28 Sermon Illustrations on Martyrdom

St. Basil was a great man of God, one of the greatest of the Church Fathers. One of his noble orations is dedicated to the memory of forty martyrs of Sebaste who were ordered by the officers of Licinius, in the year a.d. 320, to offer sacrifices to heathen idols. These were soldiers who had proven to be excellent in every respect. But Licinius the emperor issued a decree that they must renounce Christ or else their lives would be in danger. Those who refused to give up Christ were submitted to indescribable brutalities and tortures. "The torturers were called forth. The first was ready and the sword was sharpened.... Then some of the persecuted Christians fled, others succumbed, others wavered, and some before even being submitted to the tortures, were afraid because of their threatenings. Some, when facing the tortures, became faint. Others entered the battle, but were not able to persevere to the end in suffering the pains, and in the middle of the martyrdom they renounced Christ. "However, the invincible and gallant soldiers of Christ proceeded visibly to the middle, at the time when the judge was showing the decree of the king and was asking them to submit to it. Without being afraid of anything which they saw, nor losing their heads as a result of the threatenings, they confessed that they were Christians. "These Christians soldiers were offered money and honors in order to induce them to join the ranks of the heathen. To earthly honors they would not yield. Then came threats of indescribable tortures. What an answer these Christian soldiers gave: 'Do you have blessings of equal value to those you endeavor to deprive us of, to give us? We hate your gift because it will mean our loss. We do not accept honor which is the mother of dishonesty. You offer us money which remains here, glory which fades away.... We have despised the whole world. Those things which we see in the world do not have for us the value of the heavenly things which we hope and long for.... We are afraid of only one punishment, the punishment of hell. We are here ready to be tortured ... for you to twist our bodies and to burn them.' "The judge was infuriated by the courage of these brave Christians, and so he devised a slow and most painful way of putting them to death. It was very cold. He waited for the night when the wind was violent and the air freezing. He ordered these soldiers to be thrown naked on a frozen lake in the center of the town to die from freezing. There is no more atrocious and painful death than that. These Christian soldiers did not have to be forced to take off their clothes. They took them off themselves and marched on to the frozen lake. As each went, he said, 'We are not merely putting off our clothes, but we are putting off "the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts" ' (Ephesians 4:22). All together they shouted, 'The winter is bitter, but heaven is sweet; the freezing painful, but sweet the rest. Let us persevere a little longer and we shall be warmed in the bosom of the Patriarch [meaning Christ]. Let us exchange all of eternity for the pains of one night. Let the leg be burned so that it may ever dance with the angels.... How many soldiers have died in battle remaining faithful to a mortal king, and we, for the sake of remaining faithful to the true king, shall we not sacrifice this life?... We are going to die anyway; let us die so that we may live.' Their prayer was unanimous and ascended with one voice, 'Forty have we entered this ordeal, may all forty of us receive the crown of martyrdom. Oh, Despot, grant that not one of our number may yield.... You honored this number because you fasted forty days.' "In spite of this earnest prayer, one of their number did not persevere and gave in to the offers of the heathen persecutors. Great sorrow came upon the others because only thirty-nine remained in the arena of death. Their plea became even more vigorous to their Heavenly Father. Forty entered the ordeal and forty wanted to see the face of the Lord. The deserter came to the warm place prepared by the emperor's executioners. But going from the extreme cold to the warm place, and plunging himself into warm water, he died instantly. The guard, a heathen who was watching all the developments and saw angels ministering to these saints of God, on hearing their prayers, decided to answer them. He took off his clothes and declared with a loud voice, 'I am a Christian, too,' and jumped naked on the frozen lake joining the thirty-nine to complete their number to forty. Thus their prayer was answered, forty entered the ordeal of martyrdom and forty saw the face of Jesus Christ. Now, whose memory was cursed and whose was blessed? We call the saints who persevered unto death blessed, indeed."

