to the proper authorities all they had heard and seen. A third source was from the records furnished by the martyrs, themselves, as in the case of Ignatius, Flavian and others. But several of these, obtained as I have stated, perished through time and the malice of tyrants. Independent also of the numbers thus consigned to oblivion, millions died for the faith of whom there were no acts or records at all. Their names, their heroism and self-sacrifice were buried with. them in the same common grave. No faithful chronicler, no impartial historian, no painstaking compiler has handed down to us an ample and graphic description of all they endured for the cause of Christ. The archives of heaven alone contain such an account. Who for example-what contemporary christian writer, what faithful witness of the fury and rage of the unbelievers, has portrayed for us, in a manner worthy of the sublimity and grandeur of the subject, the noble and heroic resistance of the Christians under Nero. Have not the horrors of that first night, when an infuriated Roman populace rose up in its might and sought to avenge by every manner of insult and torture on the innocent Christians the imaginary crime of the burning of the capital, been left wholly unchronicled. Is it not at best confined to a couple of passages in the writings of a pagan contemporary author? It would be impossible under such circumstances to write as ample and graphic an account of the sufferings of the martyrs of the Church of God, as could be desired. As well might one attempt to enter into the details of the history of a country many of whose primitive annals no longer exist. The thousandth part of the heroism displayed by the martyrs, in their contest with their unscrupulous tormentors, shall never be known. It exceeds by far the bravery of the most dauntless troops that ever struggled for liberty or * Ruinart, Acta Martyrum, Praefatio Generalis, p. iv. honor. Not the Grecian heroes in their contest against Troy, exhibited such indomitable courage. "Incomparibilior enim pulchrior," says St. Jerome, "est veritas Christianorum quam Helena Grecorum. Pro ista enim fortius nostri martyres adversus hanc Sodomam, quam pro illa illi haeres adversus Trojam dimicaverunt."* To die in the ranks of duty defending some interest or principle of worldly honor under the eye of an approving sovereign, and in presence of an admiring nation, is what requires no more than that ordinary heroism that men are generally suppossed to possess. But to expose one's self as an outcast and an object of approbrium in defence of a cause that hath only for its object the advancement of one's spiritual interest, evinces a courage, a constancy and bravery to be encountered only in the case of the martyr. The circumstances under which the martyr is called upon to shed his blood for the cause he maintains are an evidence too of how immeasurably superior is his fortitude to that of the bravest of worldly troops. To extricate himself from his difficulty-from tortures oftentimes the most excruciating and a death the most painful and lingering, all that was needed was an abandonment of principle. The burning of a grain in incense, the utterance of a single word, a sign, a nod was sufficient to relieve him from suffering and to obtain for him the favor of his sovereign. But death a thousand times was preferable to him than a single act of dishonor. Can the same be affirmed with equal truth of the combatants of earthly rulers? How many instances are there not on record of armies, while the issue was still doubtful and victory had not yet inclined to either of the combatants, flying from the contest and shamefully abandoning the cause they supported.. What body of indomitable warriors has ever entered on a campaign. * Jerome, vol., 1., p. 756. # with the full consciousness of being necessitated to die in the struggle? The martyr, and the martyr alone, knows the destiny that is awaiting him. He is aware that he will have to die in behalf of the cause he has espoused; he knows that his life is a sacrifice that is demanded at his hands, and he is willing to make it. The army to which he belongs has never yielded in the shock of battle. For the last eighteen hundred years and upwards it has ever steadily advanced on the road to victory. The soil of every country and the streets of every capital have been sprinkled and sanctified by the blood of its generous members. Every where it has encountered the enemy and every where it has uniformly conquered. Associations of the most soul-stirring and glorious encounters and achievments cluster profusely around this grand old army of martyrs and are encountered upon every page of its history. The campaign in which it is engaged is as old as Christianity itself. It began with the establishment of the new dispensation and had for its chief the Redeemer himself. The contest was at first confined to the narrow limits of Judea: Judaism was the Church's first adversary. But as time went on and the fulfillment of the apostolic commission to preach the gospel to every creature was carried into effect, the circle of the Church's encounters was enlarged and continued to increase till the entire world with all the nations. of the earth became, the former the battle ground, and the latter the opponents of the Church's indomitable army. Nor must it be supposed that the contest has ended yet: by no means. The struggle continues and will go on till the end of time for this is the ordained providence of the Most High, this is the inheritance bequeathed by Christ to his mystic spouse. The result however, will ever be the same, the Church shall triumph and this triumph shall be by the firmness, fortitude and suffering of her faithful children. CHAPTER IV. CAUSES OF THE PERSECUTION OF THE CHURCH EVER THE SAME-THE TIMES-ITS ADVANTAGES-PROBABLE The cause of the persecution of the Church has been the same in every age; it is the antagonism that exists between truth and error, or more properly the antipathy of the evil one to the practice of virtue. This is the secret of all the violence that has been offered to the spouse of Christ from the beginning. Were the Church's claims of a less absolute nature, could she accomodate herself to the passions and prejudices of the world and thereby alter her standard of teaching and morality, she would not have arrayed against her, as she has had, the power and hostil ity of the world. It is the truth of which she is at the same time the despositary and guardian, and the necessity incumbent upon her of preaching the same in all its integrity, that has earned for her so many and such powerful opponents. It has been the same from the beginning of the world. The practise of virtue in every instance, whether under the law of nature, the Mosaic law or the Christian dispensation, has uniformly awakened the hostility of the ungodly. The common enemy of mankind envying man's service of his creator has unfailingly stirred up against the virtuous of every age the bitter and unrelenting hostility of the wicked. Thus the first apologist of the Christian religion, Justin Martyr, was enabled to taunt the enemies of religion in his day in the following language: "For the demon, as we have already shown, has always pursued with his hatred those who have lived according to reason and who have shunned vice whatever otherwise their philosophical opinions may have been." The case was not diferent in the Mosaic law. The bold enunciation of truth uniformly drew down upon its authors the chastisement of the wicked. Neither age, nor office, nor sanctity was able to shield men from the violence aroused by the utterance of truth. The prophets of the Lord were constantly subject to the greatest persecutions at the hands of the impious. They were beaten, imprisoned, and slain in numbers. “For when Jezabel killed the prophets of the Lord he took a hundred prophets and hid them by fifty and fifty in caves and fed them with bread and water."* They were even slaughtered daily during a part of the reign of the wicked Manasses. "For, by setting out from a contempt of God he barbarously slew all the righteous men that were among the Hebrews; nor would he spare the prophets for he every day slew some of them till Jerusalem was overflown with blood." It was this perverseness and unwillingness to listen to the representatives of divine truth that made the Divine Spirit reproach the same race in the following language. "You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do you also. Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? And they have slain them who foretold of the coming of the Just One, of whom you have been now the betrayers and murderers.”‡ To specify instances. It was the fearless, unqualified condemnation of the errors of Juda that earned for Zacha iii Kings, chap. 18, v. 4. + Josephus, Antiquities, book 10, chap. 3. |