The wicked king promises you worldly goods if you transgress the law; but be not deceived; “look upon heaven;” there you will possess goods of far greater worth. He threatens you with rods and scourges; the frying-pan is ready to roast you alive like your brothers; “look upon heaven,” my child. Your tongue will be torn out, but fear not, as long as your eyes are left you, “look upon heaven;” it is worth all the torments you can suffer. The skin will be torn from your head, your hands and feet will be cut off, and thus maimed you will be slowly roasted to death; but have courage; “look upon heaven;” your pains will not last long, and in heaven we shall meet again. Thus this pious mother comforted her children in their terrible torments, and looked on with joyful heart while her own flesh and blood was thus cruelly mangled and cut to pieces. “Who beheld her seven sons slain in the space of one day, and bore it with a good courage for the hope that she had in God,”[1] until she in turn died a martyr’s death.
Confirmed by an example. The martyrs of the New Testament furnish me with countless examples of a similar constancy resulting from the consideration of heaven; I shall content myself with adducing one which St. Celsus, still a little boy, left for the admiration of posterity. He was born of a very noble family, and was brought up by his father Martianus, a most obstinate pagan and fierce persecutor of the Christians, and his mother, Marianilla, who was also a bigoted heathen; they reared him up to the worship of idols, so that he should inherit not only their riches, but also their impiety. But things turned out quite differently. While still a boy he was determined to become a Christian, and made open profession of the faith before his cruel father, remaining constant to it during the most terrible torments which ended his heroic childhood and his life together. Neither the threats of his father nor the caresses and tears of his mother, beset as he was by both, could turn him away from Christ. He was cast into a caldron of boiling pitch and resin, over a great fire, the flames of which rose thirty yards high; but all this could not terrify the brave child. After the lapse of some hours he was taken out unhurt, and put into a filthy, gloomy dungeon, and finally, after he had been brought a few times before the tribunal of his cruel father, he was condemned to be thrown to the wild beasts in the public amphitheatre. But
- ↑ Peto nate, ut aspicias ad cælum; ita fiet, ut non timeas carnificem istum. Pereuntes septem filios sub unius diei tempore conspiciens, bono animo ferebat propter spem quam in Deum habebat.—II. Mach. vii. 20.
