Failure, fear and faithlessness surrounded Ezra, Nehemiah, Mordecai and Esther. They lived in days when many of God’s people had turned from God and His Word to imitate the world around them. But these great men and women of faith found strength from God to honor Him. As the author says of Nehemiah, “He serves earnestly, undauntedly, patiently. Great moral dignity shines in this—a fine spirit of devotion expresses itself.” We, too, discover that “temptations can be met and withstood by the soul carrying the sense of the importance of the work to which God has set us, and the dignity of the person which God has made us.”