St. Matthew suffered martyrdom by being slain with a sword at a distant city of Ethiopia. St. Mark expired at Alexandria, after having been cruelly dragged through the streets of that city. St. Luke was hanged upon an olive-tree in the classic land of Greece. St. John was put into a caldron of boiling oil, but escaped death in a miraculous manner, and was afterwards banished to Patmos. St. Peter was crucified at Rome with his head downward. St. James the Greater was beheaded at Jerusalem. St. James the Less was thrown from a lofty pinnacle of the temple, and then beaten to death with a fuller's club. St. Philip was hanged up against a pillar at Heiropolis in Phrygia. St. Bartholomew was flayed alive. St. Andrew was bound to a cross, whence he preached to his persecutors until he died. St. Thomas was run through the body with a lance at Coromandel in the East Indies. St. Jude was shot to death with arrows. St. Matthias was first stoned, and then beheaded. St. Barnabas of the Gentiles was stoned to death by the Jews at Salonica. St. Paul, after various tortures and persecutions, was at length beheaded at Rome by the Emperor Nero. Schumacher.

ELIZABETH FOLKES, embracing the stake, said, “Farewell, all the world!—farewell, faith, farewell, hope, and welcome, love!”

MARCUS of Arethusa, being hung up in a basket smeared with honey, to be stung to death by bees, exclaimed, “How am I advanced, despising you that are upon the earth!”

HUGH LAVELOCKE, comforting John-a-Price, his fellow-martyr, said unto him, “Be of good comfort, my brother; for my lord of London is our good physician: he will cure thee of all thy blindness, and me of my lameness this day.”

CASTILIA RUPEA.—Though you throw my body down off this steep hill, yet will my soul mount upwards again. Your blasphemies more offend my mind than your torments do my body.

A young man named Jones came to Bishop Farrar a few days before he suffered, and lamented the painfulness of the death prepared for him. The bishop, in faith, relying upon the extraordinary support vouchsafed to those who were thus publicly called to seal their testimony with their blood, told the youth to mark him while suffering that painful death, and, if he saw him once stir, then to give no credit to the doctrines he had preached. Jones adds, "And as he said, so he right well performed the same: for so patiently he stood, that he never moved; but even as he stood, holding up his stumps, so still he continued, till one Richard Gravell with a staff dashed him upon the head, and struck him down."

When John Huss, the Bohemian martyr, was brought out to be burned, they put on his head a triple crown of paper, with pointed devils on it. On seeing it, he said, "My Lord Jesus Christ, for my sake, wore a crown of thorns: why should not I, then, for his sake, wear this light crown, be it ever so ignominious? Truly I will do it, and that willingly." When it was set upon his head, the bishops said, "Now we commit thy soul to the Devil." — "But I," said Huss, lifting up his eyes towards heaven, "do commit my spirit into thy hands, O Lord Jesus Christ! to thee I commend my spirit, which thou hast redeemed."

They died in torments; and their torments were imbittered by insult and derision. Some were nailed on crosses; others sewn up in the skins of wild beasts, and exposed to the fury of the dogs; others, again, smeared over with combustible material, were used as torches to illuminate the darkness of the night. The gardens of Nero were destined for the melancholy spectacle, which was accompanied with a horse-race, and honored with the presence of the emperor, who mingled with the populace in the dress and attitude of a charioteer. Gildon.

The palm was the ancient classical symbol of victory and triumph, and was early assumed by the Christians as the universal emblem of martyrdom. In pictures of martyrdoms, an angel descends with the palm. It is engraved on the martyrs' tombs, and placed in their hands by the painters. The martyr thought little of the suffering, but much of the victory, of his death.

Margaret Pierrone, a martyr of the sixteenth century, resided in Valenciennes. She was accused by a wicked female servant, to the Jesuits, because she had not been for many years at the mass, and had kept in her house a Bible, in reading which was her whole delight. The magistrates being informed of it, caused her to be apprehended.

Being in prison the judges called her before them, and said, "Margaret, are you not willing to return home to your house, and there live with your husband and children?" "Yes," said she, "if it may stand with the good will of God." They added further, that they had so wrought with the Jesuits that in doing a small matter she might be set at liberty. "A scaffold shall be erected in the chief place of the city, upon which you are to present yourself, and there to crave pardon for offending the law. Then, a fire being kindled, you must cast your Bible therein to be consumed, without speaking any word at all." "I pray you, my masters, tell me," said Margaret, "is my Bible a good book or not?" "Yes, we confess it is good," said they. "If you allow it to be good," replied the woman, "why would you have me cast it into the fire?" "Only," said they, "to give the Jesuits content. Imagine it to be but paper that you burn, and then all is well enough. Do so much for saving your life, and we will meddle no more with you. You may obtain another whenever you will."

