The Roman
governor stood resolutely before the forty Roman soldiers of the Thundering
Legion. “I command you to make an offering to the roman gods. If you will not,
you will be stripped of your military status.”
The forty
soldiers all believed firmly in the Lord Jesus. They knew they must not deny
Him or sacrifice to the Roman idols, no matter what the governor would do to
them.
Camdidus spoke
for the legion, “Nothing is dearer or of greater honor to us than Christ our
God.”
The governor
then tried other tactics to get them to deny their faith. First he offered them
money and imperial honors. Then he threatened them with torments and torture
with the rack and with fire.
Camdidus
replied, “You offer us money that remains behind and glory that fades away. You
seek to make us friends of the Emperor, but alienate us from the true King. We
desire one gift, the crown of righteousness. We are anxious for one glory, the
glory of the heavenly kingdom. We love honors, those of heaven. You threaten
fearful torments and call our godliness a crime, but you will not find us
fainthearted or attached to this life or easily stricken with terror. For the love
of God, we are prepared to endure any kind of torture.”
The governor was
enraged. Now he wanted them to die a slow, painful death. They were stripped
naked and herded to the middle of a frozen lake. He set soldiers to guard them
to prevent any from coming to shore and escaping.
The forty
encouraged each other as though they were going to battle. “How many of our
companions in arms fell on the battle front, showing themselves loyal to an
earthly king? Is it possible for us to fail to sacrifice our lives in
faithfulness to the true King? Let us not turn aside, O warriors, let us not
turn our backs in flight from the devil.” They spent the night courageously
bearing their pain and rejoicing in the hope of soon being with the Lord. [One
account states the soldiers sang the words Forty
brave soldiers for Christ, forty brave soldiers for Christ over and over as
they endured their persecution.]
To increase the
torment of the Christians, baths of hot water were put around the lake. With
these the governor hoped to weaken the firm resolve of the freezing men. He
told them, “You may come ashore when you are ready to deny your faith.” In the
end, one of [the forty] did weaken, came off the ice, and got into a warm bath.
When one of the
guards on the shore saw him desert, he himself took the place of the traitor.
Surprising everyone with the suddenness of his conversion, he threw off his
clothes, and ran to join the naked ones on the ice, crying out loudly, “I am a
Christian!”[1]
“Forty brave soldiers for
Christ,” could you, would you sing that song in the face of persecution? When
the hot baths of this world are paraded before you, will you stay the course
and be sustained by Jesus’ joy, or will you run from your Savior to the comfort
of this world? What would you do, what will you do? I pray you choose to say,
“For me to live is Christ, to die is gain.”
Where can this story be validated?
ReplyDeletehttps://www.christianity.com/church/church-history/timeline/301-600/40-martyrs-of-sevaste-11629648.html There is also a page on Wikipedia- if you would trust them. This a very well known event celebrated in the Eastern Orthodox churches.
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