VERSE 7. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. We now approach the most heavenly and lofty of all the beatitudes, and in some respects the most difficult to make plain to others. Not, surely, that we should be less acquainted with a pure heart than with a merciful heart, but the object of the pure heart, and the effect of seeing that object, is a blessedness which transcends the power of language. This may be understood from the effect of lower objects which come within our own experience. We look on an object of interest or affection-a face, it may be-a mother's face, for example, as sung our christian poet on receiving his mother's picture.
" Those lips are thine-thine own sweet smile I see,
The same that oft in childhood solaced me:
Voice only fails, else how distinct they say,
Grieve not my child, chase all thy fears away.'"
Thus we stand, we gaze, absorbed with the tender recollections of the past, the bright anticipations of the future, and the passing over of that "little while" which comes in between. And still we stand in silent meditation; the heart moved to its deepest depths; the eye fixed on that countenance
with melancholy delight, until self and all outward things are forgotten. Such deep emotions may be spoken of to a few-very few-but they must remain forever undescribed. We must have both the condition of heart and the object to know their. full meaning; and so it is with the heart's vision of heavenly things-the glory of God as it shines in the face of Jesus Christ. Let us now endeavor to explain.
The moral condition of the heart or soul, is here the important question. God only being pure absolutely, there must be purity of heart to appreciate Him. There is no thought here, we need scarcely say, of bodily sight, for even Jesus is now hidden from our view. It is only with the eyes of the heart or the moral vision of the soul-which is simply faith-that we can see God or appreciate His excellency and glory; and this blessedness is made to depend on the condition of the heart. " Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." The purer the heart is, the more clearly it will see God, and the more clearly it sees God, the purer it must become. Thus the one acts and re-acts upon the other.
The purity of heart which is here pronounced " blessed" may be the result of faithfully following in the line of the earlier beatitudes, especially the first of this class, which leads to the contemplation of God in one of the most attractive aspects of His character-divine mercy. From the commencement to the close of scripture, mercy is spoken of as the grand prerogative and glory of God. The Psalms especially speak much of His " mercy and his truth." To Him " belongeth mercy;" " He is plenteous in mercy;" it is "above the heavens;" and " the earth is full of his mercy." Now the simple or normal effect of drinking at this fountain of mercy is to become "merciful," and this grace immediately precedes and leads the way to that moral perception of God, which results in purity of heart.
It may be well to notice here, that we cannot make or keep the heart pure by trying to do so. Were we to look within and make the condition of the heart our study and our object, we should sink down, as many have done, into a state of mere mystical, self-occupation. To be merciful, the heart must have an object that is the perfect expression of the divine mercy; to be pure, it must have an object that is absolute in purity. As the heart is not inherently pure, it can only be accounted so by reflecting a pure object; and that object being Christ, we find in Him the true explanation of a pure heart and seeing God. The heart is purified by faith in Christ, who is the brightness of God's glory, and the express image of His Person. (See Acts 15:99And put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith. (Acts 15:9) Peter 1:22; Heb. 1:33Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high; (Hebrews 1:3).) What relief, what rest, the heart finds in finding Him! No theories, no analogies, no efforts, no experience can solve the question or give rest to the mind, but Himself-Himself known as the once lowly but now exalted Man in glory.
Now then, my soul, let thine eye rest on Him-the eye of faith, the eye of thy heart. Meditate long, meditate deeply on Him. Gaze now on that " countenance transcendent." Blended there are the rays of all divine perfection, and of every beatific vision. Majesty divine as "the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God," mingling its many glories with the sweet and lowly graces of godly sorrow, meekness, righteousness, mercy, holiness, and peace, together with all goodness, wisdom, and love, is the God whom the pure heart sees; but not only sees, its privilege is to bask in the beams of that moral glory now and for evermore.
But see, I pray thee, that Christ is thy one object; a pure heart must be an undivided heart-a whole heart. Thus and thus only shall thy whole body be full of light. All other objects but dim thy spiritual vision. " They looked unto him," says the psalmist, "and were lightened." When darkness is loved rather than light, there can be no perception or appreciation of moral beauty. Such was Israel's blindness, and such it is now, but the day is coming when they shall look on Him whom they rejected, and see. in Him the glories and perfection of the Godhead. Then, truly, shall they see God, and know the blessedness of being "pure in heart."
"In Thee most perfectly expressed,
The Father's self doth shine;
Fullness of Godhead, too, the blest-Eternally divine.
Worthy, O Lamb of God, art Thou
That every knee to Thee should bow."
With the people of Israel, we know, this is future; but what of thine own purity of heart, O my soul? Is it a present, deep, divine, blessed reality? Is thy heart pure? Seest thou God? These are solemn questions, but proper ones; and God forbid that any of us should speak of these things without knowing them personally in the divine presence. But surely we know Him in whom the holiness of God is perfectly reflected. There only we can see God and have communion with Him.
