sons was to teach them to ride, draw the bow, and speak the truth. The hearts of the captive Jews must have throbbed high when they heard that the beloved grandchild of the old King of Media, and heir of Persia, was named Koreish or Cyrus-Cyrus whom God had called by name through Isaiah, terming him "My Shepherd," and promising that through him Jerusalem should be re-built.

Cyrus, a brave and noble prince, had obtained from his grandfather the command of his army, and already conquered the rich kingdom of Lydia, in Asia Minor, with her splendid capital, Sardis, and likewise all the lands about the Caspian Sea, and with a great force he had come into Chaldea. Nabonad, the elder king, had shut himself up in Borsippa, and Belshazzar his son was lording it in Babylon. Cyrus was at his gates, but he had no fears. Those enormous walls could neither be battered down nor climbed over, and not only were there stores of all kinds of provisions, but the fields and vineyards within the town prevented any danger of being starved out. The Jews in the strangers' quarter must have had many a song of Isaiah's ringing in their ears, "Babylon the Great is fallen, is fallen!" but Belshazzar had no fears. A great festival in honour of his gods had come round. He made it more splendid than ever, and more full of revelry. A thousand guests were present, besides all the women of his palace, and all his people feasted and rioted in their degree. Then he bade the sacred bowls and other ornaments of the Temple at Jerusalem to be brought. Nebuchadnezzar, his grandfather, had apparently treated them with reverence, but the insolent young king had them brought out to add to the brilliancy of his riotous feast. Then it was, in the height of the mirth, that on the wall plaster (the plaster still remains in the palaces) there came forth a bodiless hand, and with the finger traced mysterious words. It was just above the candlestick-the golden candlestick with the seven lamps that used to stand in the Sanctuary, and foreshow the light of the Holy Spirit through the Church.

There stood those words-in characters unlike the wedge-shaped Babylonian ones, words that no man present could read, but which filled all that great company with dismay and awe. No magician could be found who could read that dread writing. Daniel, it seems, had been living in retirement and forgotten in the confusion after

the death of Evil-merodach, but when the Queen, most likely mother to Belshazzar and daughter to Nebuchadnezzar, came to the king on hearing of his horror and distress, she counselled him to send for the great man, in whom was such an excellent spirit. Daniel was fetched accordingly, and Belshazzar proceeded to promise him rewards, which must have seemed absurdly worthless to him who knew what was coming that very night. One of them was that he should be third ruler in the kingdom, no doubt meaning after Nabonad and Belshazzar himself.

LESSON CXXVI.

THE WRITING ON THE WALL.

B.C. 538—Dan. v. 17—30.

Then Daniel answered and said before the king, Let thy gifts be to thyself, and give thy rewards to another; yet I will read the writing unto the king, and make known to him the interpretation.

O thou king, the most high God gave Nebuchadnezzar thy father a kingdom, and majesty, and glory, and honour:

And for the majesty that he gave him, all people, nations, and languages, trembled and feared before him: whom he would he slew; and whom he would he kept alive; and whom he would he set up; and whom he would he put down.

But when his heart was lifted up, and his mind hardened in pride, he was deposed from his kingly throne, and they took his glory froin him :

And he was driven from the sons of men; and his heart was made like the beasts, and his dwelling was with the wild asses: they fed him with grass like oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven; till he knew that the most high God ruled in the kingdom of men, and that he appointeth over it whomsoever he will.

And thou his son, O Belshazzar, bast not humbled thine heart, though thou knewest all this;

But hast lifted up thyself against the LORD of heaven; and they have brought the vessels of his house before thee, and thou, and thy lords, thy wives, and thy concubines, have drunk wine in them; and thou hast praised the gods of silver, and gold, of brass, iron, wood, and stone, which see not, nor hear, nor know: and the God in whose hand thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways, hast thou not glorified :

Then was the part of the hand sent from him; and this writing was written.

And this is the writing that was written, MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN.

This is the interpretation of the thing: MENE; God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it.

TEKEL; Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting. PERES; Thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians. Then commanded Belshazzar, and they clothed Daniel with scarlet, and put a chain of gold about his neck, and made a proclamation concerning him, that he should be the third ruler in the kingdom.

In that night was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain.

