[Yes, it's tough to read . . . the horrors of the enemy have been causing torment, torture, hatred, destruction etc., since the original rebellion. Thank God for Heaven, where all of the ultimate justice will be sorted out.
Meanwhile, in this mortal realm, Believers have taken and still are taking the brunt, and most of them, us, are here and have been veritably unknown . . . marginalized . . . forgotten, dying in (worldly) ignominious shadows. . . .
WE KNOW! WE REMEMBER and pray for those suffering now under persecution, and all those that have been thwarted, put down, robbed, murdered, shoved off to the side of seeming relevance--the LEAST shall be first, take heart!
So, carrying on:]
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"Speaking of the heads of churches--that is the bishops . . . . conducted themselves heroically but that a large number of the others, weakened by the spirit of sloth, surrendered at the first difficulty. . . . 'As always happens when there is abundance of liberty our lives became indolent and careless; we envied one another and did harm to our brethren; any wretched excuse was sufficient to start a war of arms--as it were--with the spearthrust of words; leaders poured ill fame on other leaders; nation rose against nation; pretense and damned hypocrisy seemed to reach the limit of their evil height. . . .
"'Like senseless people we did not trouble to make our God propitious and benevolent toward us but like certain atheists who consider that human affairs are neither guided nor watched over (by God) we piled wickedness on wickedness. Those who were suppose to be our pastors disdained the paths of divine piety and inflamed their hearts in contests one with another, only adding thus to the quarrels and threats, the rivalry, the envies and hates of the times. They filled their time in striving for position in no different a manner from the princes of this world'"
--The Age Of Martyrs, Rissiotti
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