The record-union., 1899-06-05
. THE BOY
PRISONER. !"
Sermon by Rev. w. S. Hoskinson Of the
Sixteenth Street Lutheran Church.


Prisoner" He said:
Daniel purposed in his heart that he
would not defile himself. Dan. i:S.
This boy of IA years is a captive from
Israel, carried away a prisoner to
Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar took away
these captiyes as hostages for the sub
mission of the Hebrews. This was the
beginning of Judah's seventy years
subsection to Babylon and of Daniels
seventy years of remarkable history in
a foreign land.
We must treat of his life as boy to-
night, yet he seems more than boy
We can hardly think of him even in
this first chapter as only IA years of
age. There is so much of the man in
his resolution and conduct. But, then,
We soon remember that there were
giants in those days, and that the old
Hebrew prophets were marvellous race
of men. They seem to be above the or
binary creation of God. only in such
an age, when revelation was a simple
thing and men felt as they saw the
symbol as the vision, that the Divine
was not far away from any one of
them; only under such sun, as it
blasted the desert into desolation or
greened the olive slope into beauty and
was a perpetual motion both of threat
endng and of promise; only among such
a people, of deep religious instincts and
irrepressible in high degree, could
these prophets have lived and -four
ished and become the powers they
were.
These men were not soldiers. but
when, they rebuked kings their courage
"a wit bny uera
not priests, but never priest spake SOL
emn words with diviner power. We
stand in awe before this lofty line Of
men, who seem like creatures of the
spirit land. A little of the feelings of
the Gadarenes who wanted Christ to
get out Of their country comes over us.
Or we are like Peter in his first
vision of Christ's power, Depart from
me for am a sinful man, o Lord
These seem to be standing before the
Lord like the ligtnings, who are his
messengers, or as the stormy wind
fulfilling his word And there is none
among the entire brotherhood of
prophets who SO thoroughly comes
home to US as this Hebrew youth Of the
royal line of Judah. He was Inspired,
but he had a life apart from inspira-
ments of which other lives are made.
Here are principle and persecution,
sorrow and success; the harp-song of
thankfulness and the breeze-like voice
of grief; all the elements that are
sharply marked in character. We find
them here in this mans experience just
as we have felt them in our own. He
comes to us, then, as no stranger, but
"a hof of
Our prophet is no meteor vision
sweeping out of darkness to play for a
brief space the masque of human liv-
ing and then fitting into darkness as
unbroken- He comes eating and drink
ing and doing common things, thrilled
with common feelings, though those
feelings prompt him to heroic action,
and those common things are done in a
majestic way.
And here you may have been thinking
that you have peculiar circumstances
and that David's or Daniels or Peters
or PauTs religion was thing only for
stream-side villages and quiet hours
tragic hearts of towns. Now that is
another mistake of yours. Heaven is
as near the great city as the breezy
integrity, you can hold as close a fell
lowship with the true and the Divine
in Sacramento as in yonder San Fran
cisco, the modern Babylon, as Daniel
did away off yonder in Babylon, the
ancient San Francisco. When a boy
goes to hunt a place the one wishing to
employ him says, "Well. I'll try him
awhile" This is to see what stuff the
&c do Of I'm xxvJ,o 1aor ;-
in him. Not long is Daniel at the
strange court prisoner till a trial is
made of him. The initial door to every
great life is temptation-triaL At once
it came to the boy Of IA years. He was
tempted to do a degrading thing-to
disobey the law of his God, to deny his
home religion and yield to a popular
idolatry and prove recreant to his coun-
try and nation and all the promises and
hopes belonging to them.
And 1t comes strongly to us. Where
is the boy that likes not to eat, and
the more dainties the more his appetite
is whet? There was a vast difference
between the Kings savory dishes and
delicious wines, and mere boiled beans
and water. It was powerful tempta-
ton to the boys appetite. And then
here was a way to the Kings favor
and SUCCESS. How could he expect tc
succeed with a King when his own re-
ligion condemned that heather King
and his conduct? Then it was a thing
the King commanded. Why not yield
now? He must in the end; his life
depended on yielding. And every boy
wants to be popular; how could he be
and appear odd, and bring on himself
sneers and taunts and ridicule? Yet
see how strong were the ropes Of
temptation drawing our ruddy boy
away from the religion of his fathers
What will save him? We tremble fol-
our boy prisoner as many a mother
trembles for her tempted boy tonight
is the young man Absalom safe?' Is
the anxious moan of 10000 fathers II
California tonight. We look arouno
and see our boy prisoner hemmed II
like his fathers at the Red Sea; like
the Spartans at Thermopyle. Nothing
will save him; he must go down. Blu
we forget a mothers training. One
resource is left. 1t is the boys ex-
tremity, but Gods opportunity. "Or
the mount top the Lord will be seen
Our prisoner boy is a religious boy
His religion was of the deep sort thai
influenced his character, kindled hi!
heroism and paved the way for III:
success. There was no surface senti
ment about him. Daniels was an in
wrought piety, whose seat was in thf
heart; so brave that no disaster coule
disturb it. So, now, watch the boy
prisoner. He is lonely. tempted, II
peril. Loneliness. temptation, danger