of his past life-on the wall of his chamber at night, and bringing at once all his concealed thoughts and all his forgotten deeds before his mind. And if this is so, how will the sinner bear the disclosures that will be made at the day of judgment?"

It is admitted by all interpreters of note that Babylon is the type of the great western or Roman apostasy. The features ascribed to Babylon in the Apocalypse can be so accurately identified with the marks and history and doctrinal errors of the Church of Rome, that scarcely a doubt is left respecting the application of this name. It is a very awful epithet, and that church must indeed be corrupt and guilty and unfaithful that deserves it. Babylon is the representative memorial of the dungeons in which the people of God have been immured-of the tortures to which they have been subjected for Christ's sake-of the deaths they have fearlessly met and gloriously triumphed over in the face of all man fears or desires, or can be swayed by in this present life. The name, too, summons up, by way of contrast, the sustaining facts that God never forsook his own in their bitterest extremity, and that martyrs for Christ's sake, who refused "the mark of the beast," and turned away from the cup held out by the "lady of kingdoms," often enjoyed in their sorest trials more than compensatory peace and joy the lions ravenous with hunger could not touch the Lord's anointed; the sevenfold heated furnace could not singe a hair of their heads. Neither life nor death can separate such from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. But this very symbol, thus referred to the Great Apostasy, contains the prophecy of her doom. She gave herself the glory, and

forthwith the sceptre fell from her hands, and in one day her great glory was trampled in the dust. Can any fail at this moment to see the shadows of an approaching catastrophe, yet more awful, in the case of Rome? Does not the seer in the Apocalypse tell us her judgments will come upon her in one day? Do not peoples and kings seem weary of enduring this arrogant and cruel disturber of the peace, and destroyer of the confidence of nations and families? Does not judgment seem at present to sit and pronounce her misgovernment and her crimes to be no longer tolerable? Do not the subjects of the papacy court union with any nation that will deliver them from priestly misrule, and avarice, and cruelty? The Pope seems at this hour to stand before Christendom a convicted felon, and his government a long-detected and now a denounced conspiracy against all. It cannot be very long before we hear the echoing cry," Babylon is fallen!"

THE RIGHT MAN IN THE RIGHT PLACE.

CHAPTER VI.

BARNES observes:- "The chapter contains a record of the following events: (1.) The arrangement of the government after the conquest of Babylon, consisting of one hundred and twenty officers over the kingdom, so divided as to be placed under the care of three superior officers, or 'presidents,' of whom Daniel held the first place, vers. 1-3. (2.) The dissatisfaction or envy of the officers so appointed against Daniel, for causes now unknown, and their conspiracy to remove him from office, or to bring him into disgrace with the king, ver. 4. (3.) The plan which they formed to secure this, derived from the known piety and integrity of Daniel, and their conviction that, at any hazard, he would remain firm to his religious principles, and would conscientiously maintain the worship of God. Convinced that they could find no fault in his administration; that he could not be convicted of malversation or infidelity in office; that there was nothing in his private or public character that was contrary to justice and integrity, they resolved to take advantage of his well-known piety, and to make that the occasion of his downfall and ruin, ver. 4. (4.) The plan that was artfully proposed was, to induce the king to sign a decree that if any one for thirty days should ask any petition for anything of God or man, he should be

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thrown into a den of lions: that is, should be, as they supposed, certainly put to death. This proposed decree they apprehended they could induce the king to sign, perhaps because it was flattering to the monarch, or perhaps because it would test the disposition of his new subjects to obey him, or perhaps because they knew he was a weak and effeminate prince, and that he was accustomed to sign papers presented to him by his counsellors without much reflection or hesitation, vers. 6-9. (5.) Daniel, when he was apprised of the contents of the decree, though he saw its bearing, and perhaps its design, yet continued his devotions as usual-praying, as he was known to do, three times a day, with his face toward Jerusalem, with his windows open. The case was one where he felt, undoubtedly, that it was a matter of principle that he should worship God in his usual manner, and not allow himself to be driven from the acknowledgment of his God by the fear of death, ver. 10. (6.) They who had laid the plan made report of this to the king, and demanded the execution of the decree. The case was a plain one, for though it had not been intended or expected by the king that Daniel would have been found a violator of the law, yet as the decree was positive, and there had been no concealment on the part of Daniel, the counsellors urged that it was necessary that the decree should be executed, vers. 11-13. (7.) The king, displeased with himself, and evidently enraged against these crafty counsellors, desirous of sparing Daniel, and yet feeling the necessity of maintaining a law positively enacted, sought some way by which Daniel might be saved, and the honour and majesty of the law preserved. No method, however, occurring

to him of securing both objects, he was constrained to submit to the execution of the decree, and ordered Daniel to be cast into the den of lions, vers. 14-17. (8.) The king returned to his palace, and passed the night fasting, and overwhelmed with sadness, ver. 18. (9.) In the morning he came with deep anxiety to the place where Daniel had been thrown, and called to see if he were alive, vers. 19, 20. (10.) The reply of Daniel, that he had been preserved by the intervention of an angel, who had closed the mouths of the lions, and had kept him alive, vers. 21, 22. (11.) The release of Daniel from the den, and the command to cast those in who had thus accused Daniel, and who had sought his ruin, vers. 23, 24.. (12.) An appropriate proclamation from the king to all men to honour that God who had thus preserved his servant, vers. 25-27. (13.) A statement of the prosperity of Daniel, extending to the reign of Cyrus, ver. 28."

We read in the opening paragraphs that Darius, as a piece of policy for the better management of his kingdom, selected a hundred and twenty princes, or satraps, or rulers of provinces, and these he set over the whole kingdom, that each might thus have his sphere, each his duty, and the highest possible welfare of the whole realm might thus be most efficiently promoted. It appears that over these hundred and twenty he set three princes, each having forty princes under him; and over them all he set, as prime-minister, Danielthat the princes might give accounts to him, and that the king should thus in his taxes, in his expenditure, in all that related to the management of his kingdom, fiscal, political, and social, " might have no damage." It appears that Daniel was preferred before them all,