Mercy and Truth: The Inseparable Twins of Grace

Let not mercy and truth forsake thee.—The wings of the cherubim touched one another in the midst of the house; so Mercy and Truth are such a pair as will either lodge together or leave together. Like the mythological Twins of Love, eros and anteros, Truth and Mercy weep together, smile together, sicken together, and recover jointly.

Consider them in policy: Mercy without truth is a sweet shower dropping on barren sands—spilt, with no blessing following. Truth without mercy is extreme right become extreme injury. Mercy without truth proves a dangerous pity; truth without mercy is not verity but severity.

Toward Elohim and heaven, neither should stand alone. A faith of mere protestation without good works—such is truth without mercy. St. James tells us the devil possesses such faith. Conversely, all the integrity of the heathen—all Socrates could teach—because it lacks Christ, is mercy without truth.

St. Augustine compares them thus: A pagan living blamelessly before men is as one with eyes open in dark midnight. But he who professes Christ yet practices no mercy, sold to commit iniquity, has eyes shut in clear daylight—he sees as little.

Bind them about thy neck as true phylakteria (safeguards). These grand elements of revelation meet man's nature—intellect and heart, each with its respective cravings. Mercy and truth, rightly worn, protect us from what is wrong and ruinous, ornaments of gold chain for the neck and truth written upon the heart's table.