then you have rehabilitated the old story 39; Eph. 6:8; and quickened the blood of your Sunday Pet. 2:9; Rev. 3:10; John 14:1, school class."

Time. B.C. 539 or 538, almost 50 years after the last lesson. Cyrus had conquered Babylon in 539; Darius the Mede, his viceroy, was left in charge as king, while Cyrus carried on the war; III. and Daniel was next to Darius, B.C. 539, 538.

in the Babylonish or Assyrian language. Taken from White's Bible Characters. Geikie's one of Nebuchadnezzar's inscriptions.

I. A GLIMPSE OVER THE NEXT FIFTY YEARS. We recall the beginning of the captivity at the time when Nebuchadnezzar became king, and among the captives were four heroic princes who remained faithful to the true God. This was about B.C. 605. Their example shone clear and bright for all the captives that came afterwards, " a lamp to their feet and a light to their path."

About 18 or 19 years later, soon after the destruction of Jerusalem, and two other deportations of captives to Babylon (597 and 586 B.C.), took place Nebuchadnezzar's great political scheme of the image of gold. His purpose was to consolidate his whole empire religiously and politically.

But God's purpose was to turn his captive people away from idolatry, into a unity of devotion to the true God, by the devotion and heroism of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, and his marvellous deliverance of his faithful three from the burning fiery furnace. His people were in the fiery furnace of affliction. The three heroes by their example were preaching a sermon to the captives, heard all over the empire,

Coin of Nebuchadnezzar.

"BE TRUE TO YOUR GOD, AND YOUR RELIGION AT ANY COST; YIELD TO NO SEDUCTIONS OF IDOLATRY, AND GOD WILL DELIVER YOU FROM YOUR BURNING FIERY FURNACE, AS HE HAS DELIVERED US.

"For the remaining 23 or 24 years of his reign Nebuchadnezzar spent his strength in converting his capital, Babylon, into one of the most magnificent and most beautiful cities of antiquity." - Professor Hommel. "Herodotus, who visited it about B.C. 450, within a century after the departure of the Hebrews, while its walls and buildings were still perfect, describes it as forming a square of nearly fourteen miles on each side." Babylon became the metropolis of the world, the centre of commerce, art, learning, wealth; and a university city. Nebuchadnezzar died in 562.

About B.C. 575.

Twenty-three years later there came a great change and commotion in Babylon. Belshazzar, the young Crown Prince, acting as king, held a great festival in B.C. 539, in which he used the golden vessels of the Jewish Temple for his drunken revelries, and suddenly saw the ghostly fingers of a hand writing strange letters on the wall over against the candlestick. Daniel was summoned and interpreted them. read,

God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it.
Thou art weighed in the balances, and found wanting.
Thy kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.

They

That same night Cyrus captured Babylon. He was the king who was foretold in the book of Isaiah as the one who would permit the exiles to return.

Cyrus made Darius the Mede king of Babylonia subject to him, while he was away with his armies.

Nothing is known of this Darius the Mede. He was probably not of the regular line of kings, but a temporary viceroy. He set over the kingdom 120 princes, and over these three presidents to watch over the 120; and he made Daniel the chief of these three (Am. R., " Of which Daniel was one "), for Daniel had an excellent spirit, and was faithful, neither was there any error or fault found in him.

II. DANIEL'S GOOD OLD HABIT OF PRAYER, v. 10. In Babylon "Daniel had a house, of the common Oriental type where he did the king's business, a large capacious building, with many rooms in it, set apart for the various officers of state, and one large airy room at the top, immediately underneath the flat roof in which were large windows, fitted with shutters that could be opened or closed at will.” H. Deane, B.D. Here Daniel was accustomed to pray three times a day, always praying kneeling upon his knees, and with his face toward Jerusalem.

Praying toward Jerusalem. If he could not worship in the Temple, he would keep it in mind as an aid to devotion.

It was (1) a recognition of God's promise to Solomon in favor of those who looked toward this centre of his worship (1 Kings 8: 30, 35, 47, 48). (2) It was a recognition of the God of Israel, and of his promise that his people should return to their home. (3) It cherished the spirit of devotion because the place and its associations have an influence upon our spirits, and give them wings.

The windows open toward Jerusalem. "Daniel kept his windows open towards Jerusalem, which is only another way of saying that he looked heavenward, lived

heavenward. To him Jerusalem meant God and his grace, the mercy seat, forgiveness, the divine love, and the everlasting hope. What effect did this have on Daniel ?

