and slaughtered by the thousand, at times with a refinement of cruelty which numbs the mind. Martyrdom for Christ, however, is not confined to the first century. Indeed, by any estimate the supreme century of the martyrs for Jesus has been our own one. It is estimated that in the twentieth century to date somewhere in the region of 26 million Christians have lost their lives for Christ’s sake, in places like China, the Soviet bloc, Cambodia, Mozambique, Angola, Ethiopia and Uganda.63 Faced with