Daniel 1:12

Prove thy servants,. beseech thee, ten days.

This request was made in order to put the change of food to the test of experiment. Ten days' trial would be enough to show whether the vegetable and water diet would result in the loss of vigor, elasticity, flesh and freshness. If there were no such signs it would be fair to infer that the temperance regimen was not injurious. Daniel now asks that they be given "pulse" to eat and water to drink.

Pulse.

The Hebrew word translated "pulse" is rendered by Gensenius, the great Hebrew authority, "seed herbs, germs, vegetables, that is, vegetable food, such as was eaten at. half-fast, opposed to meats and the more delicate kinds of food." The request of Daniel then meant, simply, that they should live on vegetable diet, with water to drink. This would shut off the rich, highly seasoned meats, and what they dreaded more, forbidden food. The meats offered on the royal table were commonly the bodies of animals that had been slain in sacrifice to the idol gods.

Water to drink.

Here, nearly twenty-five hundred years ago, in the royal palace at Babylon, existed. cold water society,. band of total abstainers, an interesting group of young men who voluntarily confined themselves to vegetable food and water, amid all the temptations of the royal court. It is interesting to note the result. There were others "of their sort," of the same condition and undergoing the same training, who indulged in the rich food and drinks sent from the royal table, and it could thus be tested which course was most salutary for body and mind.