For in all things, O Lord, thou didst magnify thy people, and glorify them, neither didst thou lightly regard them: but didst assist them in every time and place.
Read Chapter 19
Rabanus Maurus
AD 856
We must not object that the bodies of the holy martyrs are given over to the hands of their persecutors, since this is not allowed for their condemnation but to try them. As gold does not burn in the furnace but is tested, so the souls of the elect, tried by the fire of tribulation, are made purer before their Creator, since it is written, "The furnace tries the objects of the potter, the temptation of tribulation tests the righteous." "Many are the misfortunes of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him from them all. He preserves all his bones; not one of them will be broken. He rescues the lives of his servants. The one who trusts in him will not be condemned." - "On Ecclesiasticus 3.18"
