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speaks of the father, who escaped, while Daniel speaks of the son, who was slain. This unsuspected fact not only reconciles the Prophet and historian, but explains an otherwise inexplicable expression in Daniel, where it was promised to the Prophet by Belshazzar that. if he could explain the writing on the wall, he would make him the third ruler in the kingdom. (Dan. v. 16.) Now, why not the second ruler, as Joseph in similar circumstances had been made in Egypt? The cylinder answers the question : there were two kings in Babylon, and therefore the place next to the throne could be only the third rulership in the kingdom. A very short time before the discovery which so triumphantly reconciles the seeming contradiction, which cast a shade of suspicion on Daniel's accuracy, Mr. F. W. Newman had written these words in Kitto's Cyclopædia, "No hypothesis will reconcile this account with the other;" an instructive lesson this, teaching us to give the sacred writers credit for accuracy, even though we may be unable to explain facts which seem to impeach it.

4, 5. (4) occasion, something of wh. they might take advantage so as to secure Daniel's destruction." faithful, the first political virtue of government officials. (5) concerning.. God, in relation to his religion.

The character of Daniel (x. 5).—Let me—I. Open to you the constituent parts of this character. Here we behold, in combined and unintermittent exercise-1. Piety; 2. Wisdom; 3. Consistency; 4. Firmness. II. Urge you all to the attainment of it. Let me invite you to consider-1. How it honours God; 2. How it disarms prejudice; 3. How it tends to the welfare of your own soul.c

Power of flattery.—

All-potent Flattery, universal lord!

Reviled, yet courted: censured, yet adored!

How thy strong spell each human bosom draws,
The very echo to our self-applause!

"Tis thine to smooth the furrow'd brow of Pique,
Wrinkle with smiles the sour reluctant cheek,
Silence the wrathful, make the sullen speak,
Disarm a tyrant, tame a father's curse,

Wring the slow farthing from the miser's purse,
Subdue Lucretia, even when gold shall fail,
And make Apicius smile o'er cheese and ale."
6-9. (6) assembled, marg.

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" "Had they came tumultuously;" as if come more the matter was one of instant and pressing importance." Daniel deliberately knew nothing of their plot, and prob. he could not interfere as the king might have refused the matter did not belong to his department. (7) establish, i.c. their grant; but get the king to establish. decree, or interdict. save of thee, they gave him no this shows that they represented the necessity for thus securing a universal acknowledgment of Darius's authority and rights. den of lions, a kind of punishment not previously mentioned in the Bible. (8) altereth not, Esth. i. 19. (9) signed, usually documents were sealed, and stamping or sealing is prob. here intended.

time for reflection, represent

ing that their test decree was necessary for the safety of the king."-Fausset.

b In Persia the king is regarded as the image of

Evils of flattery.

A man I knew who lived upon a smile,
And well it fed him; he look'd plump and fair,

While rankest venom foamed through every vein;
Living, he fawn'd on every fool alive;

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v. 7. T. Morer, 83.

And, dying, cursed the friend on whom he lived." When Alexander the Great had received from an arrow ac Young. wound that would not heal, he said to his parasites, "You say that I am Jupiter's son, but this wound proves me a feeble man.' Undeserved praise is always fatal in its effects on the vainglorious dupe. More danger lurks in adulation than in abuse, since it is the slaver that kills and not the bite. They who are voracious of vain compliments, drink from a Circean cup, which first exhilarates to madness and then destroys.d

10-12. (10) knew, was informed. His enemies would be ready enough to give him such information. windows, etc., this is stated to indicate that he made no change whatever in his habits." towards Jerus., 1 Ki. viii. 48. three times, Ps. lv. 17.6 as.. aforetime, showing that when in full work, he had been a man of prayer. (11) assembled, see note on r. 6. "The spy-system was well organised among the Medo-Persians." (12) hast, etc., these men sought a confirmation of the decree before they mentioned Daniel's name.

who

Those
before 8 glass
look most at
themselves, are
apt to know
least of them-

selves.

d E. L. Magoon.

a "On the roof

of his house there was a chamber, with windows

whose cross-bars or lattices could be shut or opened at pleasure."Spk. Com.

