who
after
Me,
let
kind of thought and study which produces them
45
Certainly
God gave
us our minds to use, and
He
subdue and conquer, yet the in gave us the earth to evitable result of the use of our minds in this direction
seems to be that
it
makes
it
more
difficult, if
not im
follow closely in the footsteps of our Lord. possible, to

It
becomes therefore a
Christian what
is
serious question for the thought
ful
to be his attitude personally
and
intellectually
towards a great deal of what comes under

civilisation.
the head of
modern
He
tion
seems to be placed
takes.
in a difficulty sets
whatever posi
he
For
if
he
himself in opposition to
is
modern thought and development he
told that
he
is
of mind and simply opposing the use of those powers observation which God has given us, which cannot be
justified.
If
on the other hand he upholds
it,
he seems
to be giving his support to a system

itself to
which has proved
be the greatest power for blinding
men s
and making them earthly and eyes to spiritual things

material.
How
Now
person
then
is
he to bear himself amidst the increasing

in
luxury of the age

it
which he
lives
would of course be very easy

"
to
answer to a
who
put such a question,
If
you
feel that these
46

and that your
things are injurious to your spiritual
life,
conscience warns you against them, then you certainly
ought to avoid them, but there are others

feel as
who do
not
you
do.
It is
a matter for each individual to

is
decide for himself.

to one
is
What
a luxury and a danger

;
neither a luxury nor a danger to another
you must not judge others by your own standards." But such an answer is only a shirking of the real
difficulty.
It is
undoubtedly true that many individ
uals are called to live
more
strict
and self-denying
"go,
lives
than others, and that some are called to

that they
have,"
sell all
and follow
literally in the footsteps of

is
our Lord.
But the question

It is,
"
not primarily one of

is
individual vocation.
What
to be the attitude
of Christians generally towards a system that undoubt
edly tends to
protest or of
If,
make
life
luxurious
"
Is it to
be one of
sympathy
I
for instance,
say broadly, the whole structure of

is
modern
civilisation
in direct opposition to the teach
ing of our Lord, and every

Christian
life
man who
desires to live a
is,
has only one course possible, that

it
to
keep himself free from the luxuries which

round him, and
let his
life
accumulates
be a protest against them,
IN SPIRIT
47
Then
the answer
is
obvious.
"
Are we then not
to use
our minds, not to seek to discover what Nature has to

give us, or
if
we
do, are
we
not to
make
use of our
discovery?
Does
Christianity forbid
us,
us to use the
in
mental
gifts
which God has given

life
and command,
"
many
departments,
to stand
still ?
Such a ques
tion has only to be put to be answered in the negative.
On
the other hand,
if
the necessity of our position

life
obliges us to look forward to the wheels of
running
ever more and more smoothly, and

that every fresh discovery
is
if
we
are assured
almost certain to be a
is
new
source of comfort and luxury,

fore, to
the Christian, there
take
and to
along
oil
good things like every one else the wheels and pad the carriages that bear him
all
these
life s
road, without doubt or fear
And
if this
be
"
true,
what becomes of such sayings of our Lord

will
as,
If
any man
come
after
Me,
let
him deny himself

"
and take up his Cross and follow
Me
".
Every one
that hath left houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father,
or mother, or wife, or children, for

shall
My
name s
sake,
life
receive
an hundred-fold, and
shall possess
everlasting."
Now
the answer which
is
to guide the Christian s
48

makes, as Christianity always does, high demands
life
upon those who would be guided by it. And it is an answer which goes to the root of the difficulty, and is
applicable not merely to individuals but to
certainly does not involve
its
all.
And
it
followers in a position
which forbids them to use to the utmost the powers of
mind which God has given them, nor on the other hand does it ignore but keeps to the front the fact
that
the fundamental idea of the Christian

is
it
life
and
character
that of self-sacrifice and unworldliness.
But be
to
remembered
that the religion of Christ has

character,
do with men and the formation of

it
and
that
deals with things only in so far as they affect
character.
In other words,
It
it
lays
down man s proper

"
relation to things.
condemns nothing.
All things
of God,
all
are
good
if
they are received with the

It declares that
it
"
Word
and with
prayer."
God saw
".
that
He
had made, and behold
was very good
It
pro
tests against the

evil in
Manichaean idea that there

is
is
inherent
anything, or that there
anything upon the
face of this earth that
God
has not created.
Yet there
to
is
always a tendency in the
human mind
condemn
as evil those things which have ministered

to
IN SPIRIT
49
man s
evil passions, as if the evil
were
in the thing
lies
rather than the person.
But the morality
not in
the thing, but in the man.
Many
things are so associ

evil,
ated with
evil,
and almost only with

an
evil
that they
seem
those
to exhale
atmosphere which contaminates
who touch
them.
One
can readily imagine that
the cards or dice which have been the means of ruininoo a man s character and property, be might
regarded by
him
sally
as things bad in themselves and to be univer
condemned, yet they are as harmless as those

s
which have given an hour

hard-working man.
It is
rest
and pleasure to a
easy to see
how
stimulants
to be the
and narcotics which have been so abused as
curse and ruin of the lives of vast multitudes should
become
so associated with moral ruin and sin in the
minds of those who have suffered from them that a

certain moral character
is
attributed
to them.
Yet
these
same things when used properly have been the means of saving health and life. It is so easy and so
much more
satisfactory to our pride to transfer the

;
source of evil from ourselves to things outside of us

to say
truth,
we were we
defiled, instead of,
what
is
nearer the
ourselves defiled what was otherwise clean.
50
For the things that have been the instruments of un

told evil are nevertheless in themselves good.
fact that
is
The
they have been abused by bad or weak
men
no reason why they should not be used by good
men.
Yet how often do we hear sweeping condemnations

uttered
by men against some good
gifts
of God, because
in their undisciplined
hands they have proved a cause
of grievous
those
sin,
and strong words of protest against

It is
who
use
them with moderation.
not un
common
against
to hear from those
who
take up a crusade
lan
some great
is
evil,
such as intemperance,
guage that
unchristian.
altogether unjustifiable, not infrequently
The Church has
often been accused of

in
being lukewarm and backward

in
the part she takes
such movements, because She cannot go to these
extremes.
creatures,
She cannot condemn as

however carefully
It is
evil
any of God
their use
may
need to be
guarded.
not from lack of zeal but from rever
ence for the truth.
Her language must always be

enthusiasm for a cause
that
of moderation in contrast to the extremes to which
many
are led
by
their
and
in
the long run her attitude will be justified.
It is
not

the part of
truth.
51
wisdom
to destroy evil at the expense of
Evil can only be overcome

in
by
truth.
So
many
other cases the attitude of the Church
has been misunderstood where she endeavours to pre

serve that moderation which
is
necessary in preserving
the balance between two truths that

sight to be in conflict.
may seem
at first
By
the honour which she has always payed to the
state of holy virginity she has
been accused of slighting

all
the married state, yet she alone amongst
Christian
people has upheld in
its
fulness
the dignity and in-
dissolubility of marriage as a sacrament.
She cannot
exaggerate the dignity and sacredness of the married

state at the
expense of the other, nor
in the exalted
language which she uses of those

Christ give
who
for the love of
up
all,
does she cast any slight upon that

holy estate of matrimony.
which she
calls the
So, again, she has always
condemned the
principles
of socialism and maintained the rights of possession, and

yet she honours with special reverence the state of holy
poverty.
It is this perfect
balance of mind, and this justice in

full
maintaining to the
truths that
may seem
opposed,
4*
52
which has so often exposed her to the charge of luke-
warmness on the part of those

in their zeal press
fiery enthusiasts
which
one truth to the practical denial of

"
another.
of. all
evil
Money
".
has been, as St. James says,
a root
It
it
has fed every worst passion in the

has been the means of breaking the
human men s
heart,
closest ties of friendship
and of blood,
it
has hardened
hearts
till
they have almost ceased to be human.
Yet money has been the instrument of untold acts of kindness and charity. The Church gives her blessing
and protects the rights both of those who keep
of those
it
and
that
who
for the love
of Christ forsake
all
they have.
The
thing
itself is
unmoral.
It
can be
in
come
alike the
instrument of good
it.
or evil
the
hands of those who possess

fruits
And
thus the manifold
of civilisation and of luxury which

till
many
gather
around them,
is
every higher aspiration of the soul

light of
stupefied
;
and deadened and the
heaven
is
clouded
such things are not in themselves to be con

as
evil,
demned
they are
God s good
gifts
and are
capable of being used in His service, and as the instru
ments of charity and kindness.

It
is
not therefore by the condemnation of any of

these things, or
53
by
attributing to
them
in
themselves
any moral
value, that the
Church of Christ would lead

It is rather
men
out
that
in the
way
of perfection.
man s
all
true relationship to them,

this
by pointing and teaching him

is
depends upon
that there
scarcely
any
of
God s
creatures from which he cannot gain harm,

;
and not one from which he cannot acquire some good

that the
good
or evil
lies
not
in the thing itself,

it.
but in
him, and in his use or abuse of
In one word, she teaches that
man
is
made
him
for
God,
and that
to lead
all
created things are given

to
as
means
him
God.
In so far as they are used as

in so far as
means
to this
end they help him on,
they
are used as an end in themselves they hold
him back
and come between him and God.
All sin can be

"
defined in the language of St. Paul as
the love of
the creature
more than the Creator

in created things.
".
The entangle
ment of the heart

There
is
scarcely anything on the face of the earth
that cannot be abused and
become a
snare.
faith
There
is
nothing through which the eye of
cannot see
some
faint revelation
of the power and wisdom and
beauty of the Creator.
We
are the centre of
many
54
wants.
fierce fire of desire
burns in the depths of
every
ful
soul.
We find scattered
around us by the bounti
hand of God multitudes of things ready to our hand. Many of these things we cannot do without. Even
those
who
reduce their needs to a
minimum
require
many
things
the food they eat, the clothes they wear,

in.
the houses they dwell
And
fit
every one of these things
can be used as means to
man
to
do
his
work and
serve God, or merely for the pleasure they give in the

using,
till,
for the
enjoyment of that
pleasure, they are
sought after more and more and become a means of
enjoyment
an end
in themselves,
and cease to have
any
relationship to God.
And
thus
God
is
lost sight of
in the creatures
which
He
designed as His messengers
to call
men
all
to
Him.
Thus
itself,
that
modern
life
puts at our disposal
is,
in
essentially neither good nor bad.
Everything
it.
depends upon the
way
in
which each individual uses
The
and
comforts and luxuries that

all
we
are accustomed
to,
that
makes the wheels of

to
life
run smoother, do,
no doubt, tend
make
the multitudes
who
use these
things without a thought of
God more
materialistic
in
and
earthly.
But the same multitude,
other less

luxurious ages, drifted
55
away from God under the

be not anchored
influ
ences that were around them at the time, making them
savage and
it
cruel.
If the heart
in
God
in
will
be drawn hither and thither by the currents

it
which
finds
itself,
whether these currents swamp them

in brutal
in material
It is
comforts or
and savage passions.
not by change of surroundings that
men are brought
God, but by a change of heart. lation will never Christianise men.

to
Prohibitive legis
man who wants
to get
drunk
will
not necessarily be one whit a better
man
because the law has forbidden the use of alcohol
in the place
where he
it
lives.
If his passion
in
be not put
under restraint
will
break out
another direction.
And men who

none the
less
crave for comforts and ease
may
be
material
and earthly
in
their
hearts
because they cannot get them.
The
tramp, sleeping
away his day under a haystack and living from hand to mouth upon what he can get, rather than work,
differs little in his heart
from the millionaire

his
who
lives
for
and loves the luxuries
procure.
The
characters are
money enables him to pretty much alike, the

make men
difference lies merely in the accident of circumstances.

It
is
not necessarily the luxuries that
56
luxurious, but the earthly undisciplined heart that loves
and craves
to
it.
for ease
and
to
Whether or
is
upon all that ministers what extent these things can be

the poor, because they are
seizes
had,
but an accident.
if
People often talk as
poor, are unworldly, and the rich, because they are rich,
are worldly.
in fact.
But such generalisations do not work out
There are many amongst the poor whose hearts are filled with rage and bitterness against the
rich
and harrowed with discontent against
their lot,
sit
and there are amongst the

God.
richest, hearts that
very
loose to their possessions and only long for the riches of
Therefore accepting things as they

rejoicing in every fresh discovery
are, nay,
more,
and every new de
velopment of life as God

Christian
good
gifts to
all
man, the devout

his
knows
that for
him
is
depends upon
using
every new
thing that
placed at his disposal in
the right way, as a

itself.
means
to
an end, not as an end
in
These things that naturally tend to entangle the soul and to press in between it and God if used care
lessly can
be,
and as a matter of
fact are, used
by
as
multitudes as a
means of approach
to
God and
57
instruments in His service, and are received with thank

fulness
and prayer.
rise
But no one can
through the creatures to the
Creator without effort on his part and the help of

Himself.
God
Yet the
will,
difficulty lies within
not without, in
the heart and
not in the external objects.
He
it
who
no
is
not struggling with himself and seeking the
Divine assistance by prayer and sacraments will find
easier to be spiritual in the barrenness of a desert

all
than amidst
the luxuries of a
most luxurious
age.
The
difficulties
would no doubt be of a different kind,

concerned,
but the
results, so far as the spiritual life is
would be very much the same.
The
first
consideration, therefore, for
any man who

God, must
would order
his life according to the Will of

all
be his attitude towards

press
these things that crowd and
upon him and tend

that attitude
first
is
to cloy
and deaden the

It is laid
soul.
And
"
clearly defined.
life
down
as the
Law
of
of the spiritual
given by our Lord

for theirs
is
Blessed are the poor in
spirit,
the
Heaven". Kingdom The Beatitude, be it observed,
is
not here upon the

state of riches.
It
state of poverty as
opposed to the
58

upon the poor
in spirit.
It is offered to all alike,
is
the richest as well as the poorest.
The
attitude
is
one
of freedom and inner independence.
The man who
has
little
of this world
goods needs to put himself
under the
has much.
Law of the Beatitude as truly as the man who
He
must keep
his heart free
from being
all,
dominated by the desire
for possession.
After
the
its
sphere touches the earth only on one point, but
whole weight presses and
rests
upon
it
as truly as
some
other thing which rests upon a wider base.
Because a
man
has not much,
it
does not follow that he does not

just as
lavish his
whole nature upon what he has

more, than one
much,
perhaps even
things.
who
possesses
many
their
And
place.
the rich
man must keep
his riches in
He
must not allow them to master him, or to
sink under their spell.
He
must learn
at
once
their
danger and their value, and discipline himself

has got to estimate them at their true worth.
till
he
Such an attitude of the

this
soul towards the things of
world involves a constant vigilance, a ceaseless
struggle with oneself, an insight that can only be gained
by
faith
and preserved only by an unfailing
fidelity to

God.
59
As
our servants
all
these things are good and
useful, as
our masters they are tyrants.

fall,
For, through the
the
mind of man has become

it
clouded, and the things of earth have, as
were, be
come opaque we see their beauty not through which the Mind of God is
;
as a transparency
reflected, but as
things beautiful in themselves.

lost its
And
our nature has

It is
balance and leans earthward.
only as
we
regain and, as
by
faith
an insight into the reality of things,
we
regain our balance by a constant struggle
with ourselves, that

spiritual beings
we
are able to use

is
all
things, as
whose destiny
to rise
through the
creatures to the Creator.
The
tual
first
Beatitude then
sets
is
the
first
Law
of the spiri
life,
and
man
in his right position
towards
all
things around him.
It discloses to
him the
fact that
]
the danger
lies in
himself, not in things around him.
That
all
things are good, but that they can easily be

evil to
abused and become the source of

It legislates for
him.
set of
no one age and no one
circum
stances.
It applies
no more to those
living in the time
of our Lord than to those living in the more compli
cated conditions of our
own
time.
It
condemns no-
60

It forbids
thing.
nothing.
It
does not look askance
at those things
lives,
which minister to the most luxurious
nor at those things which have been to

It
many
the
fair
occasion of sin and ruin.
looks out upon the
world and repeats the words that were uttered ere
man
came
all
to spoil the beauty of
God
work.
it
"
God saw
good."
that
He
and
had made, and behold

inward, and bids
things around
was very
It
points
man
him become master

him
of
himself,
all
will fall into their

"All
place and serve him as he journeys Heavenward. things work together unto good to those who love
God."
Creation recognises and obeys its master,

is
when its master
at
It
one with himself and
its
Creator.
would be comparatively easy if the use or posses sion of certain were forbidden to those who things
would follow the example of our Lord, but men, as experience shows, would soon find some way of com
pensating themselves for foregoing the use of what was
prohibited, and they would, moreover, be misled as
to the real source of the evil and suppose that
it
lay
without rather than within.
Thus man
midst of
is
placed,
by the Beatitude,
free in the
God s
creation, to
have and to use what he

him
for his service, but he
61
will
all
things are given

his danger.
is
warned of
He
is
must be the master of
all,
the servant of nothing.
And
must
the Beatitude
his
a personal one.
lies,
Each man
his struggle
knows where
be.
danger
thing
and what
The same
may
be a source of danger
to one
and of help to another.

he
is
finds that
depending too
The moment any one much upon any created

him struggle with
thing, the
Law
of the Beatitude bids

it
himself to keep
It
in its place.
would be a strange and interesting revelation of

if
character
us,
we
could see into the lives of those around

it
and learn what
is
that has constituted their
life
struggle, the chief source of their discipline or failure.
Some
of us could look with calm indifference, or
perhaps contempt, upon that which stirred the deepest

passions in another and clouded a brilliant intellect, and
swayed and bent a strong

It is
will into
a degrading slavery.
hard to imagine that a thing which we use when
needed, and think no more about, makes the head of
some strong man swim and

cannot even think of
so
it is.
it
his pulses beat, so that
he
with calmness or reason.
But
We
all
have a bent towards something here
62

to gain stronger
LIFE
on earth that tends

over
"
and stronger control

live
us,
till
for its
sake alone we
and
move,"
and
are ready to sacrifice
God, Heaven, eternity, place,

affection,
life
power, influence,
human
itself.
We can
perhaps look back into the past and see
how
some such things came into our lives and began to claim more and more of our thoughts, to stir our passions and
kindle our hearts,
till
we
felt
we must
fight
them or
become
their slaves.
And we
can perhaps remember

the fight was, and
refuse to
how
that
fierce,
how
unreasonably
fierce,
we had
to turn our backs

till
upon them and
think about or use them
the spell was broken and
the magic of their attraction was gone, and
we can now
laugh to think that such things came so near to robbing

us of our liberty and of God.
An
table,
easy chair, a pleasant book, the pleasures of the
have stood between
many
man and
life
of
usefulness.
Such
attract
things, in so far as they attract
by
offering a blessing,
any of us, a happiness of some sort.
The Beatitude of
the poor in spirit offers another kind
of happiness, the spiritual happiness that comes through
the possession of the
Kingdom
of Heaven.
It is
not
63
merely for our liberty that we are to struggle with these

things of earth.
better,
It is
that
we may
get something
a far
and more worth having, something that ensures deeper and more lasting happiness. We cannot
have both.
The
heart that
is
capable of
infinite
sion in the love of
God and
the possession of
expan Heaven
can contract
itself
to the narrow limits of the love of

It
some earthly comfort

hope of Heaven, but
or a good dinner.
justice, truth,
it
can do without
God and
the
cannot do without an easy chair can do without righteousness,
It
but
it
cannot do without the gratification
of the senses.
consolations,
if
Such comforts bring no doubt their poor, transient and enervating as they are
they did not
men would
not care to have them.
There
is
a Beatitude for those
who
set
themselves to
of the things
possess the
it
Kingdom
and
of earth or any or
all
has to give, but behind the Beatitude stand remorse,

restless discontent.
regret, failure
And
there
is
Beatitude for those that will not have these things, but
in
poverty of
spirit fight their
way to the Kingdom
that
lies
hidden behind them, and become possessors of that

gives to those
Kingdom which
eternal peace.
who win
it
liberty
and
III.
BLESSED ARE THE MEEK, FOR THEY SHALL INHERIT THE

LAND.
III.
BLESSED ARE THE MEEK, FOR THEY SHALL INHERIT THE LAND.
THE Christian Creed is one whole.
and God is one.
Christ
is is
The
perfect balance
of truths that sometimes seem opposed.

perfect
God
is
three
God and
perfect
Man.
The
absolutely dependent upon personal and equally dependent upon the help of Divine Grace. All the effort is vain without the Grace of God,
life
of
man
effort,
and the Grace of God

operation
is
powerless without the co
of the will of man.

or
Heresy
of
is
the over
statement
the understatement
truth,
or
the
pressing of one truth to the neglect of
some
other.
The
Christian
faith
is
like
the blending in perfect

if
proportion of certain chemicals, which
the proportion
be not exact
fails
to produce the combination desired,
or ends in an explosion.
And
it
is
the same with the Christian

it
life,
the
it
more you analyse
the
more wonderful you see

67
to
5*
68

in its
be
its
sublime
justice, its
perfect proportions
is
and
intimate cohesion.
The Church
sin,
most patient of
human weakness and

Church
full
is
yet the ethical system of the
intolerant of
all sin.
Heathen systems were
of paradoxes, blending lofty ideals with shocking
vices.
They
permitted virtue and vice to grow side
by
side,
with their roots interlaced.
But Christianity
its
brought out all sin into the light,
showed
ugliness
and forbad
it.
No man
is
can
be a true follower of
Jesus Christ and sin with impunity, and in ignorance

that
his
sin
forbidden.
St.
:
John the Baptist s

"
His fan is in His prophecy of our Lord s work was hand and He will thoroughly cleanse His floor, gathering
His wheat into His barn and burning up the chaff with
fire
unquenchable".
Our Lord marked

all
clearly
and
definitely
once
for
the
line
between right and
wrong.
He
That
called light light
and darkness darkness.
He
of
that offendeth against one

is,
commandment
God
is
guilty
all.
he that
lives in the deliberate violation
of one of the
commandments
of
destroys
the
Christian standard and produces a different type of
character from that set before
him by our Lord. The commandments blending and harmonising of all the
BLESSED ARE THE MEEK
69
produces a perfect whole, a type unknown outside of

the Religion of Jesus Christ.
before us at
first
Our Lord does not
set
an imperfect standard and as we ad
vance a more and more perfect one.

our eyes from the very
first
He
holds before
the standard of perfection,
bears with our weaknesses and failures, the slowness of
our progress, our

us, as
many sins,
but only that
He may
lead
we
thus
can follow, to the fufilment of His design.
And
we
are led on
one step forward leads to
another.
The
struggle with one sin leads us to see
and struggle with others.

marble
is
As
the outer coating of the
struck off
is
by the
sculptor, the
it
rough outline
of the figure
seen, then gradually
steps forth freed
from all that incumbered it, instinct with beauty and with
life.
So
in the Christian life
one thing leads to another.
We
that
do not
it
realise all that that first step involves, all

to.
commits us
If
we
it.
did
we probably
and we long
should
not have the courage to take
We see only the beauty

sin,
of goodness, the ugliness of
to rid
ourselves of the chains of perhaps one sin that enslaves

us.
is
But we soon
find that
we cannot
is
stop there, sin
intertwined with sin as virtue

that
with virtue, and
we
become quickly aware
we cannot break
with this
70

sin without breaking with others.
dominant
The form
attractive
of perfect goodness becomes
more and more
and
its
light pierces
deeper into the
soul, revealing evil
hitherto
on, or
unknown.
We
sin,
find ere long that
go back under the bondage we hate.

there
is
we must go As we
way
a
out of
were the servants of

our slavery
service,
;
only one
to
by submitting we must become the
ourselves
higher
servants, the slaves, of
Righteousness.
We are
;
caught in strong currents that

either force our
bear us onward
we must
way
out of
those currents, or yield ourselves to be carried where
they
will.
The stream
one
of
life
has as
it
were two
the
counter-currents,
towards
goodness,
is
other
towards evil; to escape from one
to find ourselves
in the relentless clutches of the other.
There
is
no
still
backwater where we can

to use St. Paul s
float
about as
we
will.
Or
image
Every man here on earth must
be a
slave.
own
He cannot in fact be, as he imagines, his master. He must be the servant of sin or the
the slave of Jesus Christ
".
servant of Righteousness
"
Quern
servire est regnare

thus,
And
the
first
no sooner does a man place himself under
great
Law
of Christian perfection
the
Law of

poverty of
71
spirit
than he finds himself drawn under

it,
the force of another Law, growing out of
and
inti
mately connected with
it
the
Law
of Meekness.
The
first
Beatitude declares, as
we have
seen, the
Law
which should control

is,
man s
relationship to the
creatures, that
to
all
created things around him, and

is
the circumstances in which he
placed.
is
It
may
be
a very long time indeed before he
governed by
he
is
this
Law.
When
he
is,
he
will find that

life.
already far
advanced
in the spiritual
But
till
he has begun to
strive to see things
and to act
in the light
which
this
Law
reveals, his spiritual life
cannot be said to have

outside of himself
begun.
Thus these material things

and never can
that are not,
be, a part of himself,
become
soul.
the occasion of a constant struggle in his
own
So deeply do the things around us

for
good or
evil,
that the effort
upon character not only to use them

act
aright,
aright but to think of
them and value them

issues
opens out
results
possibilities
and forces
and produces
things
altogether
incommensurate with the
themselves.
if
The
struggle with these things of earth,
properly conducted, becomes the means of revealing the first glimpses of the Kingdom of Heaven, the
72

them makes the
soul
its
victory over
possessor.
change
begins to pass over the
whole character, the
light of another world dawns upon the soul, revealing
the things of this world in their true
light,
perspective
and proportion. But as the conflict deepens and the

of spirit effects
its results,
Law
of poverty
the outlines of another
Law
itself
begin to be dimly discerned, and the soul finds
passing more and more under
its
control.
For meek
sisters,
ness and poverty of spirit are in fact twin

are born together,
they
hand
and
if
poverty dies
hand they ripen to maturity, meekness cannot survive it. To

in
die.
gether they live and together they

of the
life
The
first
throb
of meekness
if
is
felt
with the birth pangs of
poverty, and
the clouds of earth gather over the soul

spirit,
that once strove for poverty of
and dim the

in
light
of the
Kingdom
of Heaven,
meekness dies
the
earthly atmosphere.
And
those things which poverty
strengthened the soul to give up, meekness not only fits it to receive again, but gives back to it, to hold and
to use in another
and better way, and thus Our Lord s
promise
is
fulfilled"
There
is
no man that hath
left
house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife,

or children, or lands, for
73
My sake,
and the Gospel

in this
s,
but
he
"
shall receive
an hundred-fold
now
time
".
For
"
Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the land
"
and long ago the Psalmist sang the same

spirited shall possess the earth,
The meek
and
shall
be refreshed
with abundance of peace
".
For
in
fact
it
is
the struggle to attain poverty of
spirit that
develops the spirit of meekness.

already seen, the
first
As we have
Beatitude forbids
as in itself evil.
the use of nothing,

It
condemns nothing
lies
points out that the morality
not in these created

evil
things, but in
man
alone,
and that the
which men
seem
to get
;
from the things around them springs from
their abuse
from allowing them to gain the mastery
over them.
At
first it
seems to us as
;
if
we were
struggling with
the things themselves
we
find various things taking

;
possession of mind or heart or imagination
they be
come an absorbing
enslave the
will.
interest,
We live
as
and rouse our passions, or for them and cannot do with
out them.
Then
we
realise the danger,
how
they
close our hearts
and eyes to better
things,
we
rise
up
a
to struggle with
them and
set ourselves free.
It is
74

between myself and something that is trying and control my life. There is that thing
;
conflict
to possess
and here
tion.
life.
am I I will not let myself yield to its attrac And I turn upon it to drive it forth from my To one man it seems that the great moral struggle
life
of his
has been with
money
not to
let
the love
;
of
money crush
it
out the power of loving anything else
to another
has been with the love of popularity
to another the craving for excitement,
and so
on.
But
as the conflict
deepens they begin to
realise that in fact
these external things are but the occasions of
awaken
ing and intensifying the inner dualism of

nature.
their
own
They
desires
excite the antagonism between desire
and conscience
conscience calls one way, these things
awaken
which
call
another way.
is
And by de
but that
I
it
grees they perceive that the fight
not between self

is
and something
else
which
is
not
self,
wholly within the

fighting as
I
kingdom
of the soul.
am
I
not
supposed with material things, but with
my
own
for
passions,
my own
desires.
The
things that
long
may
be removed out of
my
sight, but the longing,

I
or the struggle with that longing, will go on.
may
be
in absolute solitude without the possibility of acquir-

ing anything removed from
75
my
life,
but this does not
stop the thirst of
my
nature to possess.
Indeed a
man
may
be better for being able to get what he wants
than with those unsatisfied desires eating out his heart.
For the human
soul
is
in fact a centre of passionate,

