PROPHETIC STUDIES;

OR,

LECTURES ON DANIEL THE PROPHET.

LECTURE I.

DANIEL THE PROPHET.

I READ the first chapter of Daniel in the course of our morning reading of the Scripture this day, and I then stated that I would turn your attention in the evening to some of those studies in this interesting and instructive book, which it is impossible to set forth in the course of a few cursory remarks upon the lessons which we usually read.

I may premise that Sir Isaac Newton, Bishop Newton, the Duke of Manchester, Faber, Birks, and others-men of distinguished erudition and thorough piety-have devoted some of the best of their time to the elucidation of this book, and all without exception have testified to its excellence, its instructiveness, its value as a clue to the knowledge of the things that are passing in the history of this dispensation, and of the principles on which God governs the world. Sir Isaac Newton, who explored the firmanent with unwearied wing, and made an apocalypse of the stars, felt that he was sounding a greater depth, and rising to a loftier height, when he sat down a patient student of this book to ascertain the mind, and make plain to less gifted souls the meaning of the Spirit of God. Bishop Newton, a divine of consummate piety, laborious research, and great talent, makes the following

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remark on this book :-"What an amazing prophecy is that of Daniel! comprehending so many events, and extending through so many successive ages, from the establishment of the Persian empire, upward of five hundred years before Christ, to the second general resurrection at the last day. What a proof of Divine Providence and of Divine Revelation !-for who could thus declare the things that shall be, with their times and their seasons, but He only who hath them in his power-whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and whose kingdom endureth from generation to generation?" It is a remarkable feature in the prophecies of Daniel, that they deal much with figures. There is in them, if I may use the expression, less of poetry, more of chronology. There is no prophecy so definite; no prophecy that so much lays itself open to disproof, if it be false, or to proof if it be, as we believe it to be, true. There is no prophecy which the Jew has felt greater difficulty in dealing with. For the modern Jew sees so plainly, that if Daniel be inspired, and his chronology be of God, the Messiah must have come, and that it is in vain to look for another, that the more earnest Jew meets the difficulty boldly by denying that the book is divine altogether, on grounds and upon premises on which he may deny that there is any divinity in the Old Testament at all, from the Book of Genesis to the last verse of the prophet Malachi.

There is scarcely a doubt that Daniel is the author of the book. It does not begin with an express assertion of the fact, but throughout the work the most casual reader can hardly fail to perceive many marks by which it is plain that Daniel himself was the writer. For instance, in chap. vii. 28, he says, "I, Daniel;" viii. 2, "A vision appeared to me, Daniel." All which, and I might quote other similar expressions, clearly prove that Daniel is the writer of the book.

But the next question that arises is this: Is there evidence that Daniel not only existed, but was the singularly favoured, excellent, and beautiful character that he is here represented-not proclaimed to be by words, but shown to be by implication? We think there is for instance, in Ezek. xiv. 14, "Though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they should deliver but their own souls by their righteousness, saith the Lord God."

We have another allusion, almost the same, contained in Ezek. xxviii. 3: "Thou art wiser than Daniel; there is no secret that they can hide from thee." And I may state that Ezekiel was contemporary with Daniel. Ezekiel was the old and experienced saint, when Daniel was the young and growing, but highly favoured Christian; and the beautiful allusion made by the elder to the wisdom and the excellence of the younger, were it not inspired, would lead us at least to say, How free from envy and jealousy was the aged Ezekiel as he waned from the stage, in reference to Daniel, who was about to fill his place, and was throwing him into the shade by his greater lustre and glory!

This book was received as authentic by the Jews prior to the time of our Saviour, and was never disputed by them. It is plain evidence that it existed in the Hebrew Bible-that it was translated by the Alexandrian Jews, three hundred years before the birth of Christ, into Greek, and accordingly it exists in the Septuagint translation at this day.

