against him, except they found it against him concerning the law of his God." High testimony to a noble and exalted character! Was there ever such a fitting tribute from so corrupt a source? Might it not well be written upon the high places of the nations? Is it not a motto for kings and for those who are round about them?

"The foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that are his." He did not permit evil to come upon Daniel in consequence of his righteous deeds! God's pledge is sure, "them that honor me I will honor." Notwithstanding apparent impossibilities, Daniel was spared before the nations to administer the affairs of Babylon, and to prepare for the Hebrew people the way of deliverance from a long captivity.

Representatives of a religious system, boasting our descent from honored ancestors and called to stand in our lot with kindred peoples from other lands and of other faiths, that we may prove ourselves worthy of the heritage committed to our trust, I can recall none in all the commonwealth of kings more worthy of our study and imitation than Daniel in Babylon. As a grateful, reverent church we ask, "What advantage then hath the Jew and what profit is there of circumcision?" The answer is "much every way, chiefly because that unto us were committed the oracles of God." So, in the midst of darkness, superstition and merciless persecution, the God of our fathers hath chosen them to bear the torch of light and truth before the peoples of the world, and, upon a strong foundation, in solemn league and covenant, build up a temple to Christian truth and liberty which would stand as their bulwark

in every land. Thus, inspired by her tradition, ani

mated by her courage, nursed in her pious homes,

trained in her parish schools and molded by her simple reverent worship, hopeful sons and daughters have gone forth from her like Joseph to Egypt, and Daniel to Babylon, to shine as lights in the high places of the nations and the church.

If we, as we justly may, are proud of our privilege in this respect, we must at the same time be mindful of our responsibilities. Though dead, Daniel yet speaks. Not his word only, but the memory of his deeds has gone out into all the earth. The good as well as the evil that men do lives after them. We cease from our labors and our works do follow us. Promoted to the Chaldean court, Daniel might have esteemed it as no high honor to belong to the children of the captivity. He might readily have forgotten the sluggish waters of the Jordan in the presence of the shining silver flood of the fast-flowing Euphrates. The covenant glory of the Hebrew worshiper might have faded from view in the light of the most splendid ritual of the Babylonians. Selfish gratification might have come forward in the most plausible manner to ask, is it politic and proper, under existing circumstances, to allow principle to stand in the way of the king's favor? If, however, considerations such as these had been allowed to silence the voice of conscience, the sun of Daniel's prosperity had set ere it was yet noon, the instrument of Israel's redemption had been broken and the Chaldean monarch had not proclaimed and decreed "that in every dominion of my kingdom men tremble and fear before the God of Daniel."

As the temptation came to Daniel in Babylon, urging preference of place to principle, so it will come and it does come to all. Happy for us if we can stand where Daniel stood, if his rock is our rock! It was the foundation upon which our fathers built. If animated

by their example, we are to be elements of power in molding the future of this land, we must appreciate and cherish like principles. These they were that have made the name of the Puritan and the Covenanter synonymous with all that is pure in devotion, great in selfsacrifice and holy in religion.

man.

Whatever may have been the changes wrought during two hundred and fifty years, there is yet no armor so befitting as that which we have been wont to bear. The sling of David was more effective in the skilled hand of the youthful strappling than the sword of Saul. Daniel could have added no new lustre to the festivities of the Chaldean court, nor turned to sweeter note the splendid chorus of Babylonian song. His strength was in the Lord his God. If some seductive Delilah of sensuous desire or worldly ambition had shorn from him the locks wherein his great strength was found, he had been weak and helpless as another So if forgetful of our traditions we seek to accommodate our hearts and lives to principles and practices alien to them, we will manifest and declare our folly and our sin. We may be assured of this, that as unscrupulous courtiers we can never excel. We know not how to organize society upon a superficial basis. Being wont to build upon principles of truth and liberty, the institutions we would erect upon any other foundations weak and disproportionate would fall to pieces. The architecture may be greatly modified. In outward form the diversity may be as great as that which distinguishes the modern house of worship from the mediæval cathedral. Building, however, we must remember the old foundations, and employ material like unto that out of which our ancestors reared their goodly structure, or we build in vain.

The church was ever an essential element in their

institutions. It was the mainspring in the machinery of their social fabric, which, responsive to the veriest touch, moved them in their demands for liberty and in the accomplishment of their grandest achievements. Let us learn from them that any endeavor to build up a nationality in which there is no church, and no religion, must prove a fruitless effort.

Eliminate the Bible from our national life, and you have removed from us the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night, and left our people to wander disconsolate in the desert wastes of infidelity and national dissolution. It must continue to hold its rightful place in the hearts and homes of our people. Nations there have been without such saving power, but where are they? Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome, where are they? In all the sad scene of wild desolation which marks the place of their departed glory, no voice is heard save the solemn language of Jehovah, "I am God and there is none else." Rejoicing in the civil and religious liberty which gave to those who have gone before us their proud pre-eminence, and which by its gracious light and power they have been enabled to hand down to us, is not our duty clear? Must not the word of God be the man of our counsel? Is not God repeating to us "thou shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thine house, and on the gates. And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children."

Nor do we properly understand and appreciate the heritage committed to us, without waiting to reflect upon the influence of the Sabbath in the determination of our national character. If we have no time nor disposition

for such consideration, let us not regard ourselves as the worthy representatives of an honored past. The stupendous nineteenth century would seem to have surpassed the Divine expectation and outgrown the Divine purpose! Was the command, "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy "given for a mere elementary period of the world's history, or for every age? Was there a time to come in which the exigencies of his kingdom were to control the purposes of the King? Must the demands of heaven yield to the necessities of earth? While we must remember the Sabbath day as one of freedom from toil, we must bear in mind also that it is not to be given over to pleasure. If the holy recollections of childhood's Sabbath remain with us, if the familiar chiming of the old church bells have not ceased to vibrate upon memory's ear, if a thousand fond associations of it linger with us, as

"A day of sweet reflection,

A day of holy love,

A day of resurrection

From earth to things above,"

shall they not serve as the voice of God's gracious spirit calling upon us to contend for the sanctity of his holy day. He speaks to us in terms of peculiar personal expostulation. We are constrained not only by the principles of patriotism and religion; but the sepulchres of our fathers, the lives of heroes and the deaths of martyrs, all beseech us to "remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy."

Intensity is the distinguishing characteristic of our age. It leaves no place for neutrality. Every arrow flies with lightning speed. The driving is like the driving of Jehu. The battle has been fiercely fought. Nothing but character can endure. They only who