It
unquenchable desire to possess.

with
itself alone.
cannot be satisfied
its
life is
The very
what
it
it
essence of
the
craving to possess
has not or for a more

has.
It is
com
is
plete possession of what
the
it
fire
that
ever consuming
It
it,
the force that lashes
into action.
it
looks out upon things above and around
and
for
longs to
love and
make them
its
own.
The
heart
is
made
cannot rest without the love of something

one,
or
some
and love
is
never
satisfied short of
abso
lute possession.
The
central
structure of our
fire is
whole nature shows

all
this.
The
desire,
and
the powers of our being
are given us to see, to fight of our desire.

ashes.
action.
for,
and to win the object
Quench
is
that fire
and man turns to
There
nothing to stimulate the powers to
The
is
force that sets the

it
whole machinery
in
motion
the
fire,
gone, and
can work no longer.
Kindle
let
the desire be for the poorest and most
76

is
worthless object, and the machinery
set in motion.
The
fullest
activity
and utmost power of the whole

is
machinery of our being

is
brought out when the desire

is
at its height
and reaches out to what
most worth
the deepest
having.
If therefore a
man
can direct
all
and most passionate longing of his nature towards an object worthy of it and most difficult of attain
ment,
it
will
develop him to the
full.
And
for
this is
what the
soul
was made
It is
for,
to desire
and attain possession of God.
indeed the longing

it
God, known or unknown, that keeps
alive.
The
dim
in
vision of some faint ray of Divine beauty reflected His creatures, or the clearer entrancing vision of God,
revealed to the soul in His Moral Beauty.

less
The
rest in
longing that drives
men
hither and thither,

is
now
pursuit of one thing,
now of another,
motion
to
in fact the thirst
for the possession of the Infinite.
And
wherever
this
desire exists
it
sets in
all
those powers with
which man
is
endowed
till
overcome every obstacle that
stands in his way,
he grasps and holds as his own
what he longs
"
for.
is
My
soul
athirst for
God."
That
s
is
the cry,
often inarticulate, that sets the
world
activities in

motion.
in
77
God seen or unseen, known or unknown. Seen
the pure radiance of His
Own
Moral Beauty, or
seen in His creation, and in the beauty of His creation

often forgotten and lost sight of.
If therefore the desire for in the soul,
God Himself be awakened
be content with nothing short of God, those powers with which it is endowed to gain
it
and
possession of
their capacity.
Him
will
be exercised to the utmost of

is
There
no other desire that can
call
out their strength in anything like the same degree of

intensity.
The
effort to possess,
and
to
overcome
all
obstacles in the
to the
little,
way
of possession, must be in proportion

desire.
If
I
magnitude of the
I
desire a thing a
it,
will
not
make much
effort to get
and
it
if
there are
If
I
many
it
difficulties in
desire
[it
more,
will
way I will give make more effort.
the
up.
If
I
desire
with a passionate longing that cannot be

if
I
quenched,
know
all
that
cannot
live
it,
without
it,
will struggle
effort.
with
my
might to get
or die in the
But there
is,
in the
Divine order of our nature, an

/
intimate relationship between the desire that stimu

lates
to action
and the powers with which we are
78

to satisfy the desire
endowed
by
possession.
Some
of these powers are for defence, some of them for

attack.
If
they are used to gain that which
is
worthy
of their exercise and effort they grow stronger,
more
supple and more keen
in the struggle,
and moreover
they do not hurt or make harsh the person that uses them on the contrary, they enrich the whole nature,
;
and do not become aggressively prominent.

are like a soldier with his sword
They
it
by
his side to use
when he needs
it,
not like one with his drawn sword
always in his hand.
The arms
of our warfare are used
only in the warfare for which they are given.
They
is
form part of the equipment of a character that

pursuing
its
true
destiny,
if
and
fall
into
their place.
On
the contrary,
the desire which sets
them
in
action be unworthy, they recoil
upon the person who

in their
uses them, and

use.
become blunted and injured
The
character deteriorates, the instruments of
warfare and defence take an undue prominence, and
make
the person aggressive, pugnacious, intolerant.

different, for instance,
is
How
the righteous anger of
a saint from the outbursts of temper and irritability of
one checked or thwarted
in
some scheme of
his
own,
79
One
the
is
in
a sense impersonal, the other
is
wholly
personal.
One
is
a virtue, the other

is
is
a vice.
Yet
weapon used in each case

is
the same.
Or how
different again
the moral firmness of a good
man
and
who
resists all
persuasion to violate his conscience,
the dogged obstinacy of a

at all costs to
man who
is
only determined
enriches, the
have
his
own way.
One
other impoverishes the nature, yet the only difference

is
that in the one case the will

is
is
used for no personal
end, in the other the end
altogether personal.
And now we can
see the intimate connection between
the Beatitude of poverty and meekness.
Poverty directs the soul Heavenward, bids

created things in their place as a
it
keep
all
means
to an end, not
an end
in themselves.
And
this involves, as
conflict,
we have
own
all
seen, a strenuous
and unceasing
not with these
created things, but an inward conflict with our

hearts to direct
them towards God, and then with
those weapons of warfare which

get possession of
God
has given us to
what the heart
desires,
and
to defend
ourselves against the assaults of every one and every
thing that would hold us back.
And
this is the
source of meekness,
8o

Meekness
is
that virtue which
is
the outcome of the
discipline
and training of the offensive and defensive

soul, so as to use
powers of the
them primarily and

for the
chiefly in the service of
God, not
attainment
Aris
".
of earthly ends or for one s

totle defines
it
own
personal ends.
as
"
the contrary habit to passion

it.
Yet there
for all
is
passion in
It is full
fire
of
fire
and
force,
the passion and

is is
that might be used for
personal ends
used in the struggle to possess God.

there,
is
The
passion
but
purified,
intensified
and
directed.
There
no anger
that cows
;
men
as the anger
of the righteous against iniquity

firm as the will that
is
no
will so
strong and
wholly dominated by conscience.

will,
Such anger, such firmness of

they are aglow with
all
all
are not passionless,
the passions of our nature, for

in love,
can be
summed up
and the love of God
is
love at white heat
a love that can conquer the world.
Thus
it is
in the effort to
gain poverty of spirit that

its
meekness
is
born, and under
protecting
arm
it
ripens
to maturity.
it is
Though
of gentle mien and kindly form
the outcome of fierce struggle and ceaseless conflict

self.
with
It is perfectly fearless, for it
was born
its
in the
din of battle.
Though
gentle as a
woman
nerves

are of steel,
it
81
its
muscles of
iron.
Yielding as
it
seems,
can lead
men
to the martyr s stake,
and strengthen
them
to endure
all
the cruelty that the art of
man
it is
can
not
devise.
Though
ready to give place to others,

it
from indifference, but because
has set
itself to attain
"
what
steel
is
more worthy of
self,
its
possession.
fire
heart of
towards
a heart of
towards God, a heart
of flesh towards
"Greater
men."
is
he that ruleth himself than he that
taketh a
city,"
and the meek man
is
one
who
holds
himself well in hand, and directs the powers of his

nature,
which so often make
for destruction, for the
construction of his
own
character in the
ways of God,
and
for the welfare of
men.
be
true,
is
Meekness,
if all this
a very different thing
from what
a
it is
ordinarily considered.
To most
people
meek man
spirit,
is
a tame, colourless being, without energy,
or
or character.
Not the possessor of

s
earth, but
the beast of burden of the earth
possessors,
one
whom
strong
men push
out of their
way
with contempt, and to

;
whom
is
they give but scant consideration
whose charac
;
teristics,
what he has of them, are mostly negative who yielding, plastic, self-depreciative and generally despic6
82

Our Lord
utters
no Beatitude we may be well assured upon moral cowardice and weakness nor as a
able.
;
matter of fact can

virtue
is
it
ever be said that any Christian
really despicable in the eyes of

is
men.
The
all,
meekness which men despise
not meekness at
but a wretched caricature of the great virtue which
has as
its
reward the possession of the earth.
The
gentle, yielding, retiring spirit of the
meek
springs from
a strong and vigorous stock,
its
counterfeit imitations
spring from weakness and lack of character.
One man
own
withdraws from the fight because he has not the courage

to face
it,
the other
by a
deliberate act of his
will,
that he
more
serious battle.
may husband his strength for a sterner and One man is gentle and unassertive
little
because he has
to assert
and no power to assert
what
little
he has, the other by a splendid victory over
a strong self-assertive nature.

characteristics of
Some
of the external
weakness and meekness are doubtless
identical, but the sources
from which they spring are
as wide apart as the poles.
One
springs from Heaven,
the other from the uncultivated and neglected earth of
man s
But
fallen nature.
let
the two
men be
tested.
Let some question

arise
83
where
self-assertion or firmness in the cause of
God and His Truth be demanded, and the two characters

disclose themselves.
And we
see at once that
meek
ness has in
it
no shadow of weakness, but that the
gentleness and readiness to yield are really the outcome
of the strength of self-control and a view of

altogether supernatural.
far as
life
that
in
is
Indeed, a
weak man,
so
he
is
weak,
will
never acquire the Christian virtue

has not the strength to
resist
of meekness.
He who
outward pressure
will not
have the strength to
resist
the
pressure from within.
His weakness
in reality springs
from the fact that the flame of desire burns low, and
has not the strength to set the machinery of his nature
in motion, to
It is
work
for
one
definite end.
the strong alone, those

gift
who
are naturally en
dowed with the

those
of strength and determination, or
who have
gained strength by faith and prayer

will ever gain,
spirit,
and the grace of the sacraments, who
beneath the heavenly light kindled by poverty of
the strength to acquire that self-control which blossoms

into the gentle flower of meekness.
Those who know the truly meek are always im pressed with the feeling that they could do more if they
6*
84
would that they could win place and power and subdue
;
the strongest, but
somehow they
will not.
It
often
surprises their friends, not infrequently irritates them,
they allow themselves to be misunderstood,

opportunities of showing
let
splendid
what mettle they are made of
pass by.
Like the disciples of

I
Him who
"
said,
Learn
of Me, for
"
am meek and
the Christ
lowly of
heart,"
they cry
out,
If
Thou be
show Thyself,
for
no man
doeth the works that Thou dost and himself remains

in
secret".
Those who know them

burning.
there.
feel
all
that under
neath the
fire is
is
That with
the gentleness
self-control
the strength
That somehow the
has not been purchased at the expense of emasculation.

It is in fact
the gentleness that
is
a surprise rather than
the strength, like
some sweet
flower growing on the

is
edge of a volcano.
For meekness
conflict
the virtue that
grows out of the inner

self-assertive
with the combative and

In proportion to
powers of our nature.
the strength of these powers must be the conflict, and
the consequent and evasive beauty of that virtue which

is
the outcome of the victory.
But be
it
remembered
that these powers are not in

if
themselves bad, however great the evil they effect

undisciplined, nor
85
is
the struggle with them in any sense
to
destroy them.
They
are on the contrary good,

;
given us by
God
to carry
on the warfare of life
without
hustled
them we could not
fight our way,
we should be
aside or trampled under the feet of the combatants.
Those who have them not

are failures.
are, as
rule,
the
men who
For
a
if life
be as we say a
battle,
then
man must be
as a battle
in
fighter,
he must be able to defend himself and to
attack his enemies.

be,
And
is
if this
idea of
life
as
it
certainly
in
Holy Scripture and
the
teaching of Christ, the essential idea underlying and

interpreting
all
else,
is
then the most essential part of
man s equipment
fitted for
the offensive and defensive armour
with which he must be endowed.

the battle of
life is
And
man
the
man
best
the
best equipped
with fighting weapons

strength
independence, determination,
sense of responsibility, anger,
of
will,
the
courage, and so on.
Then comes
the great question which every one so

for
;
endowed must answer

battle of
life
himself
What
are
does the
mean
for
me and who
my
enemies
Upon
the answer to that question everything depends.
86

for
These arms were given
combat, he must use them,

in
they were not meant to be hung up to rust
the
temple of the
soul,
but to be used, and he can use
them
as he will
and against
whom
he
will,
and
for
what
purpose he pleases.
The
choice
fight.
lies in fact
between two causes
for
which
he must
He
for
can fight
for himself, for his
own
advancement and
fight for
his
own
personal ends, or he can
God
Goodness, Justice and Truth.
His
arms are strong
for either battle.
He
can use them to

in
push aside or destroy every obstacle that stands
the
way
of his attaining the end he desires, or he can use

in the service of
them
God.
And
the difference between a strong, domineering,
ill-tempered, self-asserting
man
of the world, and the

is
man endowed
with the grace of Christian meekness,
that one uses his powers to fight for himself and the
other to fight for God.
Each of
him
of
these
men
of
is
equally using the arms given
for the battle
life,
each
is
a fighter, neither
difference in
them
flinches
from the
fray.
Yet the
the effect upon the character of each cannot be con

cealed.
In the one, self
is
the most prominent feature,

almost
is
87
in the other self is
lost sight of.
In the one
in
every fighting instinct

assailed, in
alert if self
be
any way
the other the fighting powers are only
aroused in the cause of
God and
right.
In the one
case they act almost automatically, they have practi the person and are at cally passed out of the hands of
the service of self-love.
well in
In the other they are
all
kept
hand and under control and

the word of
like a disciplined
army obey
he
command.
The one with
all
his strength
is
and aggressive force betrays
his weakness,
not master of himself.
The
other shows the
dignified strength of perfect self-control.
He
if
could
use
all
these powers for his

will,
own purposes
There
is
he willed,
but he does not

in the
he has trained himself to use them

is
higher service of God.
therefore
no
loss of
power
in
weakness, there
no
effort to destroy
is
any of the
gifts
life
with which the soul

;
endowed
for
the battle of
on the contrary,
all
these gifts are
are entirely at the service of their possessor, but they
held in the firm grasp of a
man who
will
never use
them
in
an unworthy cause.
life
is
He
believes that the

all
battle of
primarily and
above
things the
battle of right against wrong, of truth against error,

and that
it
is
for this that

will
he has been given these
weapons, and he
for
not tarnish them by using them
merely personal ends.

is
Meekness
thus the virtue that springs from the

all
perfect control of the strongest forces of our nature,
held in leash, to be
of the
soul,
let
loose
upon the one
real
enemy
It is
and
in the
one battle worth waging.
a gentleness whose roots suck their nourishment from a

soil
of
fire
and
granite.
attract,
And
such gentleness must always
and
its
will
unconsciously break
in the end.
ruler.
down
fits
opposition and win
way
be a
And
it
man above
all else to
There are those who exercise the sway of a dominant

personality
;
people yield because they are not strong
enough
to resist.
And
there are people

if it
it
who when
child,
in
a position of authority,
be only over a
a
have
the faculty of exercising
in
way
that arouses anta
gonism.
Many
a child obeys
its
parent or teacher in
servant hates, while
master.
a spirit of rebellious fear,
he yields to the
rulers
many a commands of his
There are
are under
who cow
into submission those

force.
who
them by temper and sheer
There are men and
89
women who win

are people to
to resist
their
pushing aside of those
way in the world by a who stand in their way.

it is
reckless
There
not safe
whom
;
others yield because
them
they
are unscrupulous in the choice of
the weapons which they use.
Such people may hold
power and win
their
way, but they leave the path
strewn with wounded hearts and maimed and injured

lives
and gathering revolt against the success of selfish
ness and cruelty.
But these are not the
real rulers of
men, and their success
in the struggle for life is the
success of the strong animal that tears
and tramples
upon
his prey.
And
if
they
live
long enough they
live into
a solitary old age,

love.
full
of remorse, without
friends
and without
it
But there are others
whom
never
somehow
stir in
is
a pleasure to obey.
Men who
others one feeling of jealousy or antagonism

to have the extraordinary
who seem
those
power of making
service, not
call
who
serve
them
feel
honoured in their
degraded,
who always
respect the rights,
and
out
the dignity of those

drive, but
whom
they
rule.
Men who
never
life
always win and lead, whose path through

its
leaves in
wake no
bitterness or gathering revolt,
go

who has been pushed
aside or whose rights and
not one
aims have been unconsidered.
And
their
these are the born rulers of men, and they

their
owe
power and
sway over others
to the fact that
in the victory over themselves they

rule,
have learned to
that no one could ever accuse
them of personal
self-
ends or unworthy motive.

controlled, gentle
Single-minded, strong,
world to their
and always considerate, they win the feet and receive in full measure and filled
"
with tranquil joy the blessing of our Lord

are the meek, for they shall inherit the land
".
Blessed
IV.
BLESSED ARE THEY THAT MOURN, FOR THEY SHALL BE COM FORTED.
IV.
BLESSED ARE THEY THAT MOURN, FOR THEY SHALL BE COMFORTED.

THE first Beatitude lays down the Law that
man
of
in his relation to all the things
life
is
to govern
and circumstances
outside of himself.
The
second, the
Law
of
interior self-discipline, which,
beginning with the
effort
to keep himself free
and
unfettered, ends in
endowing
power
him with
that interior calm
and
self-control, that
of holding himself well in hand, which are the hidden

springs of meekness.
The
third Beatitude deals with sorrow
and
suffering.
religion that has nothing to say about these could
scarcely be the religion for the
human
race,
which
is
marked and scarred and seamed by
their presence.
Over
its
history hangs the dark
shadow of
sorrow, and
suffering has ever
dogged
its steps,
seizing
in its
now upon
embrace.
one,
now
another,
and torturing them

in
;
They are shrouded
mystery none know whence they

93
94

or whither they go,
come
and when they come they stir the mind with doubts and questionings that will not
be silenced.
To
each new victim, as they approach,

is
though their presence
ever seen and
felt all
around,
they come as something new, something bewildering.

It is
one thing to see others
suffer,
but
it
is
a very
different thing to suffer oneself.
The arguments and
sympathy which we give to others in the hour of trial seem poor and inadequate in our own case. The clear
ness of vision with which
their
we seemed
their cause,
to understand
meaning and to trace
becomes blurred
their
and obscured when we are ourselves
victims.
Their presence, which tradition traces to the dawn of

the race, comes to each
new
sufferer as the presence
of a stranger, bewildering, harrowing, and moving his

nature to
its
depths,
disclosing
every weakness or
it,
bringing to light
it,
unknown
dregs.
virtues, testing
probing
stirring
up
its
No man
really
knows himself
the supreme
of God,
till
he has passed beneath the
lash.
It is
revelation of character.
It is like
the
Word
spoken of
effectual,
in the Epistle to the
Hebrews,
"living,
and
and more piercing than any two-edged sword,

spirit,
and reaching unto the division of the soul and
BLESSED ARE THEY THAT MOURN

and of the
and marrow, and
95
joints
is
a discerner of the
It is like
thoughts and intents of the heart
".
the fan
upon the threshing

wheat.
It is
it is.
floor separating the chaff
from the
of
the
fire
that tries every
man s work
what
sort
It tests
the foundations of character,

silver,
whether they be wood, hay, stubble, or gold,

precious stones.
edifice
Under the
test
of pain or sorrow, the
of
many
an apparently strong character has
fallen into ruins,
and many who have passed amongst men as weak, have come forth strong and brave.
religion therefore of breezy sunshine
which ignores
the presence of sorrow and suffering, or explains them
away, or treats them as unrealities, can have

ing hold upon suffering humanity.
thing to
vast
evil.
tell
little last
It
must have some
us about these mysteries which have so

for
and deep an influence upon our nature
good or
Now
i.
there are
two ways
in
which
religion
may
deal
with these mysteries.

It
may
profess to give an explanation of
them
and
that will be entirely satisfactory to the intellect
the moral sense.

reason of
all
Many men demand
passionately the
It
is,
the misery around them.
they
feel,
g6
the mystery, the unreasonableness, the injustice or

cruelty of
it
that
makes
it
so intolerable.
And no
from one
doubt
this
is
partly true.
is
We
merely
feel
very differently
towards a
that
is
difficulty that
intellectual
moral.
We
can abide patiently the issue while
we
set ourselves to
work out some
scientific or intel
lectual problem.
We
know
is
in fact that
impatience will
cloud the mind.
There
perhaps no characteristic of
calls for
the great thinkers of the world that

so
admiration
their
much
as the serenity
and calmness of
minds
and the
unruffled patience with which they prosecute
their studies.
But
it
is
very different with great moral problems.
man go on if he does not feel sure of the justice or the love of God ? Every step of the way is hampered by doubt. How can he serve a God whom
can a
How
he does not
feel
sure he can either trust or respect?
How
can he love a
God
Who
holds in His
Hands
the
reins of the universe
and yet puts him to such

Either
torture
of mind and
is
body ?
He
is
not Almighty or
He
not loving in the only sense in which
we understand
the word.
The same man
will
be calm, strong and
patient in the study of an intellectual problem which
97
takes years to solve,
who
will
become angry,
bitter
and
hardened before a moral

prising that
it
difficulty.
And
it is
not sur
should be so.
life
The
intellectual difficulty
does not press upon

does.
it
and character as the moral
He may
never be able to solve the one, but
has not the same issues at stake.
His moral and

its
spiritual life are
wholly independent of
is
solution.
But
his
whole character
other, for
by the
hampered and held back every step of its advance and de

the
relation
velopment depends upon

to
of
the soul
God.
Moreover,
it is
undoubtedly true that
it is
the
more
thoughtful and earnest people

the mysteries and
sides.
It
who who
feel
most keenly
all
difficulties
which beset them on

"
was Abraham of
old
cried,
Wilt thou
destroy the just with the wicked, that be far from thee,
Lord
"
And
the Psalmist
who complained,
came
in
"
do
see the ungodly in prosperity; they
no mis
fortune like other folk, neither are they plagued like
other
men".
And
in
our
own
day,
feel
it
is
with the
difficulties
anxious questionings of those

pressing between
who
such
them and
their faith,
and who deal

than with
with
them
in the spirit of reverence, rather
98

who
criticise
irreverent cavillers
for criticism s sake,
that
we
are concerned.
Religion therefore
may
is
profess to give,
and may
succeed in giving, an answer as to the meaning and

reason of suffering that
intellect
entirely satisfactory to the

It
and the moral
sense.
may
lay the mystery
bare and set the conscience free from any doubt as

to the goodness
and
justice of
God
in permitting
it.
And
learned
men may
is
assure the ignorant and un

for dis
learned that there
no reasonable ground
turbance or complaint.
Yet
think
many of
us would
be surprised to find
how
short a
way such answers

hour of darkness
would lead us towards peace
in the
and
2.
distress.
But as a matter of
fact the Christian religion
does
not profess to give an explanation of the mystery of

suffering.
It sets
before
itself
a loftier task
to train
the soul in such confidence in

that
it is
God s
justice
and love
permits
ready to accept the suffering that

"
He
in undisturbed
I
peace
".
Though He
slay me, yet will
trust in
Him
It
brings the soul into such direct
and
jt
close personal relationship with
God
Himself, that
no longer judges, as one does a
stranger, His char-

acter
friend,
99
by His
actions,
but as one does an intimate

"
His actions by His character.
know
God,"
so
it cries, "and
knowing Him
do not question His

I
wisdom
or doubt His love, because

all
cannot under
stand the reason of
He
does."
There are many mysteries

have explained, but the
in life
which we long to
is
office
of religion
not to
such mysteries clear to the understanding, but to remove from the heart all possible doubt as to
all
make
the Character of God, and this can never be done by
mere explanation,
for every
new
it
difficulty
would de
mand
but
new explanation;
Himself.
can only be done by
revealing to the soul, not certain things about God,
God
The
irritation
and bitterness that

life,
arise in
men from
the moral problems of
proceed
not from the intellect but from the heart.
We demand
need
is
a clearing of the mind, but what

clearing of the heart.
It
is
we
really
not the problem that
disturbs us, but the character of the Person
who
is
responsible for the problem.
And
the cleansing of the
heart from
all its
bitterness
in
and anxiety must be the
work of God Himself

the soul.
His intimate intercourse with
As we
get to
know Him
better
we
learn to
7*

trust
Him and
to leave ourselves with confidence in
His Hands.
friendship that depends

is
upon constant explana

is
tion of everything that
not clearly understood,

trial.
not
a friendship that can last the test of
Friendship
must be based upon such personal knowledge, growing out of mutual affection, that doubt becomes impossibleIn the light of character
we judge
action.
My
friend
criti
may do
things that seem strange and call forth
cism from those

I,
who do not know him
personally, but
knowing the man, judge

it is
his actions differently.
In
deed
not the overwrought utterance of religious
fanaticism but the sober language of intimate friend ship which enabled Job to say,
"
Though He
friends.
its
slay
me
in
yet will
trust
Him".
Such words might be used

two
human
relationships between
And
It
the Catholic Church has as
end the bringing
of the soul into such intimate friendship with God.
may
desire as
much
as
any one
else to see deeper
into the mysteries of

sible
in its
life, it
may
be as keen as pos
research, using every
power
at its
is
com
able
all
mand
to probe further, but the devout Christian
to possess his soul in unruffled calm, assured that
101
he
may
ever
know
or not
know can never
disturb his
confidence in God.
as they do Suffering and sorrow therefore, entering
so largely into the experience of mankind, and forming so large a part of his discipline, are dealt with by Our
Lord
at a very early stage in the spiritual
life.
No
one
indeed can have
made any endeavour
to
conform him
self to the laws of the first
two Beatitudes, without ex
to serve periencing that the effort
own
peculiar sufferings, in
Our Lord brings its addition to those that come
in the ordinary course of nature.
The
all
third Beatitude
therefore deals separately with

in life
"
that causes sorrow
Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be

".
comforted
Now
it is
that in this scarcely necessary to remark

is
Beatitude our Lord
not uttering a blessing upon
the spirit of pessimism or on the melancholic temper.
There are men who are by nature pessimists, whose natural disposition leads them to see and to dwell upon
the darker side of
life.
And
Such
there are others
who
not,
are
in
naturally optimists.
dispositions
have
themselves, any moral value, no
more than the
fact of
having an
artistic
temperament.
A man
is
no better
102

than
because he instinctively sees the sorrows of

another
is
life,
because he sees
its joys.
Whatever moral
value attaches to them, springs from the effort of the

will to
overcome the
faults
and weaknesses that neces
sarily
spring from any onesided and imperfect view of
things.
We
cannot therefore suppose that this Beatitude
is
the expression of the sympathy of the
man
of sorrows
with pessimism, or with
men by
nature melancholy.
it
No
doubt most of us have known what
is
when
our ears have been weaned with the frothy chatter of

superficial
optimism,
in
times of sorrow and
distress
to turn to the sad tones of the pessimist as being
some
turn
that
thing finer
and
truer.
And
yet in other
moods we
from them with anger and resentment.

such a temper
is
is
We
feel
not true.
it
Its
appearance of courage
all
deceptive and unreal,

all its
poisons
the springs of
life
and discolours
beauty, and often degenerates into
discontent, cynicism
and
unbelief.
There
is
no Beatitude on such mourning
as this,
it
brings no blessing either upon the mourner himself or
upon those with whose sorrows he would sympathise. Each of these dispositions indeed if schooled and

disciplined has
103
its
place and
it
its
work amongst mankind.

and
refuses to close
But only
its
in so far as
faces facts
are.
eyes to things as they

felt
The joyous
nature that
has tasted sorrow and
the smart of pain and borne
with courage
purified
life s
difficulties,
comes out mellowed,
and strengthened,
is
his laughter has lost that
that uproarious vulgarity

is
so offensive, his language

filled
free
from exaggeration, and
with the strong

is
tones of hope and inspiration, and he
able to cheer
And a burden. many a sad heart and lighten many forced himself the man who, naturally melancholy, has
recompenses, and to lay with hold of the joys that others see, and to rejoice as well as to weep with them that do
to look for
and
to find
life s
them
rejoice,
that weep, finds his
and widened, sympathies enlarged

lost,
and knows that he has not
but gained infinitely
for himself but both in knowledge and power, not only

"
for others.
There has sprung up
for
him a
him
light in
is
the darkness and joyful gladness for

of
heart."
that
true
His pessimism
is
robbed of every element
of exaggeration
and
discontent.
His character has
of cloud and sunshine that gained just that blending
makes the whole land
fertile.
io4

fact is that
For the
is
each of these types of character

is
merely the raw material which

virtues, if
capable of produc
sanctified
faults.
ing great
and,
disciplined
and
by grace,
if left to itself,
generates
its
own
And
it is
impossible to say that one of
them
is
more productive
its
of virtue than the other.
Each has produced

is
Saints.
The
Beatitude therefore
uttered
is
not upon the
material out of which character
formed, but upon
so use the sorrows and sufferings they experience as to carve upon that material the design of God.
the
men who
We
need not pride ourselves upon the fact that we
naturally take a
more joyous view of
life
than some
others, or, on the other hand, that
we
see deeper than

is
many
let
into
its
sorrows.
The
question
rather,
how
do we take the
sufferings
when they come ?

