Time would fail to tell of the deathless names of those who
through faith in principles, and in the face of difficulty,
danger, and suffering, "have wrought righteousness and waxed
valiant" in the moral warfare of the world, and been content to
lay down their lives rather than prove false to their
conscientious convictions of the truth.
Men of this stamp, inspired by a high sense of duty, have in past
times exhibited character in its most heroic aspects, and continue
to present to us some of the noblest spectacles to be seen in
history. Even women, full of tenderness and gentleness, not less
than men, have in this cause been found capable of exhibiting the
most unflinching courage. Such, for instance, as that of Anne
Askew, who, when racked until her bones were dislocated, uttered
no cry, moved no muscle, but looked her tormentors calmly in the
face, and refused either to confess or to recant; or such as that
of Latimer and Ridley, who, instead of bewailing their hard fate
and beating their breasts, went as cheerfully to their death as a
bridegroom to the altar--the one bidding the other to "be of good
comfort," for that "we shall this day light such a candle in
England, by God's grace, as shall never be put out;" or such,
again, as that of Mary Dyer, the Quakeress, hanged by the Puritans
of New England for preaching to the people, who ascended the
scaffold with a willing step, and, after calmly addressing those
who stood about, resigned herself into the hands of her
persecutors, and died in peace and joy.
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