The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1899-07-21
HANDWRITING ON THE WALL
,.m.,,onaI sunday school Lesson
for Juiy -. isam Tef'' pn"'si
rr,l. -,t-Memory Verses. xi--..

LII
rre Judgment 25 Mark i3;a2-25:
reoi ll.9. le.i; Rom. 2l-l0 Reverence ".
prafancncss.- Matt. 1881, 81; the Third
commandment. Capture OF Babylon.-lsa.
lsl.s.. 2l:l-9. 45.l-4
TIMES Il. G. fHommel makes II $3.50
srhe year that Babylon was taken by Cy-
rtts. 20 or % years after our last lesson.
PLACE Probably IN Babylon. on the
ruphrates. The book OF Daniel does not
sav where, ana an inscription on tablet
srcaks OF him as being in Accad.
THE JEWS-It was near the close Of the
twenty years captivity. and just before the
return permitted by Cyrus.
RULERS Nabonidus. the king OF Baby
lonfa Bclshazzar. his eldest son. Cyrus.
emperor OF the Persians and the Manda or
Nomads. and the Modes. and afterwards
OF Babylon.
EXPLANATORY.
Introductory The new Babylonian
empire was short lived. beginning with
Nabu-pal-uzur. the father Of Nebuchad-
nczzar Oh. c. $500. 1t rose in grandeur.
power and extent Of dominion till Baby
Ion was taken by Cyrus (B. {. 53s-9). At
the time of this lesson Nabonidus was
the king. We have learned lately from
The stone tablets that he had son,
Iieshazzar. of whom nothing was
known before. He was the crown
prince. and may well have been acting
IA king during his fathers absence
from the city at this time, though lie
is not called king on the tablets. Neither
do they say that he was the son ioften
equivalent to grandson in Hebrew OF
observation-disclosures (5:1D; but there 10
nothing opposed to the view that Ma
bonidus, OF another dynasty, married
the daughter of Nebuchadnezzar, and
thus Bclshazzar would be his grand
son. Belshazzar was but n youth Of Il
or l6 years, rash, wild and giddy with
his uncontrolled power. Secure in his
dcfenscs, he made a great feast TO a
thousand of the mobiles. He thought
how he could enrich the splendor of
his feast by the sacred goblets and
dishes of gold that Nebuchadnczzar had
taken from the temple al Jerusalem.
The wickcdncss of this act consisted
% In profaning these sacred utensils
10 base uses. (a) Increasing the insult
by doing il at a feast 70 an idol. thus
implying that the idol was superior to
the living God. CD In doing it al an
immoral and drunken revcl, thus insult
ing the moral law Of God.
Daniel Interpreting he Handwriting.
VS.. 1928. V. Il. Let thy gifts be 10
myself" As n prophet of God he can
not speak for money or any reward. Y.
IS. "Ihe most high God gave Ncbuchad-
nezzar:" The true God is shown to be
over All and above all. 1t was not Bel.
or Mcrodach that controlled the affairs
@: the world. Then Daniel repeats the
story told in chap. !. y. g. And thou
hast not BUNDLED thine heart.
though" etc: Non have not sinned
through ignorance, but have gone on in
a wicked course in spite Of. in defiance
os. Gods lessons Of warning. V. %.
'ltut hast lifted up myself" Exalted
thyself as if thou couldst defy and dis
obey with impuniiy 1.-THE Lord Of heav-
en-" the God n bove all. over all, as heav-
en- envelops the carth-the God Of all
that greatness and purity and goodness
and power which Heaven symholizes.
vessels Of His house" From tie tenn
pie Of Bel. where they had been treas
urcd up since he conqucror had carried
them from Jerusalem. Drunk wine in
them" Drinking wine from the YES
sells taken out of Jehovah temple in
Jerusalem was intended as an insult 10
his ma iesty Y. -. Then was the part
Of the hand sent" As warning mes
sage. v &c. Meme; God hath num-
bored thy ldngdom:" Counted out the
term allotted 10 II, which has now
reached its limit.-Prof. Green. And
finished it," The days Of its existence
are counted out in full. Meme j. re-
peated for the sake Of emphasis. y. p.
"Tckel:" which means weighed (hcnce
n shckcl. which was originally certain
weight. resembles a word which signi-
fed light" light Of weight. like coun-
terfeit coin. God had tested him, and
he had failed. Y. 2s. 'Peres" is the
singular, while upharsin is the plural
Of the same word with 'u," equals
'and." prefxcd. Ii is given in '. 20 in
the plural, for emphasis. just as ''mene
is doubled. 1t means divided. but has
the same consonants rs Persians, and
suggests them. Thy kingdom is divid-
ed:" Not divided into two parts. but
broken into pieces, destroyed.
II. lbaNlrl Rewarded. - ' 80
Clothed Daniel with scarlet" The roy
al purple Third ruler of the king
DOM" Eithcr, one Of three; or, more
probably. next under Belshazzar, who
was the second. being his father, Nab
onidus. the king over all.
1Il.-The Destruction Of Habylon.'-
Us. 80, 81. I'm that night was Belshaz-
Ear slain" According 20
Hcrodotus, Babylon itself was be
sieged by Cyrus for months. and was
taken only by statagem. The Persian
invader drained Off the waters of the
river and his army. under the shelter
OF night. crept into the city through the
empty channel" V. 81. And Darius
the Mcdian took the kincdom:" No
such person is known in history, rs lit
tle while ago neither Sargon nor the
Utilities We're known. IL has generally
been held by conservative writers that
ne rcigncd under Cyrus for time.
PRACTICAL
drunkenness, rcvclry, and excess