will,
Do we
them do with us what they
and
affect us just in
the
us,
which such things have a tendency to affect or do we rise up and meet them, realising that they
way
in
cannot harm us without our
own
consent
in
Now
it
is
undoubtedly true that

not a few
our
its
modern
arts
civilisation there are

gifts to avoid, or
who
use
all
and
escape from everything that interferes

with their enjoyment.
105
They
evils
look upon pain and of

life,
sorrow
as
the only
all
real
evils
to
be
avoided at
costs.
little
They wish
as possible,
to see
and hear of
the world
is
these things as
full
and
if
them and they cannot help hearing of the troubles of others, they use every means in their power
of
to shield themselves
from
their approach.
They
will
quench the
first
smart of pain by the deadening
in
fluence of anaesthetics,
and
fly
from sorrow into the

or dissipation.
wild forgetfulness of
amusement
These
Their
in
are the chief things which they fear and dread.
whole
life
is
one constant
flight
from that which
truth cannot be avoided, or a seizing with a reckless
disregard of consequences upon any instrument with
which
last,
for a
moment they can

in
drive
them
off,
till
at
enfeebled, demoralised
and without resources

like a flood
their
enemy comes
whelms them.
For every
upon them
and over
effort
to escape results at the
most
in
postponing the evil day, and often the gathering tide
sweeps away the barriers that were set against

ing
it,
bear
them down with
relentless force
and with accumu

is
lated
agony upon the helpless creature that
crushed,
io6
beaten and defeated in the fearful wreckage that over
whelms
For
it.
it is
the lot of
all
men
!
to
meet and be tested by
sorrow and suffering

their strength
alas
for those
who have
spent
and exhausted
their resources in the
vain effort to avoid them.
They have
treated these
mighty powers
their
as their enemies,
and have made them
enemies indeed.
there are others
And
who with
a morbid and un
healthy mind feed themselves upon their sorrows, their

failures,
their
sufferings,
and
revel in the luxury of
melancholy.
To some men
there, forth
sorrow acts as a stimulant
and drives
there
is
to help the world, to others

selfishness.
no greater source of
There are
than men,
not a few, more

into
tion,
commonly perhaps
women
whose
lives, full
of kindliness and unselfish devo
a great sorrow has

effect,
stupefying
driving
come with a deadening and them in upon themselves in

Their only wish
If
morbid and self-centred sadness.

henceforth
in
is
to shut themselves in with their grief.
time
life s interests
and
possibilities
begin to appeal
as a temptation
to
them they turn from them almost
to disloyalty.
They make
their grief a narcotic
which
107
numbs and deadens them
to the claims of life
and duty.
How
often too physical suffering has been the cause of

life.
a selfish and exacting
There are few
sights sadder
than to see a person

selfish fall
ill-health,
little
who once was devout and un

effects of
little
gradually under the demoralising the luxuries which illness needs,
by
breaking down habits of self-discipline and un

built edifice of the spiritual
life,
dermining the carefully

till
the whole horizon of the soul becomes contracted
and narrowed under the influence of an

selfishness.
exacting
To
such persons, to whichever of these classes they

belong,
may
they
our Lord
"
words must come with a
startling surprise
shall
Blessed are they that mourn, for

".
be comforted
He
within
tells
the world that sorrow and suffering have

latent
them the
power of bringing
to those
It
who
is
have to bear them, Beatitude

bracing
call to
happiness.
look their troubles in the face, to study

interest, to stretch forth their
lift
them with a new

and
try
if
hands
they cannot
if
the dark veil that cloaks
them, and see

pitiless as
the forms beneath are so cruel and

It
they seem.
makes a man pause indeed
io8

from trouble when he
it
in his flight
is
told that
it is
not
what
or
it
seems, that
comes not
is
to hurt but to bless,

s
if it
does hurt,
it
with the surgeon
knife that
only hurts to heal.
And
it
surely
is
a great thing, in a world so
full
of
misery, where the lot of
many
is
cast in dark places,
nay, where
it is
certain that every
one
will
some time
or other have to bear his share of sorrow and pain, to
know
that these things are not meaningless or useless,

fate,
the result of
or of the indifference of a
God who
is
too great or too far off to heed the piteous cry of His
creatures.
In this Beatitude our

It is
Lord declares the very opposite

It is
not purposeless.
not inconsistent with Love.

forces.
It is
not merely the action of blind and mindless

It is
Suffering has a purpose.
not only the most search

its
ing test of character,
it
has a revelation of
it,
own
to
give to the soul that will receive
a revelation which
nothing
else
can give.
Behind the suffering stands
One who comes

have to bear
to comfort the sufferer, calling to

is
him
to receive such consolation as

"
well worth
all
he
may
Come
and
unto Me,
I
all
ye that labour and
are heavy laden,
will give
you
rest".
So He

pleads with the soul
turn to
109
Me
and you
shall learn
what you could never learn otherwise, the gentleness, the sympathy and the tenderness of God towards the
creature of His
Hand.
is
In
human
relations there
nothing like suffering to
show us who are our
friends.
Some whom we
trusted
from depart and leave us, others

nothing,
whom we
expected
we
get much.
It is
an experience worth a
kindness good deal of suffering to learn the unexpected To many it has been a revelation. It it draws forth.
has shown us a gentleness and sympathy in people in
whom we
least
expected to find
it.
Many
man who
has had the character of being hard and inconsiderate

himself almost like has, in presence of suffering, revealed
a different being.
There are children who have never
known
their
their parents, wives

till
who have never known

came and broke through
husband
suffering
the reserve that concealed a deep and rich side of their

nature,
and they might have lived and died without ever disclosing it, if suffering had not come and forced
them
to reveal
it.
Yes, the chamber

grave, the
of sickness
and death, the open
shadow of an overwhelming sorrow, the

wreck of
life s
hopes and fortunes, has brought to

joy than sorrow, for they have been
many
man more
the means of breaking

souls apart,
down
the barriers that kept two

to
and of showing
each what was hidden

s character,
away
in the
depths of the other
or shut in
It
behind an impenetrable pride and reserve.
cannot
such
be doubted that there are not a few to

sorrows have been turned into joy
light
whom
the joy of finding
and love and sympathy where
it
was
least expected.
And humanly
speaking nothing but the crushing hand

it.
of suffering could have done

Suffering then, in
human
human
power
shall
relations, acts as the instru
ment of revealing the deepest and

are hidden
noblest things that

If there
away
in
character.
be love
or kindness or the
of
sympathy
in that strong
hard reserved man,
perhaps never
know
it
unless
some one who
is
near and dear to him

in
suffers.
And
have
of God.
holy.
it is
the
same
a certain sense with God.
We
all
been taught from our childhood the attributes
We know that He is Almighty, All wise, All We see the reflection of His Power, His Wisdom
in the
and His Bounty

veals the
world
;
that, like
a picture, re
mind of the
artist
we
learn through our faith

His Character as revealed
Gentleness, His Mercy.
in Jesus Christ,
His Love, His

in the
Yet many a man

life
joy of
living or in the struggle of
has very
little
personal
knowledge of
God and
little
personal relations with
Him.
He
accepts what his faith teaches him, but his

little
is
experience teaches him

our faith teaches us of
or nothing.
Yet what
Him
but to open the
way
for
a more intimate and personal knowledge.

is
For there
the revelation that

is
God has given
to His Church,
and there
the revelation that
He
gives to each indi
vidual soul
who knows Him and
loves
Him.
No
person
can reveal himself

thetic
it
fully to a multitude,
however sympa
is
may
be.
He
can only show himself as he

that rules the universe
I
is
to a friend.
The God
my
God
in
prayer and Communion

enter into
learn
to
know
Him,
to
His mind, to
feel
something of
His Love.
But there
tion
still.
is
a deeper, closer, more intimate revela

revelation of
The
God
is
as the
Comforter of
those
who
suffer.
The mind
so impressed with the

it is
thought of His greatness and power, that

it
hard
for
to grasp the deep reality of all that

in
is
revealed of
His Character
Jesus Christ.
We
read
how He
ii2
wept by the grave of Lazarus, how

compassion at the sight of
He was moved
how
with
suffering,
the cry of
sorrow was never unheard, but
we
scarcely realise that
these attributes of tenderness and loving compassion

are the attributes of the Eternal
God which
all
are being
revealed to us.
in
This
is
the Creator of
things,
is
who
His strength setteth
fast
the mountains and
girded
about with power,
who
sheds tears of sympathy over
the grave of Lazarus.

It is to
those
who
lie
under the shadow of suffering

reality
;
to
whom
all this
becomes a
to
if
they
will turn to
Him
and open
Him
their grief they get to
know
another side of the Character of
God
not His power
and might, but His pity and compassion, His tender

ness and sympathy.
strong
It is as
life,
though we knew some

could control the multi
man
in public
who
tude by his sheer force of character, and whose clear

intellect
tion,
and strong
will
bore
down
before
it all
opposi
man who was mainly known to the world for his indomitable strength, and we were to see such a man by
a
the bedside of his dying child, tender as a

his strength
woman,
all
and
force for the
moment
It
lost sight
of in
the utmost gentleness and love.
would be a
revela-

tion
113
we should
feel that
we had never
really
known
the
man before. And so it is with God
on weary beds of
in
sickness,
through feverish nights of suffering,

despair, to
hours of dark
the world has
men and women from whom
turned with scorn, in
homes of grinding poverty, He has

is.
come and shown what manner of Being He

shame that some have learnt
to
It
has been amidst strange surroundings of misery and
know God
as they never
knew Him
before.
The
sense of solitude and helpless
ness, the consciousness of utter
weakness, drives the soul
to turn to to God,
some one, and

feels that
finding
no human help it turns

all it
and
it
was worth
had
to suffer
to gain such consolation
and such a
revelation.
There
is
a knowledge of
God
therefore that
we can
if
get only upon the condition of suffering.

there be such,
this
Those,
who have never suffered
will
never attain
will
knowledge.
Those who have never wept

it
never know what
is
for
God
to wipe
away
all
tears
from their eyes.

not to
feel,
Those who try
to steel themselves
or school themselves to indifference, are
closing the door against a great blessing and a great

revelation.
Our
religion
is
not meant to
make
us less
n4
sensitive to

the
many
trials
and sorrows of
it
life
it
makes the heart more

nature
sensitive, for
It lays it
makes our whole
more
refined.
open rather to greater
possibilities of suffering.
less
religious
man
will
not
feel
but perhaps more than an irreligious
man
the un-
kindness and misunderstandings of those about him.
His religion
his nerves,
in proportion
as
it
is
real will
not blunt
nor harden his heart, nor deaden his senses,
but the reverse.

other
He
will feel
life.
man
the sorrows of
more keenly than any Our Lord was not in

with which
different to the cruelty
and
injustice
He was
treated
He
felt it
more than we can perhaps imagine,

brood
because of the intense delicacy and refinement of His

nature.
But our
religion forbids us to
in bitter
ness over what

steel
we have
to endure, or to set our face like

feel
it
and harden ourselves to
less
it
bids us
turn to
God
for consolation
and strength.
It
teaches us
whose Ear we may pour out our complaints without fear of bitterness or hardness, and He will teach us how to be at once sensitive and gentle
that there
is
One
into
and strong.
not for those
The
Beatitude
risen
is
for
the mourners;
who have
above or sunk below
the power of mourning, but
for those
who
still
can

feel
115
the smart of suffering, the
wounds
inflicted
by
others.
"
Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be
com
forted."
In the light of these words the world looks
life that harden so many, and crush so many more, have the power of raising those who meet them aright into a state of Beatitude
different.
The
troubles of
in the intimate
companionship of One who can turn

joy.
their
sorrow into
receive
bring.
They bring to those who will it a knowledge of God that nothing else can To them God is no longer merely the imper
sonation of strength and wisdom and power, but of

gentleness and
sympathy and love. Such persons do not indeed gain any
clearer
it is
know
ledge of the mystery of suffering

or what
fruits,
is its
why
permitted
its
cause
but they do better, they reap
and with unruffled calm and strong confidence

lot.
endure the sufferings that are their
V.
BLESSED ARETHEY THAT HUNGER AND THIRST AFTER JUSTICE, FOR THEY SHALL HAVE THEIR
FILL.
V.
BLESSED ARE THEY THAT HUNGER AND THIRST AFTER JUSTICE, FOR THEY SHALL HAVE THEIR FILL.
THE
that
Catholic faith unquestionably develops in the soul

is
true to
its
need teaching a sense of sin and the

is
of penitence and self-sacrifice such as
known
in
in
no
other form of Christianity.
She holds up
her great
standard of virtue religious orders the highest

secration,
and con
and
in
her doctrine of Purgatory and Indul
the minds of her children the gences she keeps before to the penitent. Forgive consequences of sin even
ness does not restore the penitent to the
as the innocent
;
same
position
the temporal consequences of sin

life
must
be endured either in this
or the next before the
soul can be admitted to the vision of
God.
The
life
of
man on
there
is
earth
must be the
life
of penitence.
And
yet
no
full of joyousness religion so
and brightness
120

All
as the Catholic Church.
who
witness
its effects at,
upon her children

are even disedified
that strikes those
feel this;
many wonder
one of the
it
many
things
by
it.
It is
first
who have
entered
after experienc
ing
some other imperfect form of
Christianity.
is
Every
over
other religion, at least in the Western world,
shadowed by a more or
dark creed of Calvin.
less
is
developed form of the
Life
dark enough and hard

it
enough as
it is
the Catholic faith floods

It
with light
full
and joy and hope.
impresses at once to the

its
the
sterner side of religion, and
power of bringing joy-
ousness and peace.

It is
the
enemy
of morbidness and scruple, which
haunt the footsteps of so many who are striving to be

good.
Now
the
first
three Beatitudes which
we have been
considering have, undoubtedly, taken simply as they
were uttered, a tendency to produce morbidness and

introspection.
There does not seem to be much

life
light
or brightness in a
based upon the
spirit of poverty,
meekness and mourning.
Take them
as they are
life,
meant
to be, the foundations of the spiritual
and
take them alone, and what could the result be but a
BLESSED ARE THEY THAT HUNGER

piteously sad
121
and disconsolate
character, uncongenial,
morbid and
joyless.
Therefore they have to be tested, to

sure before the soul goes farther
fulfil its
make
quite
on
its
way and can
work
as the teacher of mercy, the peacemaker,

rightly
the one
tion,
and healthily endure persecu whether these first Beatitudes have produced
morbidness or an unhealthy view of
life
who can
any
taint of
and the world.
And
the test
is
the fourth Beatitude
"
Blessed are
they that hunger and

soul preserved a
thirst after justice
".
Has
the
good healthy appetite

test
it
for spiritual
;
things
Till
it
has passed this

its
cannot go on
there
is
something amiss in
poverty or meekness
or mourning,
and
it
cannot develop under the laws of
the other Beatitudes.

ill,
A man
cannot be very seriously
physically,
who has
a healthy appetite for his food,
neither can one be spiritually far

for spiritual things
is
wrong whose appetite normal and healthy and on the

;
other hand,
if
the spiritual appetite

it
fail,
or
is
in
any
way abnormal,
thing
is
may
be taken for granted that some
amiss.
it is
Now
worth noticing that
in that
compendium of
122

life
the devotional
given by our Lord, the Lord s Prayer,

its
there
acter
is
a petition which corresponds both in

position with this Beatitude.
first
char
and
There are
the three petitions which turn the

place
it
soul directly to to receive
God and
"
in the right attitude

"
His
gifts
"
Hallowed be
will
Thy name,
".
"
Thy
Kingdom
come,"
Thy
be done
Then
there are
the last three petitions for the three great needs of the
soul itself, forgiveness, protection
and deliverance, and
the fourth, like the fourth Beatitude, has to do with
food
central
side.
is
"
Give us
this
day our daily bread
".
It is
the
petition, balancing the other three

It is in
on either
the devotional
life
what the Beatitude
in the spiritual.
it
The
test of the soul s health, the

its
it
prayer that
may
receive
food from the
Hand
of
God, and consequently that
may
not feed upon any
food which does not come from His Hand.
So with
the Beatitude, Blessed are they whose spiritual appe

tite
has not been destroyed by overfeeding upon earthly
or heavenly things, or whose spiritual efforts have not
been so unwisely or unhealthily made as to interfere

with
its
hunger and
thirst after
God.
It,
in fact, as
we
shall
see, controls
and regulates the feeding of
123
man s whole
room
nature,
body and
takes
its
soul, in
such a manner
that the spiritual

for its
life
proper place and has
due and healthy development.

did not leave
Now God
food,
man
to discover for himself

in the choice
the law that was to control
him
of his
and
in the order in
which he was to feed the
different parts of his

threefold, body, soul
complex nature.
His nature
it
is
and mind, or
at least
may
be so
considered for practical purposes, and the
life
and health
of each of these depends upon
its
feeding upon healthy
food, and the health of the whole person depends upon
these different parts being fed in due order and with
proper consideration for the

if
it
rest.
The body
will die
be not fed, and mind and soul equally need

;
nourishment
if
the
mind never
studies or disciplines
if
itself to think, its
powers soon die of atrophy, and
the soul takes no spiritual food, never turns to
God
in
prayer and
faith, it will die.
In the Garden of
the very start of his
Eden God
life,
laid
down
;
for
man, at
the law of food
and history
his
shows us that upon obedience to that law depends

well-being.
For
his
body there were
all
the trees of the garden
124

for his soul there
of which he might freely eat

tree of
life in
was the
the midst of the garden.
But there was
another
evil,
it
tree,
the tree of the knowledge of good and
and of
this
God
said to him,
"
Thou
shalt not touch

it
or eat
it,
for in the
day
".
in
which thou eatest of

tree of the
thou shalt die the death
The
knowledge
intellect.
of good and evil appealed to the mind, the

It
contained a mystery which could be solved by par

its
taking of
fruits.
Hitherto
man
only
knew good
the fruit of this tree would give
good and
lies
evil.
At
the
him the knowledge of base of the human mind there

all
the desire to know, the source of
progress, lash
ing the mental powers on to probe and search and
examine.
It
may
sink
it
it
down
to the
mere
curiosity of
the village gossip:

saint to
it
is,
may
sets
rise to
the longing of the

or abused, but there
know God
force
may be used
the
the
that
powers of the mind
working and keeps them awake.

this desire is not in itself
And
needless to say
it is
wrong
on the contrary,
God-given and good, part of the equipment of

nature for
life.
man s
In this desire to
unfallen state,
know
lay the danger to
man
in his
and the
tree of the
knowledge of good

and
evil objectively
125
appealed to him to gratify the de
sire in
way
that
was forbidden by God.

and
This con
stituted his temptation.
plucked of the
fruit
And we know the result. He ate. He overturned the order

mind
to the detriment of his
of nature and fed the
highest spiritual interests.

his intellectual
He
put the satisfaction of
hunger and
thirst after
knowledge be
God.
fore the hunger

sacrificed
and
thirst of his soul for
He
himself and his best interests to the desires
of one part of his nature.
The
intellect
and mental
development
powers have their

of
office
life,
and place
but
it is
in the
man
personal
the height of folly to
sacrifice his personal welfare to
any part of himself, and
this
he did.
He
was ready
to feed his intellect
and
!
satisfy his desire to
know
at
all costs.
He
found, alas
antici
too
late,
that the cost

It
was heavier than he had
pated.
was the
loss of the indwelling
Presence of
God, and the

tion of
all
loss of that interior
union and co-opera

to God.
his
powers
to lead
him
He
was no
longer at
flesh
one with God, nor at one with himself.

to lust
The
began
against
the spirit and the spirit
against the flesh.
The Divine order
of his nature was
overthrown and the lower parts began to assert their
126
higher. The powers and passions, broken loose from the restraining presence of God, seemed as it were to gain a life of their own, and to
live for their
demands against the
own
ends, not for the well-being of the
person
who
possessed them. Fallen
man
found himself
no longer able to control or hold together the mani

fold
powers that once co-operated throughout the vast
empire of his being.
He
had by
his
own
act broken
it
up
this inner unity,
never in this
life
to regain
again
in its fulness.
And
sorts of
this,
which has
laid
human
nature open to
it
all
degrading
vices,
and made
oftentimes the
result,
slave of ungoverned passions,
was the
not of
some
gross carnal sin, but of failing to exercise the law
of self-restraint in the matter of feeding the mind.
The
intellectual life considered

rest of
as the only real
life
if it
and separated from the

were the whole of
everything else
it,
man s
nature as
a thing to live for and sacrifice

lead to the most unexpected
for,
may
and humiliating
as the physical
results.
life,
The
intellectual
life,
as truly
must be
lived in subordination to
is
man
highest interest and true end, which
that of a
spiritual being living for
God.
To
consider mental

growth and development,
in the
127
ordinary meaning of
the terms, as the end and aim of
man s
life,
is
to
overturn
the order of Nature.
He who
feeds his
mind
at the
expense of his
spirit
consequences, and the consequences

shall
must abide by the will not be that he

self, shall
be
filled,
but that he, his truest
find too
late a
hunger of his nature that no earthly knowledge
can
satisfy.
The law
of food then laid
down by God
fall,
at the
beginning of
human
life,
even before the
was that
man must
practise self-denial
and
self-restraint in the
feeding of that part of his nature whose appetites are
most strongly
itself at
felt
and which
if left
to itself
would feed
the expense of his higher nature, in fact at the
expense of the welfare of the person.
The danger
in the
to
un fallen man
lay,
not in the body, but
mind.
The body had

of
not yet broken loose from
the government of reason and conscience, the indwell

ing presence
balance.
God
held body and soul in perfect
But the longing of the mind to know more

seen,
is
and more, which, as we have

our nature and in
itself
an integral part of
good, laid
man open
it
to the
for-
temptation to search for knowledge where
was
128
LIFE
bidden, and to refuse to accept the limitations placed
upon
it
by the Divine command.
That which
is
in
deed one of the greatest sources of
man s
strength,
considered merely as an intellectual being, became the

source of
being.
all
his
weakness as a moral and
spiritual
And
that primary law given in
Eden
before the
fall
remains the law of

earthly
life.
man s
food throughout his whole

self-denial in
Every one must practise
feeding some part of
his nature, often indeed not
merely
self-denial but a rigorous fast, if
he would duly develop

for himself
his
whole person.
Each one knows
where
that self-denial needs to be practised.

to
What is a danger
One needs
strict
one
is
no danger
at all to another.
self-denial
with the body, another with the mind, an
other with the heart.
But
since the
fall
and the consequent
loss of
union
and co-operation of all the parts of our nature working

together for the development and perfection of the
person, the law of fasting
further.
It
is
and
self-denial reaches
still
impossible to satisfy
all
the desires of our
nature, for they run in different, often in directly oppo-

site
129
ways.
To
satisfy the desires of
one part necessi

"
tates the refusal to satisfy those of another.

flesh lusteth against the spirit
The
and the
spirit
against
the
do the things that ye would." Consequently, even apart from religion, there is no
flesh,
so that ye cannot
man
life,
living
who
sets himself to
do anything with
his
even
if it
be merely to
is
live for the
enjoyment of the
body, except he
prepared to fast.
Each
of us
must
choose for ourselves what
we
shall live for,
and with
that choice there necessarily follows the law of fasting
and
self-denial.
One man
life
decides that the intellectual

living,
life is
the only
worth
he
will live the life
of
thought and study, and forthwith he finds that there

are within
him
desires that reach

in his way.
will live
ward that stand

to
life
He
upward and down must refuse to yield

full
them
if
he
wholly and to the
the
he has chosen.
if
There are
desires of the flesh
which
sires
satisfied
cloud the
intellect.
There are de
of the spirit which curb and check
him
in
many
the
ways.
He
learns
quickly that he cannot
live
life he has chosen unless he is prepared to practise a rigorous self-denial both of the body and of the
spirit.
i 3o

ridicules the idea of all self-denial,
is
Or another
and
says the only thing worth living for

that
the enjoyment
comes through the indulgence of the senses and But he forgets that he is not a mere of the flesh.
animal.
tion
Other desires
will
it
rise
and clamour
for satisfac
whether he
or not.
There are
moments
when
the flesh palls and conscience cries aloud for the mind, drugged and
for
better things, or
stupefied,
is
awakens and craves

life
food.
stricter
Indeed there
no
that
is
lived
under
and more exacting

sensualist
rules
of self-denial
than that of the

is
or
all
pleasure seeker, albeit the fasting

that
is
a fast from
all
best worth having and against
the laws
of reason.
The
Christian law of fasting thus merely sets before
the world that, fasting being a necessary law of our

nature under
science
its
present conditions, reason and con

that the fasting should be reasonable,
demand
the denial to satisfy the desires of any part of our
nature whose
that
is
demands are
in
antagonism to our
truest,
It is
our personal and spiritual, development. a life-long advantage for a
folly to sacrifice
moment s
pleasure.
It is
greater folly to sacrifice eternal enjoy-

ment
for
131
temporary pleasures.
It is folly
to sacrifice
the enjoyments of the
mind
for those of the
body,
still
greater to sacrifice spiritual
joys
and the power of

Christian law of
entering into
them
for either.
The
food therefore merely bids us live according to the

dictates of reason.
And
of
the Beatitude formulates this

the
law in assuring us
"
happiness
it
ensures
Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after justice,
for
they
shall
have
their
fill
".
But
again.
No
sooner had
Adam
fallen
than he was
driven forth from the Paradise of Peace into a world

of conflict and struggle.
Indeed he could no longer

suited to the
have stayed there.
The environment
development of unfallen
to
man was
in
no way suited
in a state of
difficulties
him
in his fallen condition.
His nature
inner conflict and strife needed to
meet the
of the outer world, that in fighting
gain power over himself, in
them he might conquering them he might

inward and out
gain the victoiy over himself.
Yet
so great
was the
contrast, both
ward, with the past, that there was the danger of des
pair.
He
had
failed
in
the days of his innocence,

for the future
what hope could he have
now
that he
9*
i32

fallen.
had
The
light that
shone within was as the

with
the radiant glory
dimmest
twilight
compared
that illuminated
every faculty of his soul from the
indwelling presence of
light within
God
and the
loss of that clear
changed the appearance of external things
they deceived him.

tuitive
He
their
no longer possessed that
in
meaning and their end that once was his. This poor exile at war with himself found himself amidst surroundings and forces that
knowledge of
seemed arrayed against him
then
if filled
for his ruin.

