15. And at the end of ten days their countenances appeared fairer and fatter in flesh than all the children which did eat the portion of the king's meat. 16. Thus Melzar took away the portion of their meat, and the wine that that they should drink; and gave them pulse. 17. 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. 18. 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 Nebuchad nezzar. 19. 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. 20. And in all matters of wisdom and understanding, that the king enquired of them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers that were in all his realm. fairer, and they were fatter in flesh than all the youths which did eat of the king's dainties (Am. R.). V. GOD'S BLESSING RESTED ON THOSE WHO WERE FAITHFUL TO HIM, vs. 17-20. First. Better physical condition. The simple life brought better bodily health, more beauty, greater strength and activity, all that was needed for the best work and the highest joy, of which the body is capable. Every trainer in Athletics in all our colleges confirms this fact, and acts upon it. SECOND. The body by this course became the best instrument of the mind and spirit. The brain, was clear, the whole physical condition was fitted to endure the strain of best study and work. Third. 17. As for these four children (Am. R. "youths "), God gave them knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom; and in addition he gave to Daniel understanding in all visions and dreams. Fourth. 19. At the end of the three years of training, these four stood before the king, as his official cabinet of counselors. All officials stood in the presence of the king. Babylonian Idols. "Hundreds of 20. And in all matters of wisdom and understanding, . . . the king found them ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers (Am. R., " enchanters") that were in all his realm. tablets (from the ruins of Babylon and Nineveh) yet remain, showing the exorcisms, charms, talismans, and astrological forms in vogue." Records of the Past. Why? Because the four gained their knowledge from the true God, and the principles laid down in their Scriptures; while the astrologer and magicians rested largely on arts that could not give true advices. Temperance Applications. The Real Heart of this Lesson is (1) Self-control, (2) the Test of Facts. Every wise Person should Know the actual Facts, Tested and Proved, as to the effect upon Life's real Success, of Total Abstinence contrasted with the Use of Intoxicating Liquors. Self-control. "One who lives near a harbor is accustomed to see three kinds of craft. The scow has no power of self-propulsion, or self-direction. It must be towed by a tug. The sailboat makes its own way, but its power is not within itself. Only when the wind blows can it move at all; and its progress then depends upon the force and direction of the wind. The steamer has within itself the power which drives it over the seas in any direction in spite of opposing winds and waves. De Three kinds of people may be compared with these different kinds of craft. scribe each. Our lives are made up of a succession of choices. The very centre of a man, that which determines his strength and power, is his Will. The power to exercise his will to control his conduct, we call self-control. Nothing is so essential to success as this; and this self-control may be acquired, but only as a result of practice. "The heights by great men reached and kept Were not attained by sudden flight, Does the knowledge that the effects of alcohol are injurious prevent a man from becoming a drunkard? Knowledge is valuable, so far as conduct is concerned, only as it forms a guide for a reasonable choice." Prin. Franklin W. Johnson in Problems of Boyhood. The four young men we have been studying, had gained self-control. Their guide for themselves, and for those over them was the Test of Facts. Let us summon as witnesses a few of the many experiences as to Total Abstinence. First let me call up eighteen Presidents of the United States as among the most distinguished men in our history (although used in the 1915 Notes). Eighteen of the Presidents of the United States have publicly, in some way, expressed themselves in favor of total abstinence. In the following list, the first twelve names, I understand, were obtained by Mr. Delavan of Albany, N.Y. The next two are known on good authority to have been total abstainers. The remaining four signed the Declaration prepared by Mr. Delavan and signed by the first twelve, and sent me their autograph signatures which are given below. Let us ask the Leaders in Athletics what their experience is. A representative of the New York Voice visited the great athletic clubs of New York City, and found that, "with a single exception, all these men emphatically insisted that even moderate drinking is a positive injury to an athlete, and that the total abstainer is the better physical man from every point of view." The following are some of the testimonies of the directors of these clubs. Mr. Giannini, the director of the New York Athletic Club, one of the largest in the city, whose specialty was rowing, said: "Alcoholic liquors as a beverage, moderate or otherwise, are entirely tabooed by athletic trainers everywhere and under all circumstances." Athletics is on the side of temperance and insists that those who drink liquor and puff cigarettes cannot be depended on to do so simple a thing as win a game of baseball. MR. RAILROAD MAN, why is it that chief railroads will not allow any employee to use strong drink, and the Brotherhood of Engineers will not keep in their number and thus endorse any one who is even a moderate drinker? Because even in moderate drinking there is danger of a bad effect upon the mind, disturbing the judgment, distorting the reason. Listen to Tennyson who, in his In Memoriam, cries out with all the intensity of his being: "Arise, and fly The reeling Faun, the sensual feast; And every young person should flee from the modern Sodom more earnestly than from a pestilence. "For it may be a platitude, but it is intemperance in general intemperance in eating, in drinking, and in sexual relationships that is the source of more than half the diseases with which mankind is afflicted." Dr. Conrad Thies, for a long time at the head of the House of Mercy in London. MR. BUSINESS MAN, why are you a total abstainer? ing injures my good judgment. Because even moderate drink A "A number of gentlemen