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Daniel Lived by Principle, March 12
Living by Principle Not Inclination
Then the presidents and princes sought to find occasion against
Daniel concerning the kingdom; but they could find none occasion
nor fault; forasmuch as he was faithful, neither was there any
error or fault found in him.
Daniel 6:4
Daniel was subjected to the severest temptations that can assail the
youth today, yet he was true to the religious instruction received in early
life. He was surrounded with influences calculated to subvert those who
would vacillate between principle and inclination, yet the Word of God
presents him as a faultless character. Daniel dared not trust to his own
moral power. Prayer was to him a necessity. He made God his strength,
and the fear of God was continually before him in all the transactions of
his life.... He sought to live in peace with all, while he was unbending as
the lofty cedar wherever principle was involved. In everything that did
not come in collision with his allegiance to God, he was respectful and
obedient to those who had authority over him....
In the experience of Daniel and his companions we have an instance
of the triumph of principle over temptation to indulge the appetite. It
shows us that through religious principle young men may triumph over
the lusts of the flesh, and remain true to God’s requirements.... What if
Daniel and his companions had made a compromise with those heathen
officers, and had yielded to the pressure of the occasion, by eating and
drinking as was customary with the Babylonians? That single instance of
departure from principle would have weakened their sense of right and
their abhorrence of wrong. Indulgence of appetite would have involved
the sacrifice of physical vigor, clearness of intellect, and spiritual power.
One wrong step would probably have led to others, until, their connec-
tion with Heaven being severed, they would have been swept away by
temptation.
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