The National tribune., 1892-05-19
SUNDAY MEDITATION,
A Study of the International Sunday
School LesSOnilAppOinted for May
20, 1892.

q
20, 1892.
Subject: Daniel Explains the Dream to
the Metallic Image. Daniel, 2 36-49.
Zone reading these notes should first carefully
study the paragraph from this Holy Scriptures AS
Indicated above.I
INTRODUCTION.
It is well We have a record of the events In
the life Of Daniel. He thus becomes an exam
ple, He has been an inspiration to our world.
For centuries he has been held up before young
men to stimulate their ambition-to make them
brave in the virtues and persistent in the right.
Some of the most effective addresses of the
revivalist, Mr.. Dwight Moody, are based on the
life of Daniel. Speaking at the Hippodrome,
New York, he said ~ am not going to try
and develop anything new about this young
Daniels character. / am merely going to try
and find out the secret OF his success. Perhaps
there will not be any thing that am going to
say to you to-day that has not been said and
read hundred times before. We are crying
so much for something new nowadays that it
does us good to look back and draw lessons
from the past. That's what l propose to do
now. The secret of Daniels success was just
this: he knew how to say No at the right
time-that is, he started right in life"
The case of Daniel should be emphasized in
every Sunday school. We have four lessons
from the Book of Daniel and teachers have
opportunity for ample illustrations.
The Bishop of Worcester England J. j. g.
Perowne, ID. D., once said as follows: Daniel
was very busy man. He was man holding
most responsible Office. He was a prime
minister of the then greatest empire in the
world. He had to direct and control thou
IL IL a.
the helpless, the oppressed; he had 10 keep
clear Of the perpetual intrigues and jealousies
which are the plague of the Oriental court; to
guard himself from the contamination of
heather vices and from that low standard of
morals by which he was constantly surrounded,
aud against which even the best of men find it
so hard to struggle single handed. And he did
this. He was active, he was honored, he was
trusted; above all, he bore noble testimony
for God in the midst Of sin and profigacy and
idolatry, because he was man Of prayer.
Business he discharged, temptation he sur
mounted, duties he fulfilled, because three
times day he kneeed in his chamber, and
prayed, and gave thanks before God"
The book of Daniel has 12 chapters. Ono
half of them are historic; the other half pro-
phetic. From g: to end of chapter the
original is Chaldee. The rest is Hebrew.
DANIEL INTERPRETs THE DREAM OF NEBU-
CHADNEzzAR AS To THE METALLIC IMAGE.
1. Preliminary.
Daniel when mere youth, say Ia years old.
was taken captive from Jerusalem to Babylon
by Nebuchadnezzar. 1 IL 1t was the cEs-
tom to select as captives the choicest OF tho In
habitants u XII, "a: 14) We may suppose
Daniel was of high rank, vigorous and moro
than ordinarily bright intellectually. After a
little, NebuchadneZzar directed that several
youths should be prepared by three years
course of education to become his assistants in
royal acts. Among the number chosen was
Daniel. Provision was mado for the care of
these students They were to be fed on royal
daintcs. But much Of the food was such as
the Jewish laws forbade, and all Of it was first
offered by religious rite to the Baby lonian gods.
Daniel refused such provisions, preferring
plain. healthy food. The three years passed
and Daniel was introduced into tho royal pres
ence. He was in excellent physical condition,
and very proficient in knowledge and wisdom.
Daniel was then II years old, and in the fourth
year of his captivity. That was in the fifth
yesr Of tho reign of Nebuchadnezzar. He was
Joint King with his father for two years and
had now been two years solo King. e: II
This bringa US up to the incident which We are
now to study.
g. Time
We date A. M. 3,401 or b. O. 603; so we are
carried back 2,495 years.
g. Place.
The lesson centers in Babylon. We cannot
do better than to permit Dean Stanley to tell
us of that city: ''Of all the seats Of empire, of
all the cities that the pride or power of man
has built on the surface of the globe, Babylon
was the greatest. Its greatness, as it was origi-
mated, SO in large measure was secured by its
natural position. Its founders took advantage
~. nf btaJ,y
jects itself from the long inclined plane of the
Syrian desert into the alluvial basin of Meso-
potamia thus furnishing dry and solid plat
form on which flourishing city might rest,
whilst it was defended on the south by the vast
morass or lake, if not estuary, extending in
that remote period from the Persian Gulf. On
this vantage-ground it stood, exactly crossing
tho line OF traffic between the Mediterranean
coasts and the Iranian mountains; just also on
that point where the Euphrates, sinking into
a deeper bed, changes from vast expanse into
a manageable river not wider than the Thames
Of our own metropolis; where, also, out OF tho
deep, rich, alluyial clay it was easy to dig the
bricks which from its earliest date supplied the
material for its immense buildings, cemented
BY the bitumen which from that same early
date came floating down the river from the
springs in its upper course. Far as the horizon
itself extended the circuit Of the vast Capital
of the thon known world. If the impercep-
tible circumference Of our modern Capitals has
exceeded the limits of Babylon yet mono in an
cient times or modern can be compared with
its infinite incosure, which was on the lowest
computation 40, on the highest 80 miles around.
Like Nineveh OF Ecbatana, it was, but on q
still larger scale, a country or empire incloaed
in city"
4. Ne51ch0daszzar.
He was King of Babylon. son of former King
Nabopolassar. In turn Nebuchadnezzar was
succeeded by Evil Merodach.
Rawlnson said of him: Modern research
has shown that Nebuchadnezzar was the great
est monarch that Babylon, or perhaps the East
generally, ever produced. He must have pos
sessed an enormous command OF human labor.
Nine tenths of Babylon, and nineteen-twen-
tieths Of all the other ruins that in almost
countless profusion cover the land, are COM
posed of bricks stamped with his name. His
wealth and tho magnificence of his court seem
to have been on par with the number and size
of his buildings"
Indeed, it was not without some truth Nebu-
chadnezzar asked: " Is not this great Baby
lon which / have bult?" a: 30) he died
B. C. 56l Of lycanthropy, or in the delusion he
was wild beast He hsd reigned 43 years. and
was over S3 years of age.
8. The Dream
Nebuchadnezzar was greatly distressed over
dream which he had. He woke from II in
foar and was an xious for its explanation. But
ba pntre tbat in the dream Ha