in the State of New York came together to value certain parcels of land which were to be offered at public sale. They agreed unanimously upon the sum they were worth; but upon the day of the sale the owner cunningly treated them to alcoholic drinks, and one of them bid and actually paid four times as much for the property as he or any other man in his right senses thought it worth. temperance man, having some standing timber to be disposed of at public sale, decided that he would not furnish any alcoholic liquors to the bidders, as was the custom in that day. The auctioneer replied: 'I am sorry, for you will lose a great deal of money. I know how it works, for after men have been drinking the trees look much larger to them than they did before."" Here sits a Father at a Public Dinner. Why do you turn down the wine glass at your plate, and refuse to drink? so a lady asked a distinguished general, she said. "Excuse me, General, but I have noticed that on every occasion where I have been with you at dinner you have always turned down your glasses. Do you never drink wine?" "No," replied the General, "I never drink it." "I do not wish to be impertinent," replied the lady, "but I would very much like to know why a man of your age and character should feel it necessary to refuse the comfort and exhilaration of a glass of wine." The General smiled and said, "I am very willing to tell you all there is about it. It might be perfectly safe with me to drink a glass of wine with my dinner, but yonder is my son, sitting at the other table. If I do not drink wine, he will not. If I drink wine, he will follow my example.". Rev. Louis Albert Banks, D.D. Never to use Intoxicating Liquors as a drink, and to Signed.... Liquor Traffic. GOLDEN TEXT. When thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flames kindle upon thee. — ISAIAH 43: 2. 66 THE TEACHER AND HIS CLASS. We have all been thrilled by those lines on The Charge of the Light Brigade. It is a brave description of a brave ride. The colonel got his order, gathered the bridle rein and swung himself into the saddle, saying, 'Here goes the last of the Cardigans and thirteen thousand pounds a year.' When a man is the eldest son of a lord and has $65,000 a year, that means a good deal to lose. When he is called to lay all this down for the sake of a forlorn hope against guns double-shotted, and obeys instantly, he is a good deal of a soldier." - Myron Reed. PLAN OF THE LESSON. SUBJECT: Adventures of Three Men "Some one has said of that charge 'It was magnificent but it was not war.' I am not so sure about that if all the heroism and devotion in the world directly inspired by the immortal six hundred' could be finally added up in the day of judgment, it might easily III. appear that the six hundred made a royal investment of their lives." Pres. C. R. Brown. We may well introduce with this story of the immortal six hundred, the three greater heroes who stood alone, uncheered, and looking in the face of the fiery furnace, defied in the name of the true God, the conqueror of the nations and all his armies. THE LESSON IN ITS SETTING. II. HE PLANS TO UNITE ALL THESE IV. THE TEST OF LOYALTY TO THE V. THE THREE JEWISH NONCONFORM- VI. IN THE FIERY FURNACE, VS. 19-23. THE TEACHER'S LIBRARY. The books on Daniel referred to in our last lesson. Professor Phelps' Old Time. Probably not long after the Testament Studies, "The Men in the destruction of Jerusalem in the summer Fire." "The Song of The Three Chilof B.C. 586 in the 18th year of Nebuchad-dren" in the Apocrypha. nezzar, "when he had brought to a conclusion a series of great victories and conquests." Place. -The Plain of Dura, somewhere in the vicinity of Babylon. Place in the History. -Soon after the final destruction of Jerusalem. Captive Jews throughout Babylonia. Daniel in Nebuchadnezzar's service, for 15 or more years. Ezekiel a captive at Chebar in Babylonia. THE LESSON IN LITERATURE. Carlyle's Heroes and Hero Worship. I. NEBUCHADNEZZAR HAD CONQUERED MOST OF THE NATIONS IN HIS WHOLE REGION. So far as we know Nebuchadnezzar's great assemblage of people from all over his empire had for its object the consolidation of his whole kingdom. He had just returned from a triumphant campaign against his enemies in the west and south, against Egypt, Syria, Judea and Arabia. Babylon, Elam, Media and Chaldea were divisions of the kingdom; so that the empire was composed of various countries and races, diverse from one another in disposition, character and interests, with different political organizations, and speaking different languages. They were united by no natural affinity, but by conquest. The whole empire might easily fall to pieces. Nebuchadnezzar had a very large problem on his hands, for the next quarter of a century. II. NEBUCHADNEZZAR'S PLAN TO UNITE ALL THE DISCORDANT ELEMENTS INTO ONE GREAT EMPIRE BY MEANS OF A COLOSSAL IMAGE OF GOLD, VS. I-7. The King made an image of Gold. This image was doubtless the likeness of Bel-Merodach, the tutelary deity of Babylon, the capital of the empire. It was erected in the plain of Dura not far from the city. During the trigonometrical survey of Mesopotamia, Captain Selby ascertained that in the level plain of Dura the dip of the horizon at 12 miles is 53 feet "; so that one standing on the ground could see a statue of that height at that long distance. And this statue, almost twice as high, could be easily seen glittering in the morning From an old print. The Golden Image in the Plain of Dura. sun through the wonderfully clear air of that region, from at least the tops of the most distant houses in the immense city of Babylon. The image was 60 cubits high including the pedestal. The usual length of a cubit is 18 inches. "But possibly the measurement in this case was by a much shorter cubit, and not improbably it may have been by a cubit much longer." - Beecher. It is sometimes reckoned at 22 inches; but it varied at different times and in different countries. The image being 60 cubits (= about 90 feet) high and 6 cubits (= 9 feet) broad, for a human figure would be disproportionately tall. A tall, slender man is about six times as high as he is broad, while the height of this statue was ten times its breadth. It is probable that the height of 90 feet includes the pedestal, and then the image would be proportionate. This vast size is not without parallel, and has even been exceeded. For a modern instance refer to the statue of Liberty Compare other lofty statues. |