THE FAMILY ALTAR

August 24.

"

And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar

the souls of them that were slain for the Word of God and for

the testimony which they held. And they cried with a loud voice,

saying-, How long-, O Lord, holy and true, dost Thou not judg-e and

avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? Rev. 6:9-10.

The morning sun of this St. Bartholomew's Day, in the year

1572, saw the streets of Paris and other cities in France running

red with blood. Countless thousands of Protestant Christians had

been massacred by order of the French King, Charles IX, who

wrote to Pope Gregory XIII that he had slain 70,000 "heretics."

In his unholy joy the Pope celebrated a solemn festival of thanks-

giving, and commanded a medal to be struck in commemoration

of the butchery known as the massacre of St. Bartholomew's. Thus

again the "woman, the Great Harlot," prophesied in the Book of

Revelation, chapter 17, "was drunken with the blood of the saints

and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus," as so often before

and afterwards. Our Lutheran forefathers, in our Book of Con-

cord (1580), solemnly protested against this persecution of the

French Protestant Christians. In the preface of the Book of

Concord they declare : "For in no way do we consent to the shed-

ding of that innocent blood, which undoubtedly will be required

with great severity at the hands of the persecutors in the awful

judgment of the Lord and before the tribunal of Christ, and they

will then certainly render a most strict account, and suffer fearful

punishment." To the glory of our dear Lutheran Church be it

said that she has never persecuted men on account of their religion

as some of the Reformed bodies have done, even here in America,

during Colonial times. Countless martyrs of our Church have

sealed their faith with their blood at the hands of Romanists.

Even the recent World War saw Lutheran pastors cruelly martyred

in Finland and Russia. Who knows how we or our children may

yet be called upon to testify in behalf of our faith. May we then,

as countless faithful witnesses before us have done, hold fast what

we have that no man and no suffering take away our crown!

If it is sweet to die for your country, it is a thousand times sweeter

to die for your Savior.

Our foes, O God, are in Thy