"(1) It made him wise. Sunshine is light, and so is God. tain of life and in thy light shall we see the light.'

'Thou art the founTake your doubts around

to the heavenward side of the house, where the light of the gospel shines. (2) It made him strong.

Trees for the navy are selected from the pasture field where the sun shines upon them, because they are stronger than those which grow in the shade of the thick forest.

(3) It made him courageous. Daniel never quailed before men. He had the courage of his convictions. He kept his character in the place of worst temptation in all the world. . . . Spiritual life comes like sunshine, by keeping our doors open heavenward.

O PALACE

HANGING GARDENS

EUPHRATES RIVER

President Fitch, in a recent sermon, used Daniel's window in a different way, The Window toward the imperishable realities.

The Window of memory.

The Window of imagination, toward a higher and more purified life.

The Window of Faith.

III. THE CONSPIRACY AGAINST THE INCORRUPTIBLE STATESMAN, vs. 4-10. The other two Presidents and those of the 120 governors who belonged to Babylon, were desperately opposed to Daniel, and conspired against him, to get rid of him. The Reasons were doubtless (1) first and chiefly that he stood in the way of their dishonest gains. Such officers in those times almost always made their position a means of wealth. They soon found that Daniel “would neither wink at their misdeeds nor share in their dishonesties." "He would tolerate no semblance of injustice, either toward the subjects, on the one hand, or the emperor on the other." - Wm. M. Taylor. (2) Daniel was a foreigner and a Jew, of a slave race, exalted over them, and holding the place which they or their friends wanted. (3) Daniel's character was a perpetual reproof. They were tired of seeing his good deeds and hearing his praise; as the Athenian who voted for the condemnation of Aristides the Just, simply because he was weary of hearing him called the Just. (4) Envy because Daniel was preferred before them on account of his wisdom and honesty, and higher honors still were planned for him (v. 1).

"Be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow, Thou shalt not escape calumny."

·Shakespeare.

"Envy will merit, as its shade, pursue;
But like a shadow, prove the substance true."
- Pope.

Their Plan. The conspirators' plan was to make use of Daniel's faithfulness itself. They found that their only hope of entrapping him was through his wellknown religious convictions and habits of worship, and his unflinching obedience to conscience. They persuaded the king to make a decree that no one should ask any favor of God or of man, except of the king himself, for a month, on penalty of being thrown into the den of lions.

10. Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into his house; and his windows being open in his chamber toward Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as he did aforetime.

II. Then these men assembled, and found Daniel praying and making supplication before his God.

"The meaning is, not any petition absolutely, but any petition in the nature of a prayer, or request addressed formally to a superior.". Driver in Cambridge Bible. It is not at all probable that the decree referred to the common daily intercourse of man with man, for that would be perfectly irrelevant to the purpose of the officials who asked the decree.

Kings in ancient times wished to be regarded as gods. In later Roman times the Cæsars claimed divine honors, and Christians were charged with treason, and executed because they refused to worship the emperor. This explains the decree requiring petitions to be addressed to no other god.

It seems strange that any king could sign such a decree. "But probably Daniel's enemies made the king believe that this would be a fine practical test of the fealty of his new subjects.”- Professor Beecher. "The suggestion was skilfully adapted to Darius' overweening self importance "(Mc Laren), standing as he was in the shoes of the two greatest kings of the age, Nebuchadnezzar and Cyrus. There is scarcely a limit to the conceit of some men raised suddenly to power who imagine that "when they walk east the world tips up west or, "who when riding on horseback bow their heads lest they should strike the stars from their orbits."

10. When Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went on praying just the same as he had before. It would not have done to swerve a hair's breadth. He could have prayed in secret, and been heard by God, but that course would have been a public confession of want of faith in God, and of yielding to the enemy. He would say as Nehemiah said to Shemaiah," Should such a man as I flee?" (Neh. 6: II). Daniel made no show of his religion, but simply went on his daily path of life, as if no such order had been given. (1) To have done otherwise would have proclaimed his want of faith and of faithfulness, and dishonored his religion and his God. (2) There was no time when he needed to pray more than at this time. It was on the eve of the Return, and all such great religious crises are ushered in with earnest prayer. (3) A failure, or even a seeming failure, on Daniel's part would have had a disastrous effect on the religious principles of the exiles. A man in his position had better die a thousand deaths than to falter and fall.

Tom Brown's School Days. After Tom had been at school a year or more, a new boy entered. After this boy Arthur was ready for bed the first night he looked round the big sleeping room nervously, "dropped on his knees by his bedside, as he had done every day from his childhood, to open his heart to Him who heareth the cry and beareth the sorrows of the tender child, and the strong man in agony.

