W. B. Godbey - Enter His Rest

martyrdom gave him his discharge for a kingdom and a crown by the side of his martyred Predecessor, in the
bright upper world.
MATTHIAS, who was elected to take the place of fallen Judas, also received his appointment in Africa, being
sent to Abyssinia, where he also faithfully preached till his enemies cruelly murdered him and he exchanged
astern Africa for the New Jerusalem.
THOMAS, the famous doubter, whose doubts were all consumed in the Pentecostal fires, received India, the
largest country in the known world at that time, as his field of labor. When I was there a few months ago, I
traveled in the region of his ministry and near the place of his martyrdom, as they informed me. Thousands of
people are there today, known as the Christians of St. Thomas and claiming to be his followers.
JUDE received Tartary, a great and powerful nation at that time, bordering on China, which would have been
included in his field of labor if they had let him alone. But as the Brahman priests led the cruel mob that
perforated the body of Thomas with an iron bar, and hung him up between two trees, so the cruel pagan priests,
in the case of Jude, instigated the barbaric reprobates to tie him to a tree and enjoy a shooting match at his
expense, gambling with each other who could shoot an arrow in his right eye, etc., thus literally plugging his
body full of arrows.
ANDREW received Armenia as his field of labor, whither faithfully going he preached heroically till they
crucified him on the X cross, which to this day is known among Roman Catholics as St.Andrew's cross.
BARTHOLOMEW, who is Nathanael, a native of Cana in Galilee, received Phrygia, a very barbaric country in
Northern Asia, whither he faithfully went and zealously preached the living Word with the Holy Ghost sent
down from Heaven. Meanwhile, the seal of God settled down on his ministry and he saw a great harvest ripe for
the sickle; so, pressing the battle with redoubtable energy for God and souls, Hell was stirred and Satan raised
an awful hubbub. The civil commotion was intense and the excitement wild and furious, so that the king
concluded that the available remedy was to drive off the preacher. Consequently he ordered him to leave his
country and never return, as he blamed him for making the awful trouble which threatened the very stability of
his government.
Then when he did not obey the royal mandate, the king got so awfully mad at him that he had him skinned alive
as an effectual terror to evil doers, since he concluded that he was an awfully bad man as he had raised such a
terrible hubbub among the people.
PHILIP received Syria as his field of labor, which contains Baalbek, the universal metropolis of Asiatic idolatry,
whither all nations from the days of Cain had resorted bringing their sumptuous offerings to Baal the sun god.
Therefore of course it devolved on Philip to actually beard the lion in his den. This he did most heroically, going
right into Baalbek, preaching Christ and thundering against idolatry like a messenger from Heaven. They did not
stand him very long till they reciprocated his great doctrine, “Jesus crucified,” by crucifying him.
SIMON Zelotes, as history informs us, received for his appointment insular Europe, I. e., England, Ireland,
Scotland and Wales, the land of our American ancestry, and the cradle of the great Anglo-Saxon race. Those
countries not only abounded in the popular religions of Greece and Rome, but in the native Druidism. Thus you
see this fiery apostle, named “Zelot” because the dynamite predominated in his character, was the apostle of our
ancestors, he, too; while preaching the Gospel all over those countries was permitted to go to Heaven with a
martyr's crown.
LUKE the faithful and indefatigable amanuensis of Paul, honored to write the most of the New Testament when
his senior preached, was arrested at Nicapolis, Greece, and carried away to Rome the second time, for
prosecution, under charge of burning the city, not personally, but because it was imputed to the Christians and he
was their prominent leader. He was finally hanged on an olive tree in Greece.
MARK, the faithful amanuensis of Peter, who is said to have dictated the Gospel that bears his name, received
Egypt, the oldest nation in the world. Faithful to his appointment and off to the land of the Pharaohs, he went
like a hero to the battlefield, peregrinated the country, and everywhere contended for “the faith once delivered to
the saints,” till an awful persecution in Alexandria culminated in a cruel mob, who dragged him through the