05.07. The Beatific Vision
VII THE BEATIFIC VISION
Matthew 5:8 "Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God."-- Matthew 5:8. OF all the eight beatitudes, none arrests us with a greater sense of sublimity and majesty than this; and none, in its possession, more absolutely distinguishes the religion of the Lord Jesus Christ. Like some inaccessible Alpine peak, covered with virgin snow, this conception of the pure heart towers up amid all the great words of this marvellous discourse. To be pure in behavior and life was admitted by the Stoics to be the sign and token of true manhood; but to be pure in heart has been deemed an inaccessible and untenable position. Even if it were Christ’s by the peculiar constitution of His nature, it cannot, so men argue, become the attribute of natures which were conceived in sin and shapen in iniquity, and are impressed with the evil impulses of generations of self-indulgence. To know sin only to abhor it, to keep so strong a hold on appetite that, like some spirited horse, it shall only fulfil its legitimate purpose, to be always blameless and harmless, to wear ever the white flower of a stainless life, to allow no lewd visitant to cross the threshold of the soul, to permit no foul picture to remain for a moment on the lens of the inner eye, to love all men and women with a pure and unselfish affection in which there is no taint or stain--this is an ideal which, if it flitted before the minds of men like a bright vision, was not attained until Jesus came with that omnific word, which said to the leper, " I will, be thou clean," and in that early miracle gave a sign of the characteristic of His life, in saving those who had been deeply dyed in the ditch of sensual indulgence, and making them bright jewels in His crown. Thus pure white paper is woven from rags, and diamonds manufactured out of charcoal.
PURITY OF HEART WILL ENSURE PURITY OF LIFE AND CONDUCT. This connection has been too often overlooked, and the order forgotten. Many have insisted on the careful regimen of the body, frugal diet, vigorous exercise, cleanliness of person; and have reiterated the ancient maxims of the Stoical philosophy--Touch not, Taste not, Handle not, though discovering, as the apostle said, long ago, that these things have indeed a show of will-worship, and humility, and severity to the body, but are not of any value against the indulgence of the flesh.
No, the secret of purity lies deeper. Begin with the outward, and you may or may not affect the inward temper of the soul. Begin with the inward temper, and the effect on the outward will be immediate and transfiguring.
Purity of heart means the control of the imagination. Away from the realm of sense there lies a world of illusion, the atmosphere of which is brilliant but deadly, its scenery bewitching but corrupting, the inhabitants wicked spirits, some of whom are robed in exquisite costumes veiling their deformity, whilst others are at no pains to hide their loathsomeness. Thither imagination can at will transport us. Like a swift shallop it can convey us to those mystic shores; and disembarking we can take our part in unseemly revels, whilst our face is buried in our hands, in the attitude of prayer, or our outward presence is sharing in the amenities of the home-circle. But no heart can be kept pure, unless the fancy is kept sternly under control. It must not be permitted to bear us away into the world of unholy and sensuous dreams, or to introduce into the temple of the soul any picture which would taint or defile.
Purity of heart means the rigorous care of the affections. We must love. Not to love is to lose God and heaven out of life; not to love is to miss the inner secret of blessedness; not to love is to deny the exercise of our noblest powers. We wrong the nature with which God has endowed us when we refuse to love. But our affections resemble the tendrils of clinging plants, they reach out altogether in wrong directions, or too profusely in right ones. So our love strays to those to whom we ought not to give it, or overflows with undue extravagance to those who have a claim to something but not all. Nothing is more hurtful than a friendship which monopolizes all the thought and force of the lovers, to the exclusion of all others, and especially of God. We must love God in others, and them in God, only where His will permits, and to the extent which is compatible with His claims for the first place. Whenever you feel your heart giving out strongly to another, be very careful to consider whither the strong tide is bearing you, and stay whilst yet it is possible to resist its current. The intention of the soul must be single.--To do God’s will, whatever it costs; to follow in the line of His command, whatever it involves; to live within the limits He has laid down, whatever be the solicitation to outstep them. The eye must be single. The soul must resolve within itself that it will absolutely yield to God, though the surrender involve the loss of all beside. Impurity, when traced to its source, will often be found to arise from a lack of decision that God’s way and will shall be paramount, and that nothing shall be permitted, even for a moment, to conflict with them. The attitude of the will is also all-important.--This, after all, is the key to the position. The will is the custodian of the soul. Conscience pleads as the prophet and priest of God; the affection and emotions put in their passionate plea; memory recites the results of past experience; the imagination presents vivid portrayals of the consequences of certain acts; the judgment sits upon the bench, sums up and gives its decision; but, after all, it is for the will to act. We may almost say that it holds the destinies of life, at its belt swings the key with which it opens and none shuts, with which it shuts and none opens. The will is like the front wheel of the bicycle, which gives the direction to the movements of the machine; it resembles the steersman of the packet, standing weather-beaten behind the wheel; it is the prime minister of the inner court, its executive and marshal.
Oh, that thou and I, my reader, may choose purity above all, setting our will toward it with understanding tenacity, preferring it above our chief good, ever prepared to surrender everything if only this may be our lot, to count no sacrifice too great, no cliff too steep! Dost thou not think that God would meet us, and accomplish that on which our decisions were fixed? Could He lead us to such high resolves, only to disappoint and mock? Is not the conception of such a state a prophecy of what God is prepared to realize? Surely it is not in vain that His Spirit has indited the prayer, " Cleanse Thou the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of Thy Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly serve Thee, and worthily magnify Thy holy name." THE LAW OF PURITY IS CLEARLY REVEALED.
