THE MARTYRS UNDER THE ALTAR
A thoughtful writer said some years ago: Religious toleration is thought of as a thing too certainly
fixed and long-rooted in the institutions of this country ever to be
challenged. On the contrary, it is a
doctrine very modern, very vulnerable, and preserved in certain circumstances
with very great difficulty. The man who
will rule
An extraordinary honour is put by God upon the martyr
band. Alone among the dead (with the
shadowy exception of Isaiah 14: 9-11) the
veil is drawn, and we behold the solitary class of departed souls ever revealed
to living eyes. Alone among the dead,
these [spirits* of disembodied] souls are disclosed as removed to heaven, where we
find them, not indeed on thrones, or rejoicing before God as later on are the
risen and rapt (Revelation 7: 9), but beneath the Central Altar of the
universe. Alone among the dead, they
- [as disembodied souls in Hades] - are given public recognition in heaven, even
before Apostles or Patriarchs, and before the Bema has judged, or they
themselves have been brought before it for judgment; even as they are the only
class, as a class, named in the
Apocalyptic catalogue of Millennial
thrones (Revelation 20: 4). It is
a most extraordinary fact that the very worst that the world can do to us, its
acme of cruelty and power, is to put us bodily into the most unique and radiant
class of the saints of God.
[* It is not the soul
but the animating spirit of man which returns to
God at the time of death; the disembodied soul
goes down,
into the heart of the earth: (Matthew 12: 40): Mohammedans may believe spirits are detained there, but the word of God and
the Holy Spirit teach the contrary (Acts 2: 27).]
We see first exactly when and where they appear. Seals involving continuous and deepening
judgments our Lord is breaking; and in the midst of them is heard the hoarse cry
of blood: for murder is the supreme crime, making judgment inevitable and the
killing of Gods saints is the supreme murder. And
when He opened the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar - the place of most absolute security
in the universe - the souls
which, ordinarily unseen, can be as visible, as the soul of Samuel seen by Saul
(1 Samuel 28: 14) of them that had been slain the word is sacrificed and is the same as the word applied to the
Lamb slain (Revelation
5: 6). That these had been sacrificed
fixes this Altar as the Altar of Burnt Offering, made hollow beneath, for the
reception of the poured out blood (Leviticus 4: 7)
of the sacrifices. The soul is in the blood (Leviticus 17: 11): so, as on
earth the blood was emptied into the hollow beneath the altar, here, in heaven, the spirits
themselves are there.* I have myself stood,
says Dr. Seiss,
in the opening, under the rock, on which the altar
had its place, and stamped my foot upon the marble slab which closes the mouth
of the vast receptacle, and satisfied myself, from detonations, that the
excavated space is very large and deep. The Mohammedans, to this day, as I was
told on the spot, regard it as the place where spirits are detained until the day of judgment, and call it The Well of Spirits.
[* Desembodied spirits
(That is, souls without a resurrected body.) - still;
and as such, beneath the
So here is the unveiling of the vast martyr-host, the hecatomb
of six thousand years of bitter hate. For the phrasing appears purposely indefinite so as to cover all
martyrs of all dispensations; slain for
the Word of God, and for the testimony which they held;* such
sections of Gods utterances as each martyr-band possessed. It was not only their possession of the Word of God, but their steadfast
adherence to it at all costs, that made them
martyrs: the testimony which they used to hold; the testimony
which they constantly maintained; which was the habit of their life. Slain for because of, on account of THE WORD OF GOD: for a martyr is
not merely an innocent man murdered; nor even a man murdered for his
convictions; but a man murdered for the Word of God: if he has been slain for anything else, he
is not a martyr. But he is much more: he has offered to God the supreme sacrifice; them
that had been sacrificed." So Paul, on the brink of his own martyrdom,
says: I am already being poured
out as a drink
offering" (2 Timothy 4: 6): that is, a sacrifice, not of
atonement, but of devotion; not a sin offering, but a burnt offering. So, remarkably enough, Ignatius, who has been called the Prince of Martyrs, compared the
martyr to the Meal Offering: God's wheat, ground fine by the teeth of wild beasts, that
he may be found pure bread, a sacrifice to God. A sacrifice
is a description used of no other class of the saints of God.
Now we hear their cry.
