When Elisha, the servant of Elijah, proclaimed the word of the Lord in the city of Samaria, the king of Samaria swore, that the head of Elisha should not stand on him that day. 2 Kings 6:31. The prophet _Micaiah_, who had foretold in the name of the Lord the truth to the king of Israel, had to eat the bread of sorrow, and drink the water of sadness, in the prison in which he was confined, until the king was slain in a battle. 1 Kings 22:27–37. _Jeremiah_ was cast into a mire-pit, in which he sunk down so deeply that he was in danger of death, until he was saved through Ebed-melech, the Ethiopian. Jer. 38:6–13. Amos was called a conspirator, and forbidden not only the city in which he prophesied, but also the land of the ten tribes of Israel. Amos 7:10–13. All these, and many more, endured much suffering and many conflicts yet not unto blood or death. But those of whom we shall speak now, suffered the bitterness of death, and are therefore, in this respect, of higher rank than they who have preceded, just as the loss of life is a severer test than to suffer in the body or to lose temporal possessions; which is the only difference between the two classes named. This bloody army of the spiritual champions, who fought unto blood and death for the Lord, commenced with the beginning of the world, as though God’s saints were born to suffer and fight; and as though God had designed, that his church should be tried from the beginning and all through, even as gold in the furnace that her purity might become the more manifest. In the beginning we see, Abel who, having in faith offered unto God a lamb as a sacrifice, was slain in the field by Cain, his brother. Gen. 4:8; 1 John 3:12. In the days of Ahab and Jezebel _many prophets of God_ were slain by the sword of the rebellious and disobedient in Israel, so that Elijah thought he alone was left. 1 Kings 19:14. When the Spirit of God came upon Zechariah, the son of Jehoiada, so that he said to the disobedient people: “Why transgress ye the commandments, of the Lord, that ye cannot prosper? because ye have forsaken the Lord, he hath also forsaken you,” they took stones and killed him at the commandment of the king in the court of the house of the Lord. 2 Chron. 24:21. When _Urijah_, the son of Shemaiah, of Kirjath-jearim prophesied in the name of the Lord against the city of Jerusalem, his life was sought, so that he fled into Egypt. But Jehoiakim the king sent men who fetched him back, and he slew him with the sword, and buried his dead body among the common people. Jer. 26:20–23. The god-fearing young men, named _Shadrach_, _Meshach_ and _Abed-nego_, who refused to worship the image of King Nebuchadnezzar, were cast, bound, in their coats, their hosen, and their hats, and their other garments just as they were, into a fiery furnace, in which they would have been immediately consumed, if God had not preserved them. Dan. 3:21–23.