The king's preference of the four illustrious Jews was remarkable, when it is recollected that the Chaldeans boasted of their literature and science, and deemed all other nations to be barbarians. Surely this superiority on their part, which attracted royal favor in so extraordinary a degree, was "from the Lord." He exalts and depresses according to his good pleasure, and to subserve the high purposes of his universal government. To him we are indebted for whatever talent, acquisition, or influence we possess-to him, in humble gratitude and with consecrated zeal, let us devote all !

LECTURE II.

DANIEL II.-13.

No delusion is greater or more frequent than to imagine that persons of elevated rank are inaccessible to the ordinary troubles of life. Others, who occupy inferior situations, are unable, owing to the distance, either to hear the expression of their sentiments, or to see through the external dazzle their actual circumstances; in consequence, they often envy when they should compa nature and to experience than the poet's declaration,

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'Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.'

Of this we have evidence in the record which this chapter contains of the perturbations of mind incident to royalty; and throughout every gradation of society, we find a wise and merciful adjustment of the proportions, seldom, on the whole, remarkably unequal, of suffering and enjoyment. This is obviously the fact, although the sources of trouble are as diversified as the conditions of men.

Happy would it be if even the wise and the good were exempt from the misconceptions which prevail so extensively, and produce effects so lamentable in others; but the language of the psalmist is but too just a representation of the experience of all classes"I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked." The only effectual method of removing these impressions is pointed out in the instructions which he gained amidst the solemnities of religion-“I went into the sanctuary of God; then understood I their end."

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Verse 1.-And in the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar dreamed dreams, where. with his spirit was troubled, and his sleep brake from him.

orientals, have pa hich all nations, particularly of the most curious and inexplicable phenomena of our nature. In estimating this faculty of the mind, we should avoid the extremes of contempt and of vulgar credulity. Dreams may be viewed as common and extraordinary.

Common dreams appear to result from the fragments of recollected thought, the exaggerations of fancy, and the combination into new forms, of circumstances with which we have been previously conversant: and these

renewals of the past in an imaginative character may arise from the state of the health, the peculiar condition of the mind, or other causes, which have more immediate relation to our physical temperament and constitution.

Extraordinary, or supernatural dreams are those which are sent by God to answer some important and special purpose, or to convey prophetic intimations. Abimelech was imformed in a dream that Sarah was the wife of Abraham. Jacob was shown a mysterious ladder in a dream. He was also informed by an angel, in a similar manner, of the method of multiplying his flocks. Joseph was honored by prophetic dreams. Of this kind, evidently, were the dreams of Nebuchadnezzar recorded in this book.

Verse 2.-Then the king commanded to call the magicians, and the astrologers, and the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans, for to show the king his dreams. So they came and stood before the king.

3.-And the king said unto them, I have dreamed a dream, and my spirit was troubled to know the dream.

4. Then spake the Chaldeans to the king in Syriac, O king, live for ever: tell thy servants the dream, and we will show the interpretation.

5. The king answered and said to the Chaldeans, The thing is gone from me; if ye will not make known unto me the dream with the interpretation thereof, ye shall be cut in pieces, and your houses shall be made a dunghill:

6. But if ye show me the dream, and the interpretation thereof, ye shall receive of me gifts, and rewards, and

great honor: therefore show me the dream and the interpretation thereof.

7.-They answered again, and said, Let the king tell his servants the dream, and we will show the interpretation of it.

8.-The king answered and said, I know of certainty that ye would gain the time, because ye see the thing is gone

from me.

9. But if ye will not make known unto me the dream, there is but one decree for you; for ye have prepared lying and corrupt words to speak before me till the time be changed: therefore tell me the dream, and I shall know that ye can show me the interpretation thereof. 10. The Chaldeans answered before the king, and said, There is not a man upon the earth that can show the king's matter: therefore there is no king, lord, nor ruler, that asked such things at any magician, or astrologer, or Chaldean.

11. And it is a rare thing that the king requireth; and there is none other that can show it before the king except the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh. 12. For this cause the king was angry and very furious, and commanded to destroy all the wise men of Babylon. 13. And the decree went forth that all the wise men should be slain; and they sought Daniel and his fellows to be slain.

The peculiarity of Nebuchadnezzar's dream renders his forgetfulness of it remarkable. It is true that these airy visions are often immediately dismissed from the mind; but a dream of a very striking character seldom vanishes entirely and at once from the memory. In this case, however, we may justly infer that the same hand which first impressed its singular features on the mind of the monarch, speedily obliterated every trace of it, to