in years, and those miraculous endowments, by which he had exposed the ignorance of the magicians, entitled him to superior honours. " It pleased Darius to set over the kingdom, an hundred and twenty princes, which should be over the whole kingdom, and over these, three presidents, of whom Daniel was first, that the princes might give accounts unto them, and the king receive no damage." The Magicians did not appear to possess influence at his court; it was now the Presidents and Princes who resented that this Hebrew should become their superior. But as his integrity could not be impeached, they had recourse to his religion. They did not attempt, like the magicians under Nebuchadnezzar, to render the worship of images the snare to entangle him; the veneration of the true God was now too firmly established. But they surprised Darius into an edict which flattered his vanity, and of which he perceived not the pernicious consequences. It was not to enjoin an act of idolatry, but merely to prohibit the worship of any God, or presenting a petition to any man, for thirty days, excepting to the king himself.

The pious Daniel considered such an omission as a breach of duty; nor would he compromise with his conscience by the privacy of his wor

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ship. "When Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into his house, and his windows being open in his chamber toward Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks unto God as he did aforetime." The extreme sorrow of the king when he was informed that Daniel had disobeyed the royal edict, manifested at once a just sense of his own folly, and the highest respect for this faithful servant of God. Instead of being in a rage against Daniel, "He was sore displeased with himself." When he found that his decree was irrevocable, he indulged the hope that the God who had preserved the conscientious Jews from the fiery furnace, would also preserve Daniel from the rage of the Lions. "He passed the night in fasting; and he arose very early in the morning, and went in haste unto the den of Lions; and he cried with a lamentable voice unto Daniel, and said, “O Daniel, servant of the living God, is thy God whom thou servest continually, able to deliver thee from the Lions?" And when he heard that they had done him no hurt, the king was exceeding glad." Thus, in the whole of his conduct, did this sovereign manifest the highest reverence for the God of Israel; and this reverence inspired him with humility, justice, and humanity, infinitely beyond what was usually practised by the

sovereigns in those days of absolute power. He attempted to compensate for his rash and inconsiderate vanity, by publishing a decree, of an opposite tenor from that which had exposed his servant to so much danger; for it enforced the reverence of that God unto whom he had forbidden petitions to be represented. "He wrote to all people, nations, and languages, that dwell in all the earth," by which expression we are to understand the great and unparalleled extent of his dominions; "Peace be multiplied unto you. I make a decree, that in every dominion of my kingdom, men tremble and fear before the God of Daniel, for he is the living God, and stedfast for ever; and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed, and his dominion shall be even to the end. He delivereth and rescueth, and he worketh signs and wonders in heaven and in earth.”

The above epitome of the religious history of the Jews evinces the following facts:-It was not the sole object of the Deity to favour a particular people; they were preferred on account of the piety of their ancestors, but it was to render the nations of the earth blessed by their instrumentality, as well as to afford to them an opportunity of being in reality the distinguished favourites of heaven :-The grand ob

ject of blessing mankind, was pursued in every stage of the political existente of this selected people :-The pre-requisites for these blessings consisted in the destruction of idolatry with its surrounding enormities:-All the means were used, for this purpose, which could operate upon the minds of the subjects to be influenced, and which were consistent with the character of free and moral agents: the obstinate, perverse, and cruel, were chiefly subdued by terror; but in proportion as mankind became more civilized, milder methods were pursued,and the allurements of national prosperity were placed before their eyes. Beneficial effects were thus introduced, and diffused to a considerable extent; for, although a multitude of unthinking and profligate Jews apostatized from the true religion, multitudes of Pagans" learned to know the Lord:" In the land of Jewish captivity, when the worship of the living and true God appeared to be in such imminent danger, from the contagion of bad example, and the prevalence of Pagan superstition, their religion took the deepest root, and bore the choicest fruits; by the miraculous interference of Divine Providence, superstition was subdued in the centre of its empire. The great conquerors of the earth learned to revere the Jehovah of Israel, bore public testimony to

the greatness of his might, and commanded. the nations to stand in awe before him.

Thus far has sacred history conducted us. The true religion having acquired, by the perpetual care and protection of the universal sovereign, a due degree of energy and strength, ostensible interference was withheld. But whoever attends to the series of events which fill the pages of profane history, from the time of the Babylonish captivity, and the reinstatement of these captives, in the land of their fathers; whoever believes that the Deity has not totally withdrawn his secret operations from the concerns of mortals, will be disposed to ascribe various occurrences to the continued interposition of Providence; for he will perceive the surprizing co-operation of these natural events, in the refinement of manners, improvement of morals, and diffusion of knowledge. With the Jews was the grand deposit of religious truth; and whenever the Jews individually or collectively were patronized and protected, these were patronized and protected. As their religion had for its basis a much higher object than the pride of empire, they were not reinstated in worldly gran