to his principles! They were quite right in judging that the proper way of beginning, was to flatter the monarch's pride and self-importance. And they

a

must well have known their man-to have ventured, even on the strength of all the eastern extravagance of adulation to royalty, to make such a proposal, decree that for an entire month no man should make prayer or petition to God or man, save to Darius, on pain of being cast into the den of lions ;-that he should take declared precedence of all on earth and in heaven!

If there should be an excessive drought or rainnot a word of supplication to any Immortal Power controlling the elements;-if a pestilence-not one petitionary sacrifice for abating it;—if a man were sick, he must not request a physician to visit him ;— if fallen into a pit, not call out for assistance ;-if his house were on fire, not entreat his neighbours to help to put it out;-if famishing, not ask for a morsel of bread ;-if a man had offended or injured his brother, he must not ask him to forgive;-if the gods (as he a heathen might easily surmise) should be angry at this suspension of their worship, they were not even to be entreated to have patience till the king's time was up!

The poor mortal, however, was caught, on the side of his foolish and impious self-importance. He signed the irreversible decree, and all followed just as was desired. It is not unlikely, however, that these virtuous courtiers had made all possible preparation of spies on Daniel. They suspected he would pray; but might think he would take some precaution to

conceal so dangerous a fact. But all prying vigilance was superfluous; for he, "as aforetime," and with his windows unclosed, uncurtained, "prayed and gave thanks before his God, three times a day." A striking admonition against subterfuges in duty and religion; against contrivances at once to quiet conscience, and preserve an immediate self-interest. Especially in every trial of religious integrity which is to be conspicuously public, under the observant attention of men, to seem to forego a principle, is to do it in fact.

The great point appeared now to be gained; for the king himself was as much in the power of the bad men as Daniel was. He struggled earnestly— but too late and in vain; and Daniel went to the den. Very strange would appear the readiness, the tranquillity, the serenity, with which he would be seen to go thither. We cannot know whether he had any divine intimation that he had no enemies to apprehend in that dreadful receptacle. But his resolution, and even his calmness, would not depend on whether he had or not. He was soon in the midst of his appointed companions. If it was night or evening (as it appears to have been), his sight would meet, on every side, that direful lustre which appears in the eyes of these formidable animals; but to him they were as the lamps of heaven, or a reflection of a divine presence there; a far more pleasing light than those brilliant ones which were in the same hour burning in the splendid apartments of the malignant, and now rejoicing lords, who had accomplished his doom; or in the palace of the

great king, who was sad and horror-struck at having sealed it. We can even imagine these terrible beasts showing, for their first and last time, a bland and caressing character,—such as may be supposed when the first of their race passed before Adam in Paradise, and did a kind of homage to the human lord of the world.

But the angel of the Lord, too, was there; perhaps visibly; or perhaps perceived only in the miraculous influence which controlled and suspended the fierce temperament of the inhabitants of the den. However it were, Daniel had no impatience to leave his abode and society. He might perform his devotions there, with more than even his accustomed elevation of piety, and with no malignant eyes of his enemies upon him. And in the morning he could answer the king (calling to him with "a lamentable voice,") that this fearful night-as all would have imagined ithad been to him, as the tranquillity and felicities of heaven.

Such honours have been conferred on exalted piety. And who, then, would not wish to be a devoted servant of the Almighty?

December 10th, 1823.

190

LECTURE XV.

THE THREE JEWS IN BABYLON.

DANIEL iii.

"Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold, whose height was threescore cubits, and the breadth thereof six cubits: he set it up in the plain of Dura, in the province of Babylon,” &c.

IN our last exercise of this kind, we attempted a brief review of the life and character of the Prophet Daniel, but not dwelling at all on this splendid secondary narrative of his three friends; nor yet at that time intending to make it the future subject of more extended observation.

But we do not know that we can much better employ an hour of our time than in the contemplation of such a spectacle.

For, as to any selected topic being peculiarly appropriate to this particular season or day, we may presume that scarcely any one here can regard that notion in any other light than as a relic of superstition and ecclesiastical imposition. Even if this day were certainly known to be the true anniversary of our Lord's coming to the earth, that would not be a competent reason for attributing to it a special sanctity unless there were some dictate of the

Divine will as the authority for doing so. But the fact is, there is no ascertaining of the day or anything near it. Even the evangelists seem not to have known it. One of them says, Jesus Christ was "about" such an age. The whole matter therefore is but an arbitrary institute of superstition; that same superstition which, in numberless other instances, has not only connected a fanciful and false importance with particular facts, but also falsely asserted, or feigned the facts themselves. (Thus, relics of the saints and martyrs, pieces of the cross, &c.)

All days are just equally proper, (all in which men can have the freedom and command of their thoughts,) for grateful remembrances of the advent of our Lord.

And also any portion of our time and thought that is free, may be well employed in contemplating a striking example of fidelity to God. This before us is a very bright and memorable one. It is true it is a brightness surrounded by gloom, and the more splendid by that contrast.

It is truly a sad and awful spectacle,—to behold a great monarch, and the personages representing the population of a great empire, with perhaps a numerous throng of the common people, assembled for such a purpose. Consider what man should be on earth! Reflect, that the right state would have been, that all mankind should be intelligent and solemn worshippers of the true God, of him alone; the merely right state, below which, the scene becomes a spectacle of horror and misery, for the vital principle of all good is wanting.