Helena weekly herald. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1867-1900, 1884-05-08
Concerning Martyrs.
IN. y. Tribune.l


The modern martyr is born, not made:
or rather. he is born with an aptitude for
plllng his own tagots. Society in this age
wants to burn nobody Tolerance is the
most popular virtue. There is nothing foy
which the American public has such dis
relish as persecution. If our martyr
chooses to be a Christian, the worst un-
believers do not want nowadays to give
him stripes or poison they are more likely
to thrust their hands into their pockets to
help build his new church. If he choose
to be an unbeliever, heather or Mormon,
the Christians about him treat him with
goOd-humored indulgence and give him the
right OF way with his blasphemOus lecture,
his joss or his dozen wives The man born
with hankering after martyrdom has to
cOEtent himself with such racks and thum-
screws as he can secure in domestic life
These domestic martyrs are a numerous
class. You may know them by infallible
signs. They are your watery- -blooded, fiat
breasted, lOw-vOiced men and women
they stand persistently in the background.
They were born on a foggy morning, and
the sun has never shOne for them since;
they invariably carry bUrden-an extrav-
agant family, drunken husband, selfish,
exacting sons and it is burden which
you cannot help but see might be lightened
if they would. The family, if docked of
half their income, would be improved in
mind and morals. The drunken husband
needs an inebriate asylum the good-for-
nothing sons should be dumped from the
tOttering old fathers shoulders and set up
on their own legs. But your martyr would
not have his load a grain less heavy he
staggers along under it, believing that he
Is serving God thereby, and shudders at
the blunt, rational, decisive relief which
his cOmmOn-sense neighbor proposes. He
is so meek, so patient under suffering, life
is for him such vale of tears, that this
loud, jolly neighhOr feels his own common
sense TO be brutal and vulgar, his happi-
ness to be carnality his hearty, strong
methods of dealing with evil downright il
religion. The true Christian, according to
our martyrs creed, simply endures this
world while waiting for better. He has
no doubts of his own crown in that other
for though the most unselfish of men, he is
the most self-conscious. His own unwor-
tbinesS, his chances of salvation, the neg
lect Sights and Offenses put upon him by
others, and the meekness with which he
bears them, occupy the whole big world
for him. He is too, a singularly self-con
tanned person. While he has an absolute
talent for sacrificing his daily actions and
interests to others, he is incapable of ANAL
gamating with them in single taste or
opinion. This crooked twist of characta,
explains why many a meek wife and moth
er, who has worn out body and mind in
drudgery for husband and children, finds
herself i'll old age an object of sufferance
instead Of affection in the household. Her
patient, weary visage is constant re-
prOach to them; she never could spare
time from kitchen work for an hours
gossip about the girls beaux or the boys
base ball. She was not the kind of mother
to get up dances Or scampering picnics. In
short, she has had no sympathy in their
pursuits or tastes, and they, young, full
bloOded, reckless, have none in hers for
There is a most disagreeable class of
myrtyrs, who are well-knOwn in society.
Their refinement and sensibility are proba-
bly, their most aggressive traits. They eter-
nally force upon your notice the wounds
lHey receive py INTERCOURSE WlIu ordinary
and passably vulgar people. 1t never oc-
ours to them that these offenders may have
stalwaIt virtues of a thousand times more
worth to the world than their fine intelleC-
tual palate or moral sense of smell. They
are the thin-skinned people, who are al
ways receiving sights; who in their fami-
lies forever keep up a series of passionate
quarrels and ecStatic reconciliations When
this temper happens to belong to man
with brilliant intellect and fine nervous
organization he usually sends one or two
practical, affectionate wives, worn out to
the grave.
The taste to martyrdom belonged more
to the ascetic ages of the church than to
the present. Patient submission to evil,
meek shouldering of burdens, were the
duties taught by Father and Saint through
the days of fagot and persecution, from
st. Stephen to John Rogers. Nowadays
the Christian who best cOmmends his
creed to the world is he who struggles most
heartily not to bear but to throw off the
load who sings hymns Of lofty cheer at
this work; who believes that the good
God is alive in this world as in heaven,
and who does not concern himself to pro-
vide his own robe of glory in that other
life so much as to keep his shivering
1eiphbor warm and fed in this