Daniel 6:5

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 after another with the “power of an endless life.” Beautiful the thick blossomed trees of spring, but not to be compared for the beauty of usefulness with the fruit-weighted trees of autumn Beautiful the piety of youth with its sweet promises, but more beautiful the piety of aged men and women when, so many tempests outlived, they “still bring forth fruit in old age.” What fruit do we find m Daniel’s old age?

I. AN EXCELLENT SPIRIT. In him, and seen to be in him. For be a man’s spirit excellent or the reverse, it cannot be hidden. It comes out. The churl, the cruel, the malignant man, may mask the spirit, and hypocritically appear what he is not. But such are often surprised into conduct in which the real bad spirit is revealed; or they weary of playing a part. The spirit of Daniel was the secret of his elevation by Darius. How it showed itself is not told. He was a man of rare sagacity, and of incorruptible integrity. He had a kingly soul, with a spirit that thrilled his very silences, looks, tones, with excellence. We are more as forces in the world, than speakers and toilers. The Spirit we are of is an essential part, the largest part of our influence. It is the eloquence of tone and look and silence--it is ourself. Let the spirit be right and the life will be.

II. FAITHFULNESS TO DUTY. Daniel had enemies. They plot against him. He was faithful to his earthly master, because in all faithful to his Master in heaven. The secret of his faithfulness was that very piety through which his foes sought to assail, and take his life from the earth. There still is the secret of well doing, and continuance in well-doing, whatever be the station.

III. PRAYERFULNESS. Busy had been Daniel’s life. But he was never too busy to pray thrice a day. From this habit, not even peril of death could daunt him. Daniel knew that the writing was signed, but it made no difference. For he knew also the helpful and sublime privilege of prayer. The baffled king sought by delay to save Daniel. It was in vain. The den probably was an underground cave. This method of punishment is attested by the discovery of statues and bas-reliefs among the ruins of Babylon. Daniel was willing to meet his fate. Prayer to God was the necessity of his life. Life might be surrendered rather than prayer. Life fruitful is ever life prayerful.

IV. TRUSTFULNESS. What a moment when the aged prophet was cast into the den! Daniel was calm. He trusted in God. From early youth, through manifold perils, Daniel had trusted in his God. He had never been put to confusion, nor would he be now. The angel Jehovah was with him. (G. T. Coster.)

