Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1922-07-15

Golden Text: God will bring ev-
cry work into judgment, with ev-
cry hidden thing, whether it be
good, or whether it be evil" Fec
1874.
Nebuchadnezzar' long reign of
43 years was over. His sons son
was on the throne. BelshaZzar was
the son of Nebuchadnezzar' daugh-
ter, and was corex with his father,
Nabonidus. The critics discredited
Daniel for many years because no
record was found of Belshazzar or
of his sudden defeat as described
in this chapter by Daniel, but
within recent years every state
ment made by Daniel has been
verified and confirmed by the
spade of the archaeologist. The
Babylonian monuments did not
record his ignonlinous defeat as that
would have been discreditable. to
their city. They simply told of the
death Of his father and do not
mention the further fact of his
having been co-rex.
Belshazzar's reign was short and
without other incident of note so
far as he was concerned, but other
things occurred during his reign
that were of vast Importance. 1t
was in the first year of his reign,
for example, that Daniel had his
vision of the four beasts 9th ch),
and was thus informed by God as
to the internal character Of the
world kingdoms and of the final
establishment of the kingdom of
God. 1t was during his reign also
that he had vision of the SOW and
the goat, revealing the histories of
Alexander the great and Antiochus
Epiphanes.
The RiOtOus feast
In the third year of his reign
Belshazzar. gave a great feast. The
| occasion of this is unknown. 1t
seemed a most inappropriate time,
to say the least, for at that very
time the city was being besieged
by the army of the Modes and
Persians. Cyrus, the Persian. and
the nephew of Darius, the Mede,
was commanding the army of inva-
sion. They had been about the city
for some time and may have re-
treated for a short distance-for
strategic reasons, as it afterward
appeared, for they had been busy
digging a new channel to divert
the course of the river. BelshaZZar
may have thought that they had
been successfully repulsed, and
that they had lifted the siege. The
feast may have been given in
honor of this, and as a thanksgiv-
ing to their gods. n
1t was a great blowout" to say
the least. He had invited a thou
sand of his lords, with their wives
and concubines. Women were not
usually invited to feasts, and con-
sidering the position of woman as
mere slave or vassal, the prob
ability is that their presence at
this feast was but to add to the
revelry and RIGHTEOUSNESS of the
occasion. Wine flowed like water.
Even the king drank in the pres
ence of his lords-which was en-
tirely contrary to custom, for usual
ly the king sat at table to him.
self and partook of his meal alone.
Inflamed by wine and women, in
his wild delirium of drunkenness,
BelshazZer bethought himself of
something else. He would show
them that he had not only success
fully repulsed the invading army,
but he would show them the
trophies taken by his grandfather,
the great Nehuchadnezzer, in his
invasion of Judea. So he ordered
the golden vessels to be brought
which had been taken out of the
temple of the great God of the
Hebrews, the God who the Hebrews
!, ssraid was the God of heaven and of
eartt< BUT who had not shown him
self t-,rong enough TO resist his
grandfather.
So the wonderfully beautiful gold
en- vessels were brought, filled with
wine and raised to the lips of the
drunken king and his lords and Ia
dies. To show his further contempt
for this God of the Hebrews he
praised the gods of gold and of sill
yer and of brass
But while he was Offering this
hymn of praise there appeared the
| hand as of a man writing on the
wall. 1t was writing where the can
dlesticks made the writing most
legible. 1t was where the kings
were. wont to have their victories
recorded. 1t was strange, uncan-
| ny! The king saw it and it sobered
| him. His face was changed. His
knees trembled. The lords and Ia
dies noticed the change in the king
| and they too were sobered.
The king could not read the writ
| ing. 1t was this:
r A T E M
S H E N E
| P K E N
N U l. M E
He sent for the Chaldeans, the as
| trologers and IT,, wise men; , but
none of them could read it. The
news spread rapidly over the pal
ace; it reached the ears of Noctoris,
| the queen mother, the widow of
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. She seems, to
have been absent from the feast
| and probably Disguised with what
had gone on. She reminded Bel
shazzer of Daniel, the old seer who
in the days of NebuchadnezZer had
| solved many obscure things. Bel
shazzer had forgotten him, for, Dan
iel had not been in public service
for about % years now.