Suggestions for sermons on the Beatitudes would take up a book to themselves, so fertile are those beautiful and pregnant themes. We forbear giving any for this reason.

This discourse of Our Lord is generally believed to have been delivered at one time and not to be a patchwork from discourses pronounced on various occasions. Parts of it are addressed seemingly to the Apostles, parts to martyrs, parts to ordinary Christians. The soundest opinion on the subject is that He

addressed it to all mankind, and that portions of it might be more applicable to one class of persons than another. No Christian is excluded from the highest walks of the Spiritual life.

1Persecute you; even unto death. Martyrdom was the highest form of Christian profession. Our Lord exhorts the martyrs to meet their tortures cheerfully and see heaven shining beyond them. He encourages them by the example of the prophets who were persecuted and slain. There is no gloss necessary here. He gave a literal exhortation, and it was as literally carried out by the thousands of martyrs who shed their blood to bear witness to their faith. "Greater love than this," etc., is predicated to the letter of the martyrs.

2You are the salt of the earth.-This means that Christians preserve the earth from falsehood and corruption. Or it means that the teaching Church should make its members last for eternity. Salt cannot lose its savour-understand this to refer to the infallibility of the Church. The other is a figure like "if an angel from heaven." No angel from heaven would.

You are the light of the world.-The Apostles or the Church again. She is always visible and giving the light of doctrine. If there be a cloud over her now and again, it is more the loss of those who have eyes and see not, than it is of her children who are always there.

4Showing that the Church and the Apostles could be nothing else than light giving, and it would be absurd to hide them.

"Let your light so shine.—Good example we are bound to give by doing no evil and doing our duties to our family and society. Good deeds shine by their own worth.

Three great notes of the Catholic Church are found here. Ist. She cannot fail. Salt.

2nd. She is always visible. City on the mountain.

3rd. She is always holy.

Some say that salt has been discovered which does lose its savour. That must be because of some ingredient mixed with it. Individual members of the Church may fail-herself never.

Rules for the giving of good example.

Ist. Old to the young.
2nd. Parents to children.
3rd. Pastors to their flock.

To hide one's talent is to undervalue God's gift-to keep it profitless to be cast into hell for not using it.

We must not do our actions for show, for vanity, for praise. Let them shine; do not try to make them glow.

17. "Nolite putare quoniam veni solvere legem aut prophetas: non veni solvere, sed adimplere.

18. "Amen quippè dico vobis: Donec transeat coelum et terra, iota unum aut unus apex non præteribit à lege, donec omnia fiant.

19. "Qui ergò solverit unum de mandatis istis minimis, et docuerit sic homines, minimus vocabitur in regno cœlorum : qui autem fecerit et docuerit, hic magnus vocabitur in regno cœlorum.

17. Think not that I am come to 'destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.

18. For amen I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, 'one jot or one tittle shall not pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.

19. Whosoever, therefore, shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

It is remarkable that Our Lord does not here lay down formal dogmas of faith. He laid down that there would be a church visible, etc., and that the dogmas He was to establish before His Ascension should be delivered to us by the custodians of truth. He begins to teach Christian morality. The spirit running through His improvements upon the morality of the Jewish teachers consists in a great interior rectitude which manifests itself by deeds. Interior without exterior will not do nor vice versa. Exterior springing from a right interior pleases Him.

'Destroy the law. This is one of the accusations brought against Him. He puts His audience on its guard.

2One jot or tittle. This expression is supposed to have been Yod the smallest letter in the Hebrew, or perhaps one of the small marks by which similar shaped letters are distinguished in that language.

The nineteenth verse shows the importance of teaching. How the influence of first impressions remain for a lifetime we all know. Teaching is not confined to formal instruction, but to every word, writing or action which may improve or injure the Christian intellect.

"The least in the Kingdom of Heaven.-Commentators are divided as to the meaning of this. Some think it refers to those who teach what is right, but do not practise their teaching; others think it refers to those

who mince the law and teach a way of violating it, by what is called lax doctrine. The latter seems the more probable. The first class of teachers, in the full sense of the word, ought not to get to heaven at all. The second class may have acted conscientiously, but given to air their own opinion. The class with which the verse closes are the Sainted doctors of the Church and their humble followers.

22. "Ego autem dico vobis quia omnis qui irascitur fratri suo reus erit judicio; qui autem dixerit fratri suo Raca reus erit concilio: qui autem dixerit Fatue reus erit gehennæ ignis.

23. "Si ergò offers munus tuum ad altare, et ibi recordatus fueris quia frater tuus habet aliquid adversùm te.

24. "Relinque ibì munus tuum ante altare, et vade priùs reconciliari fratri tuo, et tunc veniens offeres munus tuum.

25. "Esto consentiens adversario tuo citò dùm es in viâ cum eo, ne fortè tradat te adversarius judici, et judex tradat te ministro, et in carcerem mittaris.

26. "Amen dico tibi, non exies indè donec reddas novissimum quadrantem.

22. But I say to you, that whosoever is angry with his brother, shall be guilty of the judgment. And whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be guilty of the council. And whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be guilty of hell fire.

23. Therefore, if thou offerest 3thy gift at the altar, and there shalt remember that thy brother hath any thing against thee;

24. Leave there thy gift before the altar, and first go to be reconciled to thy brother; and then come and offer thy gift.

25. 'Make an agreement with thy adversary quickly, whilst thou art in the way with him: lest, perhaps, the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison.

26. Amen I say to thee, thou shalt not go out from thence till thou pay the last farthing.

1Scribes and Pharisees.—Their interpretations of the Mosaic Law were wrong on six points: Ist, oaths; 2nd, sabbath keeping; 3rd, duties of children; 4th, Internal sins; 5th, arbitrary divorce; 6th, hypocrisy. The Pharisees had a certain justice, but the Christian must be higher.

Thou shalt not kill.-The Fifth Commandment, as explained by the Scribes, forbade only murder. Our Lord shows that it forbids whatever leads directly to murder. There were three tribunals in Judea at the time of Our Lord: the tribunal of three, or the Judgment; the tribunal of twenty-three, or the Council; the tribunal of seventy, or the Sanhedrim. This last sat in Jerusalem only. Anger is forbidden, calling opprobrious names. Raca meant an empty-headed fellow. Fool means in Hebrew an impious man or an idolater. Hell Fire means the fire of the valley of Hennon literally, where all the filth of Jerusalem was continually burning,