As judgment dawns, these forgotten souls voice the inarticulate Abel‑blood
that has never been silent. And they cried with a great voice - for souls can be audible, as well as
visible: the psychical life, though not the physical, continues after death
conscious and reminiscent - saying, how long - for, being still disembodied, they are
perfectly aware that judgment has not yet burst the tombs - O Master - Despot: the cry is to Christ, for it is He
who is opening the Seal; Autocrat, not of all the Russias,
but of all the Worlds: it is the appeal of the murdered to Sovereign Power - the holy and true
- for what Christ is is the ground of their appeal;
absolute power must avenge injustice, if it is really guided by holiness and
truth - dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on
them that dwell on the earth? how long dost Thou forbear to judge? how long dost Thou refrain from bringing to trial earths
monster criminals? As they had
proved faithful, so must He. It is a parallel cry,
among the dead, to a simultaneous cry among the living: Avenge me of mine adversary. And shall not God avenge His elect,
which cry to him day, and night? (Luke 18:
3). Be
assured, said Cyprian to the
African proconsul, that whatever we suffer will not
remain un-avenged; and the greater the injury the heavier the vengeance. Mark well our faces,
said Saturus to a crowd who visited the prison
overnight, and broke in on the Lords Supper; that
you may recognize us again on the day of judgment. As
Avenge, 0 Lord, Thy slaughtered saints,
whose bones
Lie scatter'd on the
Alpine mountains cold;
Even them who kept Thy truth so pure of old,
When all our fathers worshipp'd stocks and stones,
Forget not: in Thy book record their groans
Who were Thy sheep, and in Thine ancient fold.
If vengeance is absent for ever, God cannot be God: the
moment approaches when grace becomes impossible and vengeance inevitable; and
when intercessions for mercy change to imprecations of doom.* The martyr‑hope, as Dr. H. Bonar says, is the hope of the first
resurrection; of reigning with Christ; of entry into the celestial
city; of the crown of life; of the inheritance of all things.
[* That
the Martyrs cry is a cry of righteousness, not of grace, is a proof of the
profound revolution wrought in Gods saints under Grace by the arrival of
judgment; for even Stephen, whose dying cry was an intercession for his
murderers, will, shortly after this judgment seal, be breaking mutinous nations
as a potter smashes clay (Revelation 2: 27).]
The
first response to the cry is an act. And there was given them to each one a WHITE ROBE; like the blue sash of the Order of the Garter;
in sharp and glorious contrast to vestures torn by lions teeth, or rags foul
with dungeon mire. The white robe, in this book," says Dean Alford, is
the vestment of acknowledged and glorified righteousness in which the saints
walk and reign with Christ. Our Lord had said to
Finally,
a remarkable reason is given for the delay in the Judgment for which they
ask. And it was
said unto them that they should rest - for though there is no sleep of the soul in death, it is in
profound repose (1 Samuel 28: 15) neither
awake nor asleep (Cardinal
Newman) - even as the body is recumbent as if in slumber; a passive rest,
where the Kingdom will be an active rest (Hebrews
4: 9) - yet - not
simply to wait, but to enjoy repose (Swete) - for a little time - what
would three and a half years be to Abels six thousand years? - until - that
is, the prayer is granted, but deferred - their fellow‑servants also - Jewish and postChurch Gentile converts - and their brethren - un-rapt Christians:
the Christian title of endearment (Moses
Stuart)* - which should be killed even as they
were hecatombs and holocausts yet to be - should
be fulfilled. That is, the
martyr-roll, completed, perfects human sin, and automatically erupts judgment. But
though the martyr-roll must be accomplished, human malignity will exceed it by
not a solitary martyr: Christ holds that key, as all keys, in His own
hands. How many are in the roll we have
no conception: there is no day in the whole year,"
wrote Jerome of his own age, to which the number of five thousand martyrs cannot be
ascribed; a vast multitude in Rome alone, says Tacitus; inexhaustible wells of martyrs, says another Roman author, burnt,
empaled, beheaded; many myriads must be put
to the credit of the Inquisition -
32,000 were burnt alive in Spain alone; and myriads more must be added in our
own day of Russian, Armenian, Assyrian and Chinese Christians.
One word
of Christ explains the martyr-heart:- Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee THF CROWN OF LIFE, (Revelatrion 11: 10). Do you suppose, asked the prefect Jumus Rusticus of
a little band of martyrs, that you will ascend up to
heaven to receive some recompense there? I do not suppose it,
replied Justin, I know it. The tortured, said Cyprian, himself afterwards a martyr, stand
more firm than the torturers; the torn limbs overcome the hooks that tear them. As a rule,
said the Emperor Diocletian - and none knew better, for he martyred
freely -
the Christians are only too happy to die. Why are you so bent
upon death? an official said to Plonius of
[*Or else (with Swete) follow-servants of all dispensations, and brother-martyrs.]
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