By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter;
When grown to adulthood and able to choose for himself, Moses by faith rejected his adopted royal identity with all its honor, standing and recognition. That refusal gave up wealth, greatness, fame, luxury, royal favor, military leadership and even the prospect of Egypt's throne and kingdom. His faith looked beyond what is seen and present to unseen eternal realities, the heavenly country and the reward God promised. He therefore chose to share affliction, suffering and humiliation with God's humble and despised people rather than enjoy sin's temporary pleasures, valuing reproach for Christ above all Egypt's treasures. That choice was sustained by seeing the invisible God and trusting wholly in Him rather than in human wisdom and strength, and it calls all who hope for immortality to count Christ's reproach greater riches than worldly ease.
Words and Historical Setting
When he was come to years means he was grown to adulthood and mature enough to choose for himself. To refuse to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter meant by faith to reject the adopted royal identity, status, honor, and recognition attached to that name. The status refused included flattering prospects of wealth, greatness, fame, royal favor, luxury, military leadership, and the possible succession to Egypt's throne and kingdom. He was fitted to take preeminence among the great of the earth, to shine in the courts of its most glorious kingdom and to sway its scepter, with intellectual greatness as historian, poet, philosopher, general of armies, and legislator without a peer, yet refused that prospect.
He made this refusal while still at court until he was forty years old by siding with enslaved Israel. He turned his thoughts to their abject condition, visited his brethren in their servitude, encouraged them that God would work for their deliverance, and burned to avenge injustice and oppression. He showed himself ready to maintain their cause when he slew an Egyptian who was smiting an Israelite and buried the body in the sand, hoping Israel would rise to recover liberty and understand that God would deliver them by his hand, but they understood not and were not yet prepared for freedom. When he reproved a Hebrew at fault the next day his right to interfere was denied and his killing of the Egyptian was thrown back at him, the matter was made known to the Egyptians and exaggerated to Pharaoh as a plot to overthrow the government and take the throne, and Pharaoh determined that Moses should die, so Moses fled toward Arabia.
He was able to refuse because his mother in childhood had patiently and perseveringly planted religious principles and loyalty to God that remained firm amid court temptations and corrupting influences. That early teaching and example laid the foundation of his character, so that when grown and surrounded by great temptations he was not corrupted and not even a prospective crown could entice him from allegiance to God. His faith was strengthened by trusting wholly in God and by studying God's government even while serving in Egypt, rooted in that early teaching and cultivated through his life. His refusal guarded his sense of the evil of transgression and his true moral standard against becoming self-sufficient and proud as a general of the Egyptian armies, against perversion by education in the Egyptian school, against lowering his standard to the world's standard through evil association, and against egotism and pride entering his heart and life which would be difficult to conquer.
He would not conceal that he was Hebrew, join in heathen worship, or accept the crown at the cost of forsaking his brethren and faith, but would worship God alone and reject idolatrous ceremonies. The promise of Egypt's crown, royal favor, and instruction in Egyptian idolatry could not make him abandon his people or his faith in God. Threats that he would lose the crown and be disinherited and disowned could not move him, for his respect for the Hebrew faith and his love for his enslaved people mattered more to him than royal honor. Though raised in the palace and trained for civil and military leadership with Egypt's highest honors before him, he chose to honor God and seek the deliverance of his oppressed people.
Faith's Vision and Trust
By faith his grown choice to refuse the name and standing of Pharaoh's daughter's son was led and sustained by a sight that reached past what is seen, past present trial and present pleasure, to unseen eternal realities, the heavenly country, and the reward God promised to those who obey Him. He chose loyalty with God's people and a heavenly inheritance over wealth, power, royal honor, military fame, and even Egypt's throne and temporal crown, accepting affliction, self-denial, and reproach rather than sin's brief pleasures. The eye of faith fixed on the glorious future and on eternal life made earth's richest offers appear valueless and sufferings appear small and light.
He left Egypt without fearing the king because he endured by seeing the invisible God. That seeing was a constant awareness of God's personal presence as the help he needed, upholding him amid misunderstanding, danger, and insult without retaliation. In that presence he saw Christ accompanying Israel through its travels and looked forward to Christ's coming in human form.