"
No wonder
me
with despair he cried,

".
It is better for
to die than to live
But then the cravings of hunger
came upon him, and the instinct of self-preservation bid him arise and struggle for food, and the kindly
earth responded to his touch.
And
as he
worked
his
nature woke from

sibilities
its
stupor and despair, he saw pos
within himself and in the world around him
unfolding before him, and as he beheld the fruits of his

labour in a changing world and a kindling mind, he
would
recall those
words of God ere he was cast out
of Eden, words that seemed harsh and that spoke as of a penalty, but which
against listlessness
now he knew
to be the
remedy
and
despair, the power that alone

him
and hope
133
could give
ness.
interest
said,
in
the hour of dark
God had
".
"In
the sweat of thy face shalt

better than he
all
thou eat bread

himself,
Knowing man
knew
sides,
and the dangers that beset him on

together for fallen
If
God bound
man
the law
of food
and of labour
if
you
will
not work you cannot eat,
you do not eat you must die. And the necessity to work for one
s living
has been
the
to
remedy
for
many an
to
evil,
the
means of revealing
multitudes dormant powers and

blessing
unknown
race.
gifts
a
s
veritable
the
human
For
God
punishments here on earth are never merely penal,

they are remedial, and
many who have murmured

them
little
against the lot that forced
to
work so hard
to
keep body and soul together
knew how necessary
the lash of hunger was, to discover to themselves their
powers and make them give them to the world.
It is
under the stimulating influence of work that timidity
and morbid
self-distrust are
lifts
overcome and the cloud

away.
of dark despair
and
rolls
No
one knows
what
if
is
in
him
till
he
tries,
and many would never try
they were not forced
to.
But the law,
"In
the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat
134

applies not merely to the food of the
spirit.
bread,"
body,
feed
but to the food of mind and
You cannot
your mind,
in the true sense of the

soul.
word, without labour,
nor can you feed your
What
the true
labour
it
has cost the

false
human mind
to separate
from the
in that
mixed condition of
tree
things
consequent
upon eating of the
of the
Truth seems often en good and evil. mesh of The wheat wrapped falsehood. tangled up in the chaff, light and darkness so mingled that we
knowledge of
in a
live in a
land of twilight, through which here and there

seen.
some bright points of truth make themselves
The outward appearance

labour
it
of things deceives us.
What
has cost us to learn to
know
things as they
are, instead of as
they seem.
And
not one atom of
truth has been given the

at the cost of long
in
human
race to feed upon save
and wearisome mental labour, and

"
obedience to the law,

bread".
"
In the sweat of thy face

as true of the
shalt thou eat
It is
mind
as
of the body,
If a
man
will
not work neither shall
he eat
gained
".
Only that
ourselves
knowledge which we
or
have
for
made
our
own by hard
135
mental work can really feed so as to nourish and

develop the mind.
And
it is
true equally of the spirit.
We cannot
feed
our souls with spiritual food save at the cost of labour.
The Divine
teaches authority with which the Church

is
us the Truths of Revelation
not meant to save us the
trouble of thinking for ourselves, those truths will only
have a
life-giving
dividual in so far
power of nourishment as he has made them
for the in
his
own by
painstaking thought and

faith.
by the
spiritual
exercise of
He who
labours hardest and exercises himself
most
in the spiritual conflict will feed
with most
satis
faction
on the Bread of
Life.
Often no doubt the
failure to receive grace proportionate to our frequent
communions
exercise.
results
from lack of appetite, through lack of

in
Even, therefore,
s
regard to the Heavenly

laid
food of our Lord

for fallen
Body, the law

"
down
in
Eden
men
applies,
".
In the sweat of
Thy
face shalt
thou eat bread
These two laws then
in
regard to food were laid

first at
down
for
man by God
life
Himself, the
the very
beginning of his
the law of self-denial.

life,
The
second at the beginning of his new
and as he
136

all
entered upon
those conditions both outward and
inward
labour.
which resulted
from
the
fall
the
law
of
But there was yet another. As the human race God seeing that the wicked spread and developed,
"
ness of
men was
great in the earth, and that

evil
all
the
thoughts of their hearts were bent upon

ally,
it
continu
repented
Him
that
He had made
man,"
and
He sent the flood And as Noe came

said to
earth.
to punish
forth
and to purify the
earth.
him:
"Increase,
upon the new world, God and multiply, and fill the
And
let
the fear of you, and the dread of

earth,
you, be upon every beast of the
and upon
every fowl
the earth:
of the
all
air,
upon
all
that
sea
moves
are
upon
the fishes of
the
delivered
liveth
into your hand.

shall
I
Every
thing that
moveth and
be meat for you: even as the green herb have
delivered
them
all
to
you
"
saving that flesh with

shall
blood ye shall not
eat."
The blood ye
pour
out upon the earth like
water."
By
day
the act of disobedience
man had
fallen
under the
"
penalty of which
God had forewarned

ye
shall die the
him,
".
In the
ye eat thereof
death
He
had

that great gift, the
137
lost
crown of
original justice
the indwelling Presence of God.
Compared with what

years of his
of his
life
he had been, even
in the long
life
of
penance, he was dead.
The glory
had de
in
parted from him.

the
"
And
the
he was reminded of this
new
life
which he was about to

is
start after the flood.

eat."
The blood which
life
thou shalt not
He
for
must never forget
his loss,
he must wait and pray
the restoration of the gift which he had forfeited through

eating what was
forbidden.
life,
He must
not eat the

it
blood which
is
the
and as he poured
out upon
the earth he would be reminded of his sin and punish
ment, death
"
In the
It
day that ye eat thereof ye
shall die the
".
does not always follow that people under
stand the meaning and reason of
God s commands;
are not only
some
of
s
them we
shall
perhaps never understand.

feel sure,
But God
commands, we may
reasonable, but have the power of effecting their pur
pose in those
who
devoutly and humbly obey them,
even though they do not
understand them.
The
law was the pedagogue to bring men unto Christ.
Those who obeyed

trained,
it
in
the
spirit
of faith were
unconsciously to themselves, in
methods of
138

and thought which led them
did not understand
its
life
in
fact
to
Christ
They
purpose, nor could they
possibly
understand
it
as
yet,
but
God knew His

it,
own purpose and

be trained.
the best
way
to effect
and
He
placed them under these commands that they might
So with the command

the earth.
to
pour out the blood upon
No
doubt
in
time the reason for the

if it
com
mand would be
forgotten,
was ever understood,
but taken with the system of the law, entering as it did into their daily life as a Divine command, it would
create, or at least help to preserve, the impression of a
life lost
that
was
to be restored,
and to stimulate
their
hope
all
for the
coming of the Messias who should
restore
things.
These three laws with the moral and

principles that underlay them,
spiritual
and which were
to
be
produced by them, were
laid
down by God
for
His
people from the Fall to the Incarnation.
Then on the eve
of the Passion as
He
sat with
His
disciples at the last supper,

it
He
"
took bread and broke
and
"
said,
it
This
is
My
Body,"
and
He
took wine
and poured
out saying,
This
is
My
Blood of the
139
new Covenant which shall be shed

unto the remission of sins
;
for
you and
all
for
".
drink ye
of
it
many And
His
disciples,
brought up
as they
had been under the

Drink the Blood.
law, would have looked amazed.
Why,
the Blood
it.
is
the
life,
and the law forbade them
But the time had come; the years of The woman s seed was there waiting were at an end. to give back in all its fulness the life that had been
to drink
forfeited
by
disobedience.
"
For
this
is
the testimony
that
is
God hath
His Son
;
given unto us eternal
life,
and
this Life
Life,
"
in
He
that hath the
Son hath
Life."
and
He
that hath not the
Son hath not

flesh
Except
blood, ye
therefore ye eat
My
and drink
My
have no
life
in
you."
Regenerate
man
received that
indwelling Presence of
God
to heal the
wounds and
Fall,
mend
the
disorders
consequent upon the
and
the blood of the second
Adam
shed and given to
him was
at
once to nourish and remind him of that
new
life.
O wondrous
Which
Love, that Flesh and Blood
did in
Adam
fail,
Should strive afresh against the foe, Should strive and should prevail.
140

And
that a greater gift than grace flesh and blood refine
Should
God s Presence and His very And Essence all Divine. Thus, in Christ,
that he
Self
man
received in
its
fulness the life
had
lost,
and he had the Bread from Heaven

and found on earth the food
for
for his spiritual food,
mind and body. But the feeding

mained, as
denial
of this threefold nature

well,
still
re
self-
we know
labour.
under the two laws of
and
Now
my
the bodily, mental and spiritual

It is
life is
the
life
of one and the same person.

spirit.
my
body,
my
mind,
The
food enters into and nourishes or
injures the person through
any one of these channels.
The food
it
of the body does not affect merely the body,
affects the
whole Being
and so with that of mind and

I
spirit.
can cloud
and
my lips my mind, dethrone my reason, dishonour How strange it seems that a degrade my soul.
take upon
s
The
material food which
material thing entering as food into one
system can
have such
is
effects
upon that part of our nature which
not material.
Here
is
one who has become utterly
unreliable,
whose word or promise no one can depend

upon, whose moral sense
of taking drugs.
It
life
141
is
warped, through the habit
has run right through every de

of the whole person, leaving the
all,
partment of the
stamp of dishonour and shame on

whole
degrading the
man s
life.
upon which the mind is fed affects not only the mind but the body and the soul. What more evanescent and immaterial than thought ?
Or
again, the food
Yet thought can mind

to
will
affect the bodily health.
healthy
it
produce a healthy body
at least
tends
do so
health.
and unhealthy thought can ruin the bodily Many a man with shattered nerves and
told
its
weakened frame has been
by
his physician that
the cause of his disease and

hands, he can
do nothing
for
remedy lies in his own him unless he can learn

to allow
it
to discipline his
mind and not
to feed
upon
it
unhealthy food.
were,
The thoughts
of the
mind
run, as
upward and downward, and strengthen or relax

life.
the fibre of the spiritual and physical
Indeed the
very flesh of a
man
of middle
life
is
stamped and
more,
seamed and furrowed by
his habits of thought,

acts.
perhaps even than by physical
Often even the
142
carriage and bearing of the bodily frame indicates the
character of the thoughts.
And
led to a
again, the food of the spiritual

;
life affects
both
body and mind

morbid
unhealthy spiritual food has not rarely spiritual life, and an overstrain of mind
and body,
scruples, morbidness, despair.
Many when
they have been led by a wise spiritual guide to change their spiritual food to a more and bracing nourishing diet, have found that it has given them a more vigorous
life
of
body and of mind.
False or imperfect religious

to
systems are not
unknown
have ruined the health,
both mental and physical, of not a few.
For untruth
must always have bad

in
results
upon a nature constructed
eveiy
fibre of its
being
for truth.
And
he who feeds
himself in the highest department of his being upon anything that is not true, or fails to feed upon what is
true,
must expect to
find that the results are evil
and by
harmful to his whole being.

Jesus Christ to His Church,
The
revelation given
when He
bid her teach

I
men
"to
observe all things whatsoever

is
have com
you," enough, and only enough, to ensure our welfare on our earthly journey. If, therefore, of that revelation be withheld or any part
manded
tampered

with, the result
143
must be
loss
of perfect health and
vigour to those
who
are fed upon insufficient or un
healthy food.
Again, what more spiritual than that bread from
Heaven provided by our Lord

sacred Flesh and Blood.
for
His people, His own

it
Yet many feeding upon
unwisely or unworthily, too seldom or too frequently,

or while in a state of
sin,
have gained from
it
not health
but sickness.
St.
Paul warns his Corinthian converts
that because of their unworthy are infirm and
communions
"
many
".
weak amongst you, and many
sleep
And on
the other hand, what multitudes that no

it
man
can number have gained through
vigour of mind
and even of body.
Thus
the food of the spiritual or mental or physical

less
nature affects in greater or
degree the whole man.
For however complex
his being,
however great the
inner conflict of one part against the other,

essentially one.
man
is
Now, the great
struggle for each of us begins

cries out
for food
when
one part of our nature

injure the
rest.
that will
When body
or
mind hungers and
thirsts for that
which the
spirit forbids.
We
are free
i 44

we
will,
to feed ourselves as
but
we must
abide by
the results.
Who
does not know, which of us has not experi
enced, the terrible struggle.
the strongest expressions of

or the
Hunger and thirst are want. The starving man

do
man
parched with
satisfy himself.
thirst in his frenzy will
anything to
Under such circumstances
do deeds which are contrary to every instinct of humanity from which in saner moments they would
will
men
recoil
with horror and disgust.
And
in
whatever part of
it is
their being this
hunger and with the of the thirst, corresponds craving body for food and drink. It is the extreme expression of It seems as if without this food or drink want. they
raging
hunger and
thirst is
and
must
die.
They
crave for
it
as for
is
life.
And
and
yet
kill
to partake of the forbidden food
to poison
what
is
highest in them.
Some
bodily passion alive,
astir like
a hungry beast in the night, cries out for

it.
food,
and the calm voice of conscience forbids

mind,
it
The
heart, the
is
faint
and
athirst with wild desire
for that
which
cannot have save at the terrible cost
of spiritual death.
Many a man
outwardly calm, pass

life,
ing through the great thoroughfares of
taking part

in its
145
business or pleasures,
this
fierce
is
torn and tossed and
maddened by
this
conflict
within
his
it
it
nature.
Will he yield and throw the food for which wild beast within him, or will he starve
till
craves to
into sub
mission and feed his higher nature
it
gains the
mastery?
That
is
the question.
That
is
the question
his
which each must answer for himself to

conscience.
God and
the
Upon
first
the answer
depends
results
whether he
It
will sink or rise.
was the
temptation of our Lord in the wilder
entered upon His public ministry; the the question put by Tempter to test Him whether He
ness ere
He
had anything
the
to fear
from
Him
or not
"
If
Thou be
and feed
Son of God turn these stones

starving
body".
into bread
s
Thy
man
the
And
:
our Lord
calm and clear and strong
answer came Not by bread alone doth
live, but by every word that proceedeth out of mouth of God He takes no heed of the Tempter s
".
"
challenge,
If
Thou be
the
Son of God
".
He
links
Himself on to the human race into which

descended to enter.
alone.
He
had con
Man
shall
not live
by bread
No man
can.
There are higher needs than

it
those of the
flesh,
and there are times when

10
were
146
better to let the
body starve to death than feed it by disobeying any word that proceedeth out of the mouth
of God.
For there
is
a hunger of the
soul.
"
My
soul
thirsteth for Thee,
my
flesh also longeth after
Thee,"
cried the Psalmist.
"Like
as the hart panteth after
the water brooks, so longeth

God."
my
soul after Thee,
Any food given to any

moment deadens
it,
lower part of our nature
that for the
this hunger, or
makes the
soul incapable of satisfying
subverts the whole order

ruin.
It
is
of our nature and works
its
the truest
mercy
to be stern with ourselves, to sacrifice

is
what
is
lowest in us for what
highest.
For as the lower

it
nature
is
constantly refused the food

its
demands,
in
obedience to the higher,

sistent, its
demands become
less in
hunger
less ravenous.
It yields at last in
submission, and the rebellious slave becomes an obedient

servant.
But
if
the
demands of the higher nature be
refused and
it
be sacrificed to the lower, though the

for
hunger and
thirst
God becomes more and more

it
deadened and seems

die.
at last to die,
never really does

it
It is the essential
need of our being, and

its
will
waken
at last to
wreak
vengeance.
terrible
ven-
147
geance.
When
it
may
be in old age
men
find their
great mistake, and as earthly things pass from their
grasp the hungry soul knows too late that
it
can never
be
satisfied,
and the cry

:
for
"
God
soul
is is
not the cry of

athirst for
devotion but of despair
My
God,
but can nowhere find
Him
".
Therefore our Lord lays

life
down
the true law of
man s
on earth
"
Blessed are they that hunger and
thirst after justice, for
they shall have their
fill."
10*
t
VI.
BLESSED ARE THE MERCIFUL, FOR THEY SHALL OBTAIN MERCY.
VI.
BLESSED ARE THE MERCIFUL, FOR THEY SHALL OBTAIN MERCY.

THE
last
Beatitude placed the soul under that law of
self-discipline
and
self-denial
its
by which
it
preserved
and developed amidst and

thirst
manifold desires the hunger

It
is
after
God.
left
gazing
up into
Heaven.
This Beatitude brings
it
down
again to earth.
For
to get us gazing into Heaven will not necessarily help and thirsting after God neces And there.
hungering
for
sitates
working
Him.
For heaven
and earth are bound together by

if
the closest bonds, and
any one
in
his desire earth,
for
Heaven would
will find that
forget or neglect the
work of
he
Heaven soon grows dim, or assumes a

It is
fantastic
and unreal form.

life in
here amidst the con

find ourselves
ditions of our earthly
which we
152

God
is
placed that our hunger for
to be developed,
and our conception of Heaven and made real.
purified, spiritualised
be known and reached, not merely by prayer and immediate communion with Him, but by
is
For God
to
fulfilling
the duties and obligations of
life.
We
do not
stand alone.
Our
;
life is
interwoven with
life
many people
spirit.
and many things it is not the have bodies as well as souls.
of a pure
We
may
We have
to act as well
as to think and love, and though our thoughts
reach to
Heaven they soon become vague, dreamy

unless
and deceptive
action.
they find
an outlet
through
And
thus
we
are tied and
bound
to the people
and
things of earth
by manifold claims and
duties which
we cannot
appetite for
neglect, except at the peril of losing our
heavenly things.
There has been always a tendency with a certain type of mind to consider man as a purely spiritual being, and to ignore, or try to ignore, the body as an integral part of himself and the material things
amidst which he
of his nature and
is its
placed.
Such a
false conception
its
conditions must always bring
BLESSED ARE THE MERCIFUL
153
own
revenge.
Thought must
find expression in action.

facts.
Speculation must be brought to the test of
And
the highest spiritual aspirations of the soul will quickly
evaporate in unreality and self-deception unless they

crystallise in definite virtues
first
and good deeds.

"
"
The
of all the commandments," said our Lord,
is,
Thou
shalt love the
Lord thy God with thy whole

;
heart, thy
is
whole
like
soul,
and thy whole mind
and the second
to this, namely,
thyself."
Thou
shalt love thy neighbour
as
The
it
love
of God, therefore, does not
rest in itself,
sends us forth to do kindly acts to man.

it
If
it
finds
no such expression,
is
unreal and un
true.
"
If
ye love not your neighbour

love
whom ye
have
seen,
how can ye
God whom ye have not
seen."
The
love of Heaven, according to the apostle, the reality of
our relationship to the unseen,
is
proved and tested by
the reality of our relationship to the seen and tangible.
The
forces of
Heaven are
to be applied to
It is
and de
veloped in the things of earth.
indeed true that
we cannot be judged merely by

do.
the things that
we
and
There
is
more
in the heart of the poorest

all
humblest than he can express, but
that
is
in
him
i 54

to express itself
act, just
tries
and goes to make up the value

is
of the
as the expression of the face
the
outcome of countless aims, emotion and

lie
desires that
behind.
Just as
some scene of Nature has more

it
in
it
than the
combination of those things that make

Thoughts that could not be packed
up.
into a single act,
Fancies that broke through language and escaped, All that I could not be, all men ignored in me
This
was worth
to
God whose wheel
the pitcher shaped.
And
is
thus
we
are
bound on
all
sides to the
men and
things around us
by the manifold claims of duty.
And
duty
that which
all
we owe. we
It is the
law of our re
lationships to
that
are in contact with.
We do We
I
not make these for ourselves, no more than we make

the physical laws
find
by which we are surrounded.

I
I
them
here.
have a duty to everything

meet.
I
own,
I
to every person
please, but
fulfil
it.
may
fulfil it
or not, as
if
I
cannot escape the penalty
do not
The broken law avenges person who breaks it.

For
all
itself
upon the
these duties, expressed as they
may be
in the
terms of law, imply a law-giver.
They
are in fact the

Will of God.
155
"The
Law,"
says St. Paul,
"is
holy."
And
duty
is
a holy thing, bringing us into a true re
lationship with
its
God.
If the heart will carry us off in
fiery chariot to
test,
Heaven, duty brings us back to
earth to
to discipline
fulfilling
and
to educate us.
In doing
our duty and
the obligations of
life,
we
are
serving and learning to

in prayer.
know God no
less truly
than
life
Through
the
many
calls
and claims of
our character gets rounded off
in
shapely form and
due proportion, and our knowledge of God enlarged,
widened and deepened.
Peter on the house-top at

;
Joppa had a mysterious vision

himself and lost for the
he was carried out of

in
moment
ecstasy.
Then
came
the call of duty, the knock at the door, the intru
sion of earth
call
upon Heaven.
Had
he neglected the
of duty, which was in fact the appeal of

fellow-creature, he
some un
known
would never have understood
the purport of his mystic
Communion
with God.
life
It
was
in carrying out the practical
work of
that he
learnt its
meaning.
are,
There
no doubt,
special
vocations
to
life
devoted almost entirely to prayer, and those
whom
His
God
calls to
such a
life
He
leads
and
disciplines in
156

in
own way, but except

manifold
ties
such extraordinary cases, the
of
life,
the calls and claims of the people
and things around

to
us, are
meant to
be,
not hindrances
communion with God, nor means
of lessening our
appetite for Divine things, but various
ways through
knowledge of
which the soul

God.
is
to be trained in the
We
have only to
see
the
effect
upon the
character of a person
for
who
neglects his definite duties

is,
prayer to
know how
it
great his loss
and how
his
religion,
when
is
made an end
in itself, instead of a
means by which everything in life is sanctified and elevated, becomes distorted, unreal and a source of selfdeception.
In the
to
all
first
Beatitude
we
are taught our relationship

is
created things, and the ceaseless conflict that
involved in using
them
aright, lest the things
which
should have been for our use become to us an occasion

of
falling.
is
The duty
is
that
is
thus imposed upon each

self-discipline,
of us
one of the greatest sources of

conscious of his
assistance
it
and to the man who
own weakness
and the need of Divine
becomes a means
of forcing him to prayer and
communion with God.

matter apart from
He
quickly
learns
that
in
this
157
God he can do
nothing, and that he can only do his
duty through the help of Christ

him.
who
strengtheneth
But
this
Beatitude brings us into another world.

difficult to deal with, to
world more
know, and to
live
understand.
people,
The world
of men.
We
amongst
good or
learnt
and we
know what
us.
a power for
bad they exercise upon

to
man may have
be master
far
in the
world of things, and

world of people.
indifferent
yet be
very
from master
steel
in the
We
to
can
perhaps
ourselves to be
things.
We
can learn to do without

;
many
things that once
were necessary to us
we can
train ourselves to sit so
loose to the things around us that they stir

in
no
desire
our hearts.
But we cannot be
indifferent to people.
All that affects our relationships with

ourselves.
men
The
affects
life
We cannot
give
drive a person out of our
as
we can
up the use of something.

;
things
around us are given us as our servants

and bend them as we
will,
we
can shape
for a time
all
we can use them
and
cast
them
aside,
we can exhaust them
of
their
;
value and then throw them

but
away without a thought
we cannot
so use people.
We
cannot manipulate
158

as
them
them.
we
like,
we cannot brush them
aside or ignore
man who
has learnt to bend the forces of
Nature to his
a person.
will finds that
he cannot bend or break

often baffled
it
strong
man
as
is
by a
little
child, because he
tries to treat
as he treats every
his to
thing else around
him
if it
were
mould and
form as he
inflicting
pleases.
Personality has a terrible power of
vengeance upon any who would unduly inter

It
fere with its rights.
has
rights,
and those rights are
sacred,
it
and he who refuses to recognise them, though

child, will surely
be a father with his own
bear the
almost ineffaceable marks of the wrong he has done
branded upon
his
own
character.
When we
turn therefore from things to persons
we
find ourselves in a different world,
and amongst forces

in
and agents that have to be dealt with

way.
a very different
Here there
is
a subtle and illusive power that
reacts in a startling
way upon
those
is
who have
to deal
with
it.
strange magnetism
exhaled from per
sonality that repels and attracts and forms unexpected
combinations.
There
is
a sensitiveness of nature in
relation to persons that has

else.
no
parallel with
anything
You cannot
live
with another and be merely
159
indifferent;
repels.
the magnetism of personality draws or

ignore
it,
You cannot
you
feel
it
all
over, not
on
this side or
on that only, but you
feel
it all
through
your own
is
personality.
Try
to ignore
any person who

it is
living in
your house, and you will find
impossible.
if
His mere presence makes claims upon you which,

refuse to recognise, hurt you, follow
you
you about, crowd
upon your mind, make you angry and embitter you.

Personality
set aside
;
is
too aggressively positive to be merely
it
has a subtle
way
of asserting itself that
you feel all over, causing a pleasure or pain the like of which is produced by nothing else. A broken bond
of kinship or friendship will poison
life.
all
the springs of
wound
received from another person has a

hurts
is
poignancy and persistence that

heart
s core.
to the
very
The
love of a person
unlike the love

;
of anything or everything else in the world
it
enlarges,
expands and transforms the whole nature.

yourself with everything that
is
Surround
ordinarily supposed to
;
bring happiness
health, wealth, culture, refinement
the presence of one uncongenial companion with which
your
that
life is
bound up can
in the
ruin
it all.
Or lose
everything
you have
world
the presence of one
whom
160

to bear
it
you love can enable you
with equanimity.
indiffer
No
one, thank God, ever lived on earth wholly

If
ent to and independent of others.

tried to
any one ever
do so he would
it
find that the price of such
independence was, that

better or for worse the
made him inhuman.

of each
For
of the
life
member
his
human
race
is
largely dependent
upon
relations
with others.
We need,
therefore, to cultivate that attitude towards
others that will enable us to
draw out the best that
is
is
in
in
them, and to lead them to draw out the best that

us.
For we know
fluence
full
well that there are
men who
in
often quite unconsciously

evil,
those with
whom
is
they are thrown for
and others whose influence
always
to find
for
good.
It
has been a surprise to
many a man
anger, jeal
how he
rouses the worst passions
ousy, dislike
in those with
whom
he
is
thrown
men
is
who
display no such feelings towards others.

in
There
something
him
that irritates or repels or excites
antagonism.
it is,
It is difficult to
life
say what
it is,
but there
and he goes through
a constant source of dis
quieting and disturbing
influence,
though he himself
161
may be
to
in his
way
a good
man and one who

down
the
strives
do
his duty.
Now
and the
the Beatitude lays
Law
this
that
is
to
control our relations with
men
for good, not for evil,
effort to place ourselves
under
Law
will
often disclose to us the cause of our failure,

failed in the past.
"
if
we have
Blessed are the merciful,
for
they shall
obtain
mercy."
It
comes upon
us perhaps as rather a surprise.

at first sight
There are other virtues that would
seem
more
bered,
suitable.
is
For
this
Beatitude,
be
it
remem
the one
that
regulates our relations with

for good, that
us.
the whole world of

well with
in us
lies
men
we may
deal
them and they with
That so
far as
better,
we may make
the
men we meet
not worse, and

not
evil.
may meet
at their
hands with good,
We
might expect to
find a
law that would directly
control our passions, such as patience, self-control, large-
hearted toleration, unselfishness.
But
think
it
will
be found that the Beatitude

II
i6a

and goes deeper than any or
needed
all
includes
together.
of these
For what
is
is
not merely a disposition that
protects oneself from the dangers that arise through our
intercourse with men, but one which goes

ther, a disposition
much
fur
which checks the
evil
and draws out
the best in others.
The
Beatitudes are not merely for
the recluse, they are for

into the world to
men whose duty calls them out mix with men of all kinds, of differ
all.
ent faiths and of no faith at

;
And towards all whom

only
we meet we have a duty we

leaven that
to leaven the
after a
in
are, as Catholics, not
the light of the world, but the salt of the earth, the
is
whole mass.
s
How
often
we come back
followed
morning
prayer and resolution,
by a day
which we
are harried, irritated, set
on edge by people, and feel as if it would be better to leave them all and try to serve God as best we can
alone.
But we know
it
is
impossible.
The
;
ties that
bind us to others are too deep and strong
the effort to
break any one of them only reacts upon ourselves and

loosens our relations with God.
We have therefore not

evil influences that
only to protect ourselves from the

a.re
around
us,
we
have to spread a
good
influence, to

overcome the
his
evil
163
by good.
one
person
may keep
rather
ir
temper with an angry man, and
may
and
ritate
him than otherwise
may
be unselfish in
one s dealings with a very
selfish person,
may
only
make him more

that
;
selfish.
We
need to go further than
we need
if it
to develop that kind of goodness which,

for the
even
the
be only
that
is
moment, tends
to
draw out
feel that
good
is in
others,
and to make them
goodness
badness.
at once stronger
and more
attractive than
And
and
is
the Beatitude of
mercy sends us
all
into the world
with that characteristic which above

it
others disarms
is
in the greatest contrast to its spirit.
Worldli-
ness
essentially
and aggressively
selfish
it
makes men
hard and
none.
cruel, it gives
no quarter and expects to get

the struggle for
it
Its
instinct
is
life
and the
survival of the fittest

sical
transfers the
law of the phy

it
world to the world of

of, or, if it
human
beings;
knows
nothing
does,
it is
afraid to trust, those finer
qualities of
human
nature that as a matter of fact equip
men
better for the struggle of life

fitter
it
and
in the
it
long run
in
make them
tact
to live.
is
But when
II
comes
It
con
with these
baffled
and disarmed,
*
has no
164

to fight them.
It is like
it
weapons
a vulgar rich
man
in
presence of a gentleman
feels at
is
a disadvantage.
Human
most
nature clad in
all
that
coarsest,
most
violent,
life,
selfish,
and thus equipped
for the battle of
in
the presence of that same nature clad in the panoply of

Christian virtues,
is
bewildered and subdued.
It
not
only recognises a finer courage, a subtler strength, a

nobler type, but
failure.
it
perceives
its
own weakness and

it
Like Goliath before David,

it
may
it
brag and
boast and bully, but

its
soon finds a strength with which

confesses
clumsy weapons are unable to cope, and
itself defeated.
The
old
Roman Empire
upon
with
all
its
it
consolidated
strength brought the arms with which

the world to bear
had conquered
Christianity, but she found

it
;
herself powerless to fight

cruelty,
violence, brute strength,
were met by new weapons
gentleness, pity,
her,
charity
which not only conquered but converted
and
in three
hundred years the battle was won and

Christian.
the empire
became
Now
It
/
this Beatitude is
intended to effect these
results.
not only places the Christian in his dealings with

is
others under the law of mercy, that
gentleness, kind-

but
assures
165
liness,
sympathy,
pitifulness,
it
him
that he
will
produce these same
characteristics in others.
The
gentle
merciful shall obtain mercy.
The kindly and
nature will meet with kindly treatment.

live
Those who
be but for
under the
Law of the
Beatitude
will, if it
a moment, disarm the most cruel and selfish and
make
them
merciful.
It is
based upon one great principle that runs through

nature,
human
ness.
and that
is
the principle of responsive
Every man to a
large extent
makes
his
own
world.
We
find people pretty
much
as
we meet them.
reserved
man
lives in
a world
little
that seems closed

is
against him.
He knows
of what
going on in
the minds of those around him.
He
does not receive
the confidences of others because he does not give his
confidence to them, and so he goes through a world
which
it
reflects his
own way
of treating
it.
He
thinks
a cold, uncongenial, solitary place, where
men may
way
of
brood over their sorrows and enjoy their lonely joys,

but where they must not expect
intimate companionship.
different place
much
in the
And
yet others find

kindness,
it
a very
radiant with
human
warmed
with loving sympathy, and enriched with manifold
166

the barriers of reserve go
;
friendships
down on
all
sides
before
them
people cannot resist their frankness and
genial good-nature.
Each of these men makes

lot
his
own
world.
It is
not that the
of one
is
cast
amongst
uncongenial, and the lot of the other amongst congenial

people, but that each finds people to a very large
tent as he meets them.
ex
Coldness
chills
those
whom
warmth draws out and expands.

frosts of winter
It is
not the fault of
the earth that under the leaden skies and blighting

it
brings forth neither
fruit
nor flowers.
The movements and growth

without, under the
first
it
of
life
are checked
it
from
breath of spring
wakens
and responds.
So
is
with the world of men, they
are responsive with a superlative sensitiveness to that
which they meet

bully
in
others.
hard,
domineering
has
to
who
frightens
for
all
people into
submission
forced
contempt
from him
nothing
in
those
whom
it
he has
hide
the finer side of their nature.

to
He
in
has
not
him
draw
out,
and he ends
it
believing in its existence.
Yet
is
all
there to be
shown
it
to
any one who
will take the trouble to
draw
out.
167
God be thanked, the meanest of His creatures has two soul sides, loves her. One to face the world with, one to show a woman when he
he is with some Every one knows how different he is with others how some, quite people from what
;
unconsciously, shut
others he
is
at his
him up within himself, how with dormant in very best. There are
possibilities
every
human being
of various kinds, good
and bad, which are blighted or developed by the people I do not of course amongst whom they are thrown.
mean
in
any sense affects our responsibility matters of right and wrong, but it is certainly true
that this in
as regards the
ing of our
different
if
gifts.
unfold development of character and the Many a man would have been very
the influences that surrounded his childhood

different.
and youth had been

talents
There are men with

have
that would undeveloped, with powers
done good to their day and generation, unknown
and unused through the

couragement.
self-distrust
begotten by dis
Under more
the world genial influences

for their lives.
life
I
would have been the richer
believe
there are few whose whole view of

affected
has not been
by the
stern
or kindly influences of their

in
early childhood,
which threw them
upon themselves
i68

timidity and reserve, or drew
in
them out
in genial
confidence and
It is
sympathy with their fellow-creatures. an interesting and instructive thing to listen to
of two or three men upon the same one can people; scarcely believe that it is the same
the criticism
people
who
are being criticised.
They
are the
same
people, but each

light,
man
not only sees them in a different

out different sides of
but for the
moment draws
their character.
What
and try
a different world
it
looks to us
all.
We argue
do, but be
are.
to lead others to see people as
we
fore they can
do that they must be what we
We
world, full of the kindness or unkindness, of the good or bad, of the love or hate which we bring to bear upon it.
make our own
Now it
is
upon
this sensitive responsiveness of

is
human
nature that the Beatitude
based.
"
Blessed are the

"
merciful, for they shall obtain

says,
mercy."
Go
out,"
it
into the world, with your heart full of gentleness

pity,
and
and you
;
will find the will
response of kindliness
from others
you
not only protect yourself from
being hardened, but you will draw out the gentler side
of
others."

