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Mercy for the Merciful, August 19
Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful.
Luke 6:36
.
Mercy is an attribute that the human agent may share with God. As did
Christ, so man may lay hold on the divine arm and be in communication
with divine power. To us has been given a service of mercy to perform
for our fellow man. In performing this service, we are laboring together
with God. We do well, then, to be merciful, even as our Father in heaven
is merciful.
“I will have mercy,” God says, “and not sacrifice” (
Matthew 9:13
).
Mercy is kind, pitiful. Mercy and the love of God purify the soul, beautify
the heart, and cleanse the life from selfishness. Mercy is a manifestation
of divine love and is shown by those who, identified with God, serve
Him by reflecting the light of heaven upon the pathway of their fellow
creatures. The condition of many persons calls for the exercise of genuine
mercy. Christians, in their dealing with one another, are to be controlled
by principles of mercy and love. They are to improve every opportunity
for helping fellow beings in distress....
Let those who desire to perfect a Christlike character ever keep in view
the cross on which Christ died a cruel death in order to redeem mankind.
Let them ever cherish the same merciful spirit that led the Saviour to make
an infinite sacrifice for our redemption....
The merciful “shall obtain mercy” (
Matthew 5:7
). “The liberal soul
shall be made fat: and he that watereth shall be watered also himself”
(
Proverbs 11:25
). There is sweet peace for the compassionate spirit, a
blessed satisfaction in the life of self-forgetful service for the good of
others.
He who has given his life to God in ministry to His children is linked
with Him who has all the resources of the universe at His command. By
the golden chain of the immutable promises his life is bound up with
the life of God. The Lord will not fail him in the hour of suffering and
need. “My God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory
by Christ Jesus” (
Philippians 4:19
). And in the hour of final need the
merciful shall find refuge in the mercy of the compassionate Saviour and
by Him shall be received into everlasting habitations.
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