His faith was not self-confidence nor reliance on human wisdom, education, ability, and strength, but wholly dependent trust that moves in God's strength and wisdom with constant, simple, implicit trust in the power and loving intentions of the Deliverer. It obeys all the Lord commands whether the way ahead is unclear, seems impossible or unreasonable to human reason, or not; it submits to divine discipline, presses through difficulties and obstacles that seem almost insurmountable, and leads through wilderness hardships relying on God for deliverance rather than on self. His earlier rash killing of the Egyptian came from a presumptuous spirit, not from this faith. He became fit for God's work only after losing confidence in his own ability, having the foolishness of man's wisdom and the weakness of human strength revealed, understanding his utter helplessness and inefficiency without being upheld by the Lord, and learning to put his trust wholly in God as His representative man and willing instrument.
His refusal belongs to enduring faith that seeks a better heavenly country and dies without receiving the promises on earth, turning away from Egypt toward Canaan as the path of faith toward the promised land. He had been instructed about the final reward to be given to the humble and obedient servants of God, so worldly gain sank to its proper insignificance in comparison. He looked beyond the gorgeous palace and a monarch's crown to the high honors to be bestowed on the saints of the Most High in a kingdom untainted by sin, seeing by faith an imperishable crown that the King of heaven will place on the brow of the overcomer. His choice to suffer with God's people and to value Christ's reproach above Egypt's riches because he looked to the reward shows he understood Christ's mission and expected the reality foreshadowed by types and shadows to reach complete fulfillment in Christ.
Refusal Choice and Consequence
Moses wisely gave up courtly honors, royal standing, worldly success, princely status, and the prospect of Egypt's kingdom and throne with its palace, favor, and luxury. He refused a life of ease free from labor and care and the sinful pleasures of lordly courts, because those honors and attractions were bound up with sin and make men forget God. He gave up what looked good in the present for the sure eternal good promised, counting choosing the cross and disappointed hopes better than enjoying princely status at the cost of heaven. He was tempted as believers are tempted, especially those in important positions, by gold as character, business gain, certain revenue, sitting with princes, and the world's verdict of rich versus poor.
Instead he identified with God's humble, poor, despised people and chose to share their affliction, suffering, and humiliation rather than enjoy sin's temporary, brief, passing pleasures. When grown to adulthood he refused the privileged identity, honor, status, and prospects of being known as Pharaoh's daughter's son, though learned in Egyptian wisdom and able to gain Egypt's highest honors. He valued the reproach associated with Christ above all Egypt's treasures and riches, preferring suffering with God's people to temporal gain and a temporal crown. This belonged to his decision to share the suffering and humiliation of God's people, with the promise of sharing Christ's glory and reign and the lasting reward above sin's brief pleasure.
His choice meant accepting scorn, hatred, persecution, possible death, and a life of vicissitudes, hardships, toil, and heart-burdening care from that turning point rather than preserving popularity and comfort. Though prospective king of Egypt who could have sought power and a throne, he gave up that prospect to join the oppressed Hebrews and serve in their deliverance, valuing faithfulness to God and solidarity with them above rank and treasures. He had to separate his interests from Egypt's in order to serve as God's agent, for Egypt's throne could not deliver the slaves. Accepting the throne would have tied him to the kingdom and its revenue from the enslaved and prevented securing their freedom, while their deliverance by God's power as Supreme Ruler would be shown to the nations.
His choice was no true loss, only appearing to be renunciation and sacrifice, for what he gained was truly greater riches. He chose durable riches and righteousness, trusted God's word despite the world's reproach, and endured hardship by looking to the unseen reward. Looking back at the end of his life he did not regret its burdens, knew his mission and work were of God's own appointing, and felt he had made a wise decision. Instead of linking himself with the greatness of Egypt he bound up his life with God's purpose, and instead of giving laws to Egypt he by divine direction enacted laws for the world as God's instrument to give principles that safeguard home and society, are the cornerstone of national prosperity, are recognized as the foundation of all that is best in human governments, and are eternal principles of righteousness that can never perish while Egypt's power and civilization lie in dust. His life of toil and heart-burdening care was irradiated by Christ's presence, with Christ in the wilderness wandering, with Christ on the mount of transfiguration, and with Christ in the heavenly courts, a life on earth blessing and blessed and in heaven honored.
