The Beatitudes are a description of character.  Christ requires us, not to do such and such things, but to be such and such people. ...  True blessedness consists in membership of the kingdom of heaven, which is a life of perfect relationship with man and nature based on perfect fellowship with God....  The Beatitudes describe the Christian character in detail; in particular, they describe it as contrasted with the character of the world, which, in the religious sense, may be defined as human society as it organises itself apart from God.  The first Beatitude enjoins detachment, such as His who emptied Himself, as having nothing and yet possessing all things.  We are all to be detached; there are some whom our Lord counsels to be literally poor.  ’Blessed are they that mourn’ means that we are not to screen ourselves from the common lot of pain.  We must distinguish ‘godly sorrow’ from the peevish discontent and slothfulness which St. Paul calls the sorrow of the world, and which in medieval casuistry is named acedia.  ‘Blessed are the meek’ means that we are not to assert ourselves unless it is our duty to do so.  The true Christian is a man who in his private capacity cannot be provoked.  On a general view of life, though not always in particular cases, we must allow that we are not treated worse than we deserve.  The fourth Beatitude tells us that if we want righteousness seriously, we can have it.  The fifth proclaims the reward of mercy, that is, compassion in action.  Pity which does nothing is only hypocrisy or emotional self-indulgence.  On the whole, we can determine men’s attitude to us by our attitude to them; the merciful do obtain mercy.  ‘Purity of heart’ means singleness of purpose; but in the narrower sense of purity it is worth while to say that those who profess to find it ‘impossible’ to lead a pure life might overcome their fault if they would try to be Christlike altogether, instead of struggling with that one fault separately.  ’Sincerum est nisi vas, quodcunque infundis acescit.’  On the seventh—­there are many kinds of false peace, which Christ came to break up; but fierce, relentless competition is an offence in a Christian nation.  The last shows what our reward is likely to be in this world, if we follow these counsels.  Where the Christ-character is not welcomed, it is hated.

From the later sections a few characteristic comments may be given in an abridged form.

We are apt to have rather free and easy notions of the Divine fatherhood.  To call God our Father, we must ourselves be sons; and it is only those who are led by the Spirit of God who are the sons of God....  Ask for great things, and small things will be given to you.  This is exactly the spirit of the Lord’s Prayer....  Act for God.  Direct your thoughts and intentions Godward, and your intelligence and affections will gradually follow along the line of your action....  You must put God first, or nowhere....  It is a perilous error to