Basic HTML Version
The Persecuted Receive the Kingdom, October 27
Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for
their’s is the kingdom of heaven.
Matthew 5:10
.
Jesus does not present to His followers the hope of attaining earthly
glory and riches, and of having a life free from trial, but He presents to
them the privilege of walking with their Master in the paths of self-denial
and reproach, because the world knows them not.
He who came to redeem the lost world, was opposed by the united
forces of the adversaries of God and man. In an unpitying confederacy,
evil men and evil angels arrayed themselves against the Prince of peace.
Though His every word and act breathed of divine compassion, His unlike-
ness to the world provoked the bitterest hostility. Because He would give
no license for the exercise of the evil passions of our nature, He aroused
the fiercest opposition and enmity. So it is with all who will live godly in
Christ Jesus. Between righteousness and sin, love and hatred, truth and
falsehood, there is an irrepressible conflict. When one presents the love
of Christ and the beauty of holiness, he is drawing away the subjects of
Satan’s kingdom, and the prince of evil is aroused to resist it. Persecution
and reproach await all who are imbued with the Spirit of Christ. The
character of the persecution changes with the times; but the principle—the
spirit that underlies it—is the same that has slain the chosen of the Lord
ever since the days of Abel.
As men seek to come into harmony with God, they will find that the
offense of the cross has not ceased. Principalities and powers and wicked
spirits in high places are arrayed against all who yield obedience to the law
of heaven. Therefore, so far from causing grief, persecution should bring
joy to the disciples of Christ; for it is an evidence that they are following
in the steps of their Master....
Through trials and persecution, the glory—character—of God is re-
vealed in His chosen ones
[308]
53
Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, 49-51
.
318