His refusal expressed integrity of the purest character in harmony with God, receiving through faith strength to resist wrong and to stand boldly in defense of God's honor and the purity of truth at any cost. He would not yield his integrity to unconsecrated influences or keep silent when his influence was needed. Such faithfulness brings manifold trials and severe conflicts and frequently requires standing almost alone, but making God his dependence he had grace for strength, a keen, clear, and sensitive moral sense, and moral powers equal to withstand wrong influences, gaining precious victories and a very rich reward. Better to be called poor by the world than to be written poor in the books of heaven, better to be rich in spiritual graces and hid with Christ in God than to gain apparent blessing at the loss of spiritual life and forfeit the kingdom of God.
Pattern and Call to Follow
Moses stands in the chapter's record of the faithful, held up among ancient examples and heroes of faith as patterns for the Christian church, and among the cloud of witnesses who met evils and difficulties and stood successfully against evil in the Lord's name, sustained with the Lord holding them by the hand. Their faithfulness made them conspicuous lights and examples before the world so their light could reach those in darkness, and his refusal when grown to be known by royal status belongs to that record from which believers are to learn, with the next verse explaining that he chose affliction with God's people over sin's temporary pleasures. His faithful choice strengthens and encourages believers, showing that the same faith that worked in God's servants can work now to help people endure trials and serve as channels of God's power. Led by faith to refuse that status, to choose affliction over sin's brief pleasures, to value Christ's reproach above Egypt's treasures while looking to the reward, and to leave without fearing the king by enduring as seeing the invisible God, his example sustains those who accept suffering for Christ's sake.
His experience teaches workers, especially city workers, to go forward in faith as they work and pray, trusting God to hear and answer and gaining valuable experience for future work. His choice is an example of obedience and self-sacrifice, of sacrifice and willing service, in which saving faith is revealed by yielding the will to God's control and living under His control. Having rejected the status, honor, prospects, kingdom, luxury, and temporal crown attached to that name, he chose obedience to God and the eternal reward seen by faith, accepting affliction, self-denial, and Christ's reproach, looking beyond present pleasures and earthly gain to the reward of serving God. He sacrificed a prospective kingdom and a life of worldly honor, ease, and freedom from labor and care in kingly courts, choosing active labor in God's cause, even an itinerant life with hardships, privations, and exposure, over indolence lived for self and to please self, thus giving up ease and worldly advantage for service and liberality. The same choice to suffer affliction with God's people rather than avoid suffering is required of all who would reach the tree of life in the midst of God's Paradise, and none will be there without it. Those holding the blessed hope of immortality to be consummated at Christ's soon appearing must not shrink from a life of suffering, for without it they would not enjoy so rich a reward and would shrink in shame before those who fought the good fight, ran with patience, and laid hold on eternal life, since choosing the cross and disappointed hopes is better than enjoying princely status at the cost of heaven.
His refusal calls those professing present truth, especially those in important positions tempted as he was by gold as a standard of character, business gain, certain revenue, sitting with princes, and the world's verdict of rich versus poor, to count poverty, the cross, self-denial, self-sacrifice, shattered worldly hopes, and Christ's reproaches as greater riches than Egypt's treasures. Better to be called poor by the world than to be written poor in heaven's books, better to be rich in spiritual graces and hid with Christ in God than to gain apparent providential blessing at the loss of spiritual life and forfeit God's kingdom, so they are to be incorruptible people whom gold cannot buy, not bound to be rich but obligated to be righteous and represent the Redeemer, refusing to imperil the soul, endanger spiritual life, or become servants of sin through selfishness and covetousness. His preparation shows that although thoroughly educated in Egyptian wisdom through royal training, the humility, meekness, faith, and trust needed for his life-work were taught in shepherding years in nature's solitude as the palace could not impart, while his faith, rooted in early teaching and cultivated through life, was strengthened by trusting wholly in God and studying God's government even while serving in Egypt to prepare him for delivering Israel from bondage. The verse proves the power of godly family government, showing that parental work done with both worlds in view, patiently planting religious principles to lay character's foundation so that even a prospective crown could not entice from allegiance to God amid great temptations, fits children to bless church and world here and to shine forever in the Lord's courts hereafter. Believers surrounded by idolatry and sensualism in its gayest and most alluring aspect can gladly make the same refusal of high worldly place to suffer for Christ rather than enjoy sin's pleasures when upheld by firm faith, fervent prayers, instruction, and above all godly example to inspire and encourage them, though the education and habits of a life are not overcome in a day and natural tastes reassert control little by little when that help is withdrawn.
