Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: SERMON IV. SECRET PRAYER. But then, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet; and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. Matthew vi. 6. The design of the sermon on the mount is, to explain and illustrate Christian character, so that no man might mistake the nature of Christianity, or the spirit of Christ's kingdom. After his temptation Jesus began to preach, " Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." " And there followed him great multitudes of people from Galilee, and from Decapolis, and from Jerusalem, and from Judea, and from beyond Jordan." This immense multitude needed some certain information as to the nature of this kingdom, and the character of its subjects. " The kingdom of heaven is at hand," and the natural inquiry was, What sort of a kingdom is it ? The sermon on the mount is the answer to this inquiry. In these three chapters, Jesus has shown the nature of that kingdom, and the spirit and temper of its subjects; and so plain that "the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein." All its subjects are poor in spirit, and meek, and pure, and peaceable; reviled, they revile not again; persecuted, they suffer it. The law of God is in their heart—a law which requires purity of motive as well as propriety of conduct. They are the light of the world, and the salt of the earth, as their conduct is the acting out of that love which is the fulfilling of the law. Devotion to God is combined with kindness to those who aremade after the similitude of God. There was no command to give alms; this was a duty which nature itself taught, and which all acknowledged, and, as to the outward form, many regarded. His command is, not to enforce the act, but to regulate the manne...