The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1905-09-28
Daniel and BeIshazzar: The Hand
writing on the Wall.

e'S|SSS'SSs SSGSSS3SSSSS
Daniel and BeIshazzar: The Hand
writing on the Wall.
There is not in literature a more
vivid word-picture than that which
describes the last night in Baby
Ion. Out of that dim past of two
millenniums and a half ago, the
city is made to rise again in its
magnitude, granduer and strength.
Its walls, towering three hundred
and fifty feet, pierced by a hum
bred brazen gates, inclose a COM
mOnWealth rather than a metrop-
oils. 1t is the center of the traffic,
art, and learning of the world, and
into its treasures the golden
streams as tribute and trade are
pouring ceaselessly.
The gilded youth, Belshazzar,
is the untrammefed master of the
scene. He is crowned prince, but
acting as king while his father, the
scholarly Nabonidus, is absent
from the capital in research or i'm
mersed in study at home. Cyrus,
the conqueror Of the world, and
with his myriad armies of Modes
and Persians appears upon the
scene. Belshazzar flushed with
the unrivaled strength of his city,
does not so much as admit the
thought Of it being taken. Its
Notifications are impregnable, its
stores inexhaustible. The Incl
dent of siege does not interfere
with the banquet which has been
planned. 1t is held probably in
the temple of Belus, that wonder
of the world. Many temples Of.
many lands have been looted to
supply that table with its gold and
silver service, and there is the
glitter Of "barbaric pearl" There
are thousand guests.
What may have begun as an Or
derby state dinner degenerates into
a wild drinking. bout, in the midst
of which an act ofsacrilege is COM
mitted when the holy vessels of
the temple of Jerusalem are put to
ignoble use. The poet probably
correctly diagnoses the case when
he pictures it as a deliberately
planned insult to Jehovah:
Jehovah, eternal scorn own
To Thee am monarch of Babylon. -
When Jehovah is thus disgrace
ed, the drunked idolators PROSTATE
themselves before images of their
gods. At that very moment, in
the full light Of the candelabra,
which may have been the golden
candlesticks from Jerusalem, a
hand appears writing some mystic
legend upon the plaster of the wall.
The jewellers are sober in an in
slant. A pallor and limpness
spreads oyer all. There was
SURVIVING about for the magi, but
their skill failed them. At the
gu e e ms suggestion Daniel is
brought in. The king appeals to
him deferentially. Never did
servant of God show himself more
worthy of his high calling, He
disdains the profered gifts, great
though they are. With relentless
fidelity he points out Belshazzar's
course as compared with that Of
Nebuchadnezzar. Then he adj
dresses himself to the interpreta-
ton of the inscription. Number
ed" weighed" decided. "
The last page in Babylonian his.
terry is written. It's course is
"fnished.'' 1t is weighed" by
the unerring hand of the God Of
nations, and in spite of it phenom-
email advantages is found want
ing" And now its doom is ire
vocable sealed. 1t shall be
"broked, " divided" between its
conquerors. The last act of Bel
shazzar is the fulfl1ment of his
vow, and the granting of the re-
ward for the Interpretation. An
empty honor that to be ruler of
kingdom even then dissolving.
Analysis and Key.