b" Daniel did not court persecu

tion: he did not run recklessly into danger, and

tempt his enemies to the

Daniel's devotions (v. 10).-I. Daniel's devotions. 1. He humbled himself when he prayed; 2. He confessed his sins and the sins of his people; 3. He deprecated punishment, and implored mercy; 4. He pleaded with God; 5. He gave thanks. II. The manner how he performed them. 1. He went into his house and into his chamber; 2. He prayed and gave thanks three sin of accusing times a day; 3. He kneeled upon his knees when he prayed; 4. him. He retired He looked towards Jerusalem when he prayed: 5. His prayers to his upper chamber, his were regularly performed. III. The peculiar circumstances in private oratory; which he was placed. 1. He was in a foreign land; 2. Sur- and his accusers rounded by enemies; 3. He was in high life; 4. Involved in pressed in upon most important business; 5. He was prohibited from praying. violently and his privacy IV. The inferences to be drawn from the whole. 1. Whoever, tumultuously." wherever you are, prepare for temptation; 2. Under no circum--Wordsworth. stances swerve from duty; 3. The way of duty is the way of safety 4. Persecutors often defeat their own object; 5. The wicked are snared in their own hands.

. 10., T. Bradbury, i. 245; W Reading, iv. 171; Bp. Horne, ii. 197; J. Bondier, 207 W. Ja, iii. 330;

D. Brichan, i.; Dr. H. Pearson, 404; J. G. Foyster, 17; T. Arnold, iii. 265; T. Jackson, 44.

Religious bravery.-One of the Irish Society's readers, knowing that his countrymen were perishing for lack of spiritual knowledge, began to supply that lack before he was known to the Society. This exposed him to much persecution. On one occasion he was brought into a room where a number of Roman Catholic gentlemen were assembled, who desired him to swear by a mass book, which lay upon the table, that he would never again read the Bible in public. One individual produced a case of pistols, and threatened to shoot him dead if he did not take e Beta in 400 Sks. the oath. Unbuttoning his coat, he opened his breast and said, I am a poor sinner. and fear to offend my God; but here is a heart that never dreaded man."

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a "Having too late discovered that the princes, in procuring him to sign this de

13, 14. (13) that Daniel, this expression seems to let out their spite. children.. Judah, some time ago a mere captive. regardeth not, simply bec. he regarded God, and he could not both obey God's law and the king's, and there could be no question which of the two he must choose. (14) sore displeased," cree, had no vexed at thus being overreached, for he saw that it was enmity other aim but to

take advantage of it to the pre judice of Daniel." -Lowth.

b "We often do

that, through inconsideration,

which afterwards we see cause a

thousand times to wish undone again, which is a we should ponder the path of our

good reason why

feet." Henry.

Mat.

towards Daniel, and not anxiety for the maintenance of his authority which had led to the plot. laboured, etc., to find some pretext for not executing the decree."

Protection of prayer.-Among the elegant forms of insect life, there is a little creature known to naturalists which can gather round it a sufficiency of atmospheric air, and, so clothed upon, it descends into the bottom of the pool, and you may see the little diver moving about dry and at his ease, protected by his crystal vesture, though the water all around and above be stagnant and bitter. Prayer is such a protector-a transparent vesture; the world sees it not; but, a real defence, it keeps out the world. By means of it the believer can gather so much of heaven's atmosphere around him, and with it descend into the putrid depths of this contaminating world, that for a season no A humble man evil will touch him; and he knows where to ascend for a fresh is like a good tree: the more supply. Communion with God kept Daniel pure in Babylon. Nothing else can keep us safe in London. In the "secret of God's presence" you might tread these giddy streets, and your eyes never view the vanity. You might pass theatres and taverns, and never dream of entering in. You might get invitations to noisy routs and God-forgetting assemblies, and have no heart to go. Golden images, public opinion, with its lion's den; and fashion, with its fiery furnace, would never disturb you. A man of prayer in this mart of nations, you could pass upon your way unseduced and undistracted, a Christian in Vanity Fair, a pilgrim in a paradise of fools, a worshipper amidst idolaters, a Daniel in Babylon.

full of fruit the branches are, the lower they bend.

c Dr. J. Hamilton.