When grown to adulthood and able to choose for himself, Moses by faith rejected his adopted royal identity with all its honor, standing and recognition. That refusal gave up wealth, greatness, fame, luxury, royal favor, military leadership and even the prospect of Egypt's throne and kingdom. His faith looked beyond what is seen and present to unseen eternal realities, the heavenly country and the reward God promised. He therefore chose to share affliction, suffering and humiliation with God's humble and despised people rather than enjoy sin's temporary pleasures, valuing reproach for Christ above all Egypt's treasures. That choice was sustained by seeing the invisible God and trusting wholly in Him rather than in human wisdom and strength, and it calls all who hope for immortality to count Christ's reproach greater riches than worldly ease.
Words and Historical Setting
When he was come to years means he was grown to adulthood and mature enough to choose for himself. To refuse to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter meant by faith to reject the adopted royal identity, status, honor, and recognition attached to that name. The status refused included flattering prospects of wealth, greatness, fame, royal favor, luxury, military leadership, and the possible succession to Egypt's throne and kingdom. He was fitted to take preeminence among the great of the earth, to shine in the courts of its most glorious kingdom and to sway its scepter, with intellectual greatness as historian, poet, philosopher, general of armies, and legislator without a peer, yet refused that prospect.
He made this refusal while still at court until he was forty years old by siding with enslaved Israel. He turned his thoughts to their abject condition, visited his brethren in their servitude, encouraged them that God would work for their deliverance, and burned to avenge injustice and oppression. He showed himself ready to maintain their cause when he slew an Egyptian who was smiting an Israelite and buried the body in the sand, hoping Israel would rise to recover liberty and understand that God would deliver them by his hand, but they understood not and were not yet prepared for freedom. When he reproved a Hebrew at fault the next day his right to interfere was denied and his killing of the Egyptian was thrown back at him, the matter was made known to the Egyptians and exaggerated to Pharaoh as a plot to overthrow the government and take the throne, and Pharaoh determined that Moses should die, so Moses fled toward Arabia.
He was able to refuse because his mother in childhood had patiently and perseveringly planted religious principles and loyalty to God that remained firm amid court temptations and corrupting influences. That early teaching and example laid the foundation of his character, so that when grown and surrounded by great temptations he was not corrupted and not even a prospective crown could entice him from allegiance to God. His faith was strengthened by trusting wholly in God and by studying God's government even while serving in Egypt, rooted in that early teaching and cultivated through his life. His refusal guarded his sense of the evil of transgression and his true moral standard against becoming self-sufficient and proud as a general of the Egyptian armies, against perversion by education in the Egyptian school, against lowering his standard to the world's standard through evil association, and against egotism and pride entering his heart and life which would be difficult to conquer.
He would not conceal that he was Hebrew, join in heathen worship, or accept the crown at the cost of forsaking his brethren and faith, but would worship God alone and reject idolatrous ceremonies. The promise of Egypt's crown, royal favor, and instruction in Egyptian idolatry could not make him abandon his people or his faith in God. Threats that he would lose the crown and be disinherited and disowned could not move him, for his respect for the Hebrew faith and his love for his enslaved people mattered more to him than royal honor. Though raised in the palace and trained for civil and military leadership with Egypt's highest honors before him, he chose to honor God and seek the deliverance of his oppressed people.
Faith's Vision and Trust
By faith his grown choice to refuse the name and standing of Pharaoh's daughter's son was led and sustained by a sight that reached past what is seen, past present trial and present pleasure, to unseen eternal realities, the heavenly country, and the reward God promised to those who obey Him. He chose loyalty with God's people and a heavenly inheritance over wealth, power, royal honor, military fame, and even Egypt's throne and temporal crown, accepting affliction, self-denial, and reproach rather than sin's brief pleasures. The eye of faith fixed on the glorious future and on eternal life made earth's richest offers appear valueless and sufferings appear small and light.
He left Egypt without fearing the king because he endured by seeing the invisible God. That seeing was a constant awareness of God's personal presence as the help he needed, upholding him amid misunderstanding, danger, and insult without retaliation. In that presence he saw Christ accompanying Israel through its travels and looked forward to Christ's coming in human form.
