He Guides His Grown Sons in Godliness

While the Caesars were young, they had suitable advisers to help them manage public affairs; but once they reached manhood, their father’s instructions alone were enough. When he was with them, he set his own example before them and urged them to follow his godly course. When they were away, he sent them letters with rules of conduct suited to their imperial position. The first and greatest of these was the charge to value the knowledge and worship of the Sovereign Lord of all more than wealth, and indeed more than empire itself. In time he allowed them to direct the public administration of the empire without restraint. His first request was that they would care for the interests of the church of God and boldly profess themselves disciples of Christ. Trained in this way, and moved to obedience not so much by instruction as by their own free desire for virtue, his sons more than fulfilled their father’s charge. They gave earnest attention to the service of God, and kept the ordinances of the church even in the palace itself, together with all the members of their households. For their father had taken care beforehand that all his sons’ attendants should be Christians. Not only that, but the military officers of the highest rank, and those in charge of public business, professed the same faith; for the emperor trusted the loyalty of men devoted to the service of God as a strong and sure defense. When our thrice-blessed ruler had completed these arrangements, and so had secured order and peace throughout the empire, God, the giver of every blessing, judged that it was the right time to take him away to a better inheritance, and called him to pay the debt all mortals owe to nature. [a]