COMMENT.-Little recked Daniel of the king's gifts, as he began his interpretation with a stern reproof on the young king's pride and thoughtless revelry, and then read and explained the dreadful writing. The days of his kingdom were numbered, and he had come to their measure. He himself had been weighed in the awful scales of Divine Justice, and his kingdom was to be broken and given to the Persians. Upharsin, the word on the wall, exactly meant, they are parting asunder, but Daniel turned it into the infinitive mood Peres, which was almost the same word as Persians. Fearful sentence! But Belshazzar plainly thought it was still a distant danger, and perhaps hoped that by showing favour to Daniel, the wise counsellor, he might bring back the success that had attended his grandfather. So Daniel stood to be clothed in scarlet, with a gold chain round his neck, and heard himself proclaimed third ruler in the kingdom. The kingdom, indeed! Where was it? During these last weeks, which had lulled the Babylonians into security, Cyrus had been employing his troops in digging trenches to open the way between the Euphrates itself and the canals made to draw off the waters in inundations. On that very evening he had drawn up the sluices. The thick yellow stream flowed away. It sank in its broad channel. The soldiers entered it, and it only rose to their knees. A Greek writer, who could never have heard of Daniel, relates how one of the Persian captains observed, The inhabitants are having a great feast. Here is no one to watch the gates." Within the bed of the river they found the gates open. They passed on. Even then a wakeful Babylonian could have shut the gates of the many quays on them, and have taken them as in a net; but all were drinking and feasting in senseless mirth, till the Persians climbed up, and in the darkness of the night all was terror and despair! Look back at the 45th chapter of Isaiah, and see the promise of the careless

revelry of the king, and the opening of the gates. Now read a few verses from Jeremiah's description of this very night, spoken fifty-eight or sixty years before, at the time of the height of her glory. The 50th and 51st chapters are too long to quote, save

a few of the most notable verses.

Set ye up a standard in the land, blow the trumpet among the nations, prepare the nations against her, call together against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashchenaz; appoint a captain against her; cause the horses to come up as the rough caterpillars.

Prepare against her the nations with the kings of the Medes, the captains thereof, and all the rulers thereof, and all the land of his dominion.

And the land shall tremble and sorrow: for every purpose of the LORD shall be performed against Babylon, to make the land of Babylon a desolation without an inhabitant.

The mighty men of Babylon have forborn to fight, they have remained in their holds: their might hath failed; they became as women: they have burned her dwelling-places; her bars are broken.

One post shall run to meet another, and one messenger to meet another, to shew the king of Babylon that his city is taken at one end,

And that the passages are stopped, and the reeds they have burned with fire, and the men of war are affrighted.

For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the Goa of Israel; The daughter of Babylon is like a threshingfloor, it is time to thresh her: yet a little while, and the time of her harvest shall come.

If Daniel had written the description after that night of horror and confusion, it could not have been more exact! Belshazzar died that night by the sword, but his father Nabonad resigned Borsippa to Cyrus, and was sent away to the Caramanian mountains. So fell the Lion with eagle's wings, according to that early prophecy of Isaiah :—“ Babylon is fallen, is fallen; and all the graven images of her gods he hath broken unto the ground."

66

And Babylon has continued to be in prophecy the likeness of this wicked world, with the Church of God captive within her, living in her, but endeavouring not to be of her, nor turning the songs of Zion to be her amusement. Sometimes Babylon meddles with the sacred things of God. Then, somehow or other, the handwriting on the wall shines out. Well for those who heed it! And at the last St. John beholds her fall in vision. Thus he speaks (Rev. xx.) :—

And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory.

And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is

fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.

And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.

For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.

*

And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all.

And the voice of harpers, and musicians, and of pipers, and trumpeters, shall be heard no more at all in thee; and no craftsman, of whatsoever craft he be, shall be found any more in thee; and the sound of a millstone shall be heard no more at all in thee;

And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived.

And in her was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth.

The question of all our lives is this. Shall we be found revelling with Belshazzar, or watching with Daniel?

LESSON CXXVII.

DANIEL'S PRAYER, AND THE ANSWER.

B.C. 538-DAN. ix. (abridged).

In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes, which was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans;

In the first year of his reign I Daniel understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem.

And I set my face unto the Lord GOD, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes:

And I prayed unto the LORD my God, and made my confession, and said, O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his commandments;

We have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments: Neither have we hearkened unto thy servants the prophets, which spake