_It pleased Darius to set over the Kingdom._ DANIEL AND HIS ENEMIES Darius appointed an entirely new administration, but it does not appear that he made any material change in the financial system of the Empire. Daniel we may call the First Lord of the Treasury. Daniel s high reputation was confirm... [ Continue Reading ]
_Because an excellent spirit was in him._ THE MAN OF AN “EXCELLENT SPIRIT,” OR OF A GOOD CONSCIENCE All men have what we call a conscience, something within that concerns itself with the right and wrong of actions. A good conscience is something more than a sincere conscience. Many sincere conscie... [ Continue Reading ]
_Then the Presidents and Princes sought to find occasion against Daniel._ THE HEBREW CONFESSOR It is the nature of the carnal mind, even to hate God, and so it hates that which has God in it. His enemies hated Daniel on account of his faith: Amidst the rabble of deities, gods and goddesses, with al... [ Continue Reading ]
_Except we find it against him concerning the law of him God._ FRUIT IN OLD AGE This ancient story is as vital and beautiful as ever. Each deed of holy courage, each life of truth and purity, lives on in recorded or unrecorded influence. He works (immortal as He who inspired it), in one generation... [ Continue Reading ]
_Consulted together to establish a royal statute._ THE FAITH OF DANIEL TESTED 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 crimin... [ Continue Reading ]
_Therefore King Darius reigned the Writing and the Decree._ A HERO IN BABYLON The Jews passed into the hands of the conqueror of Babylon, and became the subjects of the great Cyrus, whose viceroy at Babylon is called in the Bible by the common name of Darius. The Persians were not idolaters. They b... [ Continue Reading ]
_Now when Daniel knew that the Writing was signed._ FAITHFUL SERVING The grandeur of the Book of Daniel is not only the sweep of these majestic visions which opened the mysteries of future time, but the vivid portrait it holds before us of a man who has all the springs of his actions in faithfulnes... [ Continue Reading ]
_Then the king, when he heard these words, was sore displeased with himself._ THE NEMESIS OF FLATTERY Daniel sought neither publicity, nor avoided it. He was too well acquainted with the methods of Oriental government to suppose that his disobedience to the King’s decree could be concealed. Because... [ Continue Reading ]
_That no decree nor statute that the king establisheth may be changed._ INVIOLABLE LAW These men were constitutional persecutors. They were constitutional liars. Some men are nothing if not constitutional. They would die for constitution; they dream of constitutional order: these men who are so add... [ Continue Reading ]
_Then the King commanded and they brought Daniel._ THE EXAMPLE OF DANIEL It is the property of pure religion to invest the man who possesses it with excellencies which bear no resemblance to the “fashion of the world.” His ambition rises beyond all human distinctions. Those endowments of mind and... [ Continue Reading ]
_O Daniel, servant of the living God, is thy God, whom thou servest continually, able to deliver thee from the lions?_ THE LIONS’ DEN The empire of Babylonia and Chaldea passed into the hands of a new dynasty, and King Belshazzar was slain in a night-assault upon his capital. On that very night he... [ Continue Reading ]
_My Lord hath sent His Angel._ DANIEL’S MARVELLOUS DELIVERANCES These words are Daniel’s religious and thankful acknowledgment of his deliverance. 1. Here is a reverend compellation. “O king.” Darius was a heathen prince; an enemy to God’s people; and he here makes a wicked law, forbidding religi... [ Continue Reading ]
_Those men which had accused Daniel._ RIGHTEOUS RETRIBUTION The Bible from first to last is a revelation of God’s active, personal, and intelligent presence in the affairs of men; and its elementary principles without which all approach to God is impossible, are, first, that there is a God, and sec... [ Continue Reading ]
_Men tremble and fear before the God of Daniel._ THE GOD OF DANIEL Religion has furnished the widest field for persecution. 1. The God of Daniel permits His children to be tempted and tried. Generally, trials are regarded as punishments and corrections. What divine end should we regard as attaine... [ Continue Reading ]
_He worketh signs and wonders in heaven and in earth._ THE IDEA OF GOD AS AFFECTED BY SCIENCE The picture formed of the Creator of the world has varied according to the strength or culture of the age through which the idea is passing. To the American Indian God is only a good spirit, the owner of a... [ Continue Reading ]
_So this Daniel prospered in the reign of Darius, and in the reign of Cyrus the Persian._ DANIEL The prosperity of this noble ruler clearly appears from the whole history of his life. Such another instance of long and increasing prosperity in public life, we presume to say, cannot be found in the... [ Continue Reading ]