The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1918-10-03

actual living personalities surely were-and just
tails In their humanness the lessons in living the
Bible holds for us.)
DANIEL
The folks who live instead of merely exist; who
move about in the world setrlng their thoughts, am
billions and powers against it's material facts; such
folks there always comes the knowledge that every
mortal stands, forever, in the shadow of failure.
Just ahead step this side or that. ready to
pounce upon with the quickness of light, stands
this condition of life called failure that we fear so
greatly and strive so hard to avoid. None i'm
from it's heart breaking, soul-destroying
clutch: it can grasp and destroy any life-does at
every opportunity. But we are blessed by the fact
that there is way by which safeguard
selves from it's devouring maw-just way.
What is it? Well here is an illustration-a story
about story.
There is hero in the Bible named Daniel. The
story through which this character moves is a won
derful lesson of steadfast heart spirit and purpose
The tale tells how he taken slave to Baby
Ion in the early years of the Jewish captivity He
is portrayed as being of roy al descent and, with the
other youths of Hebrew nobility. chosen for the
royal service of ACKNOWLEDGMENT. At the very be-
ginning of the story steadfastness is the theme
around which the action centers. Steadfas in their
fidelity to their God they refuse to defe themselves
by eating the food of the Babylonians. They keep
to the diet that their faith and beliefs require and
rewarded by perfect health and by standing
first in the sight of their masters.
Then Daniel saves his own life and the lives of
all the magicians and wise men at the kings court
by giving to his majesty only the Interpretation
of royal dream but the dream itself, which the
king had forgotten. Next his three companions
cast into fiery furnace that was heated seven
times more than ii wont to be heated" because
they would not bow down and worship the image of
gold that the king had made. They delivered
unframed from the furnace, and the king decreed
that all the peoples of his empire should honor the
Jewish God.
Came the reign of Belshazzar and a night when
the mighty king made great feast to a thousand
of his lords" When the pleasures of the banquet
at their height aud the wine flowed freely a
hand appeared and wrote strange words on the wall
of the royal palace. The astrologers the Chaldeans
and the sooth sayers' called the royal pre-
sence but wise enough to interpret the
writing the wall. Then by the queens advice
Daniel was brought into the great hail. Refusing
the kings rich gifts, he acknowledged his God and
interpreted the mysterious words, and in that
night" their meaning fulfilled and Darius the
Medan took the kingdom"
Next Daniel became the chief ruler in the en-
pire, next in power to the king and again is shown
his steadfastness in moment of threatening
torture and death. Jealous princes to Darius
and obtained royal decree, according to the law
of the Modes and Persians, which aereth not that
| forbade anyone in the kingdom to ask a petition
| of any god man for thirty days. except of the
| king. But this did not deter Daniel from following
! his daily practice of kneeling at his open window
facing Jerusalem and of praying and giving thanks
| before his God''
Through this plot he was placed in the lions
den over night while the king grieved in his palace
through the hours. But Daniel delivered from
the famshed beasts by the God his steadfast heart
and soul would not forsake. The Interchangeable law
of the Modes and Persians satisfied and he rose
to greater importance and power duriLg the reigns
of Darius the Median and CyrusSthe Persian. The
narrative ends with his visions that reveal the des-
TIMES of the empires of the earth and the power and
justice of his God.
Such is the story of Daniel. In it is very much
of worth and beauty; much WE'LL that is not east
ly understood when it is considered alone only as
sketch of this Hebrew hero. But take the condi-
lions and circumstances that gave birth to this tale
consider the purpose for which it was intended and
the results it accomplished; then it becomes an mex
haustibe reservoir of inspiration.
In the second century before Christ the one
thing that had kept the Hebrews distinct and uni
ted people despite many centuries Of varying
fortune was threatened. Syria was the ruling power
in the eastern world and Antiochus ~. the
throne Greek learning and culture was the leading
influence in the world at that time and Antochus
conceived the idea of spreading the Hellenstic