to act as if there is nothing wrong with me or the world or the church. I want you to listen when I yell at the stars, and throw stones at the clouds, and slam doors, and shout at the world. Perhaps that is not giving glory to Cod as others do with folded hands and frozen face. But for me it means I am paying You the highest respect there is. It means I trust You with the truth — all the truth." Jesus calls us to thi s honesty when He exhorts us, "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy" (Mat thew 5:6, 7). Here He refers to our attitude in relationship to Himself. These Beatitudes could properly be called "be attitudes." It is not so much what you do but why you do what you do. This is the true measure of your ethical behaviour. The real standard of life is not in what you say but in what you live. Each of these deals with inner motivations. Hungering and thirst ing after righteousness means long ing to know the fullness of God. Being merciful is to share the spir it of mercy which comes directly from God. The amplification of these Bea titudes is found in Matthew 6:1-6. When we pray, minister, or per form spiritual duties, we should not do it for the praise of men but for the will of God. A large meeting was held in Bos ton some time ago at which event a well-known minister-orator was asked to offer the invocation. His words were certainly impressive as evidenced by the comment in the next day's newspaper, "It was the finest prayer ever offered to a Page 27
termined by the will of Christ who gave His life for His enemies. Christ died for us and has reminded us, "As the Father has sent me into the world, even so, send I you." He wants us to know, "Just as your perfect Father shows love toward those who do not love Him, you should share that perfection and love to your fellow man so that he can see the beauty and love of the Saviour." "Tell it like it is" seems to be the cry of our times. In a sense, as far as the Christian faith is con cerned, this is exactly what we must do. Hypocrisy is often the accusa tion of the world against the church. To frequently we may give them just cause. There are three areas where we fail and need to confess our sins. The Bible provides for and demands honesty. For exam ple, it does not hurt a husband to confess his faults to his wife or vice-versa. In fact, it is quite essen tial. Living close to one another we see faults greatly magnified. With out real sincerity in all that we do, hypocrisy militates against the real authentic meaning of the Gospel. People cannot respect "phonies." They want to know what genuine Christian faith is all about. Here is a prayer I came across sometime ago, "If I cannot be honest with you, Lord, I cannot be honest with anyone. You are. the only Person who can take it, no matter what I say. People are of fended if I am honest. They want to hear nice things, sweet words of happiness, gentle hymns to a gentle Cod, smiling somewhere on a red, velvet throne. Well, I am sick of being phony. I do not like HUNGER AND THIRST AFTER RIGHTEOUSNESS
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