The authority of conscience

Fault-finding is not a difficult science. A practised critic will find blemishes in the most beautiful works of men. The judges of a century ago who passed capital sentence on cases that were more than doubtful consoled themselves by the reflection that there was enough in every man to justify a hanging. So strong has been the sense of human guilt that it had been satisfied with nothing less than theories of total depravity. Many countries have sought for stainless statesmen, many masters for spotless servants, many Churches for immaculate ministers, but the supply has not been equal to the demand. And every fresh failure has only served to intensify the depth of the conviction that the best men have in them the principle of evil. And I go further and say that this conviction has forced itself on those who have not set themselves to find out the faults in others. Our failings, as a rule, are so obvious that the most charitable must acknowledge them. It does net need a jealous or envious eye to detect our flaws. And if this is true of our experience of private life, it is doubly so of public life. The “fierce light that beats upon a throne,” beats with no less fierceness upon the guiders of a throne. Their most private failings are magnified into public evils. It might also be said that a public man has no privacy. The more widely a man is known the larger is the circle of his critics. Daniel was a public man. He was one of the three presidents of Darius’s kingdom, and we are told “the king thought to set him over the whole realm.” It would not have been easy to play perfectly so exalted a part before the most friendly spectators. But they who watched Daniel were hostile in the worst degree. Theirs was no manly, open hostility, that thought his actions wrong, and opposed them because they thought so. Theirs was a mean, underhand, jealous and envious hostility, that could not bear to see virtue rewarded. And for them the sting was in the virtue. Daniel was faithful. His conduct would bear the severe scrutiny of his enemies. We do not suppose this to mean that Daniel was no sinner, but there was no open departure from righteousness and justice which could be made the basis of an impeachment. There remained one chance of striking a blow at the man they hated. Daniel was a religious man. His religion was a part of his life. They knew him well enough to know that on no consideration would he forsake or neglect his religion. We have here, I think, a very striking illustration of a very great truth that conscience derives its power over men as it is recognised by them to be a law of their God. The gospel of Christ appeals to the most savage and slavish of people, as well as to the most civilised, because it appeals to those great principles of our nature that distinguish us as mankind. And of all our common qualities, conscience is one of the most undeniable. With more or less distinctness it defines for every class of men certain broad lines of right and wrong. But it is evident that its power over us will depend on how we regard it. It may be to some a mere uncomfortable sensation that may be removed in time; the result of a passing feeling of sorrow for harm done or wrong tolerated. In such a ease it is not likely to speak with much force. But to others it is sacred with the monitions of God Himself. They have seen an inner law in all men, and have agreed that there was a great Lawgiver. They have heard an inner voice calling them to righteousness, and have felt there was somewhere a Source of righteousness. The history of the world is full of instances of the conduct that is the result of these two ways of regarding conscience. Its Pilates, even when to the reproaches of their consciences have been added superstitious fears, have washed their hands and declared themselves innocent of just blood it was in their power to save. But its Luthers, when they might have stood aloof and declared their innocence of declines and practices that had degraded the Church, felt compelled to suffer persecution with the people of God rather than enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. If the world has had its King Johns who could consent to make their kingdom tributary to the Pope, and hold their crown from his command, it has also had its William the Silents who for the sacred cause of liberty could endure all personal sacrifice that they might finally bequeath to their successors the inheritance of a free people, whose rights were assured, and whose consciences were respected. Again I say, obedience to conscience as to the law of God makes the hero. I plead that there is no way in which we can better serve our Master. Here, if in any way, is our best opportunity of serving our day and generation. We live at a time when, with shame be it said, in many trades custom has done its best to condone dishonesty: to patronise sham commodities has become general; many an honest living has beech ruined by unfair competition; cheapness of material has been secured by lavish expenditure of human suffering. There is very serious danger that our national conscience may become dull as our national sins become common. There is very serious danger lest good Christian people should act the part of Pilate through mistrust of their powers to stay the wrong. There is very serious danger lest we should become so accustomed to hear the voice of pain as to shut our ears to its cry and be absolutely dumb. We pass on to notice how the law of God is superior in authority to the law of man, and how the law of man only derives its validity and authority as it reflects and realises the law of God. Daniel’s enemies saw that it was possible to frame a law that Daniel’s conscience would not permit him to obey; and they knew that no matter what penalties were attached, if obedience to the law of man meant disobedience to the law of God, Daniel would be s law-breaker rather than be false to his religion. Now, how would the opinion of a certain class of people regard Daniel? They say the law is sacred: obedience to the law is imperative. They who go to Rome must do as Rome does. They must at least bow down to the house of Rimmon, even if it was only an outward formality. It is possible to act like a heathen and think like a Christian. God regards the heart--and to Him lip-service is insignificant, the worship of the heart is everything. Outward formality is nothing, inwardly reality is all. To them, then, Daniel’s action may have been brave and grand, but it was the action of a fanatic, not of a careful and prudent man. Christian manhood shrinks in horror from conformity even in appearance to the false. It may be the law of the country, but no country has a right to make the law. Nay, human law has its province: there are certain broad rules of morality that no one has a right to transgress. But human law has no right to interfere with man’s religion: here he passes into a sacred realm; here his relationship is with God. Oh, that our characters may so bear the scrutiny of our enemies that our religion may be in their eyes our only fault? In a sense our lives are public ones. A godless world will eagerly pounce on any un-Christian conduct, and make it an occasion against us. (C.S.Horne, M.A.)

