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236
EOSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY
ter to sacrifice their lives and then attain to the future
glory at once.
In reality, if martyrdom can unlock a heaven with eter-
nal bliss, that is a most easy method of obtaining the re-
ward. It may take courage to die,
but after all it takes
infinitely more courage to live. We are very apt to think
that when a man has given his life he has given to the
very utmost, and we often hear people say of a man who
has committed suicide that "he lias paid it all" As a mat-
ter of fact, suicide is usually an expression of the greatest
possible cowardice, and martyrdom is far less to be admired
than the lives of people who day by day endeavor
to follow the spiritual teachings of the Bible and live a
noble life. Of course, it is readily admitted that tne
martyrs are to be admired for stanchly adhering to their
faith in the face of death and torture. Undoubtedly they
will have greater opportunities for spiritual growth in
later lives than they were deprived of when burned at
the stake or otherwise exterminated. And we may also
surely say that they were saints and holy people in the
sense that their faith was even more to them than life,
but we strenuously hold that the edict of a church is in-
capable of making a sinner a saint.