“Stand fast in the faith and love one another and don’t let our suffering cause you to stumble.”
Perpetua, a young mother martyred in the area in the city of Carthage in 203 AD.
Link to the podcast (Episode 5) on Perpetua here
Second Century:
When the local governor asked Polycarp to deny Christ and promised to release him from impending execution, the choice for martyrdom was made and the reply came:
“Eighty-six years have I served Him, and He has never done me injury; how then can I now blaspheme my King and Savior.”
Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna, circa 155 AD.
As March begins, join us as we march through 21 centuries of church history with 21 quotes, one from each century.
First Century:
“ I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.” Jesus Christ (Revelation 22:13 ESV)
Episode 94 features an exploration of and readings from “The Soldier’s Pocket Book”, a small devotional book created for soldiers fighting in the American Civil War (1861-1865).
While originally written for soldiers in the mid-19th century United States, its contents on prayer, Bible, hymns and exhortations on living the Christian life would make a fine devotional (for soldier or non-soldier) in the early 21st century.
A link to this text on archive.org can be found here
Player and download links are below:
Episode 93 is the third and final episode dedicated to reading an account of the 1857 Revivals as taken from the article “Prayer Revivals and the Third Great Awakening” published in the Evangelical Review of Theology in January 2007.
The role which 1850’s technology played in the spread of the revival was very important. The telegraph and the steamship allowed the news of the revival to spread across a country and across oceans. 
A link to a downloadable pdf of “Prayer Revivals and the Third Great Awakening” can be found here