A Tribute from Enemies

I. THE VERY UNFAVORABLE SOIL IN WHICH A CHARACTER OF SINGULAR BEAUTY AND DEVOUT CONSECRATION MAY BE ROOTED AND GROW. What sort of a place was that court where Daniel was? Half shambles and half pigsty. Luxury, sensuality, lust, self-seeking, idolatry, ruthless cruelty were the environment of this man. In the middle of these there grew up this fair flower of a character, pure and stainless, by the acknowledgment of enemies, and in which not even accusers could find a speck or a spot. There are no circumstances in which a man must trove his garments spotted by the world. There were “saints in Caesar’s household.” It may sound a paradox, but it is a deep truth that unfavorable circumstances are the most favorable for the development of the Christian character. For that development comes, not by what we draw from the things around, but by what we draw from the things in which we are rooted, even God himself, in whom the roots find both anchorage and nutriment. The more we are thrown back on him, and the less we find food for our best selves in the things about us, the more likely is our religion to be robust, and thoroughgoing, and conscious ever of his presence. He that has vitality enough within him to keep hold of Jesus Christ has thereby power enough within him to turn enemies into friends, and unfavorable circumstances into helps instead of hindrances. Purity, and holiness, and communion with God do not depend on environment, but upon the inmost will of the man.

II. THE KEEN CRITICS THAT ALL GOOD MEN HAVE TO FACE. In this man’s case their eyesight was meaded by the microscope of envy and malice.

However unobtrusive and quiet a Christian person’s life may be, there will be some persons standing close by who, if not actually watching for his fall, are at least by no means indisposed to make the worst of a slip, and to rejoice over an inconsistency. We do not need to complain of that. There will always be a tendency to judge men who by any means profess that they are living by the highest law, with a judgment, that has very little charity in it. And it is perfectly right that it should be so. Be content to be tried by a high standard.

III. THE UNBLEMISHED RECORD. These men could find no fault. They were very poor judges of his religion, and they did not try to judge that; but they were very good judges of his conduct as Prime Minister, and they did judge that. The world is a very poor critic of my Christianity, but it is a very sufficient one of my conduct. If we call ourselves Christians, we are bound, by the very name, to live in such a fashion as that men shall have no doubt of the reality of our profession, and of the depth of our fellowship with Christ. And it is by our commom conduct men will judge us.

IV. OBEDIENT DISOBEDIENCE. The plot goes on the calculation that, whatever happens, this man may be trusted to do what his God tells him; no matter who tells him not to do it. Daniel brushes the preposterous law of the poor, shadowy Darius on one side, in order that he may keep the law of his God. If earthly authorities command what is clearly contrary to God’s law, a Christian is absolved from obedience, and cannot be loyal unless he is a rebel. Obedience to God needs always to be sustained. In our little lives, the motto, “This did not I, because of the fear of the Lord,” is absolutely essential to all noble Christian conduct. These people calculated upon Daniel, and they had a right to calculate upon him. Could the world calculate upon us? (A. Maclaren, D.D.)

The Example of Daniel

Daniel is presented to us as a man, as well as a prophet of God. In the Bible men are seen as they really are, and the changes which grace made in their natural characters, are easily traced. Through a long life, Daniel’s was a record of consistent, firm, unflinching fidelity. What was the clew? In four aspects we may view him

I. IN CHILDHOOD, There is intense personality of teaching in the example here presented. As he was a child of the captivity, so are we. We are heirs of another kingdom. That kingdom is to come; we are to be trained for it. Parents are to follow a higher standard than this world can give. As the Chaldean lore of Daniel was all sanctified by piety, you are to see that the wisdom which is from above is made prominent in the training of your child for God.

II. IN HIS YOUNG MANHOOD. In Daniel’s treatment of himself young people may learn a useful lesson. Self-indulgence emasculates moral as well as physical vigour. The purity of innocence retained is better than that which comes by repentance and pardon.

III. AS A MAN, FULLY OCCUPIED. He was a statesman, and scientist as well. No man in this city is as busy to-day as was he. Yet he found time to pray thrice a day. He took time, and so may you.