His faith was not self-confidence nor reliance on human wisdom, education, ability, and strength, but wholly dependent trust that moves in God's strength and wisdom with constant, simple, implicit trust in the power and loving intentions of the Deliverer. It obeys all the Lord commands whether the way ahead is unclear, seems impossible or unreasonable to human reason, or not; it submits to divine discipline, presses through difficulties and obstacles that seem almost insurmountable, and leads through wilderness hardships relying on God for deliverance rather than on self. His earlier rash killing of the Egyptian came from a presumptuous spirit, not from this faith. He became fit for God's work only after losing confidence in his own ability, having the foolishness of man's wisdom and the weakness of human strength revealed, understanding his utter helplessness and inefficiency without being upheld by the Lord, and learning to put his trust wholly in God as His representative man and willing instrument.
His refusal belongs to enduring faith that seeks a better heavenly country and dies without receiving the promises on earth, turning away from Egypt toward Canaan as the path of faith toward the promised land. He had been instructed about the final reward to be given to the humble and obedient servants of God, so worldly gain sank to its proper insignificance in comparison. He looked beyond the gorgeous palace and a monarch's crown to the high honors to be bestowed on the saints of the Most High in a kingdom untainted by sin, seeing by faith an imperishable crown that the King of heaven will place on the brow of the overcomer. His choice to suffer with God's people and to value Christ's reproach above Egypt's riches because he looked to the reward shows he understood Christ's mission and expected the reality foreshadowed by types and shadows to reach complete fulfillment in Christ.
Refusal Choice and Consequence
Moses wisely gave up courtly honors, royal standing, worldly success, princely status, and the prospect of Egypt's kingdom and throne with its palace, favor, and luxury. He refused a life of ease free from labor and care and the sinful pleasures of lordly courts, because those honors and attractions were bound up with sin and make men forget God. He gave up what looked good in the present for the sure eternal good promised, counting choosing the cross and disappointed hopes better than enjoying princely status at the cost of heaven. He was tempted as believers are tempted, especially those in important positions, by gold as character, business gain, certain revenue, sitting with princes, and the world's verdict of rich versus poor.
Instead he identified with God's humble, poor, despised people and chose to share their affliction, suffering, and humiliation rather than enjoy sin's temporary, brief, passing pleasures. When grown to adulthood he refused the privileged identity, honor, status, and prospects of being known as Pharaoh's daughter's son, though learned in Egyptian wisdom and able to gain Egypt's highest honors. He valued the reproach associated with Christ above all Egypt's treasures and riches, preferring suffering with God's people to temporal gain and a temporal crown. This belonged to his decision to share the suffering and humiliation of God's people, with the promise of sharing Christ's glory and reign and the lasting reward above sin's brief pleasure.
His choice meant accepting scorn, hatred, persecution, possible death, and a life of vicissitudes, hardships, toil, and heart-burdening care from that turning point rather than preserving popularity and comfort. Though prospective king of Egypt who could have sought power and a throne, he gave up that prospect to join the oppressed Hebrews and serve in their deliverance, valuing faithfulness to God and solidarity with them above rank and treasures. He had to separate his interests from Egypt's in order to serve as God's agent, for Egypt's throne could not deliver the slaves. Accepting the throne would have tied him to the kingdom and its revenue from the enslaved and prevented securing their freedom, while their deliverance by God's power as Supreme Ruler would be shown to the nations.
His choice was no true loss, only appearing to be renunciation and sacrifice, for what he gained was truly greater riches. He chose durable riches and righteousness, trusted God's word despite the world's reproach, and endured hardship by looking to the unseen reward. Looking back at the end of his life he did not regret its burdens, knew his mission and work were of God's own appointing, and felt he had made a wise decision. Instead of linking himself with the greatness of Egypt he bound up his life with God's purpose, and instead of giving laws to Egypt he by divine direction enacted laws for the world as God's instrument to give principles that safeguard home and society, are the cornerstone of national prosperity, are recognized as the foundation of all that is best in human governments, and are eternal principles of righteousness that can never perish while Egypt's power and civilization lie in dust. His life of toil and heart-burdening care was irradiated by Christ's presence, with Christ in the wilderness wandering, with Christ on the mount of transfiguration, and with Christ in the heavenly courts, a life on earth blessing and blessed and in heaven honored.