I may also observe that the Book of Daniel, as also the Book of Ezra, is written partly in the Chaldee, a language differing from the Hebrew in its form and structure, but not much more than Italian or Spanish differs from Latin. Any one who understands Latin may easily master either of the two former languages; and any one who understands Hebrew has the key that unlocks all the cognate Oriental languages. This language begins at chap. ii. 4, where the Chaldeans, who spoke Arameian, or Chaldee, say to the king in "Syriac," which is the same dialect, and which was spoken by our Lord and by the Jews of his day, "O king, live for ever!" Josephus, the distinguished Jewish historian, bears testimony to the authenticity of this book in the following terms: "All these things did this man leave behind him, writing as God had showed them to him; so that those who read his prophecies, and see how they have been fulfilled, must be astonished at the honour conferred by God on Daniel." Antiq. x. 11. This is the testimony of a Jew who was bitterly hostile to Christianity; and Josephus, in his Antiquities, shows how each prediction of Daniel had been fulfilled with reference to all the four great monarchies except the last, which was existing in his own time. But why this exception? Because Josephus was a

servant of the Roman emperor, and he had not the courage to proclaim that Daniel's prophecies regarding Rome had been as truly fulfilled as his prophecies relating to Babylon, or to the Persian or Median empire.

In the next place, our Lord and his apostles expressly refer to Daniel. You are all acquainted with one allusion to him in Matt. xxiv. 15: “When ye shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth let him understand.") But it is perhaps no less interesting to observe the allusions scattered through the New Testament, which clearly point to expressions and prophecies contained in Daniel, though the prophet himself is not expressly named. Thus, for instance, in 1 Pet. i. 10, we read, "Of which salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you." Now, on looking to Dan. ix. 3, and xii. 8, we find the passages to which St. Peter refers, in the former of which we read, "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," &c.; and in the latter we read, "I heard, but I understood not; then said I, O my Lord, what shall be the end of these things?" &c. Recollect these passages; and while you recollect them, let the light struck from the language of Peter fall upon them, "Of which salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently, what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow." Another very plain allusion to Daniel is contained in 2 Thess. ii. 3, where we have the delineation of the features of the Man of sin, which may well be compared with what Daniel tells us of the "little horn" that is to arise "doing great things;" and you will see that Paul in this is but the echo of Daniel; that Paul in short fills up the outline which Daniel had previously sketched. Another passage to which I may refer, is 1 Cor. vi. 2, where the apostle Paul says, "Know ye not that the saints shall judge the world?" Why did the apostle thus appeal to them? because the prophet Daniel expressly declares that they will do so, when he tells us in chap. vii. 22, "Until the Ancient of days came, and

judgment was given to the saints of the Most High." What a wonderful harmony is there running through the whole word of God! You cannot touch, as it were, a note in Daniel, but all the apostles of the New Testament respond to it. You may have noticed sometimes in a building, in a church, or a hall, that if a certain note or tone be given by the speaker, the whole building will instantly vibrate in harmony or in unison. In the same way, you cannot touch a truth in Daniel, but tones of harmony will burst from the lips of Paul and from the writings of Peter; the whole Bible, in grand harmony, revealing the mind, the will, and the glory of God.

We find another allusion-the last I shall here refer to-in Heb. xi. 33, "By faith. . . . they stopped the mouths of lions." This evidently refers to the wonderful deliverance of Daniel, recorded in this book, when cast into the den of lions by order of King Darius; upon which we shall comment on a future Sabbath evening. "Quenched the violence of fire." To what can this relate but to the escape of the three youths, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who were thrown into the fiery furnace by Nebuchadnezzar, and had not even their garments singed by the flames?

These allusions, scattered through the whole New Testament, show us that our Lord himself, Peter, Paul, and, I might say, all the apostles, assumed the Book of Daniel to be an inspired revelation of the mind and will of the Holy Spirit of God.

I have thus, then, I think, shown you enough from the remainder of the Bible to prove that this book is of the Bible. Some Christians among you, who long perhaps for better things, and sweeter things, and higher things, will be ready to say, "Why prove to us this of which we are already convinced?" So you are; but there are many young men in every congregation who are placed among nests of infidels, and who will be taunted, and jeered, and scoffed at, for assuming or asserting the truth, that the visions and the predictions of Daniel are inspired: I ask, then, Is it not useful,—is it not demanded by the exigencies of the age, is it not scriptural, to endeavour to enable every man to give a reason for the faith that is in him? I know you may be convinced in your hearts—and nothing is so convincing that