IV. IN THE DEN OF LIONS. It was his prayerful communion with God that now risked his spiritual life and fortified him against perils which otherwise would have destroyed him. The den of lions was, indeed, a historic reality. Yet it was no less a figure of the tribulations into which our Lord Jesus and all his followers are thrown. We are powerful if we are in communion with God, and powerless if we attempt to cope with Him alone. (Bishop W. C. Doane.)

Eminent Piety and Efficiency in Business not incompatible

Daniel is a man fitted to excite our admiration at whatever point in his remarkable career we regard him. Two things in the text invite our attention.

I. THE HONORABLE TESTIMONY BORNE BY HIS ENEMIES TO HIS EFFICIENCY IN OFFICE. By the death of Belshazzar, and the conquest of Babylon, Darius, the Mede, had added an extensive territory to his empire, teeming with a numerous population. Such an addition required a corresponding increase in the staff of officials requisite for its management. Darius, admiring the administrative talents of Daniel, and having unbounded confidence in his character, formed the purpose of making this Daniel prime minister over the whole empire. Hence arose a conspiracy among Daniel’s associates in office. They have become jealous of Daniel, and seek his downfall.

1. The enemies of Daniel had powerful motives to seek his downfall. Motives impure indeed, but powerful. The spirit of envy had seized them. It cost them something to tolerate the Jewish statesman as an equal, but they could not brook his being their superior. Promotion to him was degradation to them.

2. They had ample scope. When men are bent on doing mischief, they can generally succeed, even where the sphere is limited, and the chances comparatively few. Shortcomings in accounts, and cases of maladministration on the part of Daniel could not have escaped the quick eye of his two rivals. Errors of this kind would have served their purpose. But they found “none occasion nor fault.”

II. THE LAST RESORT OF HIS MALICIOUS ENEMIES. They basely plot for his ruin concerning his religion. The cowardly conspiracy, together with its terrible recoil on the conspirators, is fully developed in the remainder of the chapter. The enemies of Daniel are “taken in their own trap, and are fallen into the pit their own hands have digged.”

1. There was another chance, and that chance lay in the man’s religion. Daniel was known to be eminently devout. Prayer was the element of his soul’s existence. Thorough honesty and honour might sufficiently explain the accuracy of Daniel’s accounts. But his religion was something beyond common honesty and honour. Without true religion, without a life of prayer, without a life of faith on the son of God, and obedience to his commands, without a life in which the moral nature shall have its share of attention, in which the soul shall get spiritual culture, and preparation for the future, your life, however satisfactory in other respects, is an incomplete thing, and if persisted in, will eventually prove a failure.

2. Daniel’s religion was reliable. His enemies and rivals knew this, and matured their plans accordingly. They saw in Daniel an honest and fearless professor of religion; a man of decision, the tone of whose piety was elevated, whose religious habits and exercises were fixed and punctual. They could make his frequent prayers to God a sure basis of calculation, in forming their schemes for his overthrow. Nor did they over-rate his constancy.

3. Eminent piety and thorough efficiency in business are not incompatible. Some have a notion that personal religion and proficiency in any trade or profession cannot go together. And, indeed, we do not always find piety and skill united. It need not be that the two are separated. And religion supplies the highest motives for the efficient discharge of all duties.

III. Religion not only places us under the power of mighty motives, IT ALSO SUPPLIES IN ITS HOLY EXERCISES THE BEST PREPARATION FOR MEETING THE CLAIMS OF OUR EARTHLY CALLING. There is a wear and tear of the system incessantly going on, in the pursuit of any trade or profession which demands occasional relief. The wheels of life want oiling. There is a fountain of strength free to all. Daniel knew its power. He found relief at the throne of grace, in his prayers and regular communings with God. Three times a day he retired and prayed. Here was the secret of his strength. Our religion, while it is spiritual, is practical.

IV. SUCH A COMBINATION REFLECTS HONOUR ON RELIGION, AND MATERIALLY AIDS ITS ADVANCE. Manifest discord between the religious profession and the common life, dishonours the name of Christ, creates doubt in the minds of men as to the power of His truth, fills their minds with a false and unfavourable impression of its general influence, and thus tends to strengthen those prejudices, already too strong, which prevent their forming a just estimate of a true Christian life. In this respect we have all to confess manifold deficiencies. Let us, however, remember and imitate Daniel’s conduct, and we may yet render the cause of Christ important service. Combine thorough effciency in business with all the exercises of piety, and you will in your own person demonstrate that the two things can co-exist. (David Jones, B.A.)

