Courageous in Flight and Favored by God

These things prove that their earlier flight did not come from cowardice. They bear witness that their later conduct too was of no ordinary kind, and they proclaim loudly that these men had the virtue of courage in a high degree. For they did not withdraw out of lazy timidity. On the contrary, at such times they were practicing a stricter discipline than at others. Nor were they condemned for their flight or charged with cowardice by people like those who are now so fond of accusing others. No, they were blessed by that declaration of our Lord, “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake.” [a]

Nor were these sufferings of theirs without profit to themselves. For having tested them like “gold in the furnace,” as Wisdom has said, God found them worthy of himself. And then they shone all the more “like sparks,” being saved from those who persecuted them and rescued from the designs of their enemies, and kept so that they might teach the people. So their flight and escape from the rage of those who hunted them was part of the Lord’s arrangement. And so they became dear in the sight of God, and received the most glorious witness to their courage.