But that is impossible; it can never be obtained.

The truth is that the Christian and the non-Christian belong to two entirely different realms.

The second charge which our Lord brought against the scribes and Pharisees was that they were obviously more concerned with the ceremonial than with the moral;

The great New Testament illustration of being merciful is the parable of the Good Samaritan.

And the apostle Peter, in i Peter ii. 9, 1o, makes it abundantly clear that the new nation is the Church. There is then no longer a theocratic nation, so the judicial law has likewise been fulfilled.

Not at all: we are Christians and our actions are the outcome of that.

It seems to me that the three Beatitudes which follow the central statement in verse six correspond to the first three that lead up to it.

The first Beatitude asks us to realize our own weakness and our own inability. It confronts us with the fact that we have to face God, not only in the Ten Commandments andthe moral law, but also in the Sermon on the Mount, and in the life of Christ Himself.

They say it is a good thing for every man to pause at the end of the day and meditate upon himself, to run quickly over his life, and ask, `What have I done, what have I said, what have I thought, how have I behaved with respect to others?'