Throughout the New Testament there is much said about purity of heart. It is looked for as the true condition of all Christians, though, alas, all are not "pure in heart." So much is said, and said truly, about the deceitfulness of the human heart in our discourses and papers, that the expression "pure in heart" is supposed, even by most Christians, to be a figure which is not intended to mean what it says, and thus it is passed over. But scripture means a great deal that is most definite by pureness of heart. The apostle in writing to his son Timothy, says, " Follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart." This passage clearly teaches what we are to look for and expect in all who come to the Lord's table. Only such will suit Him who says, I am " he that is holy, he that is true." The apostle Peter in his address to the council (Acts 15) speaks of the Gentiles as "purifying their hearts by faith," and therefore as entitled to christian fellowship as the Jewish believers. And in his epistle he says, "seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently." The apostle James in his exhortations uses a similar form of expression: "and purify your hearts, ye double minded." John, also, in speaking of the Lord's coining, says, " And
every one that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he"-that is, Christ-" is pure." Here the Lord Jesus is brought before us, not only as being in Himself essentially pure, but as the measure and standard of purity for us. " Every one that bath this hope in him purifieth himself even as he is pure."
The hope of the Lord's coining has thus a transforming power. In looking for Him and waiting for Him now, we seek to purify ourselves even as He is pure. But when we see Him as He is in the glory, we shall be like Him-perfectly conformed to Him in all things. Now we are transformed by degrees, then we shall be conformed completely and forever.
This is also the teaching of 2 Cor. 3 " But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." The meaning is plain and most important; we behold the glory of the Lord in the unveiled face of Jesus—the exalted Man in the glory-and are transformed according to the same image from one degree of glory to another, by the Lord the Spirit. But we are not only transformed into His likeness morally, we are the reflectors of His glory. Now the believer is the glass in whom the image of the Lord should be seen.
Forget not this great truth, O my soul; what can be more important? Oh that this one thought may take possession of thy whole being! What! mirrored on thy spirit and ways should be the moral image of thy absent Lord: oh see that nothing conies between thy heart and Him, that the likeness be not marred! The purer the mirror, the more distinct will each feature appear. O wondrous theme! O mystery divine! O blessing infinite! Language fails to express the heart's joyous wonder in meditating on this highest expression of sovereign grace. To be maintained in outward purity as men reckon, is a great mercy, and one for which we never can be too thankful. Who sees not that Joseph had a purer heart, practically viewed, than Reuben and Judah, and on which have mankind set the seal of their approval?
But to be brought so near to the Lord, and to be so purified by faith as to become like a polished mirror, on which may be reflected His glory, transcends all power to express the praise and thanksgiving due to His most blessed name.
But the day is near when thou wilt see thy Lord face to face, and as He is-in all the deep realities of His love and glory. Then no forgetfulness, no failure, no defilements by the way, shall ever dim the luster of thy mirror, or mar the reflection of His glory. The great promise of the New Jerusalem shall be fulfilled; "they shall see his face, and his name shall be in their forehead." The likeness will then be complete and manifest to all. Higher than this we can never rise; richer in blessing we can never be; and for this consummation of all blessedness, not we only, but our Jesus prays-" that they may be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me." John 17
And now, in parting with thee, my dear reader, for another month, as we may never meet again, allow me to ask, Is this to be thy eternity of celestial blessedness? Or art thou still undecided in thy soul about the Lord Jesus as thy Savior? Why hesitate? Why be in doubt? The work required has been done by Jesus; done for thee, if thou wilt only believe; done for the chief of sinners. Thou hast nothing to trust to but His finished work. Oh then, believe in Him, put thy trust in Him, wait for Him, never doubt Him, and thy celestial blessing is secure forever. But remember, I pray thee, that without faith-faith in Jesus-there is no blessing, no purity, as we have been seeing, and without purity there can be no heaven for thee. The city of our God is a pure city, and over its pearly gates these words are written, " There shall in nowise enter into it anything that defileth." Whatever its inhabitants once were, they are all pure now; and their robes of unsullied white can meet with no defilement there. The confusing mixtures of time-law and grace, faith and works, Christ and the world, flesh and Spirit, are unknown there-purity characterizes everything. The streets are of pure gold, as it were transparent glass; the walls are jasper, and "a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceedeth out of the throne of God and of the Lamb." Rev. 21
The Lord give thee, my dear reader, to come to Jesus now; give thy heart undividedly to Him: this is the first grand step towards purity of heart. Oh at once bow at His blessed feet. The dark regions of hell, where the lurid glare of its fire unquenchable will only make the darkness more visible, contrasts awfully with the city of glories. " The city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof." Which of those two places, my dear reader, is to be thine-thine forever? With both before thee, couldst thou hesitate another moment? Surely not. I must now leave thee with the Lord. May thy motto henceforth be "All for Jesus."