A Chaldean word, signifying, what Daniel interpreted it, together with the word Tekel, or Thechel, he was weighed. "Mene, Mene, Tekel Upharsin." (Daniel 5:25) The whole taken together was the doom which, by a miraculous hand written upon the wall, was directed to the impious monarch Belshazzar, and explained by Daniel. There appears in the first reading of it some little difficulty. The hand-writing upon the wall was, as I have stated it, Mene, Merle, Tekel Upharsinbut Daniel renders it Mene, God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished itTekel, thou art weighed in the balance, and found wanting. Upharsin, Daniel makes Peres; but the sense is the same. Parsin, or Upharsin, is Hebrew, and signifies the Persiansand Paresin, in the Chaldean language, signifies dividing. Daniel therefore takes both together, and renders it Peres, thy kingdom is divided. Solemn as this event was, and faithfully as Daniel's prediction was fulfilled, yet there is nothing uncommon in it. Doth not every day an hand-writing, even the solemn word of God, appear on the wall of every sinner's conscience? And are not the awful judgments threatened thereon fully executed? Who shall describe the trembling loins of sinners, and the paleness of soul, which seizeth them in the dying hour, on entering eternity?


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