"Yet show some

pity. I show it 1 show justice: for then I pity those I do not dismissed offence would after gall; and do him right that, answering one foul wrong,

most of all when

know, which a

lives not to act another."--Shake

speare.

its

are

15-17. (15) assembled, vv. 6, 11. know, O king, their tone was masterful now, for they felt able to compel the king to work their will. (16) cast.. lions, through the entrance by wh. food was put to them, or over the high wall surrounding their den." he will, the king means, "I hope he will." (17) stone, it is difficult to understand the shape of the den, if its entrance was thus closed by a stone. sealed it, to secure that none opened it without due authority.

The den of lions.-This is a new kind of punishment, not previously mentioned in Scripture; and that it first occurs here at Babylon is a remarkable fact, showing the accuracy of the sacred writers in their references to the manners and usages of different nations. We are not aware that any ancient writer mentions "Accuse not that the inhabitants of Babylon were in the habit of throwing Heaven's delay; if loth to strike,offenders to be devoured by lions kept in dens for the purpose. judgments, But we have the still more conclusive evidence of monuments like the thunder- brought to light by modern travellers, on the sites not only of gather'd storm, but the Babylon, but of Susa also, representing lions destroying and greater." Web-preying upon human beings. The first was found at Babylon, near the great mass of ruin which is supposed to mark the site of the grand western palace. It represents a lion standing over the body of a prostrate man, extended on a pedestal which measures nine feet in length by three in breadth. The whole is from a block of stone of the ingredient and texture of granite, the scale colossal, and the sculpture in a very barbarous style. The head has been lately knocked off; but when Mr. Rich saw it the statue was in a perfect state, and he remarks that "the mouth had a circular aperture into which a man might introduce his fist." The second is an engraved gem, dug from the ruins of

ster.

"Tis with our

judgments as our watches;

none

go just alike, yet each believes his own."-Pope.

6 Mat. xxvii. 66.

"Let honour be
to us as strong
an obligation as
necessity
others."--Pliny.

c Dr. Kitto.

Babylon by Captain Mignan. It exhibits a man standing upon
two sphinxes and engaged with two fierce animals, possibly in-
tended for lions. If it be not an astronomical representation, it
might seem very probably an exhibition, partly symbolical, of
some such event as the present. A Fellow of several learned
societies, in adverting to this, directs attention to the great
similarity which he finds between the features and dress of the
man and those of the captive Jews in Egypt, in that representa-
tion which we have copied, from the sources to which he refers,
under 2 Chron. xxxv. On comparing them, considerable resem-
blance may certainly be found about the head and its attire.c
18-20. (18) instruments, etc., Gesenius trans. the word
"concubines." 'Nothing could divert the king's thoughts from
the prisoner in the den."a (19) very early, lit. in the glimmer
of morning. (20) lamentable voice, full of fear and sorrow.
Influence of faith.-The Orientals have an idea, that in what-a
ever a man believes, whether in reference to the existence or
non-existence of evil or danger in regard to himself, that so will
his condition be regulated. In walking once with a learned
Brahmin, through a grove of cocoa trees, I inquired, "Why are
you not afraid of those nuts falling on your head, and killing
you on the spot?" "Because I have only to believe they will
not fall, and all is safe," was his reply."

66

21-23. (21) said Daniel, the sound of his voice was the all-sufficing assurance. (22) innocency, purity, straightforwardness. no hurt, no wrong; nothing that could damage the king's authority. Daniel had only disobeyed to preserve a good conscience. (23) glad, quite a revulsion of feeling came over the king, and in sudden impulse he broke the decree so shamefully forced from him, and released Daniel. believed.. God, showing faith by the act of allegiance.

Daniel in the lion's den (v. 22).-I would take these words-I. Literally, as regards Daniel, and as it regards the king. 1. As regards the king, look at the positivity of his conduct, unhappiness; 2. As regards Daniel, captivity, beauty, learning, piety, devotion, persecution, age, society, name. II. I come now to take it spiritually, his portion, my God, the messenger, the lion's mouth shut, the law, the world. III. Taking the text mediatorially. 1. Daniel a type of Christ; 2. The lion, like the world, rough like sin, sudden in attack."

