05.06. It Goeth Forth and Returneth

VI IT GOETH FORTH AND RETURNETH

Matthew 5:7 "Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy."-- Matthew 5:7.

NOTICE where our Saviour puts this beatitude, the heart of which is mercy. It follows that longing after righteousness which is the characteristic of the righteous, because mercy is the white flower on the stem of a righteous life. Indeed, the absence of mercy in our temper and disposition shows that our righteousness is that of the ceremonialist, as that of Saul, who was blameless as touching the righteousness which is of the law, but utterly devoid of those Christian virtues which indicate the presence of the truly holy heart. The religion which is devoid of mercy is that of the exterior form, but destitute of the inward power. It was therefore with a Divine insight that our Lord put mercy after righteousness--first, because a man must be right before he can be merciful; and second, he must be rightly adjusted with the Fountain of mercy so that the Divine quality of mercy can pass unhindered through him, and approve him to be a son of the All-Merciful. Search your heart, and see if you have learnt forgiveness for the sinning, and pity for the sorrowful; not otherwise can you account yourself righteous after God’s fashion.

Mercy is the exclusive prerogative of Christianity. The schools of ancient morality had four cardinal virtues--justice in human relations, prudence in the direction of affairs, fortitude in bearing trouble and sorrow, temperance or self-restraint; but they knew nothing of mercy, which is not natural to the human heart. It is an exotic which Christ brought with Him from heaven. As long as the Lord Jesus tarried amongst men, He poured forth mercy in its double form of forgiveness and succor, to those that hated and to those that were wronged; and when He passed back to the Father, the Church took up His blessed work, and came to the world, as the dew distilling on the parched pastures, to become the saviour and regenerator of society. She found the most horrible practices in vogue, which she stayed; the most preposterous customs, which she tempered; amusements and games, which she discountenanced and finally abolished. She extended her beneficent sceptre to captives, and women oppressed with innumerable wrongs, and little children. Regardless of her own sufferings, she existed apparently for the sole reason of ministering to those that wronged and oppressed her, as well as to those who were being trampled under foot by greed and lust and hate. Thus mercy sprang out of the ground in response to the righteousness which looked down from heaven.

I. THE QUALITY OF MERCY.

It is evidently a phase of love, for each of these beatitudes enshrines some aspect of the Love of God in the soul of man. The first is Love in her humility, with such great thoughts of the possibilities within her reach that she counts herself not to have attained. The second is Love in tears, bewailing the lovelessness of the world. The third is Love suffering wrong in the hope of vanquishing it. The fourth is Love impelled by insatiable desire for fuller satisfaction. The fifth, of which we are now treating, is Love retaliating on wrong. The sixth is Love burning with a faith so pure that evil cannot withstand. The seventh is Love so equable that it can quiet and steady anger and strife. The eighth is Love misunderstood and persecuted.

Each is therefore a facet on which the sunlight falls, and from which it is reflected at a new angle, and with a new beauty. Let the Love of God dwell in you richly, and as it passes out from you to strike the many evils of the world, each phase of sin will elicit and reflect some special quality. Some day it may appear that sin was permitted, in order to set forth the perfect beauty of Divine love, just as clouds unravel the contents of the light into rainbow hues.

There is a distinction between Meekness and Mercifulness.--Meekness is the passive, mercy the active side of Love. The meek man entering into union with the love of God, which is ever-suffering beneath the wrong of the world, and knowing that the power of evil will presently be broken by meek forbearance, suffers with the long-suffering of God. But mercy goes farther. It takes measures with the wrong-doer. In mercy our love issues forth toward the perpetrator of injury, pitying, bending down with tender hand and gentle touch, pouring in oil and wine, and endeavoring, by the coals of fire it heaps on the offender, to melt his obdurate heart, and bring him to a happier state. Mercy seeks out the wrong-doer, if so be that it may lead him to repentance, notices the first symptom of return and meets it, welcomes him with kisses, undoes the injury which he has wrought to himself, and reinstates him in the old place.

There is also some difference between mercy and forgiveness. Love is the parent and root of all. Grace is love coming forth to meet those who had forfeited all claim upon it. Forgiveness is love assuring the wrong-doer that the past is forgotten. Mercy tries to ameliorate the condition of the sinner. Whenever wrong is done you, think less of what you suffer than of the state of his heart, its darkness and misery, who has done the ill, and when you have conceived of it, seek to alleviate it. This is mercy.

II. THE CIRCUMSTANCES WHICH AWAKE MERCY.

First, Sin rain Psalms 51:1-19 we have the plaintive cry of a broken heart. " Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of Thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions, against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned, that the bones which Thou hast broken may rejoice." Forgiveness is not enough, the broken bones cry out for mending. Forgiveness does not necessarily include reparation of the hurt, which wrong-doing inflicts on the wrong-doer. The drunkard may be forgiven, and yet have to bear the results of injury to his body and nerve; nevertheless, when such an one is forgiven, he may also count on the mercy of God, pitying that trembling, palsied hand, and that wrecked constitution, and endeavoring so far as may be possible, to undo the havoc, and to bring again his flesh as fair as that of a little child. Thus mercy rejoices against judgment.

Second, Suffering.-- Luke 10:37 tells of the mercy of the stranger to which even the Scribe bore unwilling testimony. " Which of these," asked the Lord, after He had vividly portrayed Priest, Levite, and Samaritan, " proved neighbor to him that fell among the thieves?" And the Scribe was compelled to admit, " He that showed mercy on him." In such a state of things as that which surrounds us in any great city, we must be careful to allow our mercy to flow freely forth. Nothing is worse than to be always checking it from fear of imposition. Better to be deceived and wronged now and again, than to be always withholding the hand. We must take care, of course, not to harm men by encouraging them in idleness and lying fraud. It is the truest mercy often to withhold the dole of charity from those who would misspend it. We must see to it, also, that we are not content with the impulsive act of benevolence, which flings some coin to the outstretched hand to save itself the trouble of investigating the need, and ascertaining the best way of meeting it. Mercy may refuse to give on the spur of the moment, that it may help permanently and efficiently. We must be very careful, also, not to entrust the giving of our alms to the paid hand of agents and professional almoners. Organized charity is a symptom of Christianity which retains the name of Christ, but from which His Spirit has fled. If mercy is to rise spontaneously and perennially, it must be nurtured by personal contact with sorrow and suffering. Its own hands must bind the sores, and smooth the pillow, and arrange the disordered room, and watch through the night-vigils.

Third, Ignorance and Infirmities.-- Hebrews 2:17, Hebrews 10:15. Our Lord Jesus is a merciful and faithful High Priest . . . touched with the feeling of our infirmities, and able to have compassion on the ignorant and erring.

Mercy does not wait for sorrow and need to appeal to her. She goes to seek them. She does not wait for the injury to be wrought on her, before being prompted to retaliate in heaven’s own kind, but her lovely form casts a light as it passes through the squalid street, climbing the creaking staircase, and pursuing the victims of the great wrong of the world where they hide their festering sores. Oh, beautiful is the light on Mercy’s face, when she beholds some scene of want and woe, from which the refinement and culture of the world would turn, disgusted and loathing. This is work that she loves. Here she is in her element. She needs no teaching, for the heaven-born instincts of her heart prompt her. Her voice is musical with the tones of the Incarnate Saviour. Her hand is deft and soft. Her tread is beautiful as it passes along the mountain track; rugged, storm-swept, difficult to the foot. To have seen her would make you think that you had met one of the daughters of the family of God.

III. THE BENEDICTION.

It has been noticed that the three first beatitudes touch the lower plane of our experience by which need has to be met with its opposite. Hence the blessedness consists in imparting the appropriate satisfaction, but the fifth, sixth, and seventh--that is, the three which lie on the hither side of desire--are those of the saint, whose blessedness consists in having more of the quality already possessed. Hence, mercy is the appropriate reward of those who already show it. Have you ever noticed the way in which these attributes of the blessed life demand the coming of the Comforter? Matthew 5:1-48 demands John 15:1-27, John 16:1-33. The commandments of the forty days demand the gift of Pentecost. The traits of Christian character must be burnt in by the Baptism of Fire. There must be a power yet to be revealed by which these rare and precious exotics may be made to bloom on the wintry soil of the soul. The law of love is given in all its fulness on this mount of beatitudes, as the law of righteousness amid the thunders of Sinai, that being hopeless of ourselves, we may be shut up to faith in the Holy Ghost, who alone can work in us the fruit of the Divine life. " The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, meekness." The merciful alone experience all the mercifulness of God.--It was after Job had pitied and prayed for his friends that his own captivity was brought again. " See," says the apostle, " the end of the Lord, that He is full of pity, and merciful." If we go through the world ministering to others, God will come and minister to us. His angels will come around us with their gentle ministry, doing for us as we have sought to do for others. " Blessed is he that considereth the poor, the Lord will remember him in time of trouble." In one of His most striking parables our Lord depicts the forgiven steward, who took his brother by the throat, demanding payment, as forfeiting the clemency which his Lord’s mercy had brought him. " Shouldest not thou also have had mercy on thy fellow-servant, as I had mercy upon thee? And he delivered him up to the tormentors." That cannot mean that God ever withdraws His mercy from the soul He has once forgiven, because God cannot change His mind, but it means surely that the unmerciful cannot claim God’s mercy. If, therefore, thou hast not forgiven, thou hast not been forgiven. Each time you utter the Lord’s Prayer--Forgive, according to the measure of my own forgiveness --you really say, Do not forgive me because I have not forgiven, and I dare not ask Thee to do for me what I have not done for my brother sinner. Be sure that in coming days you will need forgiveness, more, perhaps, than you realize, for you do not know yourself; but, at such a time, the failure to show mercy will arise, and, lifting its voice, will plead against you and overpower your plea for forgiveness. The merciful may count on mercy from their fellows.--None are treated so mercilessly as the merciless. With what measure ye mete it shall be measured to you again. Let any one be censorious in criticism, vindictive and malicious, quick to resent a wrong, bitter and uncharitable in speech, relentless in demanding reparation; and the time will come when that soul will need mercy from its fellows, and meet the stolid stare of indifference. " And Adonibezek said, Threescore and ten kings, having their thumbs and their great toes cut off, gathered their meat under my table: as I have done, so God hath requited me." On the other hand, those who are tender and gentle in their judgment, patient and forbearing in disposition, peaceable and easy to be entreated, quick to forgive the wrong-doer, and to repair the wrong, will never be in need of mercy, but in hours of darkness and peril, forgotten acts of kindness will arise from long-buried seeds, and mercy which had gone forth to bless others will return from its long journey and many errands, in time to comfort and requite the heart from which it started forth. " Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy."

How great has been Thy goodness to me, O Lord, who am not worthy of the least of all Thy mercies; make me tender and forgiving to my fellow servants, as Thou hast been to me; that their hearts may, in turn, be softened, and taught the law of mercy and long-suffering.