stand in the celestial records? He was a heathen prince, and had not half our light and opportunities; we are the children of Christian lands and homes, reared under the sound of church-going bells, and familiar with all sacred knowledge from our infancy. He had but one great example to influence and direct him; we have thousands of them, and the ministries of many ages and divers dispensations. The vessels he profaned had been won in battle, and had become. the property of the crown, which a heathen monarch might suppose himself entitled to use as he saw fit; the sacred things we have we know to be the Lord's, and we know, too, how jealous He is of their rightful use and His rightful honor. And if Belshazzar met a doom so sudden and awful for his profanity, what have many around and among us to expect? If he was so deficient when weighed in the just balances of God, how, will it be with those who drive on with guilty pride and ungodliness over a preached Gospel, over a crucified Saviour, and in defiance of all the holy lessons and warning admonitions with which their way is strewn? If the pagan in his pagan surroundings could not escape, how will it be with pagans who are such in spite of all the better light and hallowing influences of a complete revelation and a pure Christianity? If Mene, mene, tekel, Upharsin, was written against the heathen Belshazzar, what, suppose ye, stands written to-day against those who so well know their duty, but do it not?

O my friends, there is something peculiarly alarming in these inquiries. A world of ominous sugges

tion presents itself. I seem to be looking on scenes of judgment in which the wheels of God's almightiness thunder and crash through throngs of shrieking souls, the nurslings of unnumbered mercies, for whom there is no more help or hope! Among them are many whom I know, whose fathers, mothers and friends I know, to whom I have often preached and with whom I have often pleaded. I wonder, Is this to be reality? Ah, dear hearers, that is for you to decide. As things now stand with many, it is on the way to become reality. And when I see how light some make of it, how dull and dead many are to the whole subject, with what haughty indifference one and another turns from it as the veriest trifle, I wonder still more how can it otherwise than become reality, perhaps with all the suddenness of Belshazzar's end! God be thanked that it is not reality yet! Judgment still lingers. How much longer it will delay for the persevering sinner God only knows. Now, therefore, while yet the sun of mercy shines, let no one who hears me turn a heedless ear or trifle any further with the precious interests of his endangered soul.

LECTURE EIGHTH.

THE MEDO-PERSIAN PRIME MINISTER; OR, THE FAITH OF DANIEL TESTED.

Daniel 6: 1–28.

THE chapter upon which we

now enter very

clearly attests the change in the government of Babylon declared in the verses preceding. It was common for the Chaldeans to administer capital punishment by burning. To the Persians, who were worshippers of fire, this was regarded as something of an abomination, and hence they destroyed their condemned criminals by casting them to savage beasts. The lion's den, in place of the burning fiery furnace, thus points to an entire revolution in the laws and administration of the empire.

The same is indicated in the division of the kingdom into principalities, and the assignment of a particular head or prince to each, whilst over these, again, were three presidents, one of whom was the chief over the other two, and stood in relation to the throne as prime minister or grand vizier. We thus find ourselves in the presence of quite another government from that which was administered by the exalted Nebuchadnezzar, and which perished with his infamous grandson Belshazzar.

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You will remember that it was said in the conclusion of the preceding chapter that "Darius the Median took the kingdom, being about threescore and two years old." Critics, historians and antiquarians are much at sea in their attempts to identify this king. There are three different theories on the subject, and it does not seem to be possible, in the present state of our knowledge, to determine which is certainly the true one. Fortunately, it is not necessary to settle this question in order to understand what is here meant to be taught us. All the facts and lessons remain precisely the same whether we can tell who this Darius the Median was, or not. The strongest probabilities are that he was the same who is known as Astyages, in whose court Cyrus the conqueror was reared. He was, at any rate, the embodiment and representative of the Medo-Persian dominion over Babylon after it was conquered by Cyrus.

Coming into power in Babylon upon the fall of Nabonnedus and Belshazzar, he would necessarily have his attention very particularly directed to Daniel, not only from his connection with the court for such a long succession of years, but chiefly on account of his interpretation of the mysterious writing on the wall, his prediction of Belshazzar's fall, and his remarkable wisdom in connection with the reign of the great Nebuchadnezzar. Very naturally, he would desire to avail himself of the services and talents of so wise, experienced and faultless a man. Coming in contact with him, as he thus would,

Darius could not be otherwise than impressed with the extraordinary character of his talents and his eminent fitness to be selected as his chief helper in the organization and administration of his newlyenlarged kingdom. Though Darius himself seems to have been a somewhat weak, impulsive and vacillating man, yet he had had a long experience in rulership, and was not deficient in discernment and wisdom in selecting trustworthy and competent men to whom to assign responsible trusts. Even weak and bad men like to have good and faithful servants, and prefer those with better principles than their own. It is a homage which they pay to virtue, even though they do not follow it. No matter how depraved people may be, they would always rather have servants whom they can trust than such as are as base as themselves. And whatever may have been the deficiencies of this Darius, he had the shrewdness to find out the best and most competent man in Babylon to serve him as his prime minister. He made Daniel the chief of the three presidents over all the other princes and principalities into which the realm was divided under the Medo-Persian rule.

Such a man, in such a position, administering affairs with rigid exactness and impartiality, strictly honest himself and tolerating no dishonesties or falsities in others, and ever growing in the esteem of his king and in favor with the people, could not, in the nature of things, escape the envy and malice of those who suffered by comparison, and who found him in the way of their selfish ambitions. It is part