But while
quite true that each
169
it
is
man makes
his
own
world, draws out for the
moment one
is
side or other
of the people with

best or worst of
whom
he
thrown and sees the
them
as the case
may
is
be, yet this of
course
is
not the whole truth.
There
existing in the
world a vast and terrible amount of
evil.
The
gentlest
and
kindliest of
little
men, though they

is
perience
that
not good in
may personally ex those who are brought

loving hearts,
under the magic

full
it
spell of their
is in
own
know
well the evil that
the world
none have known

can undoubtedly
better than the Saints.
And
evil
take very attractive forms, and can even
make
it
those
who
yield to
its
influence attractive.
But
can also be
very repulsive and loathsome and very hard to bear.
And we have
the concrete.
to deal with evil not in the abstract but in
We have
to
come
upon
in daily contact, into
close intercourse with those

its
whom
evil
has laid
disfiguring hand.
But
day,
it
may
be said, whatever the defects of our
own
it is
it
certainly not wanting in the spirit of mercy.
Indeed
might be considered one of

It is
its
most marked
characteristics.
pity.
the age of tender-heartedness and
There are
societies of all sorts
formed for carry-
i?o

man and
beast,
ing out works of mercy and kindness to
societies for prevention of cruelty to children
and to ani
of cruelty
mals, antivivisection societies, etc.

is
The age
passed away, and under the more civilising influences

its
of our time the age of mercy has taken
place.
The human
heart has
become
so sensitive
that
it
cannot bear even the punishment of the guilty, and
however great the criminal and however outrageous his crime, the sufferings that he has cost to others is
forgotten in the
wave of unhealthy sentiment
that
is
awakened
of his sins.
at the thought of his bearing the penalty
There
is
certainly
no lack of pity amongst
us to-day.
Yet
it
is
well to bear in
is
mind
that a characteristic
it
which seems to be a virtue
not really a virtue, unless
forms an essential part of the character as a whole,

acting not merely under certain circumstances and with
certain people, but
is
always and with every one.

loves his
is
A man
is
not charitable
who
own
friends but
if
indif
ferent to others, nay, he
not charitable
;
he
is
want
ing in love to one individual
charity to be a virtue
characteristic of the
must be
person.
universal,
it
must be a
call
So one would not
man
patient
who was

but irritable at home.
171
ever so patient in public
life
Or
broad-minded and tolerant who sympathised with every form of misbelief or

of dogmatic
istics are to
faith.
unbelief, but
was
fiercely intolerant
Such
in
partial
and limited character

;
be found
every one
they are not neces

.
sarily the
outcome
either of effort or grace, they are
merely the expression of natural inclination.

to be such in the Christian sense of the word, universal in
its
A virtue
must be
operation and have
its
roots in the
person.
One may be very merciful in one s judgments upon those who fail in some ways, and very unmerciful on those who fail in others. Many
so
it is
And
with mercy.
people are quite

tions are not their
pitiless
towards those whose tempta
and toleration
Again one may be full of pity of the faults of those one loves, and abso
own.
lutely intolerant of those
one does not
love.
man
may be the most gentle man in the world towards those who are near and dear to him, and positively cruel to
others.
One who
is
pitiless or cruel to
one person has
not the virtue of mercy.
And
it is
not at
all
uncommon
to find such partial
exercise of mercy.
There are those who display a
172

sickly
morbid and
animals
compassion towards the sufferings of
who
are entirely
unmoved by
a
the sufferings of
infinitely
their fellow-creatures.
Many
woman shows
more tenderness and
care and compassion for her
dog
than she does for her overworked and uncared-for ser

vants.
It is well to tell
such people plainly that their

affections
morbid sensitiveness and unhealthy
have no
thing whatever to do with the Christian virtue of mercy.
Such people
cruel.
are, in fact, often
not merciful at
all,
but
Cruelty, unkindness, indifference to the sufferings of
one of God s
creatures,
be
it
man
or beast, destroys the

it
virtue of mercy, or rather discloses the fact that
does
not exist.
it
Where
the mercy of the Beatitude exists,
exists as
an essential element of character, to be
called forth
by every
or any form of sorrow or suffer

it
ing or trouble with which

It acts
is
brought in contact.
not upon certain kinds of suffering, or certain

;
people, or under certain circumstances
it
does not cut
up the creatures of God
into departments, pitying
and
is
feeling for some, but pitiless towards others.

universal.
pity.
It
It
has only to see what
is
pitiful to feel
The
person endowed with
this virtue is
one who

always and everywhere displays
characteristic, making the whole
173
it.
It
is
a personal
man
man
throughout his
to
whole being
sion,
sensitive, gentle, easily

foe, to
it.
moved
compas
whether to friend or
is
or beast.
is
The
pitiful
whole character
softened by
The man
and compassionate, no element of hardness or unkindness

is
to be found in him.
This
is
a very different
thing from the spurious forms of mercy that are so
common around
us,
and that so often bring
this great
virtue into contempt, displaying itself in sentimental
emotion and not seldom
in
moral weakness.
Such
unworthy imitations bring a blessing neither upon those
who
display
them nor upon those upon
whom
they are
exercised.
And
of the
yet the very existence of these spurious forms
mercy of the Beatitude bear witness

is
to the fact
that the virtue itself
not as simple a one as
we might
imagine.
softness,
It
very easily degenerates into

is
weakness and
an excusing of what
definitely wrong, often
a condoning of sin in compassion for the sinner.
mercy that from pity to man
will
tamper with the

is
character and moral attributes of

in the long
God
a mercy that
run must bring a curse rather than a bless-
174

The
Catholic
is
ing.
put into the world to be the
salt
of the earth, the light of the world, the leaven that

is
to quicken the
whole mass with the principles of
Divine truth and holiness.

It
were better for the world,
if
such a thing were
possible, that
no pity should ever be shown to man than

Christian virtue
that the principles of morality and
should be tampered with, out of a false conception of
mercy.
When God Mount He revealed

and
will
revealed Himself to Moses on the
Himself as
"
the Lord God, merci
ful
gracious, patient
and of much compassion,

the
guilty".
who
cross
by no means
clear
On
the
mercy and truth met together.

infinite
If
it
was the
most perfect display of the

towards the sinner,
the grievousness of
It
it
compassion of God
was
also an awful revelation of
sin.
would be but
false
mercy on God
His law could
part to
allow
men
to believe that
lightly
be
tampered
with.
God
is
all-holy,
and His love and

cannot
lead
compassion
to
towards
sin or to
sinful
man
Him
suit
condone
s
lower the moral standard to

sin
man
is
weakness.
No
is,
can be forgiven
till
the sinner
penitent, that
takes an attitude of antagonism

comes over
however weak
175
towards
will, to
sin,
in
heart,
his
the side of the all-holy God.
The
infinite pity
of God, the love displayed upon the Cross, great though

it
be,
cannot pardon the impenitent, cannot bend the
moral law and lower the standard of the world to save
one person who
still
remains on the side of
sin.
The
God who
is full
of compassion and mercy,
is
the
God
who
it
is
the hater of iniquity.
However great His mercy

It
cannot mar the lustre of His holiness.

if it did.
would be
re
a moral disaster to the world

vealed to
holiness,
ity in
Had God
man
only His infinite mercy and not His
men would have gone on sinning with impun the belief that God was too merciful to punish sin,
was
colourless
that His love
and unmoral.
is
He
his
would
have been treated as a father

son,
treated
by
is
who knows
that his love for
him
too
wayward weak to
resist his entreaties,
and whose love only makes him
more wanton and exacting.
The Cross
stands out in the centre of Christendom
as the Revelation of
God
love and holiness, yet in the

it is hard enough and the holiness of
face of that ever-present Revelation

for
man
to realise the evil of sin
God.
What would
the moral condition of the world
176

it?
It
is
have been without
not as easy a thing as
it
seems
mercy.
ruin
if
for
God
to teach
it
man
the moral character of His

for his
That
would not be
good but
for his
mercy were separated from
justice.
Even
in the
conduct of the State a mercy that would overshadow

justice
would be
its
ruin
"
Stet justitia ruat
ccelum".
The mercy
therefore of which the Beatitude speaks,

it
and upon which
utters a blessing,
It is
is
the
human
counterpart of the mercy of God.

trated with morality.
a mercy pene
mercy aflame with the love
of holiness, born of the love of the ever tender,

it is
Holy One.
How
pitiful,
compassionate towards the sinner,
instinct with justice

sin.
and the sense of the hateful-
ness of
It
It is
strong on the side of
God and
right.
can stoop very low, to the most degraded, the most
sin bespattered, to those
whom
it
sin has
trodden
in the
It
very mire, but
it
stoops with pity to raise them.
sympathises with the sinner,

of
never shows a particle
sympathy with sin. It keeps the lustre of its gar ments unstained while it walks through the haunts of vice
lives in
sin.
and
an atmosphere hot and weighted with the

It shines in
sit
fever of
to
the darkness and gives light
them
that
in
darkness and the shadow of death

to guide their feet into the
177
way
of peace.
It is
there
composed of two elements blended in perfect pro portion justice and compassion; justice alone may
fore
degenerate into hardness, compassion alone into soft
Blended together, justice gives tone and strength to compassion, and compassion takes the edge off justice. is therefore Mercy
perfectly just
is
ness
and weakness.
and true and firm and
strong.
There
in
it
the
perfect blending of tenderness
not close
evil,
its
it
and strength. It does eyes to the reality and greatness of the

is
while
full
of tenderness to the evil-doer.
None can speak more

sin
strongly of the grievousness of
and of
sees
its terrible
penalties than the merciful
man.
None
with clearer eyes the real condition of
things about him.
Those
to
whom
he shows mercy
know
is
full
well that they cannot deceive him, that he
not a weakling with
whom
they can play
tricks.
He
can condemn with fiery words what ought to be
condemned and expose fraud with scorn. He can seem to those who do not know him even hard, though
in fact there is
no hardness
is
in him.
For
this
mercy
not the mere natural pity of one

It is
man
for another.
It is supernatural.
born of the
12
iy8

union with God.
soul s
The
It is
springs of
its
life
are
rooted in
fore,
God
Himself.
the compassion, there
of a person essentially holy.
And
From
its
poor sinful
man
alone
its
striving after holiness finds this gentleness

its
and
pity well forth from

it
holy source.
this source
can find
If
its
it
origin
and preserve
purity and
strength.
all
breaks away from
it, it
sinks
down
pity
into
the frailty and weakness of mere
human
that can be
tion,
swayed and moved and blinded by emo It loses its force and sentiment and ignorance.
Divine insight into the truth of things,
light of justice,
it
fibre, its
is
no longer kindled with the
and may
become a source of moral weakness, an instrument of

evil rather
than of good.
We
in
know
the
but too well
how
much
is
said
and done to-day
name
of mercy to
are not sup
lower the moral tone of Christians.
Men
posed to be able to
rise to
the standard that has been
kept before them for 2,000 years either of morals or of

doctrine,
forth
its
and a weak and spurious mercy stretches hands and tampers with the teaching and
of our Lord.
for
revelation
Such mercy, though

in
it
be
applauded
nor
a moment,
the long run neither blesses
is blest.
179
How
full
then shall those

full
who would go
forth into the

all
world so
of
of suffering and sorrow and above
so
sin,
keep unsullied and
in the fulness of its
vigour the Christian virtue of mercy.

1.
light
They must ever be striving to see things in the of God. To remember that even God s love is
of His holiness.
the
fruit
That
"our
God
is
a con
suming
fire"
however
pitiful,
compassionate and loving

life,
He
2.
is,
and that
in all our considerations of

first.
God
must ever come
At
the same time and as the outcome of this they

to cultivate pity
must
strive
and gentleness
for
all
forms of
suffering,
and especially
sin,
for those suffering
under the slavery of
loving and pitying the sinner,
It is easy to repulsive the sin. sympathise with those whose sufferings and sins are the same as
however
our own, but

of those with
we must
try to enter into the sufferings naturally feel no sympathy,

"we
whom we
even as our Lord did, for
have not a High Priest who cannot have compassion on our infirmities,
all
but one tempted in

sin".
things like as
we
are,
without
like
It
is
indeed those whose
lives are
most
12*
i8o

in
His
purity and
holiness,
whose sympathies are
strongest and widest, being unblunted

3.
by
sin.
And
this
can be done by contemplating

in
God
goodness and mercy

with ourselves.
our experience of His dealings

if
Then,
we have
sinned and repented,
we
see
how mercy and
truth have
met together,
justice
and peace have kissed each other. If God can love so each of us must feel, whom can He not love ?
me>
God can pardon me, whom The only sin we know in all its
If
can
He
is
not pardon?
malice
our own, for

it
we can
mitted.
see against
what
light
and love
was com
The
love of
God which we
can alone fathom

is
in all its length
and breadth and depth and height

has shown to
us.
the love which

that
He
And we know
instinct with
life,
His love
towards us
was a love
justice,
demanding penitence and renewal of

and purify the
and unite
and
leaving behind the suffering which sin has brought, to

cleanse
soul
it
with Himself.
We
this
experience in our
own
persons the reconciliation
of mercy and truth, the kiss of justice and peace, and
experience which outreaches
all
knowledge attained
by
theological studies or the teaching of the wisest
and
to
the best, sends us out into the world to
show mercy

men, and to
assist in raising the
181
all
poor out of the
dust and the beggar from the dunghill to set
them
amongst the princes, even amongst the princes of the people, and to gain for ourselves the fullness of the
blessing of the Beatitude,
for
"
Blessed are the merciful,
they
shall obtain
mercy".
VII.
BLESSED ARE THE CLEAN OF HEART, FOR THEY SHALL SEE GOD.
VII.
BLESSED ARE THE CLEAN OF HEART, FOR THEY SHALL SEE GOD.
THERE is no
fatal
greater mistake nor one fraught with
more
consequences than to defend what one conceives
to be the
life.
honour of God at the cost of the

it
realities
of
Yet
is
not
uncommon
for
devout persons to
argue a priori as to what they conceive

rather than as to what
God
should do
He
actually does or permits.
Job
comforters sought to console him by pressing
upon him a theory of God s government of the world, which his experience had proved to him to be contrary
to facts
;
indeed the sufferings which he was enduring

in order to clear his
were permitted
mind from the
baneful influence of the very theory they were pressing.
A faith that can live only under the shelter of ignorance,

or
by
closing our eyes to the visible realities
around
us,
will
not be of
much
avail
when we
185
are brought face to

facts of
life.
face with the stern
and perplexing
We
i86

confident that a faith which
is
may be
at the
to be defended
expense of truth
is
not
itself
true
and
is
not
worth defending.
The
Revelation that
is
God
has given us of His
own
character,
the Revelation of the moral attributes of
Him who
which we
is
the Creator and Ruler of the world in
live.
This world with
all
its
perplexing
problems we
are
meant to know and study, the Revela

antagonism to what we see
in
tion if true cannot be in
and know.
We
shall
never be called upon,
the
interests of Revelation, to close our eyes to

see,
what we
or to
deny what we know
to be true.
The
in
structed Catholic faces
and
studies
life fearlessly,
with
the certainty that, though he
may
find
much
that he
cannot explain or understand, he

is
will find
faith.
nothing that
contrary to what
is
revealed to
Now
ought
whatever
may
do
be our theories of what God

for
in justice to
man,
it
is
beyond question
that there are
many whom
to all
appearance
He
has
placed in circumstances that seem almost to ensure

their failure.
Things are against them, and they have

it
not the courage or the power, or whatever

needed, to
rise
is
that
is
above or through them.
If only circum-
BLESSED ARE THE CLEAN OF HEART

stances had been a
187
little
less unfavourable, nay, less

if
absolutely against them,
they had had one good

dif
chance,
ferent.
many
man
s life
would have been very
We
see
men
like
swimmers
battling bravely
against the currents, and at last yielding, exhausted, to
a force that
is
to
all
appearance too strong
for
them.
Of course we cannot
but judge from what
see into another s heart,

see, illuminated
we can
we do
by what
we know from our own
experience.
No
Hand
doubt we
of Christ
ought to have so firm a grasp upon the

that however the waves
and storms may be against us
we are safe.
life
But we poor creatures of destiny, knowing

it
as
we
see
and
feel
it,
know well the awful
strength
uncertain
of the things that are seen, and

in the
how dim and
storm and
stress
appear the things that are not
seen.
Indeed our Lord Himself

force of circumstance,
tells
us
how
strong
is
the
and how with other opportunities

better:
"Woe
men would have been

razin!
unto thee, Choif
woe unto
thee,
Bethsaida!
in
for
the mighty
in
works that have been done
you had been done
Tyre and Sidon, they had done penance long ago sackcloth and ashes."
in
i88

s
Things then, according to our Lord
own words, were

cities
not as favourable for the inhabitants of the
of
Tyre and Sid on
as they were for those of the cities of
Galilee in His time.
No
doubt the
men
of
Tyre
will
not be judged either by the standard or opportunities

of the
if
men
of Chorazin and Bethsaida.
And no doubt
we should
find
we
could look into the hearts of men,
how each of those who have gone down under

and
felt
the pres
sure of circumstances had his chance, the offers of grace,
perhaps the
first
movements
of another current
that would have counteracted the pressure of the forces
around him.
But who can
tell?
Each has but
his
own
of
experience to go upon from which he can judge

that
is
all
for
and against
his victory over outer

fill
things.
And
such knowledge can but
us with
charity in our
judgments of those
who go under and

failed
are carried along in the mighty stream of circumstance.
Yet
suppose that there
is
no one who has
but knows that at least he need not have
failed as
badly as he did, and can see

opportunities
results
in
looking back, calls and
to
which
if
he had corresponded the

different.
would have been very

said
all,
But when we have
we can only
feel
that the

whole thing
planation
grave,
it
189
is
a mystery
that
if
men demand an ex
on
this side of the
cannot be given at
least
and that we can but cling to two things of which

First, that
we
Catholics at least are absolutely certain.

is just,
God
gives
and demands of no man more than
He
That He judges men him the power to do. therefore by no hard and fast rule or standard, but
temperament and training. That the man with the one talent was not condemned because he did not
stances,
gives due weight to every consideration of place, circum
do the work of the man with

not do what a
five,
but because he did
man
"
with one talent could and ought to

thine
have done.
thee."
Out of
own mouth
will
judge
His own paltry excuses formed the materials

his
upon which
judgment was based.

is
And
secondly,
we know
that
God
love,
all
and
willeth not that

;
any
should perish, but that
should be saved
and that
love does not see the worst in those that are loved but
the best, does not scrutinise everything that

to see if
it
is
done
can find ougnt to condemn, but rather to

that
commend, and
we
are to be judged at the last
day
not by an enemy, but,
if I
may
is
say
so,
a lover, and that
He
judges rather
by what
aimed
at
than by what
is
i go
accomplished.
And we may
"
recall
with consolation
the words of St. John

is
If our heart
condemn
all
us,
".
God
greater than our heart
and knoweth
it
things
if
But there are times when

self places us in difficulties
seems as
difficulties
God Him
under which,
alas
many
fail.
When
it
would be impossible without

of God, or the claims
unfaithfulness to the
known Will
of religion, to avoid entering upon of danger and temptation.

to be the first
some
position full
Saul was called by
God
ruin.
not,"
King of
"
Israel,
and
it
proved his
"
Judas was
called to be
an Apostle
"
Have
said our Lord,
chosen you twelve

in our
and
failed utterly.
And we know
few
of
no doubt
own experience not a
who were doing very

in
well in an ordinary course
life,
but were forced from the very highest motives,
and
obedience to the evident Will of God, into a more
important position of responsibility and danger where
they
I
made shipwreck
of their
it is
lives.
think in such cases
helpful to
remember
this
it
that such failures cannot be attributed so readily as
seems to the mere
fact of the
change of position and
surroundings, but probably to some inherent weakness
of character, or
some
fault
which the more sheltered

But
191
life failed
to bring to light or to remedy.
it
was
there,
and for the development and

it
sanctification of
the soul
was necessary that
it
should be dealt with.
We
"
are not placed
on earth to be sheltered from
temptation, but to be tried and proved and developed.
My
son,"
says the wise man,

heart
"
if
thou wilt seek the
Lord,
prepare thine
for
temptation."
The
Psalmist
"
who had
entered into the
Mind
of God, cries
Try me,
God, and seek the ground of
my
if
heart,
prove
me and examine my
thoughts, look well

in
there
be any way of wickedness

shelter but testing.
me
".
He
asks not for
Now
we
get
it
generally happens that after a certain time

that can be got out of the place
all
and circum
need, like a
stance in which
we
find ourselves.
We
tree that has not
room
to grow, to be transplanted.
We
might
live
on the
rest of our lives
where we
are,
and never do anything very bad or very good.
But
we should never
the real work of
get to
life.
know
ourselves better, or to do
in us
There are
probably faults
of character which only need circumstances to bring to

light.
The
character has capacities for good and evil

tested.
which must be
Our
present position has done
iga

it
for us all
could,
we must
pass on.
boy
learns
all
that one tutor can teach him and he goes to another
perhaps one of the
first
lessons he learns
is
from the
change
lads
is
how
ignorant he
of
who have been brought up at

something which
many things. Most home and have never

criticism of school,
life.
had the rough handling and healthy

lose
it
is difficult
to gain in later
They have been
sheltered,
no doubt, but they have not
got either the knowledge of themselves or the true
proportion and perspective of
life
that they would have
time of pre gained, and ought to have gained, in the

paration.
Thus, having learnt the lessons that are to be learnt

in
we must one position we are called to another either go on or stagnate, we can grow no more where
;
we
are.
There are
risks,
perhaps great
risks, in
the
change, but
risks,
we must
face
them
there are
in staying
more than
where we
though of a different kind,
are.
happens that the Providence of God leads many a man backwards and forwards, hither and thither, from this position into that from a position of depend
And
so
it
ence to one of responsibility
from a sheltered
home
to

a place alive with risks and danger
193
from crowds to
solitude, or solitude to crowds; from a place where
every privilege and help of religion can be had to one
where he
thrown alone upon God without even the Sacraments, and all this that the character may be
is
tested,
fault
proved and rounded off on
all sides,
and every
if
and weakness brought to
light,
and
so be,
corrected.
Such a process is no doubt full of risks and fraught with danger, and under its strain many fail, but be it
always remembered that the
man who
fails
by some
positive failure before the eyes of the world
and under
great difficulties and temptations
nay,
life
may
be much
better,
than
may be no worse, the man whose whole

behind others, a re
has been a slinking away from danger and re
sponsibility, a sheltering himself

fusal to face things
whose
failures
if
have been perhaps
rather negative than positive,
sloth
and cowardice
and
selfishness
be negative.
faults
It is better to
know our
weaknesses and
than to have them and not

I
know them,
better,
may
say, to fail in the

fail
midst of
noble effort than not to
because there has been

life.
nothing either noble or involving effort in the whole

13
194
Now
out.
the Beatitude of the clean of heart brings this
The former Beatitude developed

characteristic
in
the soul that
which draws out the best side of men,

all
and keeps back
that
is
most harsh and
cruel.
The
merciful obtain mercy, and see the world at
its best.
And
it is
yet
its
business
is
is
in the world.
itself.
This kindly and
gentle nature
to live
not to cloister
On the contrary,
in its presence
amongst men, and men who

that
is
put forth
all
best in them.
is
And we know what

it
an attractive place the world

a very ugly side
;
even when
it
shows us
;
what a
it
spell
casts
upon us
how
or
hard
it
is,
even when
treats
turns
its
back on a
man
it
woman and
is
them with a
it is
cruelty of which
its
alone
capable,
how hard
to resist
fascination.
is
And
more
into this world the Catholic

still
!
sent to
it
make
it
attractive
to
draw
out, if
be but for a
moment, that
it is
spirit
of mercy towards others of which
so
much
in need.
He
to
its
is
not
unless because of
some
special vocation
it
come
out from the world

corruption.
and leave
to sink in
is
own
On
the
is
contrary, the Catholic
to act as the leaven that

to quicken
to
it
mix with the heavy dough
and energise

with a
195
new
;
life.
The wheat
mix with
is
to
grow
in the
midst of
the tares
the wise and foolish virgins are side by side.

is
The Church
to
the world, to impregnate
it
with her principles, and to overcome the

within
it
evil that is
And
as
by good. what is the Church
in this sense of the
word,
mixing
in the social, political, mercantile world, but
individual, often isolated Catholics.
priest
cannot
go and preach
change.
places
in a
ball-room or on the Stock
Ex
But those Catholics whose position

if
in life
them there can preach

It is
not by word at least
by conduct. earth and the
thus that they act as the salt of the
light of the world.

