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The simple meaning of this passage (Matt. 5:3) is that it is the humble soul that gets blessed. And the higher a saint gets in the divine life the more humble he will be. Spiritual progress which is not accompanied by humility is progress in the wrong direction. This is one of the distinctive points of Christ's doctrine; at the very threshold of the Christian life the Christian gives up his self-confidence; he surrenders all hope of making himself righteous, and gives himself to Christ to be made righteous. And his highest attain ment can be expressed in the words of Paul: "I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me."
