Let me notice in the next place, in order to vindicate and enforce faithfulness in what are called little things-for it was Daniel's faithfulness in things such as these, which gave tone and complexion to his whole after life-that in the providence and the creation of God, you will find that God as Creator, or God as Provider, expends as much care, wisdom, time, if I may use the expression, certainly attention, on the very least things as he does on the very greatest. If you examine the petal of a rose you will find it as exquisitely and as delicately tinted and touched by the pencil of God as the largest star that shines and stands like a sentinel before the throne of God. If you take the mightiest orb that the telescope brings within your horizon, you will find that it is not finished with greater care than the smallest molecule of matter that the microscope reveals to your view. In all God's works you will see infinite detail, exquisite elaboration of the minutest and the most microscopic things, patient labour, process, attention; and if we would be like God, let us take care to be faithful in the very least duty as well as in the largest sacrifice that he requires of us.

In the next place, if you will notice that sublime life—which is sublimer than providence, more stupendous than creation— the life of the Son of God upon earth, you will notice what has often been overlooked, that, according to the same great analogy, Jesus paid attention to little things in his life, as great, as marked, as striking, as to the greatest acts that he did. And I have felt it in my own mind, as well as noticed it in others, that when we quote the character of Jesus, and are trying to show how grand it was, we point to him stretching out his hand, laying it upon the crested waves of the unruly ocean, and making it lie down and be still; we quote him turning water into wine, opening the closed eye, and unstopping the deaf ear. And we say how great was He! But I doubt whether these are the highest proofs of the greatness of the Son of God. You find, at all events, that while he could thus display his mighty power in these great things, he yet descended to what you would call very minute things. I watch him, and I find him one moment speaking in beautiful but truth-breathing tones to Martha, exhorting her not to be over anxious about the affairs of her household. I find him again sitting down weary

and wayworn at the well of Samaria, and expending upon one poor woman more of eloquent, and earnest, and impressive reasoning than he ever expended upon kings, and counsellors, and high-priests.

And just after he had wrought the great miracle of turning the few loaves and fishes into food for five thousand, you find him closing that stupendous evidence of stupendous power, by bidding his disciples gather up the crumbs that remained in order that nothing might be lost. Or, to notice a yet more striking instance, when he hung upon the cross in that dire and bitter agony which is so graphically recorded by the Evangelists, and which Christians, Sabbath after Sabbath, commemorate, with the whole burden of a world's transgressions resting upon him, do you recollect that touching and affecting fact, that while one moment he could cry, in anguish which no language can depict, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?" "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" the next moment he descends to say to John, "Behold thy mother!" committing, even in this hour of overwhelming sorrow, a weeping mother to the care of a faithful friend. And when, having completed the stupendous work in which he was engaged, he rose triumphant from the grave-when the great stone was rolled away at his bidding, and all the obstructions of the tomb were rent asunder at his word, do you remember, what we might consider a very petty and trivial incident, but really not so, that we are told by the Evangelist that the napkin that had been wrapped around the Saviour's head was found, not left behind in a state of confusion, but rolled up and laid aside by itself? and how he said to the women whose affection led them first to the sepulchre, "Go and tell my disciples and Peter ?" What attention to little things! What care over minute things! What faithfulness in that which is least as well as in that which is great!—a precedent and an example that we should follow in his steps.

There is often as much real religion to be shown in little things as in great things. You have in Daniel all the feeling and the religious principle that a martyr would require for a martyr's triumphs, but it is exhibited in a circumstance the most minute and apparently unimportant. As great love may be displayed to

