Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 422
Delivered on Sunday Morning, December 8, 1861
Matthew 5:9.
THIS is the seventh of the beatitudes. There is a mystery always connected with the number seven. It was the number of perfection among the Hebrews and it seems as if the Savior had put the peacemaker there—as if He were nearly approaching to the perfect man in Christ Jesus. He who would have perfect blessedness, so far as it can be enjoyed on earth, must labor to attain to this seventh benediction and become a peacemaker. There is a significance also in the position of the text, if you regard the context. The verse which precedes it speaks of the blessedness of “the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” It is well that we should understand this.
We are to be “first pure, then peaceable.” Our peaceableness is never to be a compact with sin, or an alliance with that which is evil. We must set our faces like flint against everything which is contrary to God and His holiness. That being in our souls a settled matter we can go on to peaceableness towards men. No less does the verse that follows my text seem to have been put there on purpose. However peaceable we may be in this world, yet we shall be misrepresented and misunderstood and no marvel, for even the Prince of Peace, by His very peacefulness, brought fire upon the earth.
He Himself, though He loved mankind and did no ill, was “despised and rejected of men, a Man of Sorrow and acquainted with grief.” Lest, therefore, the peaceable in heart should be surprised when they meet with enemies, it is added in the following verse, “Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven.” Thus the peacemakers are not only pronounced to be blessed, but they are compassed about with blessings. Lord, give us grace to climb to this seventh beatitude! Purify our minds that we may be “first pure, then peaceable.” Fortify our souls, that our peaceableness may not lead us into surprise and despair, when for Your sake we are persecuted among men.
Now let us endeavor to enter into the meaning of our text. Thus would we handle it this morning, as God shall help us. First, let us describe the peacemaker. Secondly let us proclaim his blessedness. Thirdly, let us set him to work. And then, fourthly, let the preacher become a peacemaker himself.
I. First, LET US DESCRIBE THE PEACEMAKER.
The peacemaker, while distinguished by his character, has the outward position and condition of other men. He stands in all relations of life just as other men do. Thus the peacemaker is a citizen and though he is a Christian, he remembers that Christianity does not require him to forego his citizenship, but to use and to improve it for Christ’s glory. The peacemaker, then, as a citizen, loves peace. If he lives in this land, he knows that he lives among a people who are very sensitive of their honor and are speedily and easily provoked—a people who are so fierce in their character that the very mention of war stirs their blood and they feel as if they would go at it at once with all their force.
The peacemaker remembers the war with Russia and he recollects what fools we were that we should have meddled there—to bring to ourselves great losses both in trade and money—and no advantage whatever that is perceptible. He knows that this nation has often been drifted into war for political purposes and that usually the pressure and burden of it comes upon the poor working man—upon such as have to earn their living by the sweat of their face. Therefore, though he, like other men, feels hot blood—and being an Englishman, feels the blood of the old sea kings often in his veins—yet he represses it and says to himself, “I must not strive, for the servant of God must be gentle to all men, apt to teach, patient.”
So he puts his back against the current and when he hears everywhere the noise of war—and sees many that are hot for it—he does his best to administer a cooling draught. He says, “Be patient, let it alone, if the thing is evil, yet war is worse than any other evil. There was never a bad peace yet and never a good war,” says he. “And whatever loss we may sustain by being too quiet, we shall certainly lose a hundred times as much by being too fierce.”
And then in the present case he thinks how ill it would be for two Christian nations to go to war—two nations sprung of the same blood—two countries which really have a closer relation than any other two countries upon the face of the earth. Rivals in their liberal institutions—coadjutors in propagating the Gospel of Christ—two nations that have within their midst more of the elect of God and more of the true followers of Christ than any other nations under Heaven. Yes, he thinks within himself, it were ill that the bones of our sons and daughters should go again to make manure for our fields, as they have done.