Article October 10, 1925 Issue

The Concluding Beatitude

AGGIE V. CLUTE

"Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake." The study of the concluding beatitude in Christ Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, in its relation to the Beatitudes as a whole, suggests preeminently the thought of reward; more especially is this done by the lines, "Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven."

In the preceding beatitudes our Master has pointed us to qualities of divine Mind, the unfoldment and application of the understanding of which brings specific blessings. Each beatitude implies a provision and a promise. The poor in spirit—the receptive in thought—shall experience the reign of harmony; they that mourn—are truly repentant—shall be comforted; the meek—those who realize the all-power of God, good—shall inherit the fruits of this understanding; they that hunger and thirst after righteousness—right thinking and acting—shall be satisfied; the merciful shall truly receive in the measure that mercy has been shown by them; the pure in heart—followers of Truth—do walk with God; the peacemaker shall realize man's oneness with the divine Mind; and blessed are they that willingly endure persecution rather than surrender one quality of this divine Mind, obedience to which goes to make up the sum of right thinking or righteousness. In the concluding beatitude the thought contained in the preceding beatitudes crystallizes into a direct demand for more consecrated action, and the conditions of the reward grow more exacting.

Our beloved Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, who endured persecution and reviling while striving to bring demonstrable truth to the world that mankind might be healed of its many ills, says in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 568), "Self-abnegation, by which we lay down all for Truth, or Christ, in our warfare against error, is a rule in Christian Science." Then with renewed zeal, through the application of our understanding of the divine qualities as set forth by our Master in the Beatitudes, we must press forward to the firing line, and take our stand there, determined to live in obedience to divine Principle, whatever the cost in human sacrifice.

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