our relatives in attention to little things, as in great and laborious sacrifices. Peter could unsheath his sword, and cut off the ear of Malchus to defend his Master; but Peter could not help denying his Lord when accused by the servants of being a friend of Jesus. We have learned little Christianity if we have not learned this, that it needs as much grace to live divinely as it does to die divinely. It is possible to give our bodies to be burned, and to distribute all our goods to feed the poor, and yet not to have that love which endureth all things, beareth all things, hopeth all things, and is the highest evidence of our connection with and our belonging to God. Then, my dear friends, feeling this-seeing that there is weight in what I have now said, because there is truth in it, let us seek to be thus faithful in that which is least. Let us ever remember that to be singular for the mere sake of singularity is absurd; but to be singular when the call of duty and faithfulness to God demands it, is the evidence of a true Christian. Let us purpose, like Daniel, not to defile ourselves with any meat, even though it be the king's. It may be unfashionable, but it is Christian. It may look occasionally singular, but it is the singularity of principle, not the singularity of caprice. It may cost us much self-denial, but it is a part of our welfare. It may be construed as scrupulosity or fastidiousness, but it is really an element of Christian character. And if we desire to be steadfast and to conquer in the minute as well as in the mighty, in the least as well as in the greatest, let us recollect that we have the same source of strength and of victory that Daniel had, "Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts;" only we must not, as some persons do, confound two things that differ completely. They think they cannot be faithful without being very rude; they fancy they cannot be true to God without being very discourteous, and perhaps very vulgar in their expressions toward man. Now, whether vulgarity and rudeness be sins or virtues, it is needless to discuss; at all events they are not certainly evidence that there is faithfulness along with them. Notice Daniel's example. He combines all the courtesy of the most finished courtier, with all the steadfastness of the most devoted Christian. When he was told that his name should be changed he bore it with all meekness; the

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ancient followers of the cross were clothed with sheepskins and goatskins; they wandered in deserts and caves of the earth, being destitute, afflicted, tormented; they were branded with every ignominy, and regarded by all men as the very off-scouring of the earth. Yet they took it all patiently-so did Daniel bear his cross; but when it came to a point of principle, when he was ordered to eat the king's meat, and thereby deny his religion, we do not find him fly into a furious state of excitement, or use the language of bravado; there was no outbreak of temper, no boasting, no insolence or defiance. He did not say, "Tell the king I will not do so." That would have been violence, rudeness, insolence—the least effective and the least expedient. He had confidence in his religious principles; he trusted in the goodness of his cause; he relied upon the God whom he served; and the reply which he made to Melzar, whom the prince of the eunuchs had set over him and his fellows, was this, "Prove thy servants, I beseech thee,”—the language of perfect respect,― "ten days; and let them give us pulse to eat, and water to drink. Then let our countenances be looked upon before thee, and the countenance of the children that eat of the portion of the king's` meat and as thou seest, deal with thy servants.” What gentle

ness and courtesy! as well as what a sanctified heart! the highest Christianity is always associated with the highest courtesy. My conviction is that none but a finished Christian can be a finished gentleman; for if there be genuine Christianity in the heart, the manners will be but the outward evidences of the inward feelings of the heart-gentle, beautiful, courteous, bearing all things, hoping all things, enduring all things. We find that Melzar was so charmed and delighted to see so much self-denial united to so great courtesy and gentleness that he immediately permitted the experiment to be made, and the result is stated in verse 15, that at the end of ten days their countenances were found fairer and fatter in flesh than those of the children that did eat of the king's meat.

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LECTURE IV.

TRUE PRINCIPLE IS TRUE EXPEDIENCY.

"As for these four children, God gave them knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams. Now at the end of the days that the king had said he should bring them in, then the prince of the eunuchs brought them in before Nebuchadnezzar. And the king communed with them: and among them all was found none like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah: therefore stood they before the king. And in all matters of wisdom and understanding that the king inquired of them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers that were in all his realm. And Daniel continued even unto the first year of king Cyrus."-DANIEL i. 17-21.

THE next lesson that we have to draw from the closing verses of the chapter is a very important one-it is the result of Daniel's experiment. Was Daniel a loser by his firm adherence to principle? Not at all; it was all the very reverse. We find that Daniel's faithfulness to conscience, his allegiance to his God, his courteous but firm refusal to do that which was sinful, was even in this world blessed to him, and even in temporal affairs turned to his advantage. Now I wish young men especially to look at this; because the lesson that I am drawing from it is a much needed one. The four children were found at the end of ten days to have been so blessed of God, that not only were they, as we have seen, fairer and fatter in flesh than any of the children-i. e. the children of Israel —who gave up their consciences and ate of the king's meat; but the result was, in the end, that in all matters of knowledge and skill, they were many times wiser than all the magicians and astrologers that were in all the realm. God honoured his servants. The result of this faithfulness to God was promotion in the palace and the favour of the king.

The lesson, therefore, that I draw from the whole subject is in these words: "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteous