CHAPTER XXXI.

Daniel-The Greatly Beloved.

Daniel's Prayer and Confession.

(Notice: Daniel does not blame the King, Nebuchadnezzar, who brought him and the Jews captive to Babylon, destroyed the temple at Jerusalem, tore down its massive walls and burnt and destroyed the city, but he blamed himself and all the children of Israel for sinning, for disobedience and disregard of God's will as set forth in the Mosaic law.)

"And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes:

"And I prayed unto the Lord my God, and made my confession, and said, O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love Him, and to them that keep His commandments;

“WE have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from Thy precepts and from Thy judgments;

"Neither have we hearkened unto Thy servants the prophets, which spake in Thy name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land.

"O Lord, righteousness belongeth unto Thee, but unto us confusion of faces (the shame), as at this day; to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to all Israel, that are near, and that are far off, through all the countries, whither THOU (listen-THOU hast sent) hast driven them, because of their trespass that they have trespassed against Thee. "O Lord, to us belongeth confusion of face (the shame), to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against Thee.

"To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses, though we have rebelled against Him;

"Neither have we obeyed the voice of the Lord our God, to walk in His laws, which He set before us by His servants the prophets.

"Yes, all Israel has transgressed Thy law, even by departing. that they might not obey Thy voice; THEREFORE THE CURSE IS POURED UPON US, and the OATH that is written in the law of Moses the servant of God, because we have sinned against Him.

"And he hath confirmed his words, which he spake against us, and against our judges that judged us, by bringing upon us a great evil; for under the whole heaven hath not been done as hath been done upon Jerusalem.

"As it is written in the law of Moses, all this evil is come upon us, yet made we not our prayer before the Lord our God, that we might turn from our iniquities, and understand the truth.

"Therefore hath the Lord watched upon the evil, and brought

it upon us for the Lord our God is righteous in all His works which He doeth: for WE obeyed not His voice.

"And now, O Lord our God, that hath brought Thy people forth out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand and hast gotten then renown, as at this day; WE HAVE SINNED, WE HAVE DONE WICKEDLY.

"O Lord, according to all thy righteousness, I beseech, let Thine anger and Thy fury be turned away from Thy city Jerusalem, Thy holy mountain: because for OUR SINS, AND FOR THE INIQUITIES OF OUR FATHERS, Jerusalem and Thy people are become a reproach to all that are about us.

"Now, therefore, O our God, hear the prayer of thy servant, and his supplications, and cause Thy face to shine upon Thy sanctuary that is desolate, for the Lord's sake.

"O my God, incline thine ear and hear; open thine eyes, and behold our desolations, and the city which is called by thy name: FOR WE DO NOT PRESENT OUR SUPPLICATIONS BEFORE THEE FOR OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS, BUT FOR THY GREAT MERCIES.

"O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive; O Lord, hearken and do; defer not, for thine own sake, O my God: for Thy city and Thy people are called by Thy name."

Notice how Daniel's prayer and supplication become more ardent, intense, urging, vehement, devout and solemn as he goes on, until at last his heart would break if not heard, if his supplication was not attended to forthwith.

Listen again: "O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive; O Lord, hearken, and do; defer not, for Thine own sake, O my God."

That is the right condition, attitude and disposition in prayer, and the kindly disposed, the tender loving heart of the Heavenly Father can't stand it, He simply must do it.

And He did.

Daniel was interrupted in his prayer. Gabriel interrupted him. Yes, Gabriel, that trusted messenger of God who has brought so many comforting, cheering, elucidating messages from heaven to earth, came now, yet while Daniel was praying and supplicating, touched him tenderly, reassuringly, and said: “O Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee skill and understanding,

"At the beginning of thy supplications the commandment came forth, and I am now come to show thee; for thou are greatly beloved: therefore understand the matter, and consider the vision."

"Thou art greatly beloved," said Gabriel to Daniel. What a comforting, cheering assurance; what an elevating, reassuring testimony direct from heaven! Nothing is or can be of greater concern and importance for anyone, and more especially for a minister of the Gospel, than that we, in our position, in what we are doing, in the way that we are doing it, in the disposition, attitude and state of mind-are acceptable to God.

Even more than merely acceptable: that we are pleasing in His sight; that our very being gives Him pleasure, and our activities and achievements bring Him praise; that we, glorified in Him, so He may be glorified in and by and through us.

Furthermore: That as we by our sins have caused Him great dishonor, and His blessed Son reproach, torture, agony, and suffering without measure or name, when He by the grace of God tasted death for every man-that we, in return, surrender to Him our bodies, our entire beings, wholly, unreservedly, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing in His sight, to satisfy and delight His tender loving heart, and to rebound to His glory and praise now and forever.

And Daniel also gave attention to the affliction, and the causes of the affliction, of God's people, the church, in humble confession:

"Yea, all Israel have transgressed Thy law, even by departing, that they might not obey Thy voice; THEREFORE THE CURSE IS POURED UPON US, and the oath that is written in the law of Moses, the servant of God, because WE HAVE SINNED against him."

Notice this word POURED "The curse is POURED upon

This condition, then, this state of affairs, namely, Daniel's own shortcomings, weakness and affliction, and the transgression, disobedience, and iniquity of his beloved people, and the affliction, suffering and shame resulting as naturally and assuredly as the shadows of the night upon the setting of the sun-this grieved Daniel; this pierced and broke his heart; this brought Daniel into a state of fasting.