is
But such a position

lest,
fraught with serious danger,
instead of converting others they should
them
selves be converted to the
ways of the world, made

moment, by
their presence.
more
Yet
beautiful, if but for the
this
danger
is
not to be escaped from by shirking

flight
duty, and the
mere cowardly
from
difficulties.
There are lessons to be

developed,
tests to
learnt,
characteristics to
is
be
which the soul
to be put there
in
and there only.
Fly from the position
which God
has placed you and the duty
He
has given you to do,
13*
ig6

fail
and you
of the testing and development you can
get there alone, you escape one danger by exposing

yourself to another and a greater.
Therefore this Beatitude follows

clean of heart, for they shall see
"
Blessed are the

".
God
Blessed are
those
who
living in the
midst of the world keep their
standards unsullied and

influences around them.
undimmed by
all
the lowering
Now
1.
there
are
broadly speaking two classes of

this is specially difficult.
gift
persons to
whom
There are those who have the natural

all
of sym
pathy, whose natures are widely open to
the currents
and influences of human
life,
who
delight to live in the

feel
midst of their fellow-creatures, and to
about them
the movements of life and the contact of others.
They
;
are open and easy of access, and easy to get on with
people
who
at once
win your confidence, and even
before they open their lips
make you
feel
that you
would find no
2.
difficulty in
speaking to them.
And
there are others

if
who
are self-contained
and
reserved, who,
they have deep feelings and are deeply

let
the.
moved have
others see
it.
the misfortune of not being able to
Whatever may be going on beneath

surface, the surface
repellent.
different,
197
is
calm and cold and sometimes
Often indeed such persons inwardly are very

they long to break through the barriers and
get out.
Strong emotion, deep

find
feeling, intense excite
ment cannot
utterance, they are expressed in
awkward words
that leave a false impression.

lips
What
they long to say freezes upon their

hopelessly inadequate in their
is
and sounds
fire
own
ears.
The
that
in their hearts dies cold

it
and
chilled
when they would

little
give
fect,
expression.
Sometimes some
natural de
awkwardness of manner, timidity or shyness, holds them back from a life they long to live, and from in
tercourse with those
whom
they long to know.
It is all
there, a very volcano of feeling
and
intensity.
But they
pass amongst
men
as chilling, unsympathetic, inhuman.
Now
his
each of these class of persons living in the
great world has his

heart
own
special difficulties in keeping
pure from the lowering influences amidst

lot is cast.
which his
It is
one thing to
It is
classify sins in the cold catalogue
of words.
a very different thing to see these sins

if
committed by men and women who are nothing

they are not charming, attractive and refined.
ig8

instance,
For
you know that
insincerity
is
is
a very
odious thing, that an insincere person
one who never
can be trusted and ought never under any circumstances

to be encouraged.
And
who
yet with this knowledge clear

delightful
before your
mind you spend a
half-hour
talking to a person
scarcely takes the trouble to
conceal his insincerity, saying things to please you
which you know are not true and which neither he nor
you
believes.
And
thinking
it
over you have to con
vince yourself again that

really as
all this
charming unreality
lie
is
much
a sin against truth as a vulgar

in the
street.
told
you by a beggar
Uncharitable words
in
we know
are
wrong
we
are
warned against them

is
the Gospels, their sinfulness

all
impressed upon us in
the spiritual books

s,
it is
very wrong to pick your
neighbour
character to pieces.
But when
it is
done
in
a very amusing
ridiculous,
way and with

difficult
a keen sense of the

is
and withal by a person who

it
refined
is
and
sympathetic,
is
to feel that there
much
harm
in
in
it.
The
brilliantly
clever
and daring way

in
which some of
my
ideals
were treated
a light
conversation, half-banter and half-earnest,
or
woman
of the world
who showed
by a man experience and
199
a knowledge of the world in the turn of every phrase,

hid the subtle poison that flowed through
it
all,
and
made me
times,
feel for
if
the
first
time somewhat behind the
and as
my
ideals
were a
little stultified
and
old-fashioned.
We
know
well as Catholics
the sacredness of the
our marriage law and the strong condemnation by
Lord of those who put away the partner of their when one very marriage and marry another. But
near and dear to us, under shelter of the law of the
land, violates the
law of
God and
lives
openly in legal
ised adultery,
and when we meet such a person and seem

to
find to our astonishment that she does not
have deteriorated
in other
ways, and
is
recognised by
the world as one living in the lawful state of matri
mony, it is difficult the same as though

That the
sin is
to realise that the

it
wrong
is just
had not the

odious than
shelter of the law.

if it
no
less
were flaunted
all
beneath the gas lamps of the street with

misery of painted cheeks and shabby
Sins interpreted in terms of
often
the squalid
finery.
human
personality,
and
a very charming personality,

I
quickly become
or two
transformed.
think most of us
know one
200

moment
any
at least, could take the
persons who, for the
ugliness out of almost

graciousness.
sin
and give
it
a certain
Words spoken by human
lips
sound
very different from those same words upon the cold page of a book. Life, personality, passion, breathe
through them and seem to burn out the inherent
coarseness and vulgarity of their bald meaning.
Good
to
women
will
marry men whom they know

;
be
thoroughly bad
the badness which in the abstract
they would fiercely resent, they more than condone

in the concrete.
We often
faults,"
"
hear
it
"
said,
it
like so
and
so
in spite
of his
and yet
like
would be well
his
faults,
within the truth to say,

I
even
".
nay,
of
like
him because of
his faults
He
it.
has a
way
making
his faults attractive.
It is true,
we
all
know
it
and
feel
Sin considered
in itself as a violation of the
law of
God and
of our
own
nature
is
an ugly thing, but
in the concrete,
and
revealed in the charming atmosphere of an attractive

personality,
it
is
very
different.
There are
diseases,
often loathsome
and deadly,
which give an added
beauty and refinement to their victims.

leaf has a splendour of its
The autumn
own, and the setting sun

in the fierce glory of its
201
decline attracts
many who
its rising.
would be unmoved by the chaste beauty of
And
sin is
death
moral and
spiritual
death.
And
therefore for those

is
who
are naturally sympathetic there
a danger from constantly living in the society of
people whose aims and standards are so different from

their own.
in the
They
see and hear things done and said
easy and pleasant manner of those about them
that
in the quiet of their
own room
their conscience
condemns.
taught to
Are these things really so bad as they were believe ? Are they not a little prudish ?
and condemn
in
Are they
what ways
is
to cultivate the spirit of a prig
done by men and women who are

than themselves
?
many
and
far better
We
read the Decalogue, and
its
interpretation
application
by our Lord, and we

in their faulty
see the
men and
it.
women who
way
try to
obey
We
know nothing
of the inner struggle, the brave efforts,
the penitence for the

result.
many
full
failures.
We
see only the

;
character
fair
of inconsistencies
in a
here and
there
some
virtue
very worthless and tar

to be constantly
nished setting, a person
who seems
hampered by an over-anxious conscience, and one not
202
very comfortable to live with.
And
then
we see
others
who go
i
with the currents that are around them,

fall in
who
never protest, never are shocked, but

ease with the
with perfect
ways and
lives of the
easy-going world,
who have a
nature,
pleasant smile for the weaknesses of

it
human
as long
and do not ask or expect much from

itself
as
it
keeps
within the limits of decency.

is
The
natural
in
itself,
human sympathy, which
a thing most good
one of the great attributes of our Lord, tends

our judgments not merely of the people
things,
to soften
who
do these
which
is
quite right, but of the wrong
things that are done.
How
his
can an abstract cold standard have a chance
against living types of character.
How can
Moses with
Law
written on two tables of stone, even though
they be written by the Finger of God, stand against
Aaron and the daughters of Israel dancing round the golden calf. No wonder that he threw them from him
in despair
and broke them to atoms.
The
cold chaste
standards of a rigid orthodoxy, whether in doctrine or
manners, has a poor chance

palpitating
life
in
presence of the
warm
of
human
beings
who
to
all
appearance

get on so well without them.
203
Surely
God
should have
known His world
better.
class.
And
not or
then there are the other
Those who are
who
cannot show that they are sympathetic,
living in the midst of the world, yet shut out
from
its
intimacy by the barriers of their unconquerable reserve.

It is
impossible to live in constant intercourse with peo

in
ple
and not be influenced by them

in
some way.
The
mere presence of another person ignored, or treated as one would

ture.
the
room cannot be
treat a piece of furni

feel it all over.
Somehow
it
affects us,
we
silent
person in the room gets on one s nerves.

to break the silence to find
A We
want
some point of
contact.
We
two persons thrown together for any length of time ought to be in some sort of communica
feel
as if
tion with one another, the solidarity of the
human
race
demands
it.
And
if
there be no intercourse there are
mysterious actions of one upon the other that operate

like
mesmeric currents and attract or repel or
set
up a
kind of psychic irritation.
And
this,
and
far
more than
fills
this, is felt in
a crowd
of people.
crowd
the
air
with sympathy and

its
creates a mysterious atmosphere of
own.
We
be-
204

in a
come moved and excited

else.
crowd as we are nowhere

aside, the air
is
Reserve seems thrown
charged
with electricity.
Now
those
who
are daily living under such circum
stances, in the midst of people
whom
they are con
stantly thrown with, and yet shut out from, because of

their shyness or reserve
must
suffer keenly
from their
exclusion.
It will either
make them
bitter, cynical,
more
aloof;
they
will find
themselves constantly passing judgment
upon those who say and do things that they would give the world to be able to say and do or it will make
;
them,
in their desperation, daring
and
reckless.
They cannot
enjoyment
merely stand apart and

of others.
find pleasure in the
They
are.
is
get to hate
them
for having
what
to
they have
not, or they are prepared to
do anything
be as they
I
think there
no one capable of such
daring, per
haps even of such badness, as the

to
woman who wants

life
throw herself into the tumultuous

is
around her
and
held back by the fact that she has not the natural
gifts that would bring her to the front.
The
restraints
that she chafes against, the things that she sees
and
205
hears,
and interprets perhaps as even worse than they

prepare her for a reckless plunge
If she has
are, all
when she
gets the chance.
been religiously brought
up she
revolts against the standards
which she
tries to
imagine hold her back.
The beauty and easy ways

is
of
human
fierce
life
from which she
shut out, rouses in her a
antagonism against what she considers the narrow

her training, and her rebellious and bitter
spirit
lines of
throws them to the winds and tears them to tatters at

the
first
chance she gets.

if
Verily
the Church
is
the training place for holiness

its
and the Vision of God, the world with

gard for
its all
cheery disre
that
is
serious,
its
is
and
its
easy standards and
broad toleration and

in
appearance of refinement
even
what
it
is
immoral,
left
the
enemy
and
of God.
its
Yet
cannot be
to itself
corruptions.
it.
The
claims of duty
call
multitudes of Catholics into
Indeed the one breakwater against the ever-rising tide

of sin and complete disregard of
God and His com

who know
in contact
is
mandments
is
the presence of the Church in her midst.

the
Therefore the great danger to those

truth
and the right and are constantly
with
that
those whose ways and standards are different,
206

all
of losing tone, of feeling that after
we must
take
to
things as
we
find them,
little
and that Catholics are apt

narrow
it is
be too rigid and a
in their
judgments of
men and
things,
and that
a good thing for
them
to rub shoulders with
men and women who

and
think and
this often
is
act differently.
But they do not see that

its
means
that the salt loses

feet of
is it
flavour
trodden
under the
men.
possible for
How then
of
all this
them
to live in the midst
lowering atmosphere and to keep themselves

?
unspotted from the world
One
thing
think
is
clear.
No
mere abstract
standard of right and truth can hold out for long

against the overwhelming influence of
it is
human
life
when
its
not gross, but on the contrary when, even in

it is
vices,
cultivated
and
refined,
and repudiates as much
as
is
any
Catholic,
though from
different motives, all that
vulgar and degrading

in
in sin.
life ?
What
Or
chance can law
have
comparison with
the cold voice that

in
forbids and
commands, against the warm radiating

from
fluences that flow forth
living beings, throbbing
with
vitality.
Who
does not
know
the dissolving effect
of a well-loved voice and presence upon a resolution

formed
in the solitude of
207
one s own chamber ?
Who
has not experienced
how
quickly the piercing voice of

if it
conscience can be argued into silence
be only for
one
fatal
"
moment ?
"
It is
not good for
man
to
to be
alone
the law of his nature compels
him
form good
companionships and friendships, and these

or
evil,
are, for
the strongest influences upon his
life.
How
then can
men
find
an influence strong enough
to counteract the lowering effect of the moral tone
which surrounds them?
There
is
but one way.

influence.
Personal influence must be
met by personal
enough or
a person.
Nothing
law
will
else is strong
it
real enough.
not do,
must be
Many
a character has been strengthened
and transformed by a noble friendship which gave a concrete and living expression to the hazy ideals that
were not strong enough to counteract the surrounding
influences.
We
it
need to see the beauty of goodness

of
sin, in
in
order to
realise the ugliness
however seductive a form
may
as
clothe
itself.
We
it,
need the vision of human
life,
God
designed
that
it.
we may be
But not a
dissatisfied
with what man has made
vision
drawn
2 o8

artist s
by some
writer, but one that
hand or described by some great is alive and close to us, with whom
live in closest friendship,
all
we can
one
hold
is
communion and
mar and
who
wholly free from
those weaknesses and
idiosyncrasies which
holiness.
It is
disfigure the beauty of
only a Living Being that can counteract

life
the mighty currents of the

full tide.
It is
that surges around us at
only a
human
heart that can break the
spell of
human
influence that drags us down.
The
fair
and noble Form of the central Figure of the Gospel, drawn however vividly upon the page of a Book, bid
ding the weary and heavy laden come to
is
Him
for rest,
not enough.
The Voice grows dim and

living voices
inarticulate
when heard amidst the
around us singing
cold
with passion and excitement, the
Form seems
and
flesh
pale and ghostlike compared with those of
warm
and blood which press upon us on
all sides.
We
need more than
this,
we need
the living Pres
ence of
Him
of
whom
the Gospels speak, alive and
close to us to-day, to
Whom
we can
feel
turn in the hour
of need,
that of
Whose
influence
earth.
we can
more potent than
any one on
this is
And
given us in the Person of our Lord.
209
The
centre,
the
life,
the mainspring of the Christian
Faith.
And
yet
we
are so used to the attraction of imperfect

first
humanity, that at
disturbs
the character of a perfect

us.
man
and disappoints
We
admire physical
courage more than moral courage, a certain reckless

ness
more than
self-control,
one who loves the things

is
of this world
all
more than one who

of
ready to
sacrifice
for the
Kingdom
of
Heaven s
faults,
sake.
We
have so
with
long associated certain
even grave
a
sinless
sins,
our
idea
manliness,
It is
that
man seems
a
almost unmanly.
to find the
a shock to
many
The
woman
man
she loves innocent of certain sins;

in
virility.
he seems to her lacking

mother,
it
Christian
if
seems,
if
would love her boy more
he
struck back than

smiter.
he turned the other cheek to the
For
in
every sphere
we need an
perfect.
education to be able
to appreciate the
most
In art and literature, as

is
well as in character, the admiration of the multitude
given to
what
is
within
its
reach, that which

is
is
faulty
and imperfect.
an education.
Perfection
at once a revelation
and
Only those who have studied can ap14
2 io

works of the great prophets, the great
preciate the
revealers of beauty.
And
only those
to
who
study the
life
of our Lord and

intimate
draw near
Him
in close in
communion and
friendship see and
know
Him
the perfect beauty of
moral perfection.
We need
experience.
therefore to correct the false impressions of

life
our experience in
by educating
ourselves in another
effect of sin,
To
"
realise the
marring
by
close intercourse with the perfect type of humanity
He who
is
the chief amongst ten thousand and alto

".
gether lovely
In Nature the impressions of the eye have often to
be corrected by the deductions of reason.

spiritual life
it is, if
And
in the
false
possible,
even more
so.
The
impressions of
life
have to be corrected by the clear
vision of faith.
We
need a Person to correct the
influence of persons.
Person whose goodness
is
the most
us
attractive the world has ever seen, to

is
show
how
is
deceptive and unreal

evil.
the attraction of that
which
The whole
ethical teaching of our
Lord
is,
therefore,
bound up with Himself.
He
did not
come
to promul-

gate a law, but to reveal a Character.
211
Compare the
Gospel with the old law and

ence.
we
see at once the differ
The law went

this
into the minutest details, forbid

that.
ding
and commanding
circumstance in
There was scarcely a the domestic, social and religious life of

and ye
the Jews with which the law had not something to do.
It said
"
do
this
shall live
is
".
The
ethical
in
and
one
".
spiritual teaching of our Lord
summed up
its
brief sentence,
"
If thou wilt
be perfect, follow
nature,
Me
They know
its
little
of
human
passions and
weaknesses
who can imagine
that the teaching of
Christ can be separated from Himself, and that the
exalted moral standard which
He gave the world
would
long hold sway over
men whose hearts were not touched

Himself.
by His
love.
It is
not His teaching that changed the

it is
"
heathen world into the Christian,

love
If
ye
Me? He
is
"
said,
keep
My
commandments."
His
love
at once the motive
and the power of obeying
His teaching. Let the Personal influence of our Lord be removed from the world, and His teaching will
soon
follow.
And
the vivid realisation of His Person as a living
object of love
and source of power can only be kept
14*

alive
by the
faithful practice of religion.
Our Lord
in founding the Catholic
Church knew human nature
better than
we know
it
ourselves.
He knew
in
that our
nature
is
complex and must be reached
many ways
and through many channels.
upon the throne of God, the Mediator and the Life of all His
great doctrine of the Incarnate Christ
people,
It is
tices,
is
The
like
a priceless jewel set in precious stones.
surrounded by other doctrines, devotions and prac
by which
it is
brought
home
to the
minds of the
it
faithful
and kept alive
in their hearts.
And
would be
within the truth to say that every one of these doctrines
and devotions has
this,
and
this alone as its end.
The minds
of ordinary
men
are unable to hold for
long the doctrine and purpose of the Incarnation bereft of

all
those truths and devotional practices which sur

it
round
and uphold
it,
and feed the mind and kindle

acting through
the heart, and
make
it,
many
channels,
a living reality to them.

the altar,
The Blessed Sacrament upon

upon men
the centre of devotion and the fountain of the

forces
s
Church s strength,
could forget
living
still
it,
minds,
if
they
the reality of our
Lord s Humanity
in all its perfection,
and teaches us that the
213
Incarnate
God
is
our food.
The Mass with
all
its
effi
sacred rites teaches the most unlettered the living
cacy of the Atonement, and brings

bear upon each individual soul.
its infinite
power to
of pen
The Sacrament
ance makes once more real to each penitent such scenes

in the
Gospel as those
in
which our Lord pardons the
Magdalene and says

I
to the sinful
sin
woman,
more,"
"
neither do
condemn
thee,
go and
no
and promises
to the
Paradise to the penitent

Blessed Mother of
thief.
The devotion
God
is
not, as
some would suppose,

it
a rival to the devotion to
Her Son,
keeps before
men
the reality of the nature which

is
He
assumed.
Christ
in
fact
everywhere, and in every act of

fire, its
His Church
its
central
heart, its
life,
living for
Him
and by Him, and making His Presence a peren
nial source of
power to the minds and hearts of His

through the constant and
people.
And
tice
thus
it is
faithful
prac
of their Religion that those

in the
who
are called to live

its
much
world get the antidote to
poison,
and
the stimulant that strengthens
them against the lower
ing influence of
its
moral atmosphere.
They
see the
Beauty of Holiness in the Person of Jesus Christ,
and
2i 4

it
the evil of sin in however charming a guise

presented.
may
be
For through the practice of

is
their religion
our Lord
knit into their hearts
and minds, and His

background
Person stands out in bold
relief against the

"
of the shifting scenes around them.

clean of heart, for
Blessed are the

It
is
they shall see
God."
this
purity of heart, this keeping unsullied the Ideals of our

faith,
that
it is
fits
the soul finally for the Vision of God.
And
God
only by ever keeping before us the Vision of
Incarnate that
we can preserve
this purity.
VIII.
BLESSED ARE THE PEACEMAKERS, FOR THEY SHALL BE CALLED THE CHILDREN OF GOD.
VIII.
BLESSED ARE THE PEACEMAKERS, FOR THEY SHALL BE CALLED THE CHIL DREN OF GOD.
THIS Beatitude comes not
end.
lightly
at the beginning, but at the

is
The
office of
the peacemaker
not one to be
life.
assumed by a novice
in the spiritual
It is
It
needs
a long preparation and training. the spiritual diplomatist.

matist
the Beatitude of
And
the office of the diplo
demands no ordinary
clear
skill
and
self-discipline.
Without a very
stake and
knowledge of the principles at
more than the average knowledge of men

is
the diplomatist
pretty sure to
fail in
his mission.
And
if this
be true
in earthly things,
it
and when mere
earthly ends are at stake,

spiritual things.
is
infinitely
more
true in
Only he who has

will
learnt the lessons

fulfil
of the preceding Beatitudes

delicate
be able to
the
work committed
to
him
in this.
217
2i8

moment how they have
trained
Notice for one

at every point.
him
In the Beatitude of poverty of spirit he has learnt

to estimate things at their true value
for their proper
and to use them

he has learnt
end.
By meekness
inner self-control.
By
mourning, not to shrink from
sorrow and suffering, but to gain through them

fort
com
from on high.
By hunger and
which
is
thirst after justice,
he has learnt to bring every part of his

subserve
its
nature to
true end,
God.
By mercy
he
has learnt to blend in perfect proportion compassion
and
justice.
By
purity of heart to keep before
him
amidst the seductions of the world the true standards
and aims of the Christian
life.
is
And
after this
thorough training he
sent into the

is
world as a peacemaker.
blessed with the
title
peacemaker who
to be
not primarily of a Son of Man,

in the fullest sense of the
which indeed he must be
word, but of the Child of God.

If
we
it
analyse the result of his training
we
shall find
that
has taught him three things: (i) That

first in
God
must ever come
the thoughts of
man
that
as his true
end and the end of
all
created things
God
there-
BLESSED ARE THE PEACEMAKERS

fore (2)
219
must never be
sacrificed for
He
has learnt to
any one or any thing. know himself, and that he cannot

self-sacrifice
live his true life
without
and readiness to
face difficulties
flinching.
(3)
whether
interior or exterior without
And
he has learnt to know men, as no
man
feel
can ever know them
who does
not love them and
compassion for their

is
infirmities.
Such
the stern
and searching, yet withal loving

is
school in which the Christian soul

his office as
prepared to
fulfil
peacemaker
at
in
a world of strife and egotism,
where men are
war with God, with themselves and
with one another.
He
needs indeed to understand
the principles at stake, to have himself well in hand,
and to understand as well as to love the wayward and

passionate nature of the
deal.
It
men
with
whom
he has to
need scarcely be asserted then that
this
is
no
the
Beatitude uttered on a natural temperament.
On
kind of person
who would do anything and

Such a character
life.
is
surrender
anything for peace.
often one of
to sur
the most disturbing elements in
Ready
render the most sacred interests and the most import

ant principles to escape the trouble they entail.
Such
220
such people would do well to remember that there are

sayings in the Gospels as
"
am
not come to send
peace upon the earth but the
sword,"
and
"
Blessed are
evil of
ye when
all
men
shall revile
you and speak
you
falsely for
My
sake".
A
is
lasting peace
can only be made on the principles
of justice
and
truth.
And
a war in the cause of justice
better than a peace patched
up
at the cost of prin

in life,
s
ciple.
Peace
is
not the only thing worth having

heart or in one
s relations
I
either in
one
own
with one
if
own
family, or with the world.

in his
Indeed
doubt
any
one ever attained

which passeth
all
own
heart that peace of

till
God
understanding,
he had fought
many
a battle with himself and brought his rebellious
nature under the dominion of conscience.
There are
husbands
irreligious,
women who
give
in
to
everything
their
demand, however
for
unjust, unreasonable
and
a peace that
is
not worth having.
Many
a mother,
is
believing that the only
way
to
keep hold of her son
by yielding
to
him
in all that
he demands, wonders
that she seems neither to have held his affections nor

to
have kept her influence over him.

Therefore the easy-going lover of peace at any cost

not only that such peacemaking brings a bless
will find,
ing neither from
God nor man,

him
but that
it
is
probably
more
difficult for
to bring himself
under the law

a fighter.
of the Beatitude than for one
who is by nature
The
fighter has in
some ways the
better instincts of the
two, for he
fighting for,
knows
at least that there are things

is
worth
and he
not afraid to face an opponent.

will
He who
is
afraid of
war
never be able to
make
lasting peace.
Now
he can
is
the peacemaker of the Beatitude
knows that
make no terms with

or untrue.
sin,
nor with anything that

there can be no
false
On
this point
surrender to gain the whole world.
In the former
Beatitude he has learnt to keep his standards unsullied

in the
midst of
all
the lowering attractions of the world.
If
men
are to be led to
God
it is
not by lowering the

;
standard of right to suit their weakness
if
they are to
be led to the truth,

to the truth,
it
must be by
their effort to rise
not by tampering with or explaining
Such compromises with the revealed standards of right and truth have
away
truths that
seem unpalatable.
been made on
all
sides
;
the Catholic Church
by religious bodies outside of and we see the result more and

more must be surrendered
weakness,
lated
till
to
human
passion or
human
the religion of Christ becomes emascu

its
and enfeebled,
sterner side denied,
its
mysteries
It
explained away,
many
of
its
doctrines abandoned.
would be a strange thing
if
the truths of Revelation,
with their great demands upon
men s
hearts and wills,
commended themselves
sanctified nature.
at once to our lax
and unIf
It
We naturally rebel against them.

lift
they were not far above us they could not
us up.
needs a discipline of the mind to be able to understand

the things of God, as
to love
much
as a discipline of the heart
Him and
a discipline of the will to obey Him.

of Art are not lowered
to
The standards
meet
the tastes of the unlettered mob.

tion
;
they only appeal to those
They are an educa who have naturally an
artistic
temperament, or who have studied them and
educated their minds so as to be able to appreciate
and understand them.
And
so
if
the character and

all
its
teaching of our Lord could appeal at once in
beauty to
standards,
there
men and women

it
of sordid lives and earthly
would not be an education.

things
that
At
first
are
many
disappoint
us,
as they
"
did His Disciples.
When He was
challenged
If
223
Thou be the
Christ,
I
come down from
the Cross and
we
will
believe,"
suppose some time or other most
of us have
felt
that
we
could have wished
down and shown His Power.