"Tom was sitting at the bottom of his bed unlacing his boots, so that his back was towards Arthur, and he didn't see what happened, and looked up in wonder at the sudden silence. Then two or three boys laughed and sneered, and a big brutal fellow, who was standing in the middle of the room, picked up a slipper, and shied it at the kneeling boy, calling him a snivelling young shaver. Then Tom saw the whole, and the next moment the boot he had just pulled off flew straight at the head of the bully, who had just time to throw up his arm and catch it on his elbow.

"Confound you, Brown, what's that for?' waved he, stamping with pain. "Never mind what I mean,' said Tom, stepping onto the floor, every drop of blood in his body tingling; if any fellow wants the other boot he knows how to get it.'. .

"It was no light act of courage in those days, my dear boys, for a little fellow to say his prayers publicly, even at Rugby.”

Tom, too, had been used to praying at home, but had been afraid to begin at school, and now his conscience smote him. He questioned with himself what he had better do, and finally "resolved to bear his testimony next morning. The morning would be harder than the night to begin with, but he felt that he could not afford to let one chance slip." And he carried out his resolve. "For a few nights there was a sneer or a laugh when he knelt down, but this passed off soon, and one by one

12. Then they came near, and spake before the king concerning the king's decree; Hast thou not signed a decree, that every man that shall ask a petition of any God or man within thirty days, save of thee, O king, shall be cast into the den of lions? The king answered and said, The thing is true, according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which altereth not. 1

13. Then answered they and said before the king, That Daniel, which is of the children of the captivity of Judah, regardeth not thee, O king, nor the decree that thou hast signed, but maketh his petition three times a day.

14. Then the king, when he heard these words, was sore displeased with himself, and set his heart on Daniel to deliver him: and he laboured till the going down of the sun to deliver him.

15. Then these men assembled unto the king, and said unto the king, Know, O king, that the law of the Medes and Persians is, That no decree nor statute which the king establisheth may be changed.

all the other boys but three or four followed the lead.

Before either Tom Brown or Arthur left the School-house, there was no room in which it had not become the regular custom.'

IV. DANIEL IN THE DEN OF LIONS, vs. 11-18. 12. And spake before the king .. Hast thou not, etc. As soon as they had the proofs they presented them to the king. The law of the Medes and Persians, which altereth not. "To alter

it would be a confession of fallibility." "It was applied to Cambyses, one of the most despotic of the Persian monarchs (Herodotus, 3 : 31), and Xerxes, son of Darius Hystaspes (Herodotus 1 : 109-111)."— Rawlinson. "The majesty of the law must be upheld. The reason for this custom seems to have been that a man claiming to act through a divine prescience could not afford to appear fallible or changeable.' Taylor.

Compare the decree which Haman obtained from Ahasuerus, and how the king at Esther's petition, while he could not reverse the decree "issued another edict in which he granted the Jews permission to gather themselves together, and to stand for their life.' Thus the first irreversible edict was completely neutralized by another just as irreversible as itself."

Compare also the case of Portia in Shakespeare's play Merchant of Venice, in which she found an expedient that would render Shylock's bond invalid.

13. The leaders were now sure of their case. Every door of escape was shut against Daniel. They had simply to announce to the king that Daniel was guilty. 14. Then the king was sore displeased. . . (Am. R. omits "with himself") and he laboured till the going down of the sun to deliver (Am. R., rescue ") him. But he failed on account of the unalterable law.

"Evil is wrought by want of thought
As well as want of heart."

15. Lest the king, in his anxiety to save Daniel, should override the decree, they assembled again, and reminded him that he could not change it. He himself had signed the decree.

Daniel Thrown into the Lion's Den. "The dens in which wild beasts are confined are not cavernous, or vaults, like those in which the Romans kept the wild beasts in readiness for the cruelties of the amphitheatre. They are simply pits open to the sky, but enclosed with high walls." The bears' den in Bern, Switzerland, is built in the same manner. It is one of the attractions, the bear being the heraldic emblem

of Bern.

In Professor Pusey's Daniel is an account of a lions' den in Morocco which may be like the one at Babylon. "The lions' den was a large quadrangular hole in the ground, divided by a partition into two chambers. This wall has a door which can be opened and shut from above. The keepers of the lions (mostly Jews) throw food into the one division and so entice the lions thither, then they shut the door from above and clean the other division. The whole is under the open sky, and is only encircled with a wall over which people can look in.".