he blessed. They may be divided into eight classes,
namely, the martyrs, the doctors and confessors, the virgins, the
religious, the penitents, the pious people, those of inferior virtue,
and the baptized infants. In this chapter we shall consider the glory
of the Martyrs.

* Apoc. vii. 9.

See that beautiful army of martyrs--these brave soldiers of Jesus
Christ--who died or Him, and like him, in the midst of the most cruel
torments. Theirs is truly "a crown of justice." They are represented
as holding palms in their hands, in token of the victory which they
gained over the world. Their intimate union with God, the dazzling
splendor of their personal appearance, the high honors conferred upon
them, single them out at once as those champions of the faith who,
while on earth, served God in a heroic degree. And they certainly
served Him with distinction; for they proved their love by laying
down their lives for Him. Laying down one's life for God has always
been looked upon as the most perfect act of love possible; for
"Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for
his friends."* Hence, the martyrs, as a class, have always been
considered as deserving the highest honors of heaven.

* John xv. 18.

The beautiful words of the Holy Ghost in reference to all the just
apply with peculiar force to the martyrs: "But the souls of the just
are in the hand of God: and the torment of death shall not touch
them. In the sight of the unwise they seemed to die: and their
departure was taken for misery: and their going away from us for
utter destruction; but they are in peace. And though in the sight of
men they suffered torments, their hope is full of immortality.
Afflicted in a few things, in many they shall be rewarded: because
God hath tried them, and found them worthy of himself. As gold in the
furnace, He hath proved them; and as the victim of a holocaust, he
hath received them."*

* Wis. iii.

What a bright and beautiful crowd they are! As a garden is beautified
by flowers, so is heaven made more beautiful by the radiant
crimson-clad army of martyrs. Here is St. John the Baptist, the
fearless precursor of Jesus. Here is the glorious St. Stephen, the
first who laid down his life after the ascension of Jesus. Here are
the holy Apostles, those intrepid soldiers of Christ, who went forth
from the council, rejoicing that they had been found worthy to suffer
for the name of Jesus. The prediction of their D