from these lofty thoughts, then to
be humble in spirit is to be wise, cheerful, contented, simple, restful
in all circumstances. You remember John Bunyan's shepherd boy, down in
the valley of humiliation. _Heart's-ease_ grew there, and his song was,
'He that is low need fear no fall.' If we have this true, deep-rooted
poverty of spirit, we shall be below the tempest, which will go clean
over our heads. The oaks catch the lightnings; the grass and the
primroses are unscorched. 'The day of the Lord shall be upon all high
things, and the loftiness of men shall be brought low.'

So, dear brethren, blessedness is not to be found outside us. We need
not ask 'who shall go up into the heavens, or who shall descend into the
deep,' to bring it. It is in thee, if at all. Christ teaches us that the
sources of all true blessedness are within us; there or nowhere is
Eden. If we have the tempers and dispositions set forth in these
Beatitudes, condition matters but very little. If the source of all
blessedness is within us, the first step to it all is poverty of spirit.
'Be ye clothed with humility.' The Master girt Himself with the
servant's towel, and His disciples are to copy Him who said: 'Take My
yoke upon you.... I am meek and lowly in heart ... and ye shall find
rest'--and is not that blessedness?--'ye shall find rest unto your
souls.'

THE SECOND BEATITUDE

'Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.'--MATT.
v. 4.

An ordinary superficial view of these so-called Beatitudes is that they
are simply a collection of unrelated sayings. But they are a great deal
more than that. There is a vital connection and progress in them. The
jewels are not flung down in a heap; they are wreathed into a chain,
which whosoever wears shall have 'an ornament of grace about his neck.'
They are an outgrowth from a common root; stages in the evolution of
Christian character.

Now, I tried to show in the former sermon how the root of them all is
the poverty of spirit which is spoken of in the preceding verse; and how
it really does lie at the foundation of the highest type of human
character, and in its very self is sure of possessing the Kingdom of
Heaven. And now I turn to the second of these Beatitudes. Like all the
others, it is a paradox, for it starts from a wholly different
conception from the common one, of what is man's chief good. If the aims
which usually engross us are really the true aims of life, then the