[Manna - December 14]
Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. Matthew 5:7
ALL do not know it, but it is a fact that the grandest
quality that man can exercise, and the one which
brings the largest amount of blessing itself, is the
exercise of the God-like quality of mercy, compassion,
benevolence.
The Lord lays great stress upon this
quality of mercy, declaring that whatever else may
be our attainments of knowledge or of grace, if we
have not this one we can never be acceptable to Him—if we do not have mercy upon others neither will our
Heavenly Father have mercy upon us.
And to insure
that we do not consider this mercy to be merely an
outward form, an expression of forgiveness and benevolence,
our Lord expounds the matter, saying, "If
ye do not from the heart forgive one another, neither
will your Heavenly Father forgive you."...Only
the merciful shall obtain mercy: and if we have not
mercy at the hands of the Lord all is lost; for by
nature we were children of wrath, even as others,
and under just condemnation. Z. '01-332; '00-70 R2896:3; R2587:1