The True Believer’s Conflict with, and triumph over, the world

Human nature is the same in every age; the same alike in principle and in practice. It is no wonder that Daniel’s exaltation should prove a source of enmity, and that those who were placed in a lower point of dignity should seek occasion against him, that so they might accuse him to their common Master. Still there are many who watch for the failing of the righteous man.

I. WHAT THE BELIEVERS MAY EXPECT FROM THE WORLD. The world is very little altered since the days of Daniel. Occasion against the believer is sought with equal earnestness, though not perhaps, with equal openings. This enmity should not come out on the Christian as a strange and unexpected thing. It should enter into his reckoning.

II. WHAT THE WORLD WILL EXPECT FROM THEM. It is evident from the context what opinion had been formed concerning Daniel’s moral character, by those who had leagued together to compass his overthrow. We should take heed that we knowingly afford no vulnerable point, no exposed and unguarded quarter, on which we may be assailed by the envenomed arrows of the ungodly. Like Job, we should put on righteousness that it may clothe us. To this a great auxiliary is singleness of mind. The human mind is so constituted that man is always under the guidance and control of some one master-principle to which all Others are subordinate or subservient. To realise consistency of conduct we should seek unity of motive.

III. THE HAPPY CONSEQUENCES THAT MAY RESULT HERE, AND THAT WILL RESULT HEREAFTER. If actions be ours, consequences, even as to the present life, are in the hand of God alone. It is ours to purpose, but he fulfils. (T. Dale, A.M.)

The Incorruptible Courtier

There are two kinds of courage recognised among men. There is another kind of courage, often idolised, that seems a compound of rashness and foolhardiness, that delights in going anywhere and undertaking anything. There is another kind of courage which we call moral courage, which is of the highest and noblest character; a courage dependent wholly on the mental and not on the physical characteristics. Observe

1. The baseness of envy. Daniel’s character was, long ere this, fully established in Babylon. Darius had promoted him. We can easily imagine how distasteful such a promotion must have been to the Persian nobles. How hard do we find it to bear quietly the promotion of others. Let us tremble lest anything in the advancement or welfare of others excites a malign sentiment in our minds, lest we come to envy them that which, by the appointment of providence, has become theirs, and which they have a right honestly to keep and to enjoy:--the moment such a disposition arises in our minds, that moment are we Daniel’s persecutors, without the power.

2. Daniel’s Crime. In what way his ruin was to be accomplished does not as yet seem clear to those who have resolved on that view. Possibly they were not as incorruptible as he. Possibly they had consciences that allowed them to do what Daniel’s conscience forbade him to do. How very unpleasant it is to have an upright person near us when we want to do wrong! Very perplexing and annoying this Jew Daniel, a perpetual decalogue before them, telling them they have broken all its precepts. He must be removed. To get rid of him, however, will require considerable skill, nothing less than the invention of a new crime hitherto unheard of in the annals of idolatry.

3. The rash-resolve of a weak king. On the side of his self-importance the poor king was caught; He forgot the impiety of the request, and established the statute framed by Daniel’s enemies.

4. Daniel’s unmoved perserverance. All through his life he has been a man of prayer. Prayer is with him a necessity of his nature. Learn a lesson here. Religion must be all, or it is nothing. Every day of your life it will say to you, what Daniel s said to him, “Without me ye can do nothing,” and the religious life which in youth was your calm and deliberate choice, whose power and beauty you so imperfectly apprehended, will then become the necessity of your nature, the secret of your happiness, the source of your inspiration and the blessing of your house.

5. Darius the Mede had gone too far to retract. He is obliged to think now, after the act is done, instead of thinking beforehand, and he cannot sleep.

