will I confess (acknowledge) before My Father which is in heaven." "But whosoever shall deny Me before men, him will I also deny before My Father which is in heaven."
"He that loveth father and mother more than Me is not worthy of Me." "And he that loveth son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me."
"If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me."
"And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren or sisters, or father or mother, or wife or children, or lands for My Name's sake, shall receive an hundred fold, and shall inherit everlasting life."
But the "training for martyrdom" to which a number of Christians in the first, second, and third centuries voluntarily gave themselves was by no means confined to the mastering of the contents of a small collection of carefully prepared treatises, or to the listening to eloquent and burning exhortations of devoted teachers, or even to the constant dwelling on the words of the Divine Master. This training included a prolonged and carefully balanced practice in austerities which would accustom the body to self-denial and to suffering, so that when the agony of the trial really began, the body, thoroughly enured to endurance, would be able to meet pain without flinching.
In this training for the mortal combat in which victory was so all-important to the cause, no efforts were spared—painful and laborious exercises, long fasting, watching and prayer, which would render the body insensible to fatigue, capable of bearing any suffering however poignant, were constantly practised. This training sometimes went on for a long while before a fitting opportunity presented itself of a public trial.
It was the want of this—the absence of this long and careful training alluded to in the beautiful and evangelical letter describing the Lyons and Vienne martyrdoms, which was the cause of many of the earlier failures, and shrinking from the agony of martyrdom, of some of the Lyons sufferers.
