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Ex.: I.  Shakespeare. II. Mercy should  beget  mercy. III. Beatitude.

I. History:  1. Peter's query. 2. Individual  and  priest. 3. Sinners  God's  debtors.

II. Rare virtue :  1. Measure for  measure. 2. Mercy's eulogy. 3. Bearing  wrongs  patiently.

III. Judgment: 1. Parity. 2. Revival  of  guilt. 3. Foolish merchant.

Per. : Blessed  are  the  merciful,  for  they  shall  obtain  mercy.

Briefly stated,  dear  Brethren,  that  is  the  subject of  to-day's  Gospel. It teaches  that  divine clemency and  human  gratitude  should  join  in  indissoluble wedlock,  and  bring  into  this  world  the  lovely virtues of  mercy  and  charity. Shakespeare compares mercy  to  the  "  gentle  rain  from  heaven,"  that gentle downpour  that  renews  the  face  of  the earth — that steals  through  all  earth's  devious windings back  to  the  ocean,  and  thence  back  to the  skies  whence  it  came. So, too,  divine  mercy  if it  beget  not  in  us  love  and  mercy  one  for  another — that mercy  "  that  reacheth  from  end  to  end  mightily, and  ordereth  all  things  sweetly;  "  if  it  be  not  exhaled and returned  whence  it  came,  by  grateful  hearts,  the heavens become  as  unyielding  as  polished  metal, and God's  earthly  kingdom  an  arid  waste. For,