And this fasting lasted three whole weeks, and until the angel Gabriel came and broke the fast by comforting and renewed assurances-the gentle touch and the tender words: "O Daniel, a man greatly beloved, understand the words that I speak unto thee, and stand upright: for unto thee am I now sent * * * Fear not, Daniel, for from the first day that thou didst set thine heart to understand, and to CHASTEN THYSELF before thy God, THY WORDS WERE HEARD, and I am now come for thy WORDS."

Brothers, pastors, ministers, elders, Christians, how is this world war, this slaying of youth, this causing of wives to become widows and children orphans, this groaning, sighing, weeping— how does all this touch your hearts? Have you essayed the cause of it-the actual, underlying, fundamental cause?

Undoubtedly, the Kaiser and the Prussian militarism has become the scourge of Europe, and in some measure of the world, but, this being so, who holds the scourge, who is using it for the purging and chastisement of the nations?

How did we read-what did Daniel say about it? "The curse is POURED upon us."

Who poured the curse?

"Therefore hath the Lord watched upon the evil, AND BROUGHT IT UPON US: for the Lord our God is righteous in all his works which he doeth, for we obeyed not his voice," says Daniel.

But what has almighty God to say about it Himself?

"Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Behold, Behold, I will send upon them the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, and will make them like vile figs, that can not be eaten, they are so evil.

"And I will persecute them" (listen: "persecute them") "with the sword, with famine, and with pestilence, and will deliver them to be removed to all the kingdoms of the earth, to be a curse and an astonishment, and an hissing and a reproach * * * because they have not hearkened to my words * * * because they have committed villiany in Israel, and have committed adultery with their neighbors' wives, and have spoken lying words in my name, which I have not commanded them; even I know, and am a witness, saith the Lord.”

Notice, brethren, that Daniel has not a word of complaint respecting the king Nebuchadnezzar or the treatment at his hands, but lays it all to their national and individual sins and iniquities.

Daniel was conscious of the fact that if Israel had obeyed the words of the Lord, as in the time of David, Hezekiah, Josiah and others, they could and would have lived in peace and security in the land of their fathers, and no evil could have harmed them.

And if the nations had but obeyed the word of God, no world war would be rending hearts to-day.

Daniel's Prayer and Confession.

Turning to the tenth chapter of Daniel, we find the heavenly messenger again on a visit to the prophet. And it seems to him (the angel) a great pleasure so to wait upon Daniel, for he said, "O Daniel, a man greatly beloved, understand the words that I speak unto thee, and stand upright: for unto thee am I

now sent

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"Fear not, Daniel: for from the first day that thou didst set thine heart to understand, and to chasten thyself before thy God, thy words were heard, and I am come for thy words."

Chasten thyself before thy God. He mourned, he mortified himself by fasting, not to deserve God's favor, but because of the sin and the awful consequences of sin.

When the permission came from Cyrus for all captive Israelites to return to the land of their fathers, and when finally the foundation to the temple had been laid, there was great rejoicing and bright prospects for the future. But the enemy of the church and of ransomed souls did not sleep, nor did he neglect an opportunity to harass God's people and to throw stumbling blocks in their way.

Turning to Ezra, Chap. 4:1, we read: "Now when the adver

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saries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the children of the captivity builded the temple unto the Lord God of Israel * * * hired counsellors against them, to frustrate their purpose, all the days of Cyrus king of Persia And in the reign of Ahasuarus, in the beginning of his reign, wrote they unto him an accusation against the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem." The accusation resulted in a decree from the king forbidding the building of the temple, and then ceased the work of the house of God which is in Jerusalem.

This interference and delay in the progress of building the temple, and directly in the progress and upbuilding of the kingdom of God, touched and mortified the tender, loving heart of Daniel. The world, the enemy, had become victorious, triumphant, rejoicing; but the people of God, God's church and kingdom, defeated, humiliated, grieved, mourning.

Daniel mourned and fasted three full weeks. He fasted because his great sorrow for his people and God's church affected his appetite. so he could not eat. A fasting, having its roots and causes in heart piercing sorrow and heart-rending affliction, is especially acceptable and pleasing to God.

"The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit." Ps. 34:18. King David had found this out, too, so he tunes his harp and sings: "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.' Ps. 51:17.

Compare with this the fasting recorded in Isaiah 58:3, 4: * * * "Behold in the day of your fast ye find PLEASURE (instead of grief, broken hearts and contrite spirits), and exact all your labors. Behold ye fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness: ye shall not fast as ye do this day, to make your voice to be heard on high.”

No, fasting in that way brings no blessing, no answer from heaven. And the difference in disposition, in attitude, in point of view of conditions prevailing, in tenderness of heart, in fervent, constant prayer, in yearning, burning, self-sacrificing love, compared with that of Daniel, is evident, as well in the behavior, the conduct, the appearance of the worshippers as in the results. Daniel humbled himself before God. Daniel was awake, and conscious, and heart-broken by reason of his own sin, shortcomings and unworthiness.

Development and Growth.

It may appear strange to some of my readers to ascribe to the prophet Daniel humiliation and sorrow by reason of his own sin, shortcoming and unworthiness. But this feeling, disposition and attitude of mind is a true indication of development and sound growth.

One satisfied with himself, his attainments and doings is a dwarf. That was the condition with the man coming into the feast without wedding garment; that was the condition with the foolish virgins who lacked oil just at the critical moment, when