"Wist
He had come When He said again,

now pray
to
ye not that
could even
My
Father and
of
angels,"
He
would send more than twelve legions

that
how we have wished

fled
He
had.
How
His enemies would have
before His Face, and
come back trembling to His Feet. It is only as we grow more spiritual, as our character becomes refined
and
purified,
that
it
we
for
realise
how much
nobler and
did.
more
perfect
was
Him
to act as
He
Other
men
could not
come down from
their crosses
and escape
from their
angels, and
difficulties
by the ministration of hosts of
in
assuming our nature
He
assumed the
ordinary conditions of
human
life.
The
deeper, therefore, the study of the Life of our
Lord, not as an intellectual but as a spiritual study,

the more
we
realise its transcendent beauty, its absolute
perfection.
we
Only as we try to follow His Example do With lower standards and more appreciate it.
vulgar ideals
think
it
we may
tame.
criticise
it,
find
defects in
it,
little
One
critic finds
that
He was
224

that
if
lacking in patriotism
He was
lacking in the sense

to teach
to
of the ludicrous
As
He came from Heaven

already.
men
things they
knew
But as we seek
follow in
His Footsteps we
realise the faultless
moral
splendour that radiates from His Presence and trans
forms the
lives
of
all
who
follow
"
His example.
We
feel the truth
of His words
If
thou wilt be perfect,
take up thy cross and follow
Me
".
And
it
is
the
same with the Truths of Revelation.

to the
There are many doctrines which do not appeal
ordinary mind, educated chiefly in the things of earth.
How
can a
man
believe in hell
if
he does not believe
in sin, or if
he does not believe
in the Incarnation
s
and
the price that was paid for the world
Redemption.
But
sin
in
it
the lurid light which the cross throws upon

is
not difficult to see

of good.
how
sin leads to hatred
of
God and
is
The
doctrine of the
Blessed
Sacrament
the daily practical teaching of the words

"
of our Lord
itself
As
the Branch cannot bear fruit of

in
unless
unless
it
abide
the Vine,
in
Me".
so
"As
neither
can
you,
you abide
the
living
Father hath sent

so he that
Me and I eateth Me shall
live
live
by the Father, even by

Me."
But how

can
225
men
believe this
who
are aiming at no standard
above their own reach, and doing nothing that they cannot do without the assistance of Grace. But those
whose standard
is
the Life of Christ will find
little
difficulty in believing,
nay
the
first
day of
is
effort will
show them that they cannot do what
above nature
without a supernatural power, that to be Christlike,

Christ must feed
them with His own

"
Life.
That
in
the words of St. Paul, the Gospel
is
The power of God

to enable us to
unto salvation
live
It
".
A supernatural
difficult to
power
up
to a supernatural standard.
would not be
all
show how
closely inter
woven are
all
the doctrines of Revelation.
How
they
hold together and form one whole, like the stones
of an arch.
And
that as
by removing one apparently

and
stability of the arch
insignificant stone the strength

is
destroyed and
its
final collapse is
only a matter of
faith, its
time, so
by surrendering one doctrine of the

is
unity and coherence
destroyed, and
it
may
be only
a question of time
the minds of men.
how
long
it
will
hold any sway over
For
instance, to
many men
IS
in
the present day the
doctrine of the Resurrection of the
Body seems
to be
226

little
one of
spiritual
importance and of grave

if
intel
lectual difficulty.
Even
they grant the Resurrection
of our Lord, the idea of the General Resurrection at the

last
day seems one

placing
it,
that only burdens the

as they say
mind with
in
difficulty,
untruly
direct
in
antagonism with the discoveries of modern science

regard to matter,
and forming a picture which the
educated imagination finds ludicrous and grotesque.
Yet
St. Paul,
ages before the birth of science, commits

in
it
the Church to the position that

of the General
Christian Faith.
"
giving up the doctrine
Resurrection
"
surrenders the whole
If,"
he writes to the Corinthians,

is
the dead rise not, then

is
not Christ risen, and
if
Christ be not risen then
our preaching vain and ye

of our
are yet in your

outside the
sins."
Some
modern
teachers
Church do not seem to
realise that in
ex
plaining
away
the Resurrection in order to remove
difficulties
to faith,
and to be
in
line
with
scientific
speculation, in the
mind of
St.
Paul they are giving
up
Christianity.
The
doctrines of Revelation therefore are not to be ac
cepted or rejected merely because they

selves or
fail
commend them
to
commend
themselves to the unsanctified

intellect.
227
They
are intended to educate the mind,
and
they need at least a certain amount of moral and

tual training to appreciate
spiritually
discerned."
spiri
them.
carnal
"
Spiritual things are
The
mind cannot under
stand the things of God.
And moreover
sort
it is
not beyond the truth to say that
every doctrine of the Faith has an influence of some
on the formation
and perfect development of

mighty force behind the
character.
will.
Dogma
acts as a
The man with one
talent alleged as the reason
for the failure of his life a conception of the Character
of
God which was
in fact
an utterly
false
one
he could
!
not serve a
God whom he
believed to be unjust
wrong
idea in regard to the very subtle
and
diffi
cult question as to the relation of
man s
free will to
God
of
foreknowledge has warped the whole character

a man, and has been the excuse to not a few
failure.
many
for
immorality and
Upon
the doctrine of the
Eternal Trinity, which seems an abstract and purely
metaphysical one, depends our conception of the Love

of God, whether
attribute of the
Love be an accidental or
Godhead, with
all
essential
its
consequences
upon the character of man.
15*
228
Therefore any tampering with the doctrines of Reve

lation,
however excellent the intention and however

it,
large the charity that prompts
has a more far-reach
and character than is at first ing influence upon life of one doctrine or one surrender The perceived.
of our spiritual precept
result of
Lord may,
in fact,
have the
producing quite a different type of character from that which He intended in founding His Church
to teach and train souls.
to observe all that
I
"
Teaching
them,"
as
He said,
should
command
you."
What
all
we
think of a
man who
strove to
obey
the
for
com
him
mands except one which he found too hard

and deliberately
violated.
His character would be
obedience to the very different from that produced by
Ten Commandments.
Therefore the peacemaker
ing of the Beatitude
who would
it is
seek the bless
knows
that
better to set the
world against him, to be hated of

accused, than, for
gain, to forfeit
all
men and
falsely
any apparent good or any immediate

jot
one
or one
tittle
of the spiritual
standard or dogmatic teaching of the Church.
Our
Lord warned us long ago to expect such treatment, and

that misunderstanding would lead
men
to believe that
229
in killing those
who were
faithful to
Him
they were
doing
God
s service.
The
rigidity
and changelessness of the Catholic
Church, in teaching what She claims to be

to teach
Her mission
in
the Truths of revelation
whether
fact
She be mistaken or not; Her readiness to lose any
number
She
of
Her
followers rather than
compromise what
believes to be the truth, instead of proceeding from

is in
a lack of charity,
principle the very highest charity,

strife
and though
has within
it
be no doubt a cause of
first
and
division,
it
the
and most
essential characteristic
of the peacemakers of God.

that there
who
at
are to be called the Children

rate
She knows
is
any
and teaches the world
such a thing as principle, and that She can
never weigh numbers against Truth and Right.

strength, and,
if
Her
un
you
;
like
it,
Her weakness
to
is
this
bending rigidity
She claims
have a message from
God
to give to men, a
message with which She has no

for the sake of
it
right or
power to tamper
great.
;
any
results
however
well
If
men
will accept
in its entirety,
and good
is
if not,
She must
leave them.
And
the
She presents to the world, torn and tossed with doubts and questionings, rent into bodies possessresult
that
230
ing more or less of the truth, one compact mass, bound

together
by one unchanging spiritual and doctrinal If She is, as undoubtedly She is, the standard. object
of hatred and fear to been, the source of
many
if
She
is,
and always has

the cause of
many
a schism,
many by Her
She
a bitter
strife,
unyielding consistency and

is
fidelity to
Her
trust
at the
same time the one
true peacemaker, giving to vast multitudes peace with
God, peace within
their
own
all
hearts and a unity amongst
themselves unknown to
the world.
in
And
those of us
who
our measure and degree
would carry out the mission and gain the blessing of

the peacemaker
who
is
to be called the Child of God,

in the
must follow Her example and be firmly rooted

promise of right and truth
standards given by
conviction that for the sake of man there can be no
com
no tampering with the

price of peace
God
and that the
may
often be a long period of war, misunderstanding,

revolt.
antagonism,
But
it
is
not enough to
know
if
the changelessness of
the Truth of God.
We
must,
If
makers,
holiness
know man
and
purity,
also.
we would be peace we know God in His

in all
we must know man
the

unstable nature.
231
frailty of his
There are men, rigidly
orthodox, uncompromisingly moral,
who have
little
weight or influence with the world.
People respect
less feel inclined
them, but do not love them, and

to follow them.
chills
still
They
radiate forth a cold light that
but never warms.
Their influence
for
good
is
extraordinarily limited considering
how
upright and
will
good they
are.
There are Catholics who would
ingly die for the faith,

single person to
it,
who never
in their lives
won
who
have, on the contrary, repelled

the matter with such people?
many from
I
it.
What
is
think
it
is
that they are intolerant not merely of
weakness and frailty of human nature. wrongo* but of the
They do
its
not understand
its
shiftiness
and uncertainty,
They
and inconsistencies. paradoxes and compromises are intolerant of the faults to which they have
themselves no temptation.
The
strong do not under
stand the difficulties of the weak, the calm-tempered

high-principled
man
of cold blood and few passions,

life
scorns the poor shabby bespattered

inconsistencies of
and hopeless
this
one who
is
inwardly torn
and that by the violence of

sledge-hammer argument,
conflicting passions.
is
way The
;
This
right, that
is
wrong
232

and there the matter ends.
wrong,
this is true, that is false
If
you know
a thing
is
why do you do
either
else
it?"
however unanswerable does not

convert.
convince or
There
is
something
that
must be
taken into consideration.
from the
"
lips of one
The cry that utters itself who knew well the human heart
:
The good
that
I
would,
I
do not
the evil that
would
not, that
do".
cannot do the things that
I would."
what such men fail to realise. They may know something of God, they may know much of
is
This
truth and justice, uprightness and integrity, but they know little of men of the struggles that precede, the remorse that follows, some sin.
grave
They judge
things in the abstract.
prove spoken, or an act of theft committed, were not in themselves wrong. But when it comes to the con
a
lie
And certainly the deed done, the words spoken can and must be so judged. The most charitable man in the world would be insincere if he tried to that
sideration of the person,
it
is
very different.
things
may go
to
modify the moral guilt of the
Many man
who
did the evil deed.
The deed
in itself,
and the

deed as done by the doer of
judgments.
It is
233
it,
demand very
different
by no abstract law that men are

all
to be judged,
but with
due weight and consideration of circum
stance, education,
temperament.
therefore while keeping before
The peacemaker
him
the lofty standard of his religion, needs also to
know
the material in which these standards are to be wrought

out.
He
must know man as well as God.
He
must
have learnt the lessons of the Beatitude of the merci

ful,
as well as that of the pure in heart.
He knows
ah, yes
in
is
that there can be
no lowering of the
but he has learnt experience
is
ideals set before us

!
by
Christ,
the school of his
own
bitter
how
hard
it
to rise to them,
desire
how
great
the contrast
between
and attainment.
And how
who
long
it
takes even to kindle the desire in one
has failed
deeply
How
will
then can he bring together
God s high de
his
mands and man s stormy nature with

and dimmed
is
weakened
spiritual vision
This
the work of the spiritual diplomatist.

it
And
tact
needless to say
is
one demanding the utmost
234
and the greatest delicacy of treatment, a combination

of firmness and gentleness, an entire faithfulness to
God and a knowledge

nothing but by love.
of
man
that can be gained
by
He
has at once to keep up the standard and to
deal with great forbearance and patience with those
whom he would lead onward in the service of God. Human nature emerging or trying to emerge from the
fascination
and slavery of
sin
is
very easily frightened
and discouraged.
Men who
have lived most of their
lives in reckless self-indulgence
and without a thought
of
God do
not, as a rule, like or trust
good people, and

;
they know nothing about the power of religion

only
feel
they
that religion expects a good deal from

little
them
and that they have very
to give.
in the
To
ask
much
of such
men
way
of prayer or
the practices of the spiritual
life
would be
ridiculous,
they
have no
spiritual
life.
To
set before
them even a high

Poor
moral standard would only frighten them away.
men, they are fighting

savage lusts
nourished
;
naked passions and their own the beast within them which they have
years
food.
is
for
alive
and awake and angry,

can one speak to such
crying out for
How
235
men
of the great Christian virtues and of the holiness

?
which God demands of His children

impossible,
And
yet
it is
even for the sake
of such as these, to
in the
tamper with the law of God, or to permit, of religion, what is wrong.
name
But the peacemaker, with the Divine love and pati ence which he has learnt from his Master, knows how
to
make
the greatest sinner at once realise that the law
of
God must be God
obeyed, that sin

is
is sin,
and
at the
same
time that
infinitely patient
and long-suffering
with those
who
are trying, however feebly and with
many
that
failures, to
do
right.
It is
one thing to say that

;
such and such sins must be permitted in certain cases
human
will
nature
is
too
weak
to resist them,
if
and that
their
you
only drive people away
you
insist
upon
being given up.

press
But
it
is
quite another thing to im
upon a man who
is
only just beginning to awaken

his soul,
to the claims of
God upon
what
must
at least
be struggled against,
wrong and and at the same

is
time to help him to realise

those
God
s infinite
patience with
who
is
are struggling.
In the one case the standard
of
God
lowered and
in the
human
nature weakened and

is
degraded,
other the standard
kept up and
236

are taught through
men
it.
many
failures to strive after
And
this as
think the Catholic Church succeeds in doing

religious
no other
body even
tries to
do
it.
She
can lead
men on
to
the highest
types of sanctity.
She can
prayer,
train the contemplative in the
ways of mystic
and can teach Her great active orders to go

all
forth into the world mingling with
sorts of people,
girt, their
yet true to their high vocation, with their loins
lamps burning and they themselves

wait for the Bridegroom.
like
unto
men
that
And She
can deal with the
lowest and most degraded.
She knows from
whom
to
ask everything, and from
whom
than
to expect but
little.
Her
religious
is
demands upon Her

less
children taken as a
whole
bodies.
at
it.
very small
many
other religious
Many
people outside the Church are scandalised
But what She demands, She demands not from a

only from those
all
select few, not

religious,
who
;
are
what are
called
but from
insists
Her
children
and what She de
mands She
upon.
In the few religious observ

is
ances which She makes of obligation She
legislating for
a vast multitude of people of

nations,
all
classes
and types and

inclina-
many
of
whom
have neither time nor
237
tion for
much
prayer or church-going.
of
It
would be
useless to ask
much
many
of them, and knowing the

it is
human
little
heart
She knows
upon
it,
that
far better to
ask a
get
and
insist
than to ask
much and
perhaps nothing.
All that
is
of obligation to every Catholic throughout

to
the world
is
go to Mass, which takes about half an

the greater festivals
hour, once on
in the
Sunday and a few of
year; to go to Confession and
at Easter,
and to abstain
Holy Communion from meat on Fridays, and

;
to keep certain days as fasts

fasts
and
in
regard to these
priests to dis
She
gives very liberal powers to
Her
pense those
reason,
all
who from
find
it
ill-health or
difficult to
work, or other good
would
is
keep them.
That
is
is
that
of obligation.
for
all.
The minimum which

to
in
sisted
upon
If
is
man went
every week day he
as
Holy Communion much obliged to go to Mass

the most religious as well
on Sunday as
week.
if
he never went to church through the

is
The
rule
for
all,
as the least religious.
Of
course
She encourages and
advises a
much
it.
higher standard for those

this is all
who
are
capable of
But
She commands and
insists
upon
for all
Her
children.
And no
one can complain
238

it
that
is
too much, or that

If too
feel
it
is
beyond
his spiritual
capacity.
much were demanded
a multitude of
people would
that they could not live

little
up
to
it,
and
would not try to do the
that they could.
She
upon
therefore puts the standard of religious observance
which She
insists well
within reach of the weakest.
And
so
She
leads
many, who would otherwise be
discouraged, on to higher things.
She shows Her deep

its
knowledge of human nature and

laying
weakness
in thus
down
laws of obligation to suit the weakest, not
the strongest, the least devout, not the most devout.
Other
circle.
religious bodies
deal primarily with the inner
They expect
too much.
The
Catholic Church
in
Her wide view
takes in the world, and She has regard
to the hidden longings of the
human
gift
heart, to the
power of conscience, the mighty

mystic
attraction
of faith, and the
which Her churches, guarding as
they do the living Presence of our Lord in their midst?

exercise
upon
all
who
is
enter within their portals.

to
For Her object

within reach of
lead
to
men
on, to
keep them
if it
Her power,
in the
make them come,

of
that
be but
of
for half
an hour
week, under the influences

spell
religion,
and beneath the
hidden

Presence which draws
resent being driven,
239
all
men unto
it.
Most people
no one can resent being drawn.
What
less
is
put upon them by authority seems more or
of a task.
it
The
task therefore
is
made
as light
to
as possible,
just obliges
them
to
come from time
time within the influence of currents that carry multi

tudes on without resistance.
At
before
the
same time the
vision
which the Church has

"
Her eyes is that of the vast multitude which no man can number of all nations and tribes and
people and tongues standing before the Throne of
clad in the white robes of perfect purity
".
God
And
with a
strong faith in the
human
soul naturally Christian, the
underlying longing for God, often scarcely understood,
and with an undying confidence
in
Her own power

it
so
to express the religion of Christ that
will lay its spell
upon the
soul
if it
can reach
it,
She
exercises the gift
of prudence as to the best
way
to bring the greatest
number under
its influence.
life.
And
it
is
the same in the moral
The
confes
it
sionals of the Catholic
Church deal with
sin as
is
dealt with
nowhere
else.
There are kept up the un-
yarying standards of right, and yet the weakest and
240

sinful
most
go away comforted and

s
filled
with the
priest sits
;
sense of
God
Mercy and Goodness.
The
there to minister the law of
God and
of His Church
on the one hand he represents the inviolable holiness

of the Divine law, and on the other the
of our Lord.
infinite
His education
is
largely to teach
mercy him
how
he can go on the side of mercy by giving Absolution what is the very least he can demand of
far
;
the penitent, as a sufficient token of contrition, involved

as he
is
perhaps
in
many
complications and under the
bondage of long-standing habits.

ask much, he cannot expect much.
And
often he cannot
It takes
its
very
little
to frighten a soul in the early stages of

It is
conversion.
hard enough for one
who
has gone on deliberately
for years in grievous sin to believe in
God
readiness
to
pardon and restore him.
The
fore to
office of
the Priest in the confessional
is
there
awaken the
and
at the
soul to the sense of the grievousness
of
sin,
same
send him away feeling
however great the sin, to how good and merciful God is.
time,
He may
that
feel that
it
is
more than probable
that
it
will
take a long time for habit to yield to self-control, and

there
may
be
many
lapses
while there
is
at
241
the time of confession a real earnest desire to do

better.
There are many severe comments from outside on

the laxity
of the confessional, and
how
after
people are
allowed to
come
to confession
week
into
week, while
they
lapse
again
and
again
the
same
sins
and show
is
little
sign of improvement.
tell?
But who that

can
tell
mere onlooker can
Who
can
tell
of the
strength of passion and the force of habit
who
but
the priest
who has heard
it,
of the bitter re
morse, of the hopelessness that has reached almost to
the verge of despair, of the sinner

criticised.
who
is
so lightly
They
see
npthing but
failure,
yet there
may
be a growing
effort,
an awakening hope, a gradual

is
realisation of the
power of Divine grace which
the
earnest of final victory.
Thus the Church

peacemaker.
acts as the perfect

all
type of the
And
and
who
follow
Her example, by
unflinching fidelity to the standards of our Lord, and

infinite patience
toleration of those
who
are weaker
and more prone to
evil
than themselves,
will
gain the
blessing of the peacemakers children of God.
who
shall
be called the
will
In such persons there 16
be no
242

sin,
weakness, no sentimental condolence of
no
will
loss of
moral
fibre.
But
at the
same time there
be no
harshness towards men, no sweeping condemnation of
men
as individuals or classes.
clearly in their
They will always keep own minds, and make it felt by others,
distinction
that they
draw a
is is
between
sin
and the
sinner,
that the sin
always
to
to
left
be judged and condemned

to the all-wise
but the sinner

ful
be
and
all-merci
judgment of God and to be treated with gentleness

charity.
and
For none can
tell
the secrets of the
human
heart,
and the multitude of considerations that may

guilt of the evil-doer.
is
modify the
As
;
the son of God,
the peacemaker
intolerant of sin
as the son of
man,
he
is
full
of compassion, long-suffering and of great

sinner.
in
mercy towards the
And men in
this effort
the higher sphere will educate
the principles upon which the peacemaker

difficulties that arise
must always act in the constant between man and man.
No
Their
one
will ever
be a peacemaker
who
is
a partizan.
sides.
Those who would make peace must not take

bias will
not be towards one or other of the
parties at strife, but towards justice
and
right.
When
243
Josue of old had entered the Land of Promise and
found enemies on
all sides,
we
are told that a mysterious
Personage appeared to him and stood over against him
and Josue went unto and said unto him, him, Art thou one of us or of our
in his
"
with a drawn sword
hand,
adversaries,
and he
I
said,
No, but as Prince of the host of
the
Lord am
now
come."
Such must be the position of

difficulties
the peacemaker.
In
full
sympathy with the
on either
side,
but himself standing with the hosts of

If
the Lord for right and justice.
he cannot enter into
and sympathise with the difficulties on either side he will never draw together those who are at strife if he
;
brings them together by a
sacrifice
of principle the
in
in
peace
is
not worth making.
Thus even
the mis
earthly
true
his
understandings and differences that arise

affairs,
it
is
religion
that trains a
man
fits
in
the
for
principles of the peacemaker and
him
work.
But there are

our
special difficulties in our

call for
own day and

to.
own country which
the work of the peace
maker, and which can be but just alluded
We
are living at a time when, in spite of

is
much
in
difference, there
a vast deal of religious earnestness.
16*
2 44

religious opinion,
and difference of
of controversy
and the
air is full
and
questionings.
Now
Catholic
under such circumstances the position of a

is
a very
difficult
one.
For amidst
all
the
Babel of opinion around him he has a certainty that
he has the truth, of a different character and

intenser degree than that of a
in a far
member
of
any other
body of
Church
Christians.
is
He knows in
fact that the Catholic
the pillar and ground of the truth, and in so
far as other bodies differ
from Her
in matters of faith
he knows that they are wrong.
He knows
moreover that there can be no lasting
other foundation than that of truth, peace based on any and that truth and untruth cannot come to terms of
peace
in the
human
soul.
But here again he must keep

difference
clear in his
mind the
in the
between untruth
in the abstract
and
concrete.
The untruth
of a false and imperfect system,
and that held by an individual belonging to the system. We must rightly hate and condemn eveiy religious
in the bondage of untruth or system that holds men withholds them from the liberty that truth alone can
give.
But our
attitude towards those
who belong
to

such systems must be very different,
as their peacemakers
1.
245
if
we would
act
In the
first
by leading them to the truth. place, we must be very sure of
the
to
truth
ourselves.
We
must know well the truth
which we would bring them.
Know
it,
not merely with
a kind of traditional knowledge, from the fact that
we
have been brought up

definitely, intelligently.
in
it
from infancy, but
clearly,
all
We
is
must, so to speak, see
round
it,
so as to be able to
in
meet objections and
to
express
it
language that
not exaggerated or likely
to lead to misapprehension.
Many have
it
been kept
back from a consideration of some doctrine of the

Catholic Church because they have heard
in
expressed
spiritual
language that really misrepresents
it.
The
diplomatist must therefore be well schooled aspects of the cause which he would plead.
2.
in all the
But, secondly, he
if
must know, and not only know,
but be able,
into
only for the moment, to throw himself
some
sort of intellectual
sympathy with the
position
of those
If
whom
he
he would win round.
he does not know and cannot understand their

will
difficulties
be arguing
in
the dark, and will
surely only alienate those
whom
he desires to win.
246
number of people take little interest in the faiths of others, they do not understand, nor do they want to
great
understand them.
in their aloofness.
Very
well.
They
are quite justified

time,
They have perhaps neither the

But
let
nor the
talent,
nor the sympathy that would lead them
to such studies.
them keep out of controversy

to the Truth.
tal
and avoid any
effort to
win these people

least,
In this department, at
they have neither the
ents nor vocation of a peacemaker.

if
And
their efforts,
they
make
any, are likely to do more
harm than
good.
The peacemaker must,

for his
if
he
is
to be at
all
equipped
work, be
in
sympathy with both
sides.
He must
element of
is
be able to see clearly another s
difficulty, the
truth perhaps enveloped in a vast deal that

to separate the chaff from the wheat,
untrue,
and to preserve
every grain of wheat, to detect the point where untruth

has a hold on the mind, and to measure the strength of
its
hold
to
show
often that the error that
is
held
is
but
the misrepresentation of a truth.

patience,
3.
And
all this
involves
knowledge and a large-minded sympathy.

thirdly,
And,
in
no man can ever
act as a peace
maker
matters of religious belief
who
allows his

mind
of the
247
for
moment
with
to entertain a doubt of the sincerity
men
whom
he
is
dealing.
It is
a narrow, hard, uncharitable view of
men
to
suppose that because their position seems to you

cal
so.
illogi
it
and absurd they must themselves

It is in
realise that
is
very
difficult to see
the inconsistencies of a
system
which one has been brought up from child

intelligent, well-educated
life
hood
and
men who
in
every
other department of
are sane and reasonable, in
religious matters will often

all
be found to have
left aside
reason.
To approach
tions,
a man, therefore, on controversial ques

faith
whose good
one doubts or disbelieves
in, is
to insult him.
With
these qualifications then, the Catholic can go
forth into the world equipped for the delicate task of
bringing others under the dominion of the truth which

shall
make them
free.
IX.
BLESSED ARE THEY THAT SUFFER PERSECUTION FOR JUSTICE SAKE, FOR THEIRS IS THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN.
IX.
BLESSED ARE THEY THAT SUFFER PER SECUTION FOR JUSTICE SAKE, FOR THEIRS IS THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN.
THIS
is
the last of the Beatitudes.
Its blessing
can
only be gained by those
who have
lived
under the laws
and attained somewhat of the Blessings of those which

have gone before.
of the spiritual
its full
life,
It
does not come at the beginning
but only
when
that
life
has attained
maturity.
There
is
nothing unreal or bearing

life.
the slightest taint of unreality in the spiritual
There are no demands upon the soul that are unreason

able, or that
would endanger
Its
its
assuming a pose either

is
inwardly or outwardly.
growths,
a
"
growth
like all healthy
gradual
first
development
from
very
small
the
beginnings,
full
the blade, then the

".
ear, after that
corn in the ear
It
would be absurd
25 1
for a child
252

manners and methods of a man
in the
to affect the
natural order,
and
it
would be worse than absurd
in
the spiritual order.

in
We
are not therefore expected
our spiritual childhood to manifest the graces and
virtues that can only be gained
by years of
effort
and
prayer.
And
around
it
needs a long training
in self-control,
a deep
insight into the true

us,
meaning and proportion of things
a charity towards
for
man
that never faileth,
and a paramount love

blessing that
is
God
to be able to attain the
here offered to the persecuted.
Therefore for those
who have gone

in
but a
little
way
still
on the road to Heaven, and

apparent
whom
there are
many
faults of character
and who have as
yet but a very superficial knowledge of themselves,

to pretend to anything like rejoicing in persecution,
whether the persecution comes from friend or

their co-religionist or those of different
foe,
from
creeds,
from
body or tortured mind, would be nothing short of unreality and self-deception. If they can gain
suffering
the grace to bear such things with

patience and to
strive to
all
some degree of
bitter
keep their hearts from
ness, they are doing
that can be expected of them,
BLESSED ARE THEY THAT SUFFER PERSECUTION

and give the best evidence of the
253
possibility of attain
Beatitude in years to come. ing the blessing of the
We
must know God before we can
rejoice in
His Will,
and we must have caught some dim vision of the
Kingdom
all
of
Heaven
before
we
are ready to surrender

its
that this world has to give us and to rejoice in
antagonism.
For there are those strange beings who without a

doubt take pleasure
in the
thought of being persecuted.
Who make
their religion
and
their religious practices
a source of such disquiet wherever they go that they arouse impatient comment and criticism from even the
most
patient,
it
and
this
they take a secret joy
in,
re
garding
as persecution.
They
will
not allow their
friends to leave
them
alone, they lash
them
into con
troversy and antagonism.
They
for the
like to think that
they are hated of
all
men
Kingdom
if
of
Heaven
sake, whereas, as a matter of fact,

all
it
they are hated at
is
for their
inhuman
tactlessness,
and the
last
do with it is the Kingdom thing imaginable that has to Men must be very sure indeed that they of Heaven.
hate no one before they can expect any blessing from evil of no being hated of all men, and that they speak
254

or of his religious convictions, falsely, before they
man
experience any blessing or can rejoice and be exceed

ing glad with any hope that such joy comes from a
heavenly source, when
men speak
evil
of them.
It is
so easy to transfer in our hearts the cause of antagonism
from our own
faults
and blunders and bad
taste to our
religion, and to assume the pose of martyrs, when that of penitents would be more becoming. It is to be
feared
that
there are
not
few who make both

of
themselves and the

secretly
Kingdom
their
Heaven
are
hateful,
and
wonder that
hearts
not suffused
with the Divine sweetness of the Beatitude of the

persecuted.
Personal religion
is
not a matter to be talked of and
gossiped about, or to be dragged before the public,
nor
its
practices to be flaunted in the eyes of those
who do
not understand
fire
it
it
should rather burn in the
heart as a secret
that shines in
and radiates
forth
from the
it
life.
It is like
the wind which bloweth where

tell
listeth,
it
but
men cannot
It
whence
its
it
cometh or
whither
goeth.
encircles
true votaries in a
Heavenly atmosphere that
is felt
it
to
come from an un
is
known
source.
The hatred
engenders
not the
255
hatred that
is
caused by the patent faults and obtrusive-
ness of so-called religious people, but the hatred that

springs from the world s fear of the supernatural.
From
the sight of lives and virtues that
it
cannot understand
and cannot bring down to
its level.
The
blessing and the joy therefore which our
Lord
promises to those
is
who
are persecuted for justice sake

its
not one that draws
consolations from any
human
source.
There must be no
taint of secret pleasure in
the fact of being in opposition, or of being misunder

stood.
No
true
man
likes to differ
from those around
him, or finds the least enjoyment in accentuating his

difference,
on the contrary he
rejoices in being at
one
with his fellow-creatures.

tricity,
Any
such pleasure
in
eccen
or in
what
is
sometimes dignified by the name
of independence, has no relation whatever to the joy of
the Beatitude.
On
the contrary the Beatitude springs

distress:
"
out of
human sorrow and
There springs up
a light in the darkness and joyful gladness for those

that are true of heart
".
It is for
those
who under
the
compulsion of conscience and driven by the force of
overwhelming conviction,
for the love of
God and Truth

heart, to
are ready, though with sadness
and anguish of
256

who
bear misunderstanding and reproach from those

are nearest
and dearest
and
to them.
And
to such, in
it
their solitude
distress,
and growing as
were out
of the darkness that envelops them, there dawns upon
them the Heavenly vision flooding the and the heart with Divine consolation.
It is
soul with peace
such persecution, endured for the sake of Christ
alone, a persecution of whatever kind brought
upon us
not by our imperfections or want of tact and

sense, but
common
by our
it
fidelity to
conscience and to God,
that brings with
the consolation and the joy of the

its
Beatitude.
effects.
It is
supernatural in
cause and in
its
Be
is
it
therefore
remembered again that

all
this Beatitude
the
last,
the result of
in
the training and discipline
and prayer involved

that went before.
gaining the blessings of those

a soul that has already
It is for
self,
learned to conquer
to endure suffering
and sorrow
with calmness, to find
in
God
a present help in trouble,

in a
and
cruel
to be gentle
and loving
world that
is
often
and
selfish.
He who
its
has not passed through this
school and learned
lessons will not be able to gain
the final and crowning reward, the reward of the martyr

in will if not in deed.
257
and cynical he has suffered
The man who has grown hard under opposition, or who, however much
in
the cause of truth and right,

faith of those
is
sceptical of the good
who
differ
from
to
him, and loud and harsh
in his criticism,
and stern
himself has become stern to others, also
antagonism that
natural blessing.
is
only natural
stirs up an and merits no super

is
The
Beatitude of the persecuted
the Beatitude of the Saints, or of those
who
are very
near to sanctity.
Now
tion
in
it
may
be noticed that there
is
a close connec
between
this
is
and the
first
"
Beatitude.
is
The reward
both cases
".
the same,
theirs
the
Kingdom
is
of
Heaven
And
the subject-matter of both
the same,
in
the external circumstances
and surroundings
which
we
live.
first is
The
the blessing promised to those

to
who
allow
in
no external things
master them, but keep them
their place as servants
and use them as means of ap

the law of this Beatitude
proach to God.
see
Under
we
men
struggling against the attraction of outward
things, feeling the need of
them and
at the
same time
the danger
how they
are forced
by the
necessities of
258

in their use
Nature to use them, and yet

risk of falling
they run the
under their power.

