subjugate, and enthral the soul, than in ancient Babylon and Nineveh. To all these influences the youthful Daniel was exposed, with almost unbounded prospect of advancement opened to him; with offers made him of the favour and patronage of the world's great monarch, the cedar that overshadowed the nations. He, a captive Hebrew youth, exiled from his home and country, having to bear the bitter taunt and mockery which everywhere assailed the prostrate and down-trodden Jew, had offers made him, which if he accepted he might emerge from all this obscurity, might attain to rank and grandeur, and bask in the sunshine of power, if he would consent to forget his people and his God, to look with scorn on Israel's birthright, the promise of a Redeemer, the star which ever kept ahead of Israel in their darkest, dreariest wanderings, and never quite set to them, though clouds sometimes obscured their vision of it. king of Babylon would make him and his three comrades specially excepted from the yoke that galled the necks of their brethren. They should frequent the schools of the Chaldeans, should be court favourites and minions, share the lavish and munificent portions which Nebuchadnezzar had the power to bestow. In some sense it was said to him as to his Lord and Master many centuries after, "All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it. If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine."* And every object that could strike the outward senses re-echoed the invitation to sink and steep the soul in sensual and intellectual pleasure combined, only turning his back upon the God before whom his *Luke iv. 6, 7.

The

fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk; "the God that fed him all his life long." *

But there was at work in Daniel's heart a principle which stood the proof, which came unscathed out of that severe ordeal; the principle of which it is said, "This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith :"+ and under the strength of this principle he looked not on things seen, but unseen; and like Moses chose rather, if needs be, "to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season." And so in that wilderness of strange faces and scenes, that solitude of strange worships and idolatrous temples, he had a sanctuary within his breast, filled with the presence of his God. His heart was as a "Jehovah-Shammah, the Lord was there." Truly that promise was fulfilled to him, "When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst, I the Lord will hear them, I the God of Israel will not forsake them." § Patmos itself was not a greater solitude to the beloved apostle John, than the court of Babylon to one who found his true solace in the fellowship and communion of his God.

But what was the particular form in which this trial came to him? In the first place the king had the names of Daniel and his three companions changed, to mark them out as the servants and worshippers of the gods of Babylon; and in the next place they were required to conform to the idolatrous custom touching meats and drinks, which almost in every idolatrous country is made the test of conformity with idol worship. It was the old sin of the Israelites, against

* Gen. xlviii. 15.
† 1 John v. 4.

+ Heb. xi. 25.
Isa, xli. 17.

which the prophets had protested so zealously but so often in vain. "They joined themselves unto Baalpeor, and ate the offerings of the dead." * "The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play."† The early history of the Church of Christ, whether we study it in the Epistles or the Revelation or the early Fathers, is full of indignant remonstrances against this sin. In the Revelation it is stigmatized and held up to reproach as "the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to cast a stumbling-block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols." The first council of Jerusalem, in the Acts, denounced and reprobated this sin with the united voice of the Church and college of Apostles. And those who have lived in heathen countries know how unmistakable a mark of religious brotherhood this is, to join in heathen festivities, and eat meats offered to idols; almost as much so as partaking of the memorials of our blessed Lord's passion in the bread and wine of the Holy Communion, associates Christians together. "We being many are one bread and one body; for we are all partakers of that one bread." § Thus Daniel was invited to be one bread and one body, by being partaker of that one bread with the pagans of the court. It was equivalent to becoming "an alien from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world." ||

When we put it in this light, it might seem to us natural and intelligible enough that Daniel should resist these offers, however tempting, and resolutely refuse to abjure the old patriarchal faith and promise. Rev. ii. 14. || Eph. ii. 12. § 1 Cor. x. 17.

* Ps. cvi. 28. † 1 Cor. x. 7.

But we must remember that he was very young, not perhaps more than twelve or fourteen years of age; and we do not read of any aged Jewish rabbi, or priest, or prophet that encouraged and emboldened him to hold out in his resistance. And we can all think of many reasons which might have suggested themselves to him for abandoning duty's path, and following whither the stream of promotion and court favour led him along. "I am very young," he might say, "and mistakes and frailties are pardonable at my age. Who am I, that I should withstand the orders and brave the indignation of the king whose might is so invincible, on whose frown and smile hang the life and death of so many myriads, whose breath is law from the western sea to the great river? And should I acquire the influence and authority thus placed within my reach, might it not be a providential opening? might I not employ it for the good of my people, so that in the end the cause of God would rather be a

gainer than loser? Have not my great-grandfathers and grandfathers often done these very same things in Jerusalem, perhaps in the very temple courts ? and even if it were wrong to do it in Jerusalem, must the same strict rules of duty and godliness be applied here in this foreign court which held good in the city of the Great King? Must I be so particular, so rigid, in the very midst of the heathen? Would it not be madness to be so scrupulously conscientious as to blight my prospects and miss the golden chance, my life's grand opportunity, which I may never come across again? And is it not a very unimportant matter after all, only just eating this or that? Can meat defile me? Is not the earth the Lord's, and the fulness thereof? Is not an idol nothing in the

world? Is it a point so much to be insisted upon, so decisive, and reaching to the very heart of truth, as that for it I must risk my life, and choose infamy and shame rather than a glorious career of fame, happiness, and perhaps usefulness?" How should you or I, dear brethren, have answered these questionings, which might readily have occurred to us-perhaps have occurred under circumstances not so very unlike? "For all these things happened unto them for ensamples, and are written for your admonition.”* Does not conscience reprove us with the recollection of times when self-interest turned the scale in doubtful points, and caused the balance to incline to the course which promised us profit or advancement? Are any of us clear in this matter? Does not our want of conscientiousness, our want of being grounded in high Christian principle, show itself most of all in this-the readiness with which we say, "Oh! but it is such a small thing, after all"? Have you not passed across the border-line of temptation, and said, "It is but a step astray, out of duty's path"? Have you not looked in at the door of sin, and said, "But I am not one of them; my heart at least is pure ? Have you not received of the wages of ungodliness, and said, "But I was no partner in the evil action "? Have you never ventured on a taste of the forbidden fruit of sin, saying as Jonathan, "I did but taste a little honey with the end of the rod which was in my hand, and lo, I must die" P+

Is it not too common, even among the professing church of God, to argue just as the tempter would naturally lead Daniel to argue, that we must live; must push our way up; must do as the world does; + 1 Sam. xiv. 43.

* I Cor. x. II.