THE TEMPLE HINDERED. They made long their furrows. The Lord is righteous: He hath cut asunder the cords of the wicked. Let them be as grass upon the housetops, The blessing of the Lord be upon you: 101 Looking at the peculiar situation of the Jews at this time, abundant reason for the refusal of this aid is seen. Their nation had just been suffering the bitter penalty denounced on their associating with idolaters; they would not now, at the very outset of their course, allow idolaters to join with them in their worship. For these idolaters did not admit that they were wrong, renouncing their errors; but, on the contrary, maintained that they sought the Lord Jehovah, even as the Jews did. The Jews had willingly availed themselves of the bountiful aid afforded by Cyrus, of the freewill offerings of those around them in the land of their captivity, also of the direct personal services of the men of Tyre and Sidon, in supplying means and materials for constructing the house of the Lord, and re-establishing his services: but the aid of the Samaritans, and the design with which it was proffered, was widely different; it was intended to break down the barrier between truth and falsehood. Zerubbabel, and the chiefs of the people, made their stand, and left the result with the Lord, who overruled all for good. The building was delayed for a time; but this only checked the perhaps too eager expectations of the people, while it prevented the recognized and open interference of the idolaters, who afterwards sought to hinder the reformation of Nehemiah, and probably would have led to a gradual relapse into idolatry. It is true, that from thence grew that bitter hatred of the Jews towards the Samaritans, which would not allow a Jew to have any dealings with a Samaritan, and made the villagers of that land oppose the passage of Christ and his disciples, because their faces were as though they went to Jerusalem. Our blessed Lord censured this bitter and persecuting spirit, and reproved it in both nations by his words and his actions: yet even from this enmity good was produced. Graves has shown the important purposes to which this mutual rejection was made subservient. The intermixture of the Jews with the Samaritans might have rendered the accomplishment of the prophecies respecting the family and birth of the Messiah less clear, and in various ways have interfered with the Jews remaining a separate people; while, in consequence of this mutual opposition, the Jews were made more watchful to preserve the strictness of the Mosaic ritual, and the Samaritans were zealous in imitating it. Each preserved the Divine writings of the Pentateuch independently of the other, and could not be suspected of any collusion as to the purity of the text. Another and a very important distinction may be noticed as to different views of the Saviour. While the Jews were blinded by their expectations of a worldly king, and therefore obstinately refused to regard Jesus as the promised Messiah, the Samaritans formed a more correct estimate. They knew, that "when the Messiah cometh, he will tell us all things:" see John iv. 24. Many among them accounted ignorant were not looking for a temporal prince, which the Messiah was not; but for a religious instructor, which he was. When our Lord visited Samaria, preaching the word, reproving sin, and setting forth the way of salvation, “ many believed because of his own word," declared their belief in him, and that they knew that this was indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world. They rightly estimated his character, and listened to him, without desiring, like the Jews, to take him by force, and make him a king, when they were more than commonly impressed by his word and miracles. Remember in what form our Lord appeared among the Samaritans, a mere wayfaring man, a foot traveller; who, wearied with his journey, as such a one, sat by a well side which is still pointed out, with a few companions equally humble in appearance. This also was before his fame was noised abroad, before he was known through the length and breadth of the land for his miraculous cures. Under these circumstances the Samaritans acknowledged him as the Christ, the Saviour of the world; but the only time we find the Jewish multitude openly calling him the Son of David, was when he took upon him some degree of state, humble indeed, but still with something of the bearing of a king, and drew the public notice by the manner of his entrance into Jerusalem. The crowds then shouted, Hosanna!" but, in a few short days, when they saw him despised and rejected by their rulers, the 66 same voices cried aloud, “Crucify him! Crucify him!” These remarks are important, as they bring before us the proceedings of the Jews at this peculiar crisis, and afford instructive lessons for the present day. It is not easy, always, to draw the line of demarcation between the followers of Christ and the votaries of the world; but to Scripture we may refer on all occasions of doubt, and we shall find instruction there. Let us remember, that "the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth," John iv. 23, 24. The whole of this narrative should be studied by us, with earnest prayer for right discernment in all things; and let us be assured that all the devices of man to hinder the work of God shall fail. Behold the temple of the Lord! A building this, not made with hands; He builds it for his glory's sake; And time, that other work destroys, THE LAST VISION OF DANIEL. 105 CHAPTER XIII. THE LAST VISION OF DANIEL-HIS DEATH-CAMBYSES -DARIUS HYSTASPES. DANIEL did not return to Palestine after the captivity. His great age, and the station he held at the Persian court, sufficiently account for this. He must have been about ninety years old. His influence at court, however, was not sufficient to prevent the enemies of the Jews from staying the building of the temple; but that event seems to have called him to exercise "the powerful weapon," as Bunyan calls it, "all prayer.” This painful interference might lead him to the solemn exercises of devotion, recorded Dan. x. 2, 3: "In those days I Daniel was mourning three full weeks. I ate no pleasant bread, neither came flesh. nor wine in my mouth, neither did I anoint myself at all, till three whole weeks were fulfilled." A most solemn and remarkable revelation was then made to him. He was on the banks of the river Hiddekel, now called the Tigris, which shows that he was then residing at Susa, when the Lord Jesus Christ personally revealed himself to the prophet, in human form, clad in white linen, as the high priest on the solemn day of atonement. His form and appearance were radiant with glory: those with Daniel saw not this appearance, but an awful sense of the Divine presence was upon them; they trembled and fled. Then an angel encouraged him. Daniel was spoken to as a man "greatly beloved ;" and a revelation was made to him of "that which is noted in the Scripture of truth." A solemn prophecy was communicated, not in vision, or in symbolic imagery, but in explicit terms, as to what should come to pass, though without |