The address to the newly chosen Apostles which follows this passage in St Luke’s gospel has been incorporated by St Matthew with the Sermon on the Mount. The portions belonging to it may there be recognised by the absence both of allusions to the Law and of the opposed phrases, “It was said to those of old time” and “But I say unto you,” phrases which point the contrast which forms the main theme of the earlier address. The multitudes who awaited our Lord “in the level place” were made up of Apostles, disciples, and people “who came to hear him and be healed.” In some passages of this discourse our Lord had the disciples, and in others the rest of the people, particularly in view. It was to the disciples that He turned when He began to speak. “And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said, Blessed are ye poor: for yours is the kingdom of God.”(173) The four beatitudes are, to my mind, expressly addressed to those who are about to take service on Christ’s side. It was only to a disciple that our Lord could say that He would be hated, and cut off and vilified “for the son of man’s sake,” and it was only disciples, and disciples too who were active in spreading the word, who could be brought into comparison with prophets either true or false. The interpretation also of these beatitudes depends on the fact that our Lord is speaking to the disciples. Blessing did not belong to the poor as an appanage of their poverty but because they were His disciples and theirs was the Kingdom of God; it was easier for the poor than the rich to enter this Kingdom, and then their earthly poverty brought out by contrast the greatness of their spiritual wealth. There is this difference between the lessons taught here and those delivered in the Sermon on the Mount; here all is personal while there it is general. Here, our Lord is speaking to His disciples and says, “for _yours_ is the Kingdom of Heaven,” and “_ye_ shall be filled.” In the Sermon on the Mount the corresponding pronouns are _theirs_ and _they_. A special lesson is conveyed to the Twelve is the last of these beatitudes. “Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man’s sake. Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy: for behold, your reward is great in heaven: for in the same manner did their fathers unto the prophets.”(174)