It is the great gift of the gospel to teach men that Purity is possible--possible for those who have suffered most from the law of a depraved heredity, possible to those whose habits of evil living and thinking have been most debased, possible for those who have striven in vain to keep the marble palace of the inner life from being defiled by the tides of ink which sweep through the world. Let any one follow the Divine prescription, they will find the vision of the pure in heart is not a dream, but that the Lord Jesus is prepared to do for the inner life what He did for the leprous flesh. He can effect in our experience that temper of soul which knows evil only to abhor it, which is conscious of the presence of the tempter only to loathe his suggestion, which detects the hideous form beneath the dazzling garb of one who appears to be an angel of light. Remember the words of the apostle in which he reminded his converts that they had been delivered from the powers of darkness, and been translated into the kingdom of light and love, the kingdom of God’s dear Son. And what is the prime condition of this heart-purity? The answer comes back clear and sufficient from the lips of Peter, when speaking of God’s work through him amongst the Gentiles. " God," says he, " which knoweth the heart, bear them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, and He made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith." And how does Faith cleanse the heart? There are many ways in which she performs her holy office.
She brings the soul to the Cross, and bids it behold the dying Saviour, and asks how, in view of such sorrow and anguish, borne to put away its sin, it can ever dare to open those wounds again, or add one stab of pain to that infinite agony.
She applies to the soul the precious blood of Christ that cleanseth from all sin, and there is nothing which so effectively produces inward purity as forgiveness based upon the sacrifice of the Redeemer. The ease with which the penitent and believing heart can claim forgiveness does not conduce to sin, but begets a holy fear which makes it increasingly abhorrent.
She has the marvellous power of handing over to Christ every suggestion of the Evil One. Whilst the fiery dart is flaming through the air, and before it reaches the soul, Faith catches it upon her shield. When the sooty hand is reached out to pluck her white flower, Faith suddenly interposes the protective covering of the purity of Christ. To hand over to Jesus every approaching temptation, each evil suggestion, all haunting fancies, when as yet they are in the air, and have not put their foot within the threshold of the soul, is the lesson which faith teaches. But better than all, Faith appropriates the Purity of Christ. In the moment of temptation she lifts her thought and prayer to Him to claim that His purity should so fill the soul with its perfect heat and light, that there should be no room for impurity to lurk in any corner. Perhaps it would be better to say that Faith appropriates Christ as its purity, rather than the Purity of Christ. A person must always help us better than an attribute, and Christ Himself is made more to us than any single quality of His nature. The whole is greater than its part.
It has been discovered that there is no bacillus that can withstand sunlight, and certainly no impurity can remain in the heart which is perfectly filled with the presence of Christ, maintained there by the grace of the Holy Ghost. Darkness cannot coexist with light. Let the light in, and the darkness needs no other method of expurgation. It seems to me needless to stay to argue whether the root of sin is extracted or not; the one point is to let the refiner of silver pass our nature through the baptism of fire of which the Baptist spoke, when he foretold that the Lamb of God should baptize with the Holy Ghost, and with fire. When once the refining fire has passed through the heart, and is maintained within it, purity will be as natural as breathing to a man, as singing to a happy child. THE GUERDON IS TRANSCENDENTLY ATTRACTIVE.
" They shall see God."--To see the king’s face was the object of ambition to loyal courtiers and subjects in the old days, when the Queen of Sheba congratulated the servants of Solomon on being able to stand always before him. And to Absalom it was the keenest sign of disgrace that he was not allowed to see the face of the king, his father. This is the thought that probably underlies this beatitude. Only the pure in heart can stand in the inner circle, searched by those eyes that are too pure to look upon sin. Only garments which are unstained can pass muster in the throne-room of the Supreme. This truth was symbolized in the purity of ablution, ceremonial and dress, which prevailed in the ancient tabernacle; and it remains true forever that without holiness no man can see the Lord. If, then, you and I would dwell in the secret place of the Most High, and abide under the shadow of the Almighty; if we would dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of our life, we must be pure in heart. The pure in heart see. They are seers. They get at truth first-hand. They see God in nature, beneath each flower, and tree, and waterfall; they see Him in every incident of providence; and circumstance does but reveal His plan and is as the slight gauze that conceals His movements; they see Him in human love, and tender voices, in the caress of the little child, and faithfulness of the true woman; they see Him in Scripture which burns like the bush of the desert because He is there; and their most cherished aspiration is to behold His face in righteousness, and to be satisfied when they awake with His likeness.
It is good to have the eye of the soul cleansed, that it may see what prophets and kings have been unable to discover by the exercise of the intellect. It is of this spiritual lens that the apostle speaks when he says, He that is spiritual discerneth all things, though he is himself discerned by no man. Even here and now we see God, but what will not be our rapture when this gross veil of flesh and infirmity is rent in twain from the top to the bottom, and we are permitted to stand before the throne, because the garments of the soul have been washed and made white in the blood of the Lamb! In Thee was no sin, my Saviour; Thou wast the guileless, spotless Lamb of God; baptize me into the fire of Thy purity, and let me walk with Thee in pure unspotted robes.