The sermon on the mount, as it is commonly called, seems the Lord’s first free utterance, in the presence of any large assembly, of the good news of the kingdom.  He had been teaching his disciples and messengers; and had already brought the glad tidings that his father was their father, to many besides—­to Nathanael for one, to Nicodemus, to the woman of Samaria, to every one he had cured, every one whose cry for help he had heard:  his epiphany was a gradual thing, beginning, where it continues, with the individual.  It is impossible even to guess at what number may have heard him on this occasion:  he seems to have gone up the mount because of the crowd—­to secure a somewhat opener position whence he could better speak; and thither followed him those who desired to be taught of him, accompanied doubtless by not a few in whom curiosity was the chief motive.  Disciple or gazer, he addressed the individuality of every one that had ears to hear.  Peter and Andrew, James and John, are all we know as his recognized disciples, followers, and companions, at the time; but, while his words were addressed to such as had come to him desiring to learn of him, the things he uttered were eternal truths, life in which was essential for every one of his father’s children, therefore they were for all:  he who heard to obey, was his disciple.

How different, at the first sound of it, must the good news have been from the news anxiously expected by those who waited for the Messiah!  Even the Baptist in prison lay listening after something of quite another sort.  The Lord had to send him a message, by eye-witnesses of his doings, to remind him that God’s thoughts are not as our thoughts, or his ways as our ways—­that the design of God is other and better than the expectation of men.  His summary of the gifts he was giving to men, culminated with the preaching of the good news to the poor.  If John had known these his doings before, he had not recognized them as belonging to the Lord’s special mission:  the Lord tells him it is not enough to have accepted him as the Messiah; he must recognize his doings as the work he had come into the world to do, and as in their nature so divine as to be the very business of the Son of God in whom the Father was well pleased.

Wherein then consisted the goodness of the news which he opened his mouth to give them?  What was in the news to make the poor glad?  Why was his arrival with such words in his heart and mouth, the coming of the kingdom?

All good news from heaven, is of truth—­essential truth, involving duty, and giving and promising help to the performance of it.  There can be no good news for us men, except of uplifting love, and no one can be lifted up who will not rise.  If God himself sought to raise his little ones without their consenting effort, they would drop from his foiled endeavour.  He will carry us in his arms till we are able to walk; he will carry us in his arms when we are weary with walking; he will not carry us if we will not walk.