6. An interposition by miracle God had sent his angels and the mouths of the lions had been shut. How this was done we know not, nor can there be much profit, in our speculations on the matter. But it was done. If any of you ever resolve to serve God, never fear the lions’ den that may come. God will interpose in some marvellous way at the right time; a friend will be raised up that will be as an angel of God; troubles will disappear as soon as you meet them. God says, “Them that honour me I will honour.” (W. G. Barrett.)

The Character of Daniel

I. HIS CHARACTER.

1. His consistent integrity. For this we have the evidence of his enemies.

2. His habitual piety.

(1) His habits of prayer.

(2) His praying looking toward Jerusalem.

3. Daniel’s special confidence in God. Not professed with his lips, but calmly and touchingly exhibited in his actions.

II. GOD’S MYSTERIOUS DEALINGS WITH HIM.

1. They were deeply mysterious. God permits his enemies to succeed. So God often deals with the world; in his Church; with individual Christians; and with his own son he did so deal.

2. See Daniel delivered and God’s dealings explained. Consider the effects of this deliverance on Daniel; on the King; on the enemies of God; on the people and cause of God. Apt representation of God’s universal providence--all things shall terminate as He wills, and shall glorify Him-in the world at large; in the Church. Individuals continually perceive the blessed results of their afflictions, trials, darkness, and fears. How truly this was shown in the Son of God, need hardly be observed. Let the timid, the undecided, or the inconsistent, go and study the character of Daniel. Let them confess their faith as he did. (F. Close, M.A.)

Seeking Cause of Offence

It is the penalty of greatness that envy ever follows in its path. Nor is goodness any protection. In Daniel there was very much to abate envy. It was probably upon its becoming manifest that the King intended to raise Daniel to still higher honour, and to “set him over the whole nation,” that the anger of the satraps became too violent for restraint. They resented it, not because they were corrupt, and Daniel’s honesty kept them from enriching themselves, but more probably because they were ambitious, and deemed that it was a slight to the conquerors to give the highest office in the realm to one of a race vanquished by those whom they had now defeated. Daniel was a slave in their eyes, and was he now to rule over those who had beaten his masters? National antipathies are ever things difficult to control. And they have a good side; for patriotism is closely allied with them. These envious men sought their opportunity, first of all, in matters respecting the Kingdom. Eagerly they watched Daniel’s administration, and hoped to find something neglected, or some failure. There was no probability of their discovering corruption or partiality, but they did hope to find something that might have been managed more skilfully. And they sought in vain. They despaired of finding anything against him save “concerning the law of his God.” The word used for law is not the old Hebrew name Thorah, but a late word, used only here, and in Ezra and Esther. Of the Thorah of Moses these men knew nothing, but they had heard of Daniel’s religious practices, and they felt that dislike with which men commonly regard the rites and usages of other forms of worship. And one thing is very remarkable. They were convinced that Daniel so valued his prayers and devotions that he would endure any loss or punishment rather than discontinue them ever for a time. Doubtless they called him a fanatic, and despised him for being narrow-minded. But fanatic is a term often applied to men of strong convictions. The words “assembled together” would better be, “came tumultuously.” As if they would take the King by storm; moved with a fervid zeal to honour their beloved Darius. They had consulted among themselves, and had been moved to make this urgent demand by an outburst of feeling which had hurried their whole body to this tumultuous proceeding. They so wrought on the vanity of Darius that their request was granted. The outward semblance of the request was permission throughout a lunar month to acknowledge Darius as the sole deity to be invoked by prayer. The Persian kings claimed to be representatives of Pennized, and as such had a sort of right to divine honours. To Darius this deification of his person seemed not unreasonable.

1. Daniel does not go out of his way to show his determination to honour his God before his king. He simply persists quietly in a practice which he felt to be his duty. Come what would, he must honour God at any risk and st every cost.

2. Daniel prayed thrice a day. We might have expected prayer only at the morning and evening sacrifices. It has been objected that three times was a Parsee, not a Jewish custom. But see Psalms 55:17; and for mid-day prayer, see Acts 10:9. (Dean Payne-Smith.)