The Ninth "Blessed."
"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."
These troubles of His followers, which Jesus our Lord mentions, are all summed up in the words "for My sake."
And here, it seems to me, is a key which will open the prison doors of many a trial.
Our Lord tells us that whosoever will come after Him must take up his cross and follow Him.
"For My sake!" He says to us so tenderly.
"Take My yoke upon you," He says again.
And what was His yoke? It was doing the Heavenly Father's Will. Bearing that heavy, bitter Cross to redeem the world which God loved so much that He gave His Son. Leaving His glory in Heaven for thirty-three years, that He might show us how much the Father loved us, and to encourage us to work and bear for His sake.
"God, for Christ's sake," has forgiven us: and if in this world there comes to us reproach of suffering, "for His sake," shall we not meet it joyfully and patiently, remembering the words of this last Beatitude, "Great is your reward in Heaven"?