ws
from some other place; but we and our father's house would have been
destroyed. By faith Moses refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's
daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the children of
God, etc. And certainly he did suffer for it.

They embraced the promises with their whole hearts. They were stoned
and sawn asunder rather than give them up. And what was the effect
on their characters? Having counted the cost, and being perfectly
willing to accept any loss or pain for the sake of these promises,
and hence inspired by them, they became sublime heroes. Through
faith they "subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained
promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of
fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made
strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the
aliens. And others had trials of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea,
moreover of bonds and imprisonment: they wandered about in
sheepskins and in goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented.
Of whom the world was not worthy." That is a faith worth having, and
it is as sound philosophy as it is scripture.

"These all died in faith, not having received the promises." Did
they receive nothing? Moses and Elijah, Gideon and Barak gained
power and heroism greater than we can conceive of. Surely that was
enough. But they did not get the whole of the promise, or even the
best of it. And the simple reason was that God cannot make a promise
small enough to be completely fulfilled to a man in his earthly
life. He gets enough to make him a king, but this does not begin to
exhaust the promise. It is inexhaustible. This is the experience of
anyone who will faithfully try it. And this experience is the
grandest argument for immortality.

Therefore, "giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue ([Greek:
arete], strength), and to virtue knowledge, and to knowledge
temperance ([Greek: enkrateia], self-control), and to temperance
patience ([Greek: hypomene], endurance), and to patience godliness,
and to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness
charity" (love).

And what of prayer? How can it be answered in a universe of law? We
certainly could have no confidence that our prayers could or would
be answered if ours were not a universe of law. God's laws are, as
we have seen, his modes of working out his great plan. And the last
and highest unfolding of God's plan is the development of