Chapter VIII · Holiness: Its Nature, Hindrances, Difficulties, and Roots — J. C. Ryle
AN EXAMPLE
“ By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter:
“ Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season;
“ Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward. ”—Hebrews xi. 24-26.
THE characters of God’s most eminent saints, as drawn and described in the Bible, form a most useful part of Holy Scripture. Abstract doctrines, and principles, and precepts, are all most valuable in their way; but after all, nothing is more helpful than a pattern or example. Do we want to know what practical holiness is? Let us sit down and study the picture of an eminently holy man. I propose in this paper to set before my readers the history of a man who lived by faith, and left us a pattern of what faith can do in promoting holiness of character. To all who want to know what “living by faith” means, I offer Moses as an example.
The eleventh chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews, from which my text is taken, is a great chapter: it deserves to be printed in golden letters. I can well believe it must have been most cheering and encouraging to a converted Jew. I suppose no members of the early Church found so much difficulty in a profession of Christianity as the Hebrews did. The way was narrow to all, but preeminently so to them. The cross was heavy to all but surely they had to carry double weight. And this chapter would refresh them like a cordial—it would be as “wine to those that be of heavy hearts.” Its words would “be pleasant as the honey-comb, sweet to the soul, and health to the bones.” (Prov. xxxi. 6; xvi. 24.)
The three verses I am going to explain are far from being the least interesting in the chapter. Indeed I think few, if any, have so strong a claim on our attention. And I will explain why I say so.
It seems to me that the work of faith described in the story of Moses comes home more especially to our own case. The men of God who are named in the former part of the chapter are all examples to us beyond question. But we cannot literally do what most of them did, however much we may drink into their spirit. We are not called upon to offer a literal sacrifice like Abel—or to build a literal ark like Noah—or to leave our country literally, and dwell in tents, and offer up our Isaac like Abraham. But the faith of Moses comes nearer to us. It seems to operate in a way more familiar to our own experience. It made him take up a line of conduct such as we must sometimes take up ourselves in the present day, each in our own walk of life, if we would be consistent Christians, And for this reason I think these three verses deserve more than ordinary consideration.
Now I have nothing but the simplest things to say about them. I shall only try to show the greatness of the things Moses did, and the principle on which he did them. And then perhaps we shall be better prepared for the practical instruction which the verses appear to hold out to every one who will receive it.
I. First, then, I will speak of what Moses gave up and refused.
Moses gave up three things for the sake of his soul. He felt that his soul would not be saved if he kept them—so he gave them up. And in so doing, I say that he made three of the greatest sacrifices that man’s heart can possibly make. Let us see.
(1) He gave up rank and greatness.
“He refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter.” We all know his history. The daughter of Pharaoh had preserved his life, when he was an infant. She had gone further than that: she had adopted him and educated him as her own son.
If some writers of history may be trusted, she was Pharaoh’s only child. Some go so far as to say that in the common order of things, Moses would one day have been King of Egypt!1 That may be, or may not; we cannot tell. It is enough for us to know that, from his connection with Pharaoh’s daughter, Moses might have been, if he had pleased, a very great man. If he had been content with the position in which he found himself at the Egyptian court, he might easily have been among the first (if not the very first) in all the land of Egypt.