Men die, but truth is immortal. The workmen are buried, but the work goes on. Institutions pass away, but the principles of which they were the incarnation live forever. The Way, the Truth and the Life “was manifested in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.”
Incarnate Innocence was “despised and rejected of men.” The Manger, the Garden, the Cross, are but different aspects of the life and light of men, and illustrate the history of the “Man of Sorrows.” The disciple is not above his Lord, nor the servant better than his Master, and if such things were done in the green tree, what hope is there for the dry?
There are many living martyrs. Death is not necessary condition of martyrdom. The souls of man martyrs have not yet reached their resting place “under the altar.” They have met the conditions of martyrdom in the garden of agony without reaching the cross. Some men, who still live, have suffered more for Christ and his Church than many who have ended their sufferings with their lives. Not the nature but the cause of suffering imparts to it the moral quality and the virtues of martyrdom. “Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Many suffer and die, but not “for righteousness’ sake,” and very many “are persecuted for righteousness’ sake” who still live. The grave does not limit the roll of martyrs. Robinson and Headlee, and Glanville and Wollard may have suffered less for righteousness’ sake than Cleavland, Breeding, M‘Anally, Penn, Duvall, Spencer, Rush and many others who still live to bear witness to the truth. True, it is something to sacrifice life for a principle and a cause—to seal the testimony with the blood. Moral heroism can reach no higher form, nor express itself in a more exalted type. Its purest fire goes out and its sublimest consecration culminates in the life blood of the martyr. Many a noble spirit has been offered up in the sacrifice and service of faith, and, like Isaac, bound hand and foot upon the altar, with the fatal knife glittering and gleaming in the upraised hand of the executioner, yet has been rescued by the interposing voice, when perfect faith stood vindicated in the complete consecration. “Was not Abraham, our father, justified by works when he had offered Isaac, his son, upon the altar?” As much so as if the knife had been driven to his heart and the fires had consumed his body. Yet Abraham’s faith was vindicated by his works, and Isaac lived to perpetuate the story of his offering. St. Paul says: “For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.” And again: “I protest by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.” He was a living martyr, and many Apostles and righteous men have, like him, been “killed all the day long” and “die daily.”
Historical facts in support of the position taken are neither wanting nor few, and the roll of living and dead martyrs in Missouri, now to be recorded in these pages, will vindicate the position and illustrate the annals of religious persecution with a chapter but little removed from the horrors of the Spanish Inquisition, and the persecutions of the Vaudois Christians and Waldenses under Francis I., Henry II., Catherine De Medicis and other notable instruments of power in France, which culminated in the Massacre of St. Bartholomew.
Many names have been given a fame as enduring as the virtues they were made to illustrate, by the force and fire and fact of persecution, which otherwise would have perished from the earth. And the cause for which they were persecuted has been given a sanctity in the hearts and a power over the lives of men which otherwise it could not have received. A name however obscure, and a character however humble, become illustrious despite of history when associated with persecution, suffering and death, for a principle and a cause which invest humanity with the purer and higher types of intellectual, moral and religious life. Around such names the divinest principles crystallize, and by such characters the deepest and purest fountains of humanity are touched. Hampden, and Russell, and Howard, and Sidney, and Eliot, and Brainard, and Wilberforce, and Martin, and others who sacrificed all for the political, mental and moral enfranchisement of their race, have made themselves immortal, as their names are enshrined in the deepest heart of our nature. They will live forever in the cause for which they suffered. So, too, many of less note have been given a fame as enduring as columns of brass, and they will be handed down to posterity without the factitious aid of monuments of marble or pyramids of granite.
Profane history, philosophy and poetry may treat the martyr for the truth cavalierly or ignore his claims altogether, while they panegyrize his executioner. Yet he will live in the hearts of men, ennoble the virtues of men, illustrate the heroism of men, and thrill the purest souls of men with life and immortality after the names of those who despised and rejected him have perished in eternal forgetfulness.
The sweet-spirited Cowper has anticipated this fact and put his more than poetic conception into the most expressive and poetic language:
“A patriot’s blood may earn indeed,
And for a time insure to his loved land
The sweets of liberty and equal laws;