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True Education
kingdom, and Paul the advantages of wealth and honor among his
people. To many the life of these men appears one of renunciation
and sacrifice. Was it really so? Moses counted the reproach of
Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt. Paul declared:
“What things were gain to me, these I also counted loss for Christ.
But indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the
knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the
loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ.”
Philippians 3:7, 8
.
Moses was offered the palace of the Pharaohs and the monarch’s
throne, but the sinful pleasures that make people forget God were in
those lordly courts, and he chose instead the “enduring riches and
righteousness.”
Proverbs 8:18
. Instead of linking himself with the
greatness of Egypt, he chose to bind up his life with God’s purpose.
He became God’s instrument in giving to the world those principles
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that safeguard both the home and society, principles recognized
today by the world’s greatest thinkers as the foundation of all that is
best in human governments.
The greatness of Egypt is in the dust. But the work of Moses can
never perish. The great principles of righteousness that he lived to
establish are eternal.
Moses’ life of toil and heart-burdening care was irradiated with
the presence of Him who is “the chiefest among ten thousand” and
the One “altogether lovely.”
Song of Solomon 5:10, 16
. His was a
life on earth blessing and blessed, and in heaven honored.
Paul also was upheld by the sustaining power of Christ’s pres-
ence. “I can do all things,” he said, “through Christ who strengthens
me.”
Philippians 4:13
. Yet there is a future joy to which Paul looked
forward as the reward of his labors—the same joy for the sake of
which Christ endured the cross and despised the shame—the joy of
seeing the result of his work. “What is our hope, or joy, or crown
of rejoicing?” he wrote to the Thessalonian converts, “Is it not even
you in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at His coming? For you
are our glory and joy.”
1 Thessalonians 2:19, 20
.
Who can measure the results to the world of Paul’s lifework? Of
all those beneficent influences that alleviate suffering, that comfort
sorrow, that restrain evil, that uplift life from the selfish and the
sensual and glorify it with the hope of immortality, how much is due