p. 76 | POOR IN SPIRIT

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jul 22, 1858

POOR IN SPIRIT.

"BLESSED are the poor in spirit; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." Matt. v, 3.

"To this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word." Isa. lxvi. 2.

The poor in spirit are truly rich; while those that feel that they are rich, and increased with goods, are wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. And since there are such exceeding great and precious promises to the poor in spirit, is it not highly important for us to cultivate this grace? Since the kingdom of heaven is to be given to the poor in spirit, should we not labor and strive to be of that class?

And how shall we attain to this poverty of spirit? By what means shall we cultivate it? Shall we attain it by seeking worldly wealth and living in the style of the world; by following the fashions of the world making a show of wealth? Shall we increase in poverty of spirit by putting on costly apparel, so that we may not appear to the world to be so poor as they might otherwise think us to be? Shall we grow poor in spirit by decorating our persons with jewelry or other ornaments and outward adornings? Not at all. These things only cultivate the opposite spirit. If we desire them, it only proves that we are not poor in spirit. By this we may examine our heart. Our choice in respect to these outward things is a true index of the heart. If we are truly poor in spirit, we shall hasten to make our outward appearance and style of living correspond to this state of the heart. Pride, the sin of the devil, must be killed. But it will live as long as it has anything to live upon. It will abide with us till it is starved out. And we may be assured that poverty of spirit will not live in the same house.

A little in the future and all the proud will be cut off. They will be cut down as the grass, and wither as the green herb. But not so with the poor in spirit. Theirs is the kingdom of heaven. In a little while their pilgrimage through this land, in which they are strangers, will be ended, and they will be at home. Think you that they will then regret the poor style in which they emigrated through the land of their sojournings? Will they then regret the scoffs and jeers which, as they took their humble meal by the way-side, they received from those that passed by on the other side? No; it was their choice to appear poor in the land of strangers. They might have stopped, and become citizens of the country by conforming to the prevailing customs. But they were seeking a better country—a land flowing with milk and honey—a land where they could feel they were at home. Consequently they were deaf to the censures or applause of those through whose land they passed. They were poor in spirit, but rich in faith; and now they enter upon their eternal inheritance. "Blessed are the poor in spirit; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."

R. F. C.