Such a promise as this relates both to the future and the present. The text cannot have its perfect fulfilment until Christ shall come a second time in power and great majesty, but there are senses in which it has a present accomplishment.
I. Who are the meek? We go to Christ for a description of meekness, and we gather it from the portrait given by Christ that we should be forbearing, forgiving, patient under injuries and contradictions. We must distinguish between that meekness which may be only the effect of constitution and another which is the clear produce of grace. The man who is only meek from constitution will ordinarily prove to be a timid or irresolute man, wholly unprepared to face an emergency or to master an idolatrous sin; but Christian meekness is in the largest sense compatible with Christian boldness.
II. Christian meekness must chiefly result, first, from a deep sense of our own unworthiness, and, secondly, an earnest love of our fellow-men. He who is humble in the meek consciousness of his own vileness as a sinner will invariably be averse to all overbearing; and he who is jealous for the well-being of others will forbear and forgive, and keep down resentment, however injurious the conduct of others.
III. The promise of our text is to be accomplished in the future; for in this life the heir is nothing more than a man who has not yet reached an age on which to enter into possession. Nevertheless the consciousness of being an heir will bring with it a certain feeling of possession, though the time be yet far distant for taking it as his own. The heir of the earth, though not a possessor, may have such a rich and precious interest in the earth as shall bear out the expression of his being now blessed. The meek, fraught with the persuasion that they deserve nothing but wrath, find in the commonest mercies tokens of their being the children of God.
IV. In proportion as a man acquires love for his fellow-men he may clearly be said to inherit the earth. The spot cannot be found where the meek man being placed shall be quite a stranger. Wherever he journeys he may be said to be still at home. He possesses the earth by family compact, by the claims or rights of relationship, and the possession thus obtained is possession by heirship. And if we have thus a home in the earth in its length and breadth, we contend it is fairly and literally made out that the meek man inherits the earth.
H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit,No. 2257.