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Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing
that has entered into the fellowship of His sufferings is privileged to
share. “As the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation
also aboundeth by Christ.”
2 Corinthians 1:5
. The Lord has special
grace for the mourner, and its power is to melt hearts, to win souls. His
love opens a channel into the wounded and bruised soul, and becomes
a healing balsam to those who sorrow. “The Father of mercies, and
the God of all comfort ... comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we
may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort
wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.”
2 Corinthians 1:3, 4
.
“Blessed are the meek.”—Matthew 5:5.
Throughout the Beatitudes there is an advancing line of Christian
experience. Those who have felt their need of Christ, those who have
mourned because of sin and have sat with Christ in the school of
[14]
affliction, will learn meekness from the divine Teacher.
Patience and gentleness under wrong were not characteristics
prized by the heathen or by the Jews. The statement made by Moses
under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, that he was the meekest man
upon the earth, would not have been regarded by the people of his time
as a commendation; it would rather have excited pity or contempt. But
Jesus places meekness among the first qualifications for His kingdom.
In His own life and character the divine beauty of this precious grace
is revealed.
Jesus, the brightness of the Father’s glory, thought “it not a thing to
be grasped to be on an equality with God, but emptied Himself, taking
the form of a servant.”
Philippians 2:6, 7
, R.V., margin. Through all
the lowly experiences of life He consented to pass, walking among the
children of men, not as a king, to demand homage, but as one whose
mission it was to serve others. There was in His manner no taint of
bigotry, no cold austerity. The world’s Redeemer had a greater than
angelic nature, yet united with His divine majesty were meekness and
humility that attracted all to Himself.
Jesus emptied Himself, and in all that He did, self did not appear.
He subordinated all things to the will of His Father. When His mission
on earth was about to close, He could say, “I have glorified Thee on
the earth: I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do.”
John 17:4
. And He bids us, “Learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly