His friends' martyrdom in will had come in their early youth; his came in old age. When Cyrus had broken into the palace, Daniel must have been found arrayed in the dress of the ruler next after the two kings, and Cyrus might have heard that it was for the interpretation that foretold his victory. Besides, the captive Israelites were settled among the Medes, so that the fame of his prophecies and his faithfulness to Nebuchadnezzar might be known to Darius, and prepare the way for the captive prince, now eighty years old, to be the first of the three presidents who were set over the 120 satraps, or governors of the provinces of the empire. The Medo-Persian kings were viewed as representing Ormuzd, almost as the sun or fire did, by a sort of sacred royalty, so that the decree suggested by the envy of the satraps bore the aspect of a politic test to show whether all the mixed nations under his sway were loyal enough to acknowledge this sort of divinity. It was in right of this divine claim that the king's decrees passed for laws from God, and could never be altered. How grandly, in the face of all this slander, did Daniel-knowing himself to be watched and suspected-pray without concealment; not at night, not within himself, not at unexpected moments, but as good Josiah and the holy men of old had taught his early childhood, three times a day -at the times appointed for the morning and evening sacrifices, and at noontide, even as his forefather David had said (Ps. lv.) :As for me, I will call upon God; and the LORD shall save me. Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud and he shall hear my voice. : and as Solomon had specified, with the metal lattice-work of his window towards Jerusalem unclosed, so that he was plainly visible to his enemies. The king, whose own faith came much nearer Daniel's than an idolater's, understood and honoured Daniel, and was grieved at having fallen into the trap set by the envious satraps. All day he strove to save the holy man, but the hastiest word of the representative of Ormuzd was sacred, and no doubt he was in dread of Cyrus. Daniel had fully known to what he exposed himself when he prayed. Oh, what a rebuke to any of us who shuns open prayer, or abstains from kneeling from fear of the laughter of man! The Persian punishments were mostly cruel, and being thrown to wild beasts was one. The lion-hunting kings of Babylon were likely to keep these creatures in captivity. Such dens are kept by Eastern princes still-pits rather like the area of a house, railed round, with a stair from the top and a door at the side, closed with a stone. Here Daniel, apparently in silence, was thrown; and it was the king who was his consoler, hoping-though with but a feeble hope-that his God would deliver him, while the aged man submitted, "content to live, but not afraid to die." The satraps so distrusted their master that they made him seal the stone at the entrance that Daniel might not be secretly removed by him, and he was forced to pass a pitiable night ere in early morning, in trembling hope, he came to the den, and called the prophet's name, "Servant of the living God!" His gleam of faith was rewarded! Joy of joys, the prophet calmly answers, with the ordinary words of courtesy to the king, " My God hath sent His angel and shut the lions' mouths, that they have not hurt me." And to mark that it was not from want of hunger that the beasts had spared him, when his accusers were thrown in they were instantly devoured. It was the custom of the East, as well as the Jewish law, that the false accuser should suffer the punishment he had tried to bring on another, and the Persians did not spare the family of the criminal. Another decree, honouring and glorifying the God of Daniel, was put forth by the king, and Daniel's influence was established at the court of Darius and Cyrus. So to bring about the redemption of the captives of Babylon, he was willing to give up his life; he descended into the pit among the lions, and the stone was sealed. Nevertheless the lions' mouths were shut, and he came up alive to intercede for the deliverance of his people. Did he see in this beforehand how Messiah the Prince should redeem His people by the actual sacrifice of His life; how His enemies should make it as sure as they could, "sealing a stone and setting a watch;" how He should descend into "the lower parts of the earth, and there go upon the lion and adder, the young lion and dragon tread under foot?" Then early in the morning be sought by weeping ones of feeble faith, and they should be answered, "Why seek ye the living among the dead?" for us! And He ever liveth to make intercession LESSON CXXIX. THE DECREE OF CYRUS. B.C. 535.—EZRA i. 1—11; ii. 64, 65, 68—70. Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying, Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, The LORD God of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth; and he hath charged me to build him an house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Who is there among you of all his people? his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and build the house of the LORD God of Israel, (he is the God,) which is in Jerusalem. And whosoever remaineth in any place where he sojourneth, let the men of his place help him with silver, and with gold, and with goods, and with beasts, beside the freewill offering for the house of God that is in Jerusalem. Then rose up the chief of the fathers of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests, and the Levites, with all them whose spirit God had raised, to go up to build the house of the LORD which is in Jerusalem. And all they that were about them strengthened their hands with vessels of silver, with gold, with goods, and with beasts, and with precious things, beside