especially for religious uses; in which the worshipper, being free from noise and interruption, and having a large and open prospect, might feel his soul elevated and his devotion more pure and exalted. Shaw in his travels thinks these upper rooms were buildings detached from the house, often raised a story higher than it, to which there was a private staircase. In these upper rooms the light was admitted through windows which in the lower part was received through the doors; and these windows of Daniel were opened towards the holy city, whither the Jews had long wished and prayed for their return. The city and temple of Jerusalem were objects of tender regard to the Jews; for thither their tribes had gone up to worship and to offer their sacrifices, and thither they hoped again to return: Daniel, therefore, prayed with his windows open towards the holy city; most probably retaining in mind Solomon's prayer ( 1 Kings viii. 46-53) at the dedication of the temple. "If they shall bethink themselves in the land whither they were carried captives, and repent. And pray unto thee toward their land which thou gavest unto their fathers, the city which thou hast chosen, and the house which I have built for thy name; then hear thou their prayer and their supplication in heaven thy dwelling place, and maintain their cause." Keeping this prayer most probably in mind, Daniel offered up his supplications as aforetime, neither seeking nor avoiding detection. Influenced by principles of real piety he did not sacrifice his conscience by omitting his duty; nor did he seek to expose his life by any acts of devotion distinct from those to which he had been accustomed. f Shaw's Travels, p. 280. Wintle in loco. L But Daniel's enemies were well acquainted with the firmness of his religious principles, and the constancy of his devotion; they knew that the law of his God was dearer to him than life, and therefore (v. 11) they "assembled and found Daniel praying, and making supplication before his God." They watched him diligently, to ascertain whether he would break the king's decree; and having found that his prayers were made to God as usual, they rushed into his chamber and discovered him in the very act of his devotion. And now Darius perceived the mischief of his unwise and wicked decree; and that it would injure himself as well as Daniel, by depriving him of the services of so able and upright a minister. Kings ought strictly to guard against the flatteries of courtiers, and those designs which they carry on against each other, since their object is more frequently the gratification of their own passions than the promotion of the public good. And when they have entangled their prince in an unwise measure, they will press him to execute it however disastrous, if they can but supplant a rival. And hence, though the king was sorely distressed, and set his heart to deliver Daniel; though his distress was so great that, as the word imports, he was in an agony, and in the severest anguish of soul; yet his grief affected them not. Their rival must be destroyed, and therefore (v. 15) they "assembled unto the king;" "they rush into his presence with eagerness, they are fierce," says Calvin, "as if they would strike him with their hands;" and insist that the law, or custom of the Medes and Persians be adhered to, and that Daniel be thrown into the den of lions. But however anxious the king might be to revoke his decree, he could not accomplish his wish; and therefore he commanded its execution, and "they brought Daniel, and cast him into the den of lions. " But Darius had no doubt heard of the wonderful deliverance of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, from the fiery furnace; and that their God was Daniel's God: And hence he might hope, nay even believe that Daniel would be delivered from the power of the wild beasts. This seems indeed plain from verse 16, for "the king spake and said unto Daniel, Thy God whom thou servest continually, he will deliver thee;" though Wintle renders the passage, "thy God whom thou servest continually, may he deliver thee." But the common reading is to be preferred; for certainly the king would feel assured, that the same God who so wonderfully delivered his three servants from the flames, could deliver Daniel from the lions; and a kind of sacred impulse would impel him to say, "he will deliver thee." And though the king says (v. 20), " is thy God able to deliver thee;" yet easy to suppose that he would use terms expressive of doubt, when he came to ascertain whether Daniel was alive, which he would not use when in the agony of his feelings he consented to the execution of the decree; for in such cases men often speak as if that was certain which they wish and hope. it is The barbarous custom of throwing criminals, or condemned persons, to wild beasts, or lions, was not unfrequent; and at Babylon seems to have been a common mode of punishment. During the persecutions which raged against the first Christians, numbers of them were torn by wild beasts; and the common cry among the heathen was, when they laboured under any public calamity, "The christians to the lions." Tacitus informs us that in the reign of Vitel lius, Mariccus one of the Boii was thrown to wild beasts; but that not being torn by them he was slain in the presence of the emperor: And Dion Cassius tells us that Serapion an Egyptian was ordered to be thrown to a lion, but was spared by it; and St. Jerom mentions a like instance of one Malchus; and Victor, others concerning the African Christians in the persecution of Huneric. & But that Daniel's escape was by divine interposition, was proved by the destruction of his enemies. "They," says Josephus, h" would not allow this deliverance however to be the work of a peculiar providence, and would needs face the king down that the lions' bellies were full, and so they let him alone for want of appetite. The king was so incensed at the spite and malignity of these people, that he ordered as much meat to be given to the lions as they could get down, and when they would eat no longer to turn Daniel's accusers in among them. If they do not worry them, says the king, it is because their bellies are full, but if they do, it must be allowed to be a divine providence that preserved Daniel. In short the lions tore them to pieces every one of them, as if it had been in a starving hunger, or rather as if the brutes themselves were become the ministers of God's justice upon the workers of iniquity." The precautions which were taken to secure the den, made the miracle of Daniel's deliverance the more conspicuous, for (v. 17) "a stone was brought, and laid upon the mouth of the den, and the king sealed it with his own signet, and with the signet of his lords; that the purpose might not be changed concerning Daniel. " The enemies of the prophet were determined to secure, by all possible means, his destruction; g Taci. Hist. 1. 2. 61. Dio. 1. 78. Pole on. v. 22. rescue. and by the king's seal to prevent any attempt at his As the Jews, in the case of our Saviour, made the sepulchre sure by sealing the stone and setting a watch, and hoped to detect his disciples, if they should attempt to steal him away; so every precaution was taken to secure Daniel in the Den, and to make hist death the more certain. But in vain all their cares and endeavours; that same God who preserved his servants Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, from the power of the flames when the furnace was heated seven times hotter than usual, was determined to save Daniel from the Jaws of the lions, and to give another proof, in the sight of the heathen, of his power and greatness. The sealing of the den made all access to Daniel almost impossible without detection; and confirmed the punishment inflicted upon him: when therefore he came whole and safe from among the lions, it was evidently by the interposition of divine providence, since the lions had the mastery over his accusers, "and brake all their bones in pieces, or ever they came at the bottom of the den." But though Daniel's enemies would rejoice at his punishment, yet Darius, who had unwillingly inflicted it, mourned and grieved: He "went ( v. 18) to his palace, and passed the night fasting: Neither were instruments of music brought before him: And his sleep went from him." He felt the loss he had sustained in being deprived of a wise and able minister, and the injustice which, though unwilling, he had committed against him. The pomp of royalty now lost its power of giving pleasure; nor could either the gratification of his taste by delicacies, or of his ear by harmony, sooth the anguish of his mind. A sleepless |