disapproval of the idolatries practiced there. Then follow several discourses in which the idolatry of the people is further reproved, and the fearful judgment coming upon Jerusalem both announced and figuratively described.

II. The second part contains prophecies against foreign nations, of which seven are mentioned; the Ammonites, Moabites, Edomites, Philistines, Tyre, Egypt, and Ethiopia: Chapters xxv. to xxxii.

III. The third part foreshows the salvation of Israel; first its conditions and basis; then its progress, from the re-awakening of the people to their final victory over all enemies of the Divine kingdom; and lastly, the picture of its restoration and glory in its final period: Chapters xxxiii. to xlviii.

In consequence of the peculiar and copious symbolism of this book, a dark and mysterious character has been attributed to it in the past. The imagery has been deemed "colossal," as well as enigmatical and obscure. So cloudy a mystery has been supposed to overhang its pictures, that Jerome calls it "a labyrinth of the mysteries of God." Commentators in all ages have been unwilling to undertake its explanation. In the Jewish Church, persons were forbidden to read it until thirty years of age, and so mature in mind.

The science of correspondences is the only key that unlocks it, showing the mean

ing of its symbols, and their application to the needs of the Church in all time.

The closing vision, Chapters xl. to xlviii., has received much attention. The close analogy between the symbolism of this book and that of Revelation in the New Testament, has frequently been remarked; and in these last chapters we have a picture much resembling that of the New Jerusalem given by John, REV. 21 and 22. In its inner scope the whole book refers to the glorious fulfilment of the Lord's kingdom coming in the later ages. There are no direct quotations from this book in the New Testament.

XXIII.-The Book of Daniel.

He

MUCH of the information concerning this prophet is derived from his own book. belonged to the royal family of Judah, being one "of the king's seed and of the princes" (DAN. i. 3), whom Nebuchadnezzar carried captive to Babylon the third year of King Jehoiakim, 604 B.C. At this time he was quite a young man, some suppose no more than twelve years of age; probably, however, somewhat older. He was very early distinguished for his piety and other high personal endowments, and was one of the youths selected by the Babylonian monarch to be brought up in the service of the court, and was instructed in

all the learning of the Chaldeans, with his three companions. Purposing in his heart that he would not be defiled with the king's meat (DAN. i. 8–16), because he thought it contrary to the law of the Lord (DEUT. xxxii. 38), he was Divinely supported in his resolve, and gifted with superior wisdom, and an insight into holy mysteries. After three years of mental and religious discipline, an opportunity was providentially given him for publicly exercising his peculiar gift of interpreting dreams on the occasion of Nebuchadnezzar's decree against the Magi (DAN. ii. 18). In consequence of his success he was made "ruler of the whole Province of Babylon," and "chief of the governors over all the wise men of Babylon." His name became a synonyme of righteousness, good judgment, and wisdom. As such he is spoken of by the Prophet Ezekiel, with whom, in the early part of his life, he was contemporary. (EZEK. xiv. 14, 20; xxviii. 3). At the time of this last allusion he is supposed to have been about forty years old.

He was the only Hebrew prophet who attained great worldly prosperity. great powers, spotless life, and peculiar gifts, won him the royal favor, which he retained under successive monarchs. For refusing to worship the golden image which the king had set up (DAN. iii.), Daniel's three companions were thrown into a fiery

furnace, from which they were rescued by heavenly interposition. He afterwards interpreted Nebuchadnezzar's dream (Chap. iv.), and then the marvellous hand-writing on the wall, at the feast of Belshazzar. And finally, he was rescued from the den of lions, when thrown in thither at the instance of his persecutors. Thus he was successively marvellously attested as a prophet of the Lord, and the wisdom he had as given by God.

On the accession of King Darius, the Mede, he was made "first of the three presidents" of the empire; and under King Cyrus, the Persian, still retained his prosperity (Chap. x.). He is stated to have reached the age of ninety years, and so overlived the whole period of the seventy years' captivity of his people, witnessing their return, though not returning with them. He is believed to have died at Susa, or Shushan, where was the palace of the Persian kings, and a tomb bearing his name is at this day the only building standing amid the ruins of that famous and ancient city.

There are various readings of his name in Hebrew, not altogether determined; meaning either the judge of God, or God is my Fudge; the latter we may believe the true rendering.

The introduction to the book (Chap. i.) is written in Hebrew, Daniel's native

tongue. But when, as in the next chapter, he came to speak of and with the Chaldeans, who "spake to the king in Syriac" (verse 4), he changed his language, and spake and wrote in their tongue, the Syriac or Chaldean, sometimes called also Aramaic. So from ii. 4 to end of Chap. vii., is in Chaldee, a language having the same characters and varying very little from the Hebrew. At the beginning of Chap. viii., where Daniel resumes his own experiences as a prophet of the Lord, he returns to the Hebrew, and continues that to the end of the book.

The book thus is partly historical and partly prophetical. The prophecies may be divided into two parts; the first, those written in Chaldee, Chap. ii. to vii., giving an account of Belshazzar's feast, the den of lions, and the vision of the four beasts ascending out of the sea.

The second part, written in Hebrew, contains the vision of the ram and he-goat, Chap. viii.; Daniel's prayer and the unfolding of the prophecy of the seventy years by the Angel Gabriel, Chap. ix. ; the fourth prophetic vision, which Daniel had in the third year of Cyrus, fills the last three chapters. The wonderful appearance of the Lord to him, in Chap. x., should receive careful study.

The close analogy between Daniel's prophecies and the Book of Revelation, has been recognized by nearly all com