The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-08-13
HUMILITY HIS THEME
INTERESTING SERMON BY REV.
 STEWART MCQUEEN.
Episcopal Clergyman Explains the Meaning and the Significance of the Phrase "the Poor in
 Sptrit.o


 Spirit" At the Episcopal church of the Holy Comfarter yesterday vening the rec tor. Rev. Stewart Mcqueen. preached a brief but earnest sermon on the
 necessity of humility.
 Speaking from the text.
 Blessed are the poor In spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven. St.
 Matthew v:s. Mir. Mcqueen said: This passage of Holy Scripture is from our Lords sermon on the Mount It is one Of the beautitudes. You no- tice 1t begins with a blessing, not with a curse What contrast to Sinai with its terrors and it's thundersi What contrast to the law of Eden, with Its awful threat, In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.t
 "A blessinGi It Is just what we should expect, for this is the Gospel which comes to us in love and not In law. comes to us with principles to be wrought, by the Holy Spirit. aid unto life and not with rules to be obeyed mechanically. leaving the heart un- touched. It is the revelation of the Father, full. complete. perfect revela- ton of Himself. In His only besotten | son.
 He announces blessing, but 1t is based upon a condition as indeed all
 blessings are, for blessings do not rise mystariously out of the earth, nor fall suddenly of their own weight
 from the skies. A blessing always follows upon something else. See how 1t is here. The Master says. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs Is the Kingdom of Heaven Here we have a blessing promised: The King dom of Heaven It is based upon condition. being poor in spirit
 RfnRdnrn Of Heaven This IS the Church of Christ. It was born on the first Whit Sunday. It is the Church militant now, for it Is fighting its bat. ties on earth. Hereafter it will be the Church triumphant, for then It shall shine forever amid the glories of eternity. When our Lord says, Bles- sed are the poor in spirit, for theirs Is the Kingdom of Heaven. He does not. of course, mean that only the poor in spirit can enter into the church, can belong to the church, for we do not enter the church by anything that we ourselves do or are. any more than we enter into human life by anything
 that we do, or are. We enter the
 church through Baptism. which is Gods act and not ours. But Christ does mean to say that only the poor in spirit shall have that which the church stands for and is. shall receive any real benefit throug the operation of those factors which characterize that Kingdom. such as prayer, forgiveness of sins, and sacraments In that sense
 the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs only. All others are In the Kingdom, but if they are not of 1t.
 Now what does the Master mean by being poor in spiritT Observe, it Is not that we are to do something but to be something, quite different and far more difficult thing. It means a great deal. Some of the things it means are: we must realize our folly, our weakness, our ignorance and above all our sinfulncss. It means driving out of our hearts self satisfaction. trust in ourselves, (so strong in us alb and
 the turning sincerely to God in prayer
 and penitence. Being poor In spirit does not mean then, you observe, the
 possession of some special quality or
 the doing of some remarkable thing. It means rather, the realization of our utter inability to do anything without Christ and the regarding all qualities as vain and worthless unless they are of God. This calls for casting off. through Gods grace, all confidence in ourselves and becoming indeed babes in Christ. That presumption and condi- ] ton of thinking more highly of our selves than we ought to think, which seems to be ingrained in the very warp and wool of our natures, must be trod- , den under foot in order that we shall be vouchsafed the first blessing our Lord promises and which was 10 the poor in spirit Let us not make the mistake of fan cying Christ expects some wonderful and rare quality of us. some extraor- dlnary virtue possible only to the few. | He does not say we are to have any
 qualities at all, but merely to be poor | or, as 1t is in the original destitute in | AA k. means. among other things, that we
 shall feel our own ignorance. We
 think we know a great deal. But how little do we know about the real na-
 ture of things after all! Life. for in- stance. which lies so close about us; | life, with It's numberless mysteries, how
 feebly do we comprehend 1t! Why.
 with all our 'ologies.' and science, and i learned talk about evolution. we do | not know how the mind acts upon the
 body We do not know how the body
 acts upon the mind. We can see no l further than the present. Everything | in connection with the future Is pure conjecture Moreover, the deposit of
 clot of blood upon the brain, may.
 in a moment, convert the wisest of us
 Into a helpless imbecile. How these
 facts, and a thousand similar, should I help to put us in that state which our Lord calls poor in spirit and so in- herit His promised blessedness.
 "'Blessed are the poor in spirit Be
 ing poor in spirit means also being
 humbly conscious of our moral weak ness. Suppose, for example, we make
 some rule of conduct. It may be easy
 or it may be hard, but how long do we
 observe 1t? In most instances. for a
 short time only. Recall resolutions
 which we have made, resolutions made | joyfully and eagerly at the time, per haps. What has become of them? For gotten and relegated to the dead past The fire has all died out of them. Only l dull and dead ashes remain. Why.
 see how it Is with us at public worship.
 How often do the thoughts wander!
 How often, though present in Gods
 house in the body, our minds are far away, busted with the follIes of the
 world. or absorbed In the cares of life.
 How often we fail to do what we most need which is to realize the presence
 of our Divine Lord among us. and the
 eye of God searching our hearts. Sure
 ly we cannot help but feel how weak
 we are at best and our great need to be poor in spirit