ess. But we do not get happiness, we only get money, which is a
wholly different thing. We ask for popularity and reputation, and we
expect these gifts, when received, to last; but we have asked for
something whose very nature is that it does not last. It is like
asking for a soap-bubble and expecting to get a billiard-ball. We
cannot work for the temporary and get the permanent. If, then, it is
true that we are to get what we want, then the secret of happiness is
to want the best things and to want them very much. If we hunger and
thirst for base things we shall get them. Oh yes, we shall get them;
and get the unhappiness which comes of this awful discovery, that as we
have hungered so we are filled. And if we are really hungry for
righteousness, if we want to be good, as a thirsty man wants water, if,
as Jesus says of himself, our meat is to do the will of Him who sends
us, then that demand also will be supplied. "He satisfieth the longing
soul," {66} says the Psalmist, "and filleth the hungry soul"--not with
success, or money, or fame, but with that which the soul was hungry
for--"with goodness." The longing soul has sought the best blessing,
and it has received the best blessedness.

{67}

XXVI

THE MERCIFUL

_Matthew_ v. 7.

Whom does Jesus call the blessed people? "Blessed are the merciful:
for they shall obtain mercy." This repeats in effect the later words
of Jesus: "With what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged." The
merciless judgment passed on others recoils upon one's own nature and
makes it hard and mean and brutalized. The habit of charitable
judgment of others is a source of personal blessedness. It blooms out
into composure and hopefulness, into peace and faith. How wonderful
these great calm affirmations of Jesus are! They are directly in the
face of the most common views of life, and yet they are delivered as
simple axioms of experience, as matters of fact, self-evident
propositions of the reason. It is not a matter of barter of which
Jesus is speaking. He does not say: "If you treat another kindly he
will be kind to you. The merciful man will get mercy when he needs
it." That {68} would not be the truth. The best of men are often
judged most mercilessly. Jesus himself gives his life to acts of
mercy, and is pitilessly slain. This beatitude gives, not a promise to
pay, but a law of life. To forgive an injury is, according to this
law, a blessing to the forgiver h