Polycarp: He Never Did Me Wrong!
Matthew 4:1-11
Illustration
by James S. Stewart

Polycarp (A.D. 70-155) was bishop of Smyrna and a godly man. He had known the apostle John personally. When he was urged by the Roman proconsul to renounce Christ, Polycarp said: "Eighty and six years have I served Him, and He never did me any injury. How then can I blaspheme my King and my Savior?" They took him out and put him to death. Later when the Christians recorded their history of that period they wrote, "Polycarp was martyred, Statius Quadratus being proconsul of Asia, and Jesus Christ being King forever!"

The Wind of the Spirit (Abingdon Press: Nashville and New York, 1968), p. 55., by James S. Stewart