They spent about two hours in endeavoring to persuade her. "By the help of God," answered Margaret, "I will never consent to do it. I will burn my body before I will burn my Bible."

Unable to weaken her resolution, her enemies committed her a close prisoner, to be fed only with bread and water, and none to be permitted so much as to speak to her, thinking by this hard usage to overcome her: but all was to no purpose. A doctor of divinity was frequently sent to her to turn her from her resolution; but he found it too hard a task for him to effect, and often confessed to those who sent him, that he found in her no cause why they should put her to death.

On January 22, 1593, however, she was condemned to be brought upon a stage, erected in the market-place before the town-house, first to see her books burned, then herself to be strangled at a post, and her body dragged to the dunghill without the city. Coming to the place, she ascended the scaffold, and distinctly pronounced the Lord's prayer. Then, seeing her books burned in her presence, she uttered these words, with an audible voice: "You burn there the word of God, which yourselves have acknowledged to be good and holy." Having again repeated the Lord's prayer, she was immediately strangled.

When Polycarp, an ancient bishop of the church at Smyrna, was brought to the tribunal, the proconsul asked him if he was Polycarp; to which he assented. The proconsul then began to abort him, saying, "Have pity on thine own great age; swear by the fortune of Cesar; repent: say, take away the atheists," meaning the Christians. Polycarp, casting his eyes solemnly over the multitude, waving his hand to them, and looking up to heaven, said, "Take away these atheists;" meaning the idolaters around him. The proconsul still urging him, and saying, "Swear, and I will release thee; reproach Christ," Polycarp said, "Eighty and six years have I served him, and he hath never wronged me; and how can I blaspheme my King who hath saved me?" "I have wild beasts," said the proconsul, "and will expose you to them unless you repent." "Call them," said the martyr. "I will tame your spirit by fire," said the Roman. "You threaten me," said Polycarp, "with the fire which burns only for a moment, but are yourself ignorant of the fire of eternal punishment, reserved for the ungodly." Soon after, being about to be put to death, he exclaimed, "O Father of thy beloved and blessed Son, Jesus Christ! O God of all principalities and of all creation! I bless thee that thou hast counted me worthy of this day, and this hour, to receive my portion in the number of the martyrs, in the cup of Christ."

On the 24th of November, 1755, the Moravian Mission at Gnadenhuetten, not far from Bethlehem, in North America, was broken up by a most destructive assault from Indians under French influence.

While the mission family were at supper, an uncommon barking of dogs was heard. Presently a gun was fired. Upon this, several ran to the door, to ascertain the nature of the disturbance. As soon as the door was opened, the Indians fired upon the unsuspecting missionaries. Martin Nitschman was instantly killed. His wife and some others were wounded, but fled with the rest up stairs into the garret, and barricaded the door with bedsteads. One of the missionaries escaped by a back window, another by a rear door. The savages pursued those who had taken refuge in the garret, and strove hard to force the door. Finding it too well secured to be thus opened, they set fire to the house. The building was soon in flames. A boy and the wife of a missionary who had escaped by the window, leaped from the roof, and escaped unhurt and without observation. Mr. Fabricus leaped also from the roof, but before he could escape, he was perceived and murdered. The rest, eleven in number, were burnt alive in the house. Mrs. Senseman was seen by her unhappy husband, who had escaped, standing with folded hands, surrounded by the flames; and she was heard to say, "'Tis all well, dear Savior."

The minister of the seminary at Clermont having been seized at Autun by the populace, the mayor, who wished to save him, advised him not to take the oath, but to allow him to tell the people that he had taken it. "I would myself make known your falsehood to the people," replied the clergyman; "it is not permitted me to ransom my life by a lie. The God who prohibits my taking this oath, will not allow me to make it believed that I have taken it." The mayor was silent, and the minister was martyred.