shall be exhibited with the utmost pomp and splendor the hitherto hidden virtues and good works of the elect. How the angels will then wonder, as well as men and demons, at the sight of so many unknown souls! Oh, they will exclaim with one voice, “who is she that cometh forth as the morning rising?”[1]
“Who is this that cometh up from the desert, flowing with delights, leaning upon her beloved?”[2] by whom she is led, as it were, in triumph? Who is that soul of whom no one ever heard anything extraordinary during life? See that poor citizen, that simple peasant, that lowly maid-servant; who would ever have thought they had led such holy lives? Their former masters and mistresses, who appeared to do so much for the glory of God, must now give way to them in rank. Many religions even of the strictest orders, who were looked on as saints during their lives, must now occupy a lower place than they in heavenly glory. How have those people managed to do such wonderful work so quietly, and in the midst of a barren and corrupt world to heap up such great merits? Now we see what we never could have imagined during life. Such is the manner in which the virtue that is now hidden through humility shall be brought to light.
The good are generally alumniated during life, so that they lose their good name. Now, my dear brethren, if justice requires this, is it not still more imperatively demanded by justice that misinterpreted, persecuted, and calumniated virtue should be defended and publicly vindicated? What is more foolhardy, and at the same time more common in the world, than the vice of calumny and detraction? To sneer at, criticise, find fault with, and misinterpret the actions of others, and to spread false tales about one’s neighbor is nowadays a privileged and public trade. Amongst all the holy servants of God there is hardly one who has not had to suffer in honor and reputation, and whose good name has not been made the butt of malice. Jesus Christ Himself, the Holy of holies, has not even yet redeemed His good name from the calumnies and aspersions that were cast on it by wicked Jews and envious Pharisees and Scribes during His lifetime; for at the present day He is looked on by the Jews as a seditious and treacherous man. The holy martyrs were condemned to painful deaths as disturbers of the public peace, as sorcerers and dealers in the black art; and as such they are still looked on by all heathens.
Shown by examples If God Himself had not revealed to Daniel the wickedness of
