he Messiah: they would but
have hardened into the nucleus of an army for the subjugation of the
world. To a warfare with their own sins, to the subjugation of their
doing and desiring to the will of the great Father, all the miracles in
his power would never have persuaded them. A true convincement is not
possible to hearts and minds like theirs. Not only is it impossible for
a low man to believe a thousandth part of what a noble man can, but a
low man cannot believe anything as a noble man believes it. The men of
Nazareth could have believed in Jesus as their saviour from the Romans;
as their saviour from their sins they could not believe in him, for they
loved their sins. The king of heaven came to offer them a share in his
kingdom; but they were not poor in spirit, and the kingdom of heaven was
not for them. Gladly would they have inherited the earth; but they were
not meek, and the earth was for the lowly children of the perfect
Father.

_THE HEIRS OF HEAVEN AND EARTH._

And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying, 'Blessed are the poor
in spirit; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.' ...'Blessed are the
meek; for they shall inherit the earth.'--_Matthew_ v. 2, 3, 5.

The words of the Lord are the seed sown by the sower. Into our hearts
they must fall that they may grow. Meditation and prayer must water
them, and obedience keep them in the sunlight. Thus will they bear fruit
for the Lord's gathering.

Those of his disciples, that is, obedient hearers, who had any
experience in trying to live, would, in part, at once understand them;
but as they obeyed and pondered, the meaning of them would keep growing.
This we see in the writings of the apostles. It will be so with us also,
who need to understand everything he said neither more nor less than
they to whom first he spoke; while our obligation to understand is far
greater than theirs at the time, inasmuch as we have had nearly two
thousand years' experience of the continued coming of the kingdom he
then preached: it is not yet come; it has been all the time, and is now,
drawing slowly nearer.

The sermon on the mount, as it is commonly called, seems the Lord's
first free utterance, in the presence of any large assembly, of the good
news of the kingdom. He had been teaching his disciples and messengers;
and had already brought the glad tidings that his father was their
father, to many besides--to Nathanael for one, to Nicodemus, to the
woman of Samar