N the last nine chapters of Ezekiel we have recorded a

IN

most remarkable vision of the structure of a new

temple, and a polity, or state of society and government, applicable in the first instance to the return of the Jews from the Babylonian captivity, but in its ultimate meaning referring evidently to the distant glories of the gospel day. The account is too long to insert here, and too particular in its statements to be easily abridged. We must, therefore, refer the reader to the fortieth chapter of Ezekiel, in which the vision is commenced, and represents, first, the appearance of a man with a measuring line in his hand, ascertaining the dimensions of a new and complicated structure; the various walls, porches, chambers, and ornaments of which are detailed with about as much minuteness as in the account given of the real temple built by King Solomon.-EZEK. xl.

D

DANIEL TELLS NEBUCHADNEZZAR HIS

DREAM.

ANIEL also was a captive, carried away to Babylon

when he was about eighteen or twenty years of

age, and in the year 606 before the Christian era. He was placed in the court of Nebuchadnezzar, and was afterwards raised to situations of great rank and power, both in the empire of Babylon and Persia. Perhaps the best rebuke that ever was administered to imposture, was that of Nebuchadnezzar to the lying sorcerers of his day. The monarch had dreamed a dream, and desired two things of the magicians,-the dream itself, and the interpretation of it. And why should it be harder to tell a man what he has dreamed, than to foretell future events by it, when told? It was a first-rate expedient for testing the true qualifications of these soothsayers, to make them tell the dream of the dreamer; and it had the desired

effect of exposing their deceitful pretensions. On their failure, Nebuchadnezzar commanded that all the reputed wise men should be destroyed; and Daniel and his fellows were included in the fatal decree. But he, being no impostor, sought from his God the revelation needed, and obtained it. He made it known, with all its mysterious particulars, to the king.-DAN. ii.

จ)

ANIEL was now in high favour with the king of

Babylon, and had wealth, honour, and power

conferred upon him in abundance. By leave of the king, he set three of his brother Jews, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, as rulers over the province of Babylon. But they soon found the dangers of their Nebuchadnezzar had a golden image made,

elevation.

THE FIERY FURNACE.

175

at whose dedication all the people were to fall down and worship it. Disobedience to this decree was to be punished by death in a fiery furnace, prepared on purpose. As the exaltation of the three Jews had procured them the envy and enmity of certain Chaldeans, they drew near and informed Nebuchadnezzar that the persons he had promoted had not obeyed his command, nor worshipped the image. Their reply evinced unshaken piety and intrepidity: 'Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.' Nebuchadnezzar, full of fury, commanded instant execution of the sentence, which was so unjust, that the men who delivered the victims to the flames were destroyed by the intense heat of the furnace. And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, fell down bound into the midst of the burning fiery furnace;' when the king was astonished to perceive four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, the form of the fourth being like the Son of God. Awed and subdued by the sight, the king called the three Jews by their names to come out, and they came out unhurt, nor had the smell of the fire passed upon them.-Dan. iii.

THIS

HIS king had another dream, which troubled him much, but which none but Daniel could interpret ;

and it foretold grievous calamity to the monarch -even madness, and his exclusion from human society. The prophet conveyed his message with firmness and respect, coupled with good advice, which, it seems, was unheeded; for all that had been predicted fell upon him. Whilst exulting in his greatness he was struck with insanity, and driven from man to partake of the grass in the fields with the oxen.-DAN. iv.