Beatitude contemplates a very different
It is
But the
last
state of things.
not against the attraction of the
creatures that the battle has here to be fought, but the

reverse.
These things that once were loved so much, perhaps too much, have as it were risen up against the man who strove against their magnetic charm, and
assaulted
him and sought
to drive
him
into revolt against

will
God.
If
they cannot win him they
wound him.
The
servant of
God endures
the last great onslaught

to
if
from the creatures he sought

they
will
make
The
his servants;
master him by fear
not by love.
All
things are arrayed against him.
smile of the
into
"If
world that
wooed and almost won him has turned

its
an angiy frown and

thou wilt
fall
caress into a brutal assault.

all shall
down and worship me

revolt
be
Thine,"
"
so said the Prince of this world of old to our

if not, I will raise all in
Thee."
Lord
life
but
and crush the
out of
How
different are these trials
the
trial
of seduction
full
and of hatred.
Yet he who would receive the
measure of the blessings offered by our Lord
in the

Beatitudes must endure both.
untried youth
idealism,
full
259
They
are the tests of
of the visions of beauty and hope and
and of mature years or of one who stands
upon
the threshold of old age.
The evening and
the
morning make the little day of each man s and some who have borne well and bravely
experience,
the testing
all
of youth and kept their hearts for God, amidst

attraction of the world,
the
have
failed in the
s
evening under
the crushing blows of the world
hatred.
Yet we must
endure the testing that comes with both the morning
and evening ere we can pass on

Sabbath of a cloudless
It is
to
the rest of the
eternity.
one thing to struggle with the body, alive and
astir
with the
warm
its
pulses of youth, lest

servitude, but
it
it
should sub
due the soul to
is
a very different
thing to find that
body no longer a seducer but an

its
enemy
that shows
claws and fangs.
refined
instrument of exquisite torture, the brain on thoughts that

faint
it
fire
with
seems impossible to
control, the heart
with weakness, every nerve athrob.
The
the
pleasures
tries
of the senses have failed to seduce,
now
body
what pain
It is
will do.
one thing to
strive lest the
absorbing interest of
17*
260

for higher thoughts,
it is
work should give no time

and
very different thing to find the work become a burden

distress, refusing to
get done, hanging like lead
around the neck

strain.
no longer an interest but a weary
Once you fought hard

heart, lest friendship
to
keep possession of your

should take too
and
affections
strong a hold upon you and lead you as they willed.

It
was a noble and a healthy warfare.

have died or gone
their
But now old
friends
way, you have been

not understood,
compelled to take a
line in life that is
and have been pursued by and opposition

;
criticism, misunderstanding,
there
is
no longer the danger of loving
men
too much, but of the heart, hungry and disap
pointed, turning
away
in bitterness
and
solitude.
Even the inanimate

gained a
you.
life
things around you

for the
seem
to
have
of their
own
purpose of tormenting
The
things that gave
pleasure give pain, the

in in
flavour of
life is
gone.
You
stand no longer
a world a world
that
you are trying not
to love too
much, but
that has
become
violently
and aggressively
its
antagonistic.
is
There
lest
is
no further danger of
courting, the danger

its
you should be crushed under
persecution.
261
seems strange it has always been a puzzle to devout minds such should be why allowed. things
it
Now
After
all,
God
is
the Lord and Ruler of
all.
It is
easy
to imagine that
God s
creation should turn
upon the
Creator.
man who violates

But
it
the laws and
commands
s
of
its
seems bewildering to one
moral sense that such
things should be allowed to happen to a person whose
only desire
It is
is
to serve
God and
to use all to His Glory.

trial
always a puzzle, always a fresh source of
to
every soul
who
experiences
it
or witnesses
it.
But
it is
well to bear in
mind that while such
diffi
culties are great indeed,
we must
not exaggerate them.
There are many
trials
and
failures that fall to the lot of
good people which ought not

with
to trouble us as being in
any way connected with the mystery of God s dealings man the fact is, there is really no mystery about
at
all.
them
The
If
explanation
lies
in the relation of
cause to
effect.
we
see a certain effect
we
seek at
is
once for the cause.
And
the cause of what

etc., is
called
success, worldly prosperity,
not a
life
of prayer
or the constant frequenting of the sacraments, but in

dustry, hard work,
and certain natural
gifts.
If religion
were warranted to produce wealth or success,
many
262
LIFE
would become religious to gain these
things.
The fruits
sin,
of Religion are union with our Lord, victory over the vision of God, and the things of the Spirit.
there
is
But
no necessary connection whatever between
frequent
communion and
success on the Stock
Ex
is
change, or daily attendance at

business.
It
Mass and a
flourishing
"
cannot with any reason be said
Here
man who
goes to Holy
fails in
Communion every day
of his
isn
t
life,
and yet he
"
every business enterprise
it
strange
No, certainly
not, his failure is assuredly
not because he goes to Holy
Communion every
day,
but because he
in
is
lacking in the gifts that ensure success
such matters, or because he does not go about his
business in the
way
that warrants success.
It
would be
to supply
a perilous thing for
human
life if
God were
through religion the qualifications which are ordinarily

acquired in the affairs of this
strenuous
"
life
by hard work and
effort.
He
that soweth to the spirit shall of

life,"
the spirit reap everlasting

best fruits of
life
but not necessarily the

fruits are for
on
earth.
Such
those
who
lay themselves out to
win them by every means
in their
power, sometimes by means that religion for
bids and condemns.
The Holy Ghost bestows many

upon those who are the
gifts,
263
gifts
faithful servants of
God,
but they are spiritual
and they do not include

fit
amongst
fortune
;
their
number those which
man
to
make
they are supernatural, these others are either natural endowments, or acquired by sharp wits and the
severe training of the market-place.
Therefore
if
man
is
very devout and very religious

is
and utterly unbusiness-like, there

fact
no mystery
in the
fall
that
in
worldly
affairs
he
may
eventually
amongst the submerged
tenth.
We
must not look
in
the effect for results that are not in the cause.
One
might indeed just as

press surprise that a
well,
and with equal reason, ex

his
life
man who devoted
to the
acquisition of wealth did not thereby gain great gifts
of prayer and an intimate knowledge of God.
As
man
sows, so shall he reap.

for
And
he who sows and
labours
surely
a spiritual harvest will as surely

its
more
gain
legitimate results, as he
who sows and

one
labours for worldly prosperity
more
surely, for the
never
fails,
the other often does.

farther.
But we may go
tithesis
life.
There
is
no necessary an
in the affairs of
between
religion
and success
On
the contrary, religion trains and develops
264

many
which we
the whole character, bestowing
gifts
have not by nature, and compelling

are obedient to
its
us,
so far as
all
we
commands,
to
do with
our
will
and
all
our power whatever our duty
calls us to do.
So
far therefore as the effects of religion are
concerned
all
they should
It will
make
man
If
at his very best
round.
not allow
him
to be slip-shod or half-hearted in
what he undertakes.
affairs
he
is
unbusiness-like in the
is
of
life,
it
is
not because he
religious,
but
because he
is
not true to the
commands
all his
of religion
all
His
religion bids
him do
it
with
is
might, do
to
the glory of God, and
God
upon
not glorified by a
man
who
brings aspersions
his faith as
making him
incapable of work.
It
has been often said that one of the causes of the

is,
lack of prosperity in Ireland
that the
minds of the
people are so fixed upon the things of the other world

that they do not think
it
worth while to do the work
I believe such an apology to be the and most subtle condemnation of the religion greatest
of this world.
of the people of Ireland.
It
implies that the Catholic

life,
Faith unfits a
man
to take his proper place in
and
still
do
his
duty where God has put him.
Or
it
means,

worse, that this world with
to work,
is
265
its
manifold
calls
and claims
no
fitting place of discipline

It is in direct
and preparation
for the next.
opposition to the whole
teaching of our Lord and His Apostles.

that
if
And
it
implies
faithful
man
desires to save his soul
and be
to our
Lord he must give up the world and enter a
convent.
According to the teaching of the Catholic Church, on

the contrary,
life in
the world
life is
is
the ordinary condition
of
life.
The
religious
not an escape from duty
nor the result of a
man s
personal tastes or wishes, but
the outcome of a Divine vocation.

for
Our Lord
legislated
the married state, and sanctified matrimony by

it
making
a Sacrament, the Church speaks of

St.
it
as the
holy state of matrimony.
Paul speaks of the union
of the married couple as the type of the union of Christ
with His Church, and
Holy
Scripture constantly speaks
of the Church as the Bride of Christ.
We
are told
again of one
who having been

s
healed by our
Lord
to
desired to join that

follow
band of followers who

answer was
:
left all
"
Him, and our Lord

tell
Go back
home and
those at
for
home what
great things the
Lord hath done
thee".
266

life in
All this involves a
the world, not the cloister.
In the Parable of the talents our Lord teaches the very

practical lesson
that the gifts of
God
are to be de
struggle and
veloped in the strain and pressure of

competition, and the
life s
man who was
punished was he
hid
it
who wrapped
the earth
his talent in
a napkin and
in
the shirker, the incompetent, the sluggard
These
talents
may
be taken no doubt as spiritual

gifts,
gifts,
but they certainly do not exclude natural

the imagery of the Parable
it
and
in
was
in the
market-place
that they were to be developed.
So
cases
far therefore
from
attributing
failure
in
such
as
we have been
it is
considering to the effect of
religion,
like
the reverse.
The man who
is
unbusiness
calls
and neglects or scamps the work that duty

to do, even if
him
he does so to gain more time for the
practices of religion, suffers not because of his religion,
but because of some unfaithfulness to

as a
it.
In proportion
man
all
is
really religious
he ought to be the best

for
man
round, best
life,
developed, best fitted

in
the
struggle of
best
whatever position God has

our Lord
in
placed him. carpenter

s
One cannot imagine

shop
at
the
Nazareth doing the menial work
267
He had
way
undertaken
in
any but the most perfect
possible, or that the exaltation of His
mind on
Heavenly things interfered with the lowly work of

earth.
Let us therefore not exaggerate the
difficulties that
It is
good people have to
suffer
upon
earth.
a deep
as
mystery that they should have to

do.
suffer
they
But
let
us keep clearly before us the distinc
tion between the sufferings that are a mystery, and
those that
men
bring upon themselves by their
own
incompetence.
And
it
may
be well
in this connection to
remember
earnest,
that the Grace of God,
and prayer, however
do
not remedy the evil effects of the violation of Nature s

laws,
and that a
foolish thing
done
in the service
of
God
will ordinarily
have just the same bad results as a
foolish thing
done for the most worldly of motives.
man who
overstrains his
suffer just as
mind by too much prayer will much and in the same way as one who
in business.
overstrains
it
The motive does not
set
one free from the natural law.

few who lay aside
the
all
Yet there are not a
prudence and
common
sense in
sees
name
of religion, and wonder that
God who
268

them from the
disastrous
the motive does not protect

results.
But God would have us reasonable beings as well as spiritual beings, and teaches us, or, if we will
it,
not learn
teaches others through us, that the natural

spiritual
law and the
law go hand in hand.

at the
Many
therefore
who wonder
if
mystery of
suffer
ing would do better
they wondered
at their
own
unreasonableness in the practice of their religion, and took their sufferings as the lash with which Nature
seeks to drive
them back
into the
pathway of
reason.
Such
sufferings do not come under the law of the

its
Beatitude, nor do they receive
blessing
the persecu
tion of an overwrought brain, of a
morbid melancholy
induced by too much introspection, of strained nerves
and a
justice
sickly body, are not always the sufferings for

sake, but very often for injustice in violating
the law of Nature.
But when
all this
has been
said,
and due weight has
been given to the
failures
and
sufferings that are in
duced by natural causes, and that cannot be dignified
by the name of the Mystery of God s dealings with man, there is enough and more than enough left to
cause perplexity to the devout mind.
Only those who

never think at
light
269
all,
or those
who
fail
see
all
things in the
of Divine Faith, can
to be harassed
and
bewildered by the grave moral questions that the con

templation of
stirs in their
God s
dealings with His faithful servants
minds.
possibility,
For the Beatitude contemplates the

merely of
life,
not
failure,
or of being worsted in the battle of

It
but of direct opposition and bitter antagonism.
is
not negative, but positive.
Here
is
man who
who
has placed himself under the

desires nothing so
laws of perfection,
much
as to
do God
Will and to
live at
peace with and be a bless
ing to his fellow-creatures, and to do this has undergone
a long and severe schooling in the practice of

discipline,
self-
or
as
men
like to
put
it
nowadays, has
of the uni
It will
placed himself in
verse.
harmony with the laws
And
the world rises up against him.

It
not leave him alone.

blessings.
refuses to take his offered
It opposes, reviles, hates
and persecutes him.
And
everything seems to go against him.
God s
its
world somehow does not appear to approve of

Creator
s
friends,
and deals more kindly with His
enemies or with those
who
ignore him.
But those
270

love
LIFE
who
tion,
Him most
and serve
Him
best arouse opposi
contempt and persecution.

this
And
mystery though so old always seems new

sufferer.
It
to every
new
comes to him as a
surprise
it
and disturbs him with perplexities as though

never happened before.
had
That
is
the
keenness of
suffering, especially suffering
through the injustice of
others.
We
see
it
around
it
us,
we
feel its
presence in
its
it
the world,
we know
is
it
here,
and see
victims
everywhere.
Yet when
comes to me,
seems to
be something new, never really known before, some

thing surprising and intolerable.
The complaints
that
have been wrung from the
lips of countless multitudes
come from mine.

have spoken
stand alone.
The words
of consolation which
I I
to others
sound a mockery to myself.

a sharp edge that cuts
before.
There
is
me
as
none has ever been wounded

It is
good therefore to remember that he who

cause of
suffers
in the
God and
of truth does not, as a matter

is
of
fact,
stand alone.
He
one of a great multitude

nations and people and
that no
man
can number of
all
kingdoms and tongues.
Reaching back through the
history of the world to the very gate of Eden,
when

Abel the
271
first
martyr suffered through the narrowness,
jealousy and intolerance of his brother.
And
the persecutions of to-day, however
real,
are
mild compared with those that stain the records of the

past.
The world s
real benefactors
have always been
treated
to
by it as its enemies. When Christ came down show men the way of salvation they nailed Him
to the cross.
When
thief
they were offered their choice
between the greatest Benefactor the world has ever
known and a
and murderer, they chose Barabas

to death.
and delivered Jesus

greatest
And
this
was but the
and most awful instance of what the world
has always done.
There
is
nothing more remarkable than the
which men of every age have treated those

to
way in who came
them with any new truth or higher standard of right. They have been met not merely with the dead-weight
Every forward step
of ignorance and indifference but with violent antagon

ism.
in the history of our race
has
been at the cost of

tion,
bitter suffering
and misrepresenta
often of the death of those
who would
lead
it
onward.
We
do not
realise
that the
life
truths that rule
and enlarge our
commonplace to-day had to fight
272

and that the teachers of those truths
and hated of all men, and that
to get a hearing,
were
reviled, persecuted
we who enjoy the blessings which they have brought us, had we lived in their day would probably have taken
our part in the opposition.
Even
in the
enlightenment
with
and boasted breadth of modern

all
life,
many oppose
their
might the teachers of those truths which are

Their eyes are holden that they
for their welfare.
cannot see them.

literature or religion,
Whether
it
in
science,
politics,
art,
has been, and probably will be
to the end of time, the same.
The
truths are misrepre
sented or misunderstood, and their teachers are treated
with scorn and surrounded by an atmosphere of sus

picion.
Some
of us live to see our mistake, and look
back with shame at our misconception of and anta
gonism to that which has brought us and liberty.
light,
healing
The words
sense
"
of our
Lord are
true in their largest
Your
fathers slew the Prophets,

".
and
their chil
dren build their tombs
And
and
this opposition
has always reached
its
keenest
bitterest
is
form
in
matters of religion.
The odium
we
will
theologicum
proverbial.
We may
talk as
of

the spirit of toleration in our
273
own
day, but
it is
scarcely
worth boasting
form, but
it is
of.
Intolerance
may
take a less savage

it
there, nevertheless,
and
can be aroused
to-day as easily as
when a few
bigoted men,
moved with
envy, stirred the multitudes to

Jesus.
demand
the death of
Men
of no religious convictions are often the of deep conviction.
most
bitterly intolerant of those
Men who
ridicule
boast loudest of liberty of conscience heap and contempt upon those whose consciences lead
them
to other conclusions than their

all
own, and would

in
if
they could stamp out
liberty.
Here
England
in
the twentieth century in

are not a few
many
a Christian
home
there
whose
lives are
made almost
intolerable
to
by the petty persecution which they have

year after year for conscience sake.
endure
Untruth somehow seems stronger
if
but for the
moment
than truth, and wrong than right.
There
is
nothing more pathetic in history than the sight of the
power
the temporary power
of evil over good.
In
the perspective of the ages
we
see, indeed, the reverse,
but those
who
suffered for right

;
and truth had to
suffer,
often die in the darkness
the reaction
came
later.
The
strength of truth and goodness 18
lies in its
inherent vital-
274

it
ity;
can bide
slain
its
time, for
it
is
eternal.
feet of
When
men,
lo
!
it
seems
and trampled under the
it
is alive
again,
and with
all
the greater vigour because of
the opposition. the other hand,
The
is
strength of evil and untruth, on
the strength of violence and passion,
and
false
hopes and promises that are soon exposed.

;
Wrong
cannot afford to wait
it
knows
that
it
has but a
short time.
Truth and right can wait with the certainty
that in the long run they
must gain the
victory.
They
are like the Rider in the Apocalypse, with crowns of

victory on His head even before the battle has begun.
The
lives of great
men and women have

St.
suffered at the
is
hands of the most worthless.

slain
John the Baptist
through the
whim
of
dancing-girl
and the
first
spite of
an angry woman.
is
The
history of the
days of Christianity
a history of
how
the noblest
lives were sacrificed often to the most sordid
and the
per
basest
passions
jealousy,
lust,
anger,
intrigue,
sonal spite.
Nothing has been too small or low to employ as a weapon against the teachers of Truth and Righteous
ness,
nothing too weak, apparently, to destroy them.

so goodness
And
was driven out by
evil,
and falsehood
275
triumphed over Truth, and those who would bless the

world with the knowledge and
reviled
gifts that
it
needed were
and persecuted.
called
But the generations have risen and have turned

their hatred
up and
them
blessed,
upon
their persecutors.
Those, therefore,
who have
to suffer in the cause of
God may
lonely
take comfort in the thought, that, however

isolated they feel, they belong to a vast
and
multitude that cannot be numbered

benefactors
the world
great
whom
those
it
has learnt to bless because they

it
;
had the courage to withstand

of fact
it is
and that as a matter

it,
who
give in to
whom
in the
long
run
it
forgets or despises.
They may encourage them

from
selves therefore with the thought that they suffer
moment s
opposition to be followed
by an age-long
appreciation.
But however comforting such considerations may

it is
be,
not for rewards like these that
men
will
endure to
the end.
The reward
the
of the Beatitude
is
not the possession of
Kingdom
much
of Earth, but of the
Kingdom
of Heaven.
It is
wholly supernatural.
in
The
soul that has already

is
learnt
the school of the Beatitudes
being put
18*
276

and
final test.
being searched through and through by the fire of persecution. If it can stand this and rise through it the training has done its work. If there be a flaw it will disclose itself. It is the last
It is
to the last
Beatitude, and
it
teaches us that
it is
possible for a
man
to stand not only alone, but with
all
the world against

is
him and
to be happy.
Not because he
indifferent to
human
be no
for,
appreciation and
human
affection, for that
would
virtue,
nor because he despises the things of earth,

all
on the contrary, he reverences and values

has created, nor yet because he
is
that
God
indifferent to the
judgments of men,
for in the school in
which he has
been trained his heart has become very tender towards

his fellow-creatures, but because
he has turned to God
as his Comforter, he has learned to see the true value
and proportion of things in Him. The light of Heaven encircles him, and his solitude is enlivened by Heavenly
companionship.
Through the cracking and
splitting
surface of earthly things the light and sounds of the
Heavenly Kingdom flow in upon him and flood his soul with peace, and while the tears of earthly sorrow
fill
his eyes,
he
rejoices
and
is
exceeding glad.
all
The work done under
the training of
the other

Beatitudes
277
is
tested, completed,
and rewarded was
in this.
So, as Stephen was stoned, his face
as the face of
an angel, and he saw our Lord standing at the right
hand of God.
So
in the arena,
amidst the wild shouts
of an angry multitude, and under sword and flame and rack the martyrs could sing
pardon their persecutors.

the world was against
Te Deums and pray for and They felt not so much that
as that
them
God was with them,
and
in
His
light
they saw
has,
I
light.
But the Beatitude

There
is
think, a wider application.
a persecution which
many have to endure
not
from people but from things.
We
a
know what
all
it is
to be in
us,
and with
that
is
around
harmony with ourselves a mind serene and calm,

by
passion,
body
unruffled
by
suffering or disturbed
the apt and ready servant of the soul, and the external
surroundings of our
life in
full
accord with our tastes

its
and wishes.
The
inner
life
and
external circum
stances swing in perfect
Such
is
harmony and rhythm. often the case in childhood and early youth.
life
The sun
in
of a buoyant and vigorous

its
shines from with

us.
and sheds
radiance on
all
around
Hope,
like
the
warm
breath of spring,
stirs
through the soul and
27 8

manifold powers to action, and the world bathed
it
calls its
in its light bids
come
forth and try them.
And
then as time goes on hope becomes
dimmed
jars
and clouded by disappointment.

discords between the inner
science
life
There are
and
and the
outer.
Con
issues
awakens and forbids many things, and

that are hard to obey.
life is
commands
Then
the
harmony
and dis
of the inner
disturbed.
There
is strife
cord in the very sanctuary of the soul.

the things that
discontented.
it
It
cannot do
would.
The
will
becomes surly and
Inclination calls
one way, reason and
conscience another.
a coming storm,
Passion, like the first

itself heard.
murmur
of
makes
Soon the
as
it
light
and budding
with
all its
life
of spring are swept
away
breaks
fury.
Then
the
body awakes
for
like a giant,
awakes and wrestles with the soul
dominion, and in
the fierce conflict the strongest forces of

are arrayed one against the other.
man s
nature
lusts
The
flesh
flesh,
against the spirit and the spirit against the
and
these are contrary the one to the other.
An
intense
dualism
is
set up,
and can never be allayed save by the
subjection of the flesh to the spirit or the spirit to the

flesh.
Action
in the external
sphere
is
weakened by

the inner
things
279
The very appearance of outward becomes changed and deceptive. The judgment
conflict.
is at fault.
The
light of reason
dimmed.
The
call
of
the outer world

to
is
no longer to come forth and do, but un
come
forth to an endless struggle, with the issue
certain.
The atmosphere
is
is
charged with antagonism.
The harmony
surroundings
that reigned between the
man and
his
gone
for ever.
He
is
at
war with them

Things
or they with him, he can hardly
tell
which.
that were a help
become a hindrance.
Things that
were a joy to do became a burden and a sorrow.
Things that crowded upon him and clamoured with

the offer of their service, take flight and leave him or
turn and rend him.
Under such circumstances and
in the loneliness
itself,
it.
and
desolation in which the soul finds

offers of help constantly
there are
two
appealing to
One
to give
up the struggle and find peace

the offer from below.
by surrender. This is The strife and suffering, it says,
spring from fighting against your
own
nature and
;
cir
cumstances which are too strong for you

fight
give up the
and you
It
shall
have peace.
The
other comes from

It
above.
comes from the Lips of our Lord.
says
a8o

fight this battle alone
;
You cannot
you were never

I
I
in
tended to fight alone
if
you
will,
will
will
help you.
teach you
Come and
that never
learn in the school in which
and give you strength.

fails,
There you
will find the light
the grace that imparts eternal youth
and vigour.
It rests
with each
man
to decide for himself,

If
it
and by
the issue of that decision he must abide. the one, he will find peace indeed, but
he accepts
will
be a
;
peace purchased at the
loss of all that is
worth having
he
will
hither
become a poor drifting willess thing borne and thither by the currents around him and the
stronger currents of passion and inclination within.

If
he accepts the other, he must place himself under
the stern discipline of those laws laid

in the Beatitudes, the
down by our Lord
whereby he will become master of himself and of the world around him.
liberty,
laws of
But
in the struggle that this involves
he
will
gain far
more.
He
will
will find the
sweet companionship of
One
Who
He
be ever by
his side,
Who
will lay
open to him
life.
the secrets and the joys of a larger and a nobler

will rise into the supernatural.
He
will see, first
dimly, then ever
more and more
clearly, the
golden
281
spires
and strong battlements of the Kingdom of Heaven, whose walls are salvation, whose gates are
and
in that
peace,
forted
by the
Kingdom Communion
his solitude will
be com
of Saints, his weakness
Life of Christ strengthened by partaking of the very Himself, and God will wipe away all tears from his
eyes.
He
will
experience the blessing of the servant

life:
of God, the skilled combatant in the battle of

"
Blessed are the persecuted, for they shall be called the
children of
God
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Laws of The Spiritual Life

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s (fDmtTJEht

FX LIBRIS ST. BASIL S buiJLASTICATE

EX LIBRIS BASIL S SCHOLASTICATe

LAWS OF THE SPIRITUAL LIFE

BY THE SAME AUTHOR.

SELF-KNOWLEDGE AND SELF-DISCIPLINE.

LONGMANS, GREEN, AND

LONDON, NEW YORK, BOMBAY, AND CALCUTTA.

EX LIBRIS BASIL S SCKULASTiCATE

LONGMANS, GREEN, AND

PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON YORK, BOMBAY, AND CALCUTTA

THE PRINCIPLES OF THE BEATITUDES

BLESSED ARE THE MEEK, FOR THEY SHALL INHERIT

BLESSED ARE THEY THAT MOURN, FOR THEY SHALL BE

...... ........ ........

BLESSED ARE THEY THAT HUNGER AND THIRST AFTER

THEY SHALL HAVE THEIR FILL

BLESSED ARE THE MERCIFUL, FOR THEY SHALL OBTAIN

BLESSED ARE THE CLEAN OF HEART, FOR THEY SHALL

BLESSED ARE THE PEACEMAKERS, FOR THEY SHALL

BLESSED ARE THEY THAT SUFFER PERSECUTION FOR

THE PRINCIPLES OF THE

THE PRINCIPLES OF THE BEATITUDES.

of the greatest achievements of the

modern times has been the discovery

lying and controlling

the apparently disconnected

For ages the universe

a vast panorama of constant change,

heavens and the

the wind blew from north or south.

has been the result of careful and patient study to

discover that underlying and causing

LAWS OF THE SPIRITUAL

her actions, there

Caprice gives way, the more

the result of Law.

are certain that her most

and her most exceptional acts can be reduced to the

of the laws as yet

or nothing, but of their existence

the change that

has passed over the

within the last few

baffle the imagination of a

of ordinary education to conceive of any part of the

did not reign.

Through the length and breadth of her vast domain, into

human body, run

the forces that rule her alike in the

infinitely small or in the

nerves convey the

these forces, stands a

mighty Will whose

represent and carry out.

the laws that govern the workings of the

that this higher and

more mysterious world forms no

THE PRINCIPLES OF THE BEATITUDES

exception to the principle of law and order that reigns

allow ourselves to think in

moments of discourage times when we seem to