Sermon Bible Commentary
Daniel 6:23
I. It is good and they who have proved it in their own persons will be the foremost to confirm the words to have had at times to bear witness alone and with none to sympathise, for the truth as God has taught them. It is only so that they can learn what is the strength of their faith; what it can bear; what it is worth. The faith that can bear to be alone with God in this world; thatfaith will pass unshaken through the gates of death, and meet God with no ignoble fear in the world to come. It is easy to believe, or think we believe, in a crowd. We feel, then, that the responsibility is divided; there is a sense of safety in the mere fact that many are trusting to the same hope as ourselves. But we may mistake trust in our clique for trust in our belief; and trust in our belief for trust in God. And it is good for such props to be at times rudely knocked away, if only that we may see whether we can stand alone; alone, as far as men are concerned; but not alone, "because the Father is with us."
II. It is not strange, therefore, that the Bible should be full of the histories of men who are distinguished by the quality of boldness. Abraham leaving his country and people to form a nation in a distant land; David going forth alone to meet the giant; Elijah before his enemy Ahab; the three children in the furnace of Nebuchadnezzar; Daniel in the wild beasts' den; to say nothing of the faithful rank and file of the earth; the "seven thousand" whose stories are not written in the chronicles of human penmen, but whose names are in the Book of Life; the seven thousand, the glorious minority, who in all times remain as God's witnesses, and will not bow the knee to Baal. It is not strange that characters like these should form the staple of the Scripture biography; for they are the men by whom the great fight has been fought and the victory won. The history of the cause of God in the world is, and must be, the history of brave men of those who are not ashamed of Him, or afraid of their fellow-men.
III. Times change; standards of orthodoxy vary; forms of persecution have their day and cease to be; but two things remain the same, the will and nature of God, and the heart of mankind. Now, for ever in this world, the fight against the devil is to be waged by the brave. If our first needful prayer is "Lord, increase our faith," the next is "Lord, increase in us boldness," that we may not fear what men can do to us, nor what men can say of us.
IV. Though a brave man must needs be alone in the world, it does not follow that he who chooses to walk alone is therefore brave. There is a solitude in which we may be, not alone with God, but alone with self alone with pride and uncharity and a rebellious heart.
A. Ainger, Sermons in the Temple Church,p. 1.
References: Daniel 6:23 Homiletic Magazine,vol. xiii., p. 271.Daniel 6:28. J. Foster, Lectures,2nd series, p. 174. 6 J. G. Murphy, The Book of Daniel,p. 119; W. M. Taylor, Preacher's Monthly,vol. ii., p. 348; Ibid.,vol. iv., p. 55.