his hand. It has careered for ten long months over the unconquerable flood, amid the play of lightnings, in perfect security,-and now, without an anchor, it rests from its voyage, on the summit of Ararat. Now, the waters retire within their accustomed bounds, the sun bursts forth in unclouded splendour, and the bow of God is set in the heavens the glorious token of an enduring covenant, "that while the earth remains, seed-time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, and day and night, shall not cease."

LORD, it belongs not to my care

Whether I die or live;

To love and serve Thee is my share,
And this thy grace must give.

If lite be long, I will be glad,

That I may long obey;

If short, yet why should I be sad
To soar to endless day?

Christ leads me through no darker rooms
Than he went through before;
He that into God's kingdom comes,
Must enter by his door.

Come, Lord, when grace has made me meet
Thy blessed face to see;

For if thy work on earth be sweet,
What will thy glory be?

Then shall I end my sad complaints,
And weary sinful days;

And join with the triumphant saints,
That sing Jehovah's praise.
My knowledge of that life is small,
The eye of faith is dim;

But 'tis enough that Christ knows all,
And I shall be with him.

In every age there have been witnesses for Godmen who have stood pre-eminent among their brethren for piety, rising above the ordinary level of spiritual attainment, and shedding around them, in the midst of darkness, the steady light of a holy conversation. Such was Enoch, who walked with God, and who ripened with a sacred rapidity for that glory to which he was supernaturally raised. Such was Noah, "a preacher of righteousness," who, by his discourses and by his life, held forth a standing reproof to "the world of the ungodly." Such was Elijah, one of the "chariots of Israel, and of the horsemen thereof," who, in the days of

the wicked King Ahab, lifted up a solemn testimony for God, and who is held in remembrance as the great restorer of the law. And such was Daniel who, in the court of the Chaldean monarchs, was not ashamed to witness a good confession, while he reared the standard of the true faith amid the gorgeous ensigns of a sensualized superstition.

The exigencies of the times required that such faithful witnesses for the true God should be raised up by a special Providence, should be qualified for the task assigned them, and carried through all its difficulties with credit to themselves, and to the cause in which they were embarked. A season of darkness required a light of no common lustre, to cheer amid the gloom; and such a light was made to shine. A time of general lukewarmness rendered necessary a zealous, and warm-hearted, and persevering reforter, to revive the work of the Lord as in other days; and such a one it pleased Jehovah to furnish. When the symptoms of general apostasy were manifest, and when the temptations to forsake the true God, and to turn aside after idols, were multiplied, then was the critical moment, when an instrument of extraordinary efficacy required to be put, and kept in operation, to check the flowing tide of degeneracy; and such an instrument was raised up by Him "who hath the hearts of all men in his hands." The histories of such eminent individuals are preserved, on the imperishable Record of Inspiration, for the instruction of future ages. Their examples are held forth as models of imitation; and in this manner, though dead," they "still speak" to the world and to the Church in the language of reproof, of encouragement, and of faithful admonition.

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The words of our text stand connected with the exhibition of a very distinguished character, and the statement of a series of very interesting and instructive events. In discoursing from them, we shall, first, attend to the history of which they form an essential part; and, in the second place, we shall trace the lessons of piety and instruction which the conduct and character of Daniel, in this instance, furnish to our minds.

I. Among the children of the captivity in Babylon, there was found a young man of the name of Daniel, who, at a very early period of life, discovered no ordinary symptoms of superior wisdom and piety. Along with a few others of his companions in captivity, he was selected to stand as a page or humble servant in the presence of the king, and was put into a course of preparation for the duties of the palace which might be assigned to him. The Hebrew youths, well instructed in the principles of the true religion, reverencing the regulations of that ceremonial institute which, although put down for a season, was dear to their hearts as the appointment of heaven, and tenderly alive to the seductive influence of sensual indulgences and superstitious associations, steadily declined participating in the royal provision which

was made for them, and respectfully solicited that the homely substitute of pulse and water might be allotted as their daily fare. It was so; and the special providence of Jehovah crowned it with a far richer blessing than that which rested on the costly indulgences of their more gay and thoughtless companions. "Man does not live by bread alone." It was tenderness of conscience, a desire to abstain even "from the appearance of evil," and to avoid the contaminating touch of the "garment spotted by the flesh;"-it was this noble principle which actuated Daniel and his companions in this part of their history; and their conduct holds forth to youth and age a fine example of attachment to the God of our fathers abhorrence of the very first approach to the scenes of corruption-delicate susceptibility of the infinite distance that there is between right and wrong, holiness and sin-ardent and persevering effort to avoid the first approaches of temptation -and vigorous resolution of soul, with manly firmness, and at the risk of blasting the fairest prospects in life, to "confess Him before men," who hath assured us that he will confess his faithful and stedfast disciples in the presence of an

assembled universe.

Daniel "grew in wisdom and in piety, as he grew in years;" and a circumstance soon occurred, which at once proved the strength of his faith and the supernatural character of his gifts, while it brought him into public notice, and paved the way for his future advancement. Nebuchadnezzar the king, having dreamed a dream which he had completely forgotten, called upon the wise men and soothsayers of his court to declare at once the dream itself, and its right interpretation, under the penalty of death for non-compliance with the impracticable requisition. Daniel, who was very improperly classed with the ordinary astrologers and magicians of the day, felt the difficulty of the situation in which he and his brethren were placed, and acted, in the painful emergency, on the dictates of heavenly wisdom. He appeals from the folly and despotic cruelty of man to the wisdom and condescension of God. Times of peculiar difficulty render a direct and undisguised appeal to the Majesty of heaven singularly requisite; and the season of danger is exactly the season when we ought "to pour out our hearts before the Lord." It is on the mount of difficulty and danger the Lord shall be seen, and "the Lord will provide." Distrusting ourselves and all human resources, we must rise to God, and repose all our anxieties and fears on Him who hath undertaken to "direct the steps" of those who truly acknowledge him in all their ways. Daniel acted on these principles, and spread the case, in all its formidable difficulties, before the Lord in prayer; and an answer of peace was given. A Divine communication was made to the prophet, who, with deep and becoming humility, and with the most ardent gratitude, ascribes the glory of it to the God of heaven. He tells and explains all the parts of the dream; and he hesitates not to

| address the haughty monarch of Babylon in the language of wholesome admonition. His character as a prophet of the Most High God is forthwith publicly recognised, and he is elevated to the presidency of the province, and was honoured “to sit in the gate of the king."

"Man that is honoured, and understandeth not, is like the beasts that perish." Psalm xlix. 20. "How hardly shall they that have riches enter the kingdom!" Prosperity has snares peculiar to itself. The smiles of the world bewitch and beguile the soul. The favour of great men, and the applauses of listening multitudes, are very unfavourable to the fidelity of principle and to consistency in duty; and hence the suitableness and the import of that prayer, whose meaning we are very apt to overlook, "In all time of our wealth, good Lord, deliver us!" Did Daniel hold fast his integrity, when prosperous fortune allured him by her charms? Yes; he "honoured the God of heaven." His exalted station only rendered his piety more conspicuous, and its practical exertions useful on a larger scale. He obtains places of trust for his three pious com panions, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-neg); and thus, in the very centre of the idolatrous city of Babylon, establishes a most powerful interest in favour of the God and the people of Israel. When called to interpret the king's dream of the great tree which was cut down by the judgment of Heaven, he shrinks not from the painful task of foretelling to Nebuchadnezzar his fearful doom; and when invited to read to his ungodly successor the hand-writing on the wall, he hesitated not to announce to the terrified victim of a wounded and distracted conscience the retributive sentence of Jehovah, which deprived him, by one stroke, of h crown and of his life. It is worthy of particular notice that, although Daniel lived to a good-c age, and witnessed a great succession of changes in the empire of Chaldea, he retained a sametess of principle throughout, and preserved untarnished a character of consistent and unbending integrity.

When Darius the Mede succeeded to the throre of Chaldea, now united with the monarchy of the Medes and Persians, so great was the reputation of Daniel that, though of a different religion from that of the king and the empire generally, he was elevated to the chief seat among the one hundred and twenty governors or viceroys who were nominated to so many provinces, into which the kingdom of Babylon was subdivided. This was a singularly marked tribute of respect, at once to the known wisdom, the tried fidelity, and the uniform consistency of his character; and the king had certainly no reason to repent the selection he had made. But great men have generally their envious detractors; and good men, when raised to elevated stations of rank and influence, seldom escape the fiery darts of malicious enmity. We commonly find that strict and exalted pietyeminence in true religion and godliness-when associated with high official influence, becomes peculiarly the object of envenomed hostility to

those whose vices it rebukes, and whose selfish or wicked designs it restrains and counteracts. The other heads of the Chaldean provinces, offended at the elevated piety of Daniel, and envying the preferment of a stranger and a captive Israelite to the pre-eminence over them, entered into a conspiracy against his life. We may well suppose that they would examine his public conduct with an eagle-eye, and that the smallest indication would not escape their notice. Their object was to accuse him to the king as unfaithful to his trust, and as a traitor to the best interests of his kingdom. In this they were completely foiled; for the public conduct of Daniel in his official station, when tried in the crucible of keen and malignant persecuting scrutiny, "came forth like gold." He was found to be diligent in his trust, faithful to its minutest departments, and most conscientiously alive to the best interests of the kingdom. Disappointed in their expectations on this ground, they changed the mode of their attacks upon him, and determined to make his religion the ground of their accusation. Poor, deluded men! They knew not that it was, in fact, his religion which made him so exemplary in the discharge of his public trust, so tenderly alive to the minutest call of personal and relative duty, so conscientious as a servant of the king of Babylon, and so superior in all things to the suggestions and the snares of selfishness and crooked policy. Worldly men are compelled to speak reluctantly the praises of consistent and uniform regularity of official conduct in those who fear the Lord; while they select, as the subject of their scorn, the very principle which lies at the foundation of the whole, and gives to the character all its consistency and all its worth. It was just because he "feared the Lord God of Israel from his youth," and acted constantly on the thought of, Thou, God, seest me," that Daniel was enabled, through a long life, to hold fast his integrity, and thus gave no occasion to the "adversary to speak reproachfully." His enemies, while they were blind to all that was lovely and excellent in his religious principles, were well aware of the sincerity with which he held them, and therefore devised a scheme, to which the very sincerity which constituted such a conspicuous feature in his character, could not fail to insure success. What an honourable testimony do they bear in his favour! "We shall not find any occasion against this Daniel, except we find it against him concerning the law of his God." Happy would we be, could we say this of the bulk of professing Christians around us!—that they are so strict in their conduct, and so blameless in their whole deportment, that no charge can be brought against them, "except it be as concerning the law of their God!"

a petition to God or man, save to him only. Wide and sweeping was the compass of this infamous decree. The child must not ask bread of its parent-nor must the servant address the most reasonable request to his master-nor must the beggar, from dire necessity, ask an alms from the humane, without running an imminent risk o. being "cast into the den of lions." The absurdity of it is only equalled by its daring impiety. The duties of men to their God must be suspended; and the monarch of Babylon, and he alone, must monopolise all the honours of God and of men! The decree was flattering to the vanity of a despotic ruler; and the passing of it speaks volumes on the sad evils which must ever result from the exercise of power, swayed by no principle and regulated by no law, save the will of a despot. May God long preserve our beloved land from such an awful curse!

Daniel remained calm and unmoved amid the dangers which now surrounded him. Firm in his principles, he resolved to bid defiance to the strongest of earthly feelings; and though favoured with no communication from heaven, assuring him of protection in the hour of danger, he fears not the teeth of the devouring beasts of prey. The paramount rights of conscience and of God he fails not to respect, and his customary homage to the Majesty of Heaven he shrinks not to pay, whatever might be the penalty which awaited him. "Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into his house; and, his windows being open in his chamber toward Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his knees three times a-day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as he did aforetime." A complaint is regularly lodged against him, and, without even the formality of a trial, he is, by the irrevocable sentence of the Medes and Persians, "cast into the den of lions." Darius seems to have anticipated his miraculous preservation, and delights to find, on the morning of the following day, that "God had shut the lions' mouths." The time of man's extremity is often the time when God signally interposes in behalf of his people; and, at this particular time and place, a supernatural testimony to the true religion, in the person of its distinguished representative, was essentially necessary. The effect on the mind of Darius was deep and powerful. He publicly recognised the supremacy of the God of Israel. He condemned to death the cruel enemies of Daniel and his God. He bestowed on Daniel many distinguished honours. And this holy man lived to a good old age, even till about the time of the restoration of Judah to their own land; and he was there "gathered to his fathers, like a shock of corn when fully ripe." "Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright; for the end of that man is peace."

To be continued.

CHRISTIAN TREASURY.

"One