all that was willingly offered. Also Cyrus the king brought forth the vessels of the house of the Lord, which Nebuchadnezzar had brought forth out of Jerusalem, and had put them in the house of his gods; Even those did Cyrus king of Persia bring forth by the hand of Mithredath the treasurer, and numbered them unto Sheshbazzar, the prince of Judah. And this is the number of them: thirty chargers of gold, a thousand chargers of silver, nine and twenty knives. Thirty basons of gold, silver basons of a second sort four hundred and ten, and other vessels a thousand. All the vessels of gold and of silver were five thousand and four hundred. All these did Sheshbazzar bring up with them of the captivity that were brought up from Babylon unto Jerusalem. The whole congregation together was forty and two thousand three hundred and threescore. Beside their servants and their maids, of whom there were seven thousand three hundred thirty and seven and there were among them two hundred singing men and singing women. And some of the chief of the fathers, when they came to the house of the LORD which is at Jerusalem, offered freely for the house of God to set it up in his place : They gave after their ability unto the treasure of the work threescore and one thousand drams of gold, and five thousand pound of silver, and one hundred priests' garments. So the priests, and the Levites, and some of the people, and the singers, and the porters, and the Nethinims, dwelt in their cities, and all Israel in their cities. COMMENT.--The seventy years were over! had learnt to own the glory of the Lord God prophecy of Isaiah was fulfilled :: Cyrus and Darius of Israel, and the That saith of Cyrus, He is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure : Even saying to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built; And to the temple, Thy foundation shall be laid. We feel as if we could only break out in the hymn of rejoicing with the Jews (Ps. cxxvi.) :— When the LORD turned again the captivity of Zion, We were like them that dream. Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing; Then said they among the heathen, The LORD hath done great things for them. The LORD hath done great things for us; whereof we are glad. Turn again our captivity, O LORD, as the streams in the south. He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, Shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him. There is a very curious story told in the Apocrypha of Zerubbabel, the son or nephew of Salathiel, who was either the son or the adopted son of Jehoiachin, and thus was the head of the house of David and tribe of Judah, and would naturally have been king. He was a young man and in favour at the palace. One day Darius put the question to be disputed upon among the young men of his court, what was the strongest thing in existence. One said "Wine was strongest," another said "Wisdom,” and the third, who was Zerubbabel, said "Women were stronger than either, but Truth was strongest of all." And after proving that the king's wife could make him do most foolish things for love, and so was stronger than he, the youth made so beautiful a speech on the power of Truth, that the king was touched and overwhelmed, and bade him choose what gift he would. The boon he asked was the restoration of his people to their home. It was not for his father's throne that he asked, but for the Temple of his God. However, this story is uncertain. All that we are sure of is that Cyrus put forth his proclamation, taking on himself to build the house of God, and asking, in heart-stirring words, "Who is there among you of all His people? his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem!" Well might the true lovers of Jerusalem feel like them that dream, when all the gold and silver vessels that had so lately served Belshazzar for his feast were restored to them. How lovingly they count and register them! And the Jews who remained at Babylon gave largely for the work. Many did remain. Daniel was one. He was a very aged man, 82 years old at the least; and no doubt he could serve his people better at the court of Cyrus and Darius than by going with them. Others stayed because the uprightness and high principles of the Jews made them greatly trusted, and they were in great prosperity. They had houses and fields at Babylon, and were not in haste to endure the hardships of building up a ruined city in a devastated country that had "enjoyed her Sabbaths" for fifty years. They gave their money, and lived at ease in Babylon. That was all their love for Jerusalem. So much the wealthier were they, that it was a saying that the wheat stayed at Babylon, and only the bran returned. The number who returned were 42,360, and their male and female servants 7,337, showing how poor they must have been, since not a sixth part of them could have had a servant apiece. The list of the numbers belonging to each city is given in the second chapter of Ezra, and it is touching to find that there were 123 who claimed a home at Bethlehem. Among them must have been the son of David, Zerubbabel, who, if the crown had been taken away, valued his right in the little city whence Micah had said "He should come forth; should be Ruler in Israel." Zerubbabel had two names. This Jewish one meant "born at Babel," but his Chaldean one was Sheshbazzar, which means (it is said) "Deliverance of light." He was made governor, as the Persians called it “Tirshatha,” and as the Jews named him, “ Prince of the Captivity," and thus he went forth to repair and restore, and struggle with many a difficulty. With him went the High Priest Jeshua, or Joshua, the first apparently who had borne that name, "Jehovah the Salvation," since the great Captain who first led Israel into the land whither the second |