The Great Controversy The Great Controversy | Page 42

Under the fiercest persecution these witnesses for Jesus kept their
faith unsullied. Though deprived of every comfort, shut away from the
light of the sun, making their home in the dark but friendly bosom of the
earth, they uttered no complaint. With words of faith, patience, and hope
they encouraged one another to endure privation and distress. The loss
of every earthly blessing could not force them to renounce their belief in
Christ. Trials and persecution were but steps bringing them nearer their
rest and their reward.
Like God’s servants of old, many were “tortured, not accepting
deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection.” Verse 35.
These called to mind the words of their Master, that when persecuted
for Christ’s sake, they were to be exceeding glad, for great would be
their reward in heaven; for so the prophets had been persecuted before
them. They rejoiced that they were accounted worthy to suffer for the
truth, and songs of triumph ascended from the midst of crackling flames.
Looking upward by faith, they saw Christ and angels leaning over the
battlements of heaven, gazing upon them with the deepest interest and
regarding their steadfastness with approval. A voice came down to them
from the throne of God: “Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee
a crown of life.” Revelation 2:10.
In vain were Satan’s efforts to destroy the church of Christ by
violence. The great controversy in which the disciples of Jesus yielded
up their lives did not cease when these faithful standard-bearers fell at
their post. By defeat they conquered. God’s workmen were slain, but
His work went steadily forward. The gospel continued to spread and the
number of its adherents to increase. It penetrated into regions that were
inaccessible even to the eagles of Rome. Said a Christian, expostulating
with the heathen rulers who were urging forward the persecution: You
may “kill us, torture us, condemn us.... Your injustice is the proof that
we are innocent

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