him as to the sinfulness of military service, went to his superiors and said, like the ancient martyrs, "I do not wish to be among the torturers, let me join the martyrs." And forthwith they began to torture him, sent him to a penal battalion, and afterwards exiled him to the province of Yakutsk. I knew tens of Doukhobors, of whom many have died or become blind, and yet they would not yield to demands which are contrary to the divine law.
The other day I read a letter from a young Doukhobor, who had been sent alone to a regiment stationed in Samarkand. Again, those same demands on the part of the officers, the same threats and entreaties, and always the same simple and irresistible replies: "I cannot do what is opposed to my belief in God."
"Then we will torture you to death."
"That is your business. You do your work, and I will do mine."
And this youth of twenty, forsaken of all, in a strange place, surrounded by men who are hostile to him, in the midst of the rich, the powerful, and the educated, who are concentrating all their energies on the task of bringing him to subjection, does not submit, but still perseveres in his heroic deed.
But men say, "These are useless victims; these people perish, but the order of life will remain the same." This, I believe, is just what was said with regard to the sacrifice of Christ, as well as of all the other martyrs to truth. The
