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I. Martyrs are SOMETIMES MURDERED MEN. All murders are not martyrdoms; all martyrdoms are murders. For a man to spend his life amidst social scorn, civil disabilities, and religious intolerance, on account of his coscientious beliefs, is a martyrdom, his life is a protracted and painful dying. But thousands have been murdered, and that by every variety of method which satanic cruelty could invent.

II. Martyrs are ALWAYS WITNESSING men.

1. To the invincibility of the human will

2. To the force of the religious sentiment.

3. To the power of the soul over the body.

III. Martyrs are OFTEN CHRISTIAN men. Those whom John saw were those who were "witnesses of Jesus, and for the Word of God"

1. They bare witness to the sustaining grace of Christ.

2. They bear witness against the lukewarmness of living Christians.

IV. Martyrs who are Christians ENTER HEAVEN.

1. As an encouragement to the persecuted Christian.

2. As a warning to persecutors.

(Homilist.)

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KJV: And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.

WEB: I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was given to them. I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus, and for the word of God, and such as didn't worship the beast nor his image, and didn't receive the mark on their forehead and on their hand. They lived, and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.