His refusal expressed integrity of the purest character in harmony with God, receiving through faith strength to resist wrong and to stand boldly in defense of God's honor and the purity of truth at any cost. He would not yield his integrity to unconsecrated influences or keep silent when his influence was needed. Such faithfulness brings manifold trials and severe conflicts and frequently requires standing almost alone, but making God his dependence he had grace for strength, a keen, clear, and sensitive moral sense, and moral powers equal to withstand wrong influences, gaining precious victories and a very rich reward. Better to be called poor by the world than to be written poor in the books of heaven, better to be rich in spiritual graces and hid with Christ in God than to gain apparent blessing at the loss of spiritual life and forfeit the kingdom of God.
Pattern and Call to Follow
Moses stands in the chapter's record of the faithful, held up among ancient examples and heroes of faith as patterns for the Christian church, and among the cloud of witnesses who met evils and difficulties and stood successfully against evil in the Lord's name, sustained with the Lord holding them by the hand. Their faithfulness made them conspicuous lights and examples before the world so their light could reach those in darkness, and his refusal when grown to be known by royal status belongs to that record from which believers are to learn, with the next verse explaining that he chose affliction with God's people over sin's temporary pleasures. His faithful choice strengthens and encourages believers, showing that the same faith that worked in God's servants can work now to help people endure trials and serve as channels of God's power. Led by faith to refuse that status, to choose affliction over sin's brief pleasures, to value Christ's reproach above Egypt's treasures while looking to the reward, and to leave without fearing the king by enduring as seeing the invisible God, his example sustains those who accept suffering for Christ's sake.
His experience teaches workers, especially city workers, to go forward in faith as they work and pray, trusting God to hear and answer and gaining valuable experience for future work. His choice is an example of obedience and self-sacrifice, of sacrifice and willing service, in which saving faith is revealed by yielding the will to God's control and living under His control. Having rejected the status, honor, prospects, kingdom, luxury, and temporal crown attached to that name, he chose obedience to God and the eternal reward seen by faith, accepting affliction, self-denial, and Christ's reproach, looking beyond present pleasures and earthly gain to the reward of serving God. He sacrificed a prospective kingdom and a life of worldly honor, ease, and freedom from labor and care in kingly courts, choosing active labor in God's cause, even an itinerant life with hardships, privations, and exposure, over indolence lived for self and to please self, thus giving up ease and worldly advantage for service and liberality. The same choice to suffer affliction with God's people rather than avoid suffering is required of all who would reach the tree of life in the midst of God's Paradise, and none will be there without it. Those holding the blessed hope of immortality to be consummated at Christ's soon appearing must not shrink from a life of suffering, for without it they would not enjoy so rich a reward and would shrink in shame before those who fought the good fight, ran with patience, and laid hold on eternal life, since choosing the cross and disappointed hopes is better than enjoying princely status at the cost of heaven.
His refusal calls those professing present truth, especially those in important positions tempted as he was by gold as a standard of character, business gain, certain revenue, sitting with princes, and the world's verdict of rich versus poor, to count poverty, the cross, self-denial, self-sacrifice, shattered worldly hopes, and Christ's reproaches as greater riches than Egypt's treasures. Better to be called poor by the world than to be written poor in heaven's books, better to be rich in spiritual graces and hid with Christ in God than to gain apparent providential blessing at the loss of spiritual life and forfeit God's kingdom, so they are to be incorruptible people whom gold cannot buy, not bound to be rich but obligated to be righteous and represent the Redeemer, refusing to imperil the soul, endanger spiritual life, or become servants of sin through selfishness and covetousness. His preparation shows that although thoroughly educated in Egyptian wisdom through royal training, the humility, meekness, faith, and trust needed for his life-work were taught in shepherding years in nature's solitude as the palace could not impart, while his faith, rooted in early teaching and cultivated through life, was strengthened by trusting wholly in God and studying God's government even while serving in Egypt to prepare him for delivering Israel from bondage. The verse proves the power of godly family government, showing that parental work done with both worlds in view, patiently planting religious principles to lay character's foundation so that even a prospective crown could not entice from allegiance to God amid great temptations, fits children to bless church and world here and to shine forever in the Lord's courts hereafter. Believers surrounded by idolatry and sensualism in its gayest and most alluring aspect can gladly make the same refusal of high worldly place to suffer for Christ rather than enjoy sin's pleasures when upheld by firm faith, fervent prayers, instruction, and above all godly example to inspire and encourage them, though the education and habits of a life are not overcome in a day and natural tastes reassert control little by little when that help is withdrawn.