p. 6 | Cry of Souls Under the Altar by W. A. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Feb 4, 1909

Cry of Souls Under the Altar

By W. A. S.

THE fourth seal of Revelation 6 represented the persecuting reign of the papal church, under the expressive symbol of death riding the pale horse. Following this, under the fifth seal, the prophet saw, as it were under an altar, the souls of those that had been “slain for the word of God,” and they cried saying; “How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood?” Like the voice of Abel’s blood, the blood of the martyrs cries for the time to come when truth will triumph, and sin and persecution cease.

A striking side-light is thrown upon this symbolic representation by the prayer of an old-time martyr Baptist. Leonard Schoener was beheaded in Rottenburg, Bavaria, Jan. 14, 1528. Among the papers written in prison, he left this prayer, that voiced the cry of thousands whose names are written only in the book of the Lamb:—

We are scattered like sheep having no shepherd. We have been compelled to forsake house and home. We are as night ravens, which abide in the rocks. Our chambers are in holes and crags. . . . Not only men but likewise women and maidens have borne witness to the truth that Jesus Christ is the truth, the only way to eternal life. The world still rolls, and rests not: it raves as if mad. They invent lies against us. They cease not their fires and murders. O Lord, how long wilt thou be silent? How long wilt thou not judge the blood of thy saints? Let it come up before thy throne. How precious in thine eyes is the blood of thy holy ones. Therefore have we comfort in all our need, a refuge in thee alone, and in none besides; but neither comfort, nor rest, nor peace on this earth. But he who hopeth in thee shall never be confounded. O Lord, there is no sorrow so great, that can separate us from thee.

The Lord will soon answer that cry of the blood of his saints who have witnessed for him against a persecuting world. His last message is now sounding: “Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.”

May the cry of the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and the example of their noble lives, nerve our hearts, who are called to bear the message of final deliverance and triumph over the powers of evil.

“For all the saints who from their labors rest, Who thee by faith before the world confessed, Thy name, O Jesus! be forever blest. Alleluia.

“Thou wast their Rock, their Fortress, and their Might; Thou, Lord, their Captain, in the well-fought fight; Thou, Lord, their darkness drear, their guiding Light, Alleluia.

“O may thy soldiers, faithful, true, and bold, Fight as the saints who nobly fought of old, And win with them the victor’s crown of gold! Alleluia.

“And when the strife is fierce, the warfare long, Steals on the ears the distant triumph-song, And hearts are brave again, and arms are strong, Alleluia.”

W. A. S.