The following is an excerpt from The Plan of Salvation: Made Plain to the Sinner by John H. Hundley.
It is not the experience of any age of the world, that twelve men will willingly and mutually co-operate to propagate a lie, which can be readily proven to be a lie by their contemporaries. And this becomes still more incredible when we consider that their whole lives in every other respect are blameless, and the doctrines they teach are of the purest and sublimest character, for the promulging and teaching of which they are led, some to the stake, others to the wheel and the rack, and others yet again are sawn and torn asunder, or are cast to wild beasts, to be devoured and cruelly mangled for the gratification of unbelieving and revengeful enemies.
No, reader, it is not in human nature to endure what the first disciples of Christ endured for the sake of the Cross, merely for the purpose of propagating a lie. They were always prepared to give a reason for the hope that was in them, and confident of a glorious immortality beyond the grave, they met all the tortures their enemies could inflict upon them with cheerfulness; and as the swan is fabled to sing sweetest when nighest death, so did the early martyrs with a more joyful shout sound the anthems of praise just before entering the fiery furnace, or the wild beasts’ den, for they felt that soon would they stand redeemed in the presence of the great King, whenceforth their harps would be of gold, and their victorious shout ever more would rise, Hallelujah! the Lord God omnipotent reigneth! Praise Him, all you his saints! For His mercy endureth forever, even from everlasting to everlasting!