Students of the New Testament naturally love to study the Beatitudes, wherein Jesus changes the formal prohibitions of law into the revelation of good—of the blessings following goodness. The law says thou shalt not injure thy neighbor; the beatitude shows how men may enjoy good within themselves and be spontaneous in right activity. It would seem, however, that a great many students are satisfied with seven beatitudes, yet whenever they come into the conditions which would enable them to have the happiness indicated by the next beatitude, they seem to be very much disturbed and outraged. Surely our Master had a deep meaning when he spoke of the available blessing which may be experienced by those who are "persecuted for righteousness' sake." As if it were important, he indicates that in such conditions "their's is the kingdom of heaven," and goes on to elaborate the thought by an additional statement: "Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you."
There is a story told of a fiery and zealous minister of the gospel who was assaulting people by violent words of condemnation, and stirring up a good deal of resentment against himself. Finally he became somewhat depressed with the situation, and took counsel with an older man. He claimed that men were persecuting him and saying all manner of evil against him, and he did not see why he ought to suffer this, but supposed there ought to be a blessing in it; and his elder adviser said rather dryly, "You must remember that word 'falsely.'" If we deserve recrimination and faultfinding we are not in the line of blessing. So it is well to remember that these accusations must not find in us elements of untruth or injustice or self-righteousness. Indeed, the thing to be very clear about is that, as our Master put it, these oppositions against the activity of a worker can bless only when he is doing his work according to the method of Truth, and in the spirit of his Master. It is when, in other words, he is suffering for Christ's sake, that is, for the sake of being true to the tender and noble ideals of Christianity, that wonderfully beautiful and available blessing of which Jesus spoke.
There is a difficulty to be faced from this standpoint. We are being taught continually by theories of democracy that the crowd must be right; that the larger number must rule. Consequently, when one gets to the position, if he should ever do so, where it seems as if everybody was doubting him and taking up a false report about him, so that he even becomes tempted to doubt himself, he must find from the words of Jesus a renewing sense of comfort. The prophets of old are spoken of as being like a "voice ... crying in the wilderness." They were going against the currents of the time, in fact, calling upon the crowed to turn around and go the opposite way—that is, to repent. Repentance indicates such a mental change that it may be very well spoken of as right-about-face. So the righteous, if inwardly humble and meek, and genuinely hungering after righteousness, and seeking to bring out mercy and justice and to make peace, can take to themselves the comfort spoken of by Jesus when he said, "So persecuted they the prophets which were before you."