Daniel in the lion's den.-The third is a block of white marble found near the tomb of Daniel at Susa, and thus described by Sir R. K. Porter in his Travels (vol. ii. 416). "It does not exceed ten inches in width and depth, measures twenty in length, and is hollow within, as if to receive some deposit. Three of its sides are cut in bas-relief, two of them with similar representations of a man apparently naked, except a sash round his waist and a sort of cap on his head. His hands are bound behind him. The corner of the stone forms the neck of the figure, so that its head forms one of its ends. Two lions in sitting postures appear on either side at the top, each having a paw on the head of the man. These are certainly satisfactory illustrations of the custom in question, as existing at Babylon and Susa, and others might be adduced from Babylonian coins. As to the punishment itself opinions will be divided. But it is remarkable that Dr.

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is to

a "For Darius it

was a wretched night. He was

sad and horror

stricken. He was to re

prey morse. Perhaps he was beginning to see how he had been the dupe of furious indignation was rising like a storm in

his lords, and

his soul."-Robjohns.

b Roberts.

vr. 21, 22. Bp. Brownrig, i. 47; W. Keating, 164. v. 23. Dr. G. D'Ouly, i. 319; C. Girdlestone, ii. 395.

a Dr. Andrews.

that species of "Compassion is affection which i excited either by the actual distress of its object, or by some impending calamity, which apIt is a benevolent pears inevitable. sorrow for the sufferings or approaching misery etymology of the word expresses this idea

of another. The

with strict propriety. as it signifies suffering with the object."-C. Buck.

"Reputation

oft got without merit, and lost without deserv

Hodge.

b R. T. S.

a Comp. Da. iii.

29, iv. 3, 34.

vii. 583.

24. accused Daniel, prob. the leaders of the malicious
party. Darius's effeminate nature manifested itself in ungovern-
able fury and passion. The barbarity of his action we cannot
but condemn; but the death of these plotters is a remarkable
instance of retribution. children, etc., comp. Est. ix. 13, 14.
Retribution.-The Rev. H. G. Keene states, in his Persian
Stories, that the following narrative was related by a person of
authority and reputation, who was one of the party. A vessel
set sail from Bassorah to Bagdad, with several passengers on
board. In the course of the voyage, the sailors, by way of a joke,
put a man in irons as he lay asleep, and he became a subject of
diversion to the whole party till they drew near to the capital.
But when the sailors wanted to let him loose, the key was no-
where to be found, and after a long and fruitless search, they
were compelled to send for a blacksmith to knock off the fetters.
When, however, the blacksmith came, he refused to do what they
wanted, till he had the authority of the magistrate; for he
thought the man might be some criminal whom the officers of
justice had laid hold of, and that his friends wished to favour
his escape. To the magistrate they accordingly went, who sent
down one of his attendants to see into it. But the officer, when
he had heard their story, and had taken the evidence of some of
the most respectable among the passengers, shook his head, and
with a look of solemnity, said it was much too serious a case for
him to decide. So they repaired in a body to the magistrate, and
carried the poor captive with them. So strange a procession was
sure to attract notice; and a crowd soon collected about them.
each curious to know the prisoner's offence, and to catch a sight
of him: till at length one man, springing forward, seized the cap-
tive by the throat, and exclaimed, "Here is the villain I have been
looking for these two years; ever since he robbed and murdered
my poor brother." Nor would he quit his hold till they came
before the magistrate; and the murder being clearly proved, the
man, who had been confined in joke only, was given up to death,
as a punishment for the blood that he had shed."

25-28. (25) wrote, etc., this may have been necessary bec.
the previous edict had been widely circulated, and this new
r. 27. J. Saurin, decree practically acted as a reversal, or withdrawal, of the
former one. (26) God of Daniel, i.e. the God whose claim to
universal recognition has been proved by His deliverance of
Daniel.a (28) prospered, was restored to his rank and honour,
and held his position securely. the Persian, who took the

"In Rome

whole monarchy on Darius's death, and called it the Persian

temple was 80

low as that of monarchy.

honour built to

The decree of Darius (vv. 25—27).—We propose to consider—I.
show how hum- His views of Daniel's God. 1. His essential perfections; 2. His
ble honour ought
to be, though universal dominion; 3. His miracles of love and mercy towards
there 'twas all His believing people. Such being his views of the Deity, we are
authority.”— no longer surprised at-II. His decree founded upon them. Let
"Honour's us distinctly notice-1. Its import; 2. The reasonableness of it.
imaginary Behold then in this decree-(1) The effect which God's mercies

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