Introductory Beatitudes.
I. The first Beatitude pronounces a blessing on those who are Poor in Spirit. Let the limitation, the "in spirit," be carefully borne in mind. Poverty itself is not a blessing, nor does it always inherit a blessing.
II. The Lord blesses those that Mourn. Again, let me say that sorrow, no more than poverty, is a blessed thing in itself. God made laughter as well as tears, and grief is no more Divine than gladness. The grief, like the poverty, must be of a godly sort ere it profit much.
III. The Meek are blessed. The meek are those who go through the world in a gentle, unobtrusive way, without forward self-assertion. They shall inherit the earth; they do not lay any claim to it, and on that very account it shall be given to them.
IV. Those who hunger and thirst after righteousness shall be blessed. Blessed, verily, is that man, for he shall be satisfied, His longing shall find peace in Jesus Christ the righteous. He shall drink of the living water and never thirst again.
V. The Merciful are blessed. Mercy is twofold. We call it pity when it has compassion on those who are suffering; we call it mercy when it extends forgiveness to those who have done us wrong. The meek man endures an injury; the merciful man forgives it.
VI. The Pure in Heart are blessed. By this it is not meant to indicate men who are altogether sinless, for in that case, few as there may be now to inherit the blessing, they would be fewer still, or rather, there would be none at all. The pure in heart are they who seek spiritual cleansing, who would purge out every evil thought, and all the leaven of unrighteousness.
VII. The Peacemaker is blessed. Very beautiful, surely, is the office of the peacemaker, well befitting the man whose God is a God of Peace, whose Saviour is the Prince of Peace, whose hope is in the Gospel of Peace, whose joy is that the very Peace of God keeps his heart and soul.
VIII. The Persecuted are blessed those who are evil spoken of and evil entreated for Christ's sake. The world hates them, but the world is not worthy of them.
W. C. Smith, The Sermon on the Mount,p. 20.
Reference: Matthew 5:9-12. J. M. Neale, Sermons in a Religious House,vol. ii., p. 554.