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The Sunday School
DANIEL IN Til K LION'S DEN.
Daniel. < Imp. t?. September *21, I!M1.
Daniel Promoted?1-:!.
Daniel Hated?4-9.
Daniel Persecuted?10-17.
Daniel Delivered?1 S-2:t.
Daniel's Enemies Punished?24.
Daniel's God Honored?2.">-2S.
Daniel Promoted- In this last lesson
about Daniel we see him an old man
honored of the king who has now come
into the kngdoin. One hundred and twen
iv princes are appointed and over them
three presidents are placed. Of these
three Daniel was the first and the
chief. Tt is interesting as well as helpful
to note the reason given for the
preferment of Daniel. It is said to be
because of the "excellent spirit" of the
man. We saw it in our first study of
Daniel that his act and "excellent
spirit" in dealing with the king's steward
helped him to carry his point in that instance.
There is a great value in keeping
sweet. Tt is undoubtedly one of the
results of the kind of trust in God that
Daniel had. With such a faith why does
one need to trouble and worry over the
situations of life- "If God be for us.
who ran no against us: mere is no
roason for our being overthrown liv our
environment. The fact is that out of the
very onnosition strength will come.
The well-known Filbert TTnbhanl. 'ho
Ttovcrofter. in advertising his place at
Kast Aurora, N. Y., as a summer resort,
used this expression: "If you want to
have a good time bring it with yon."
There is a wealth of homely nhilosonhv
in that expression, whatever we may
think of some other sayings of "The
TCra." In one of his delightful little
poems. "Fklmund Vance Cooke says:
"It's nothing against you to fall down
flat,
"Hut to lie there, that's disgrace."
He! us get up from the falls and go
smiling on the way and we will win out
in the end.
2. Daniel Hated.? It is perfectly natural
and the thing to he expected that a
positive man like Daniel would get him
self hated. It is a tribute to his fidelity
and power. Our Master said to His followers
"Woe unto you when all men
shall speak well of you." When that
happens something is wrong. You have
been saying the things that folks like to
hear. You have been trimming. You
have been dodging the issue. You have
been trying to satisfy everybody. Tt
was said of Grover Cleveland that men
loved him for the enemies he had madeNo
man ean expect to take a positive
stand and please everybody. Daniel
was no exception to this rule so we see
a plot being formed to get rid of him.
His enemies knew of His devotion to
Jehovah and his habit of prayer. They
come to Darius, the king, with a very
flattering proposition. He is taken in
and decrees that no petition shall be
made except to him for thirty days.
3. Daniel Persecuted.?Tt is not long
until the opportunity comes for Daniel's
enemies to bring him before the king.
'Hie king now realizes what a fool he
niis Deem ir seems very naro to got nim
to look at the end of a road upon which
they arc starting. "There is a way that
seonieth right to a man, but the end
thereof is the way of death." The king
searches for some means of escape, hut
finding none is forced to put Daniel in
the den of lions. The king's only ray of
hope is in the belief he has that somehow
Daniel's God will deliver him.
I. Daniel Delivered. What a night
for Darius. Did you ever have to meet
an attack commanded bv old General R.
FT. Morse? Dad time you had, was it
not? There is no pull like that of the
stretched conscience. Darius did not
have the faith In Jehovah that Daniel
THE PRESBYTERI
liiul or lu> would have slept the sleep,
of the little child. His faith was no
stronger than that of the old woman
who had heard that faith could remove
mountains. There was a hill in front
of her house that bothered her very
much, and one night she prayed that it
might he removed. When she looked
out in the morning there was the hill,
".lust as I expected," she said. Daniel
has had a greater faith and when Darius
comes early in the morning to the den
of lions lie is overjoyed to find Daniel
safe. Very plain and simple in the record.
Daniel had been delivered, "Re
Kllis lias expressed it thus: "Because
he had a great Ood in whom he greatlv
confided Daniel was aide to live a great
life and do great deeds " This is the
spirit that has made great men the world
over. Cntil we realize we are but pygmies
in the realm of real accomplishment.
Daniel's Enemies Punished.?The
men who had plotted the overthrow of
n-uiiel are themselves punished in the
way they had planned for him. "Chickens
come home to roost" is an old but
very true saving. Oftentimes men have
unconseiouslv planned their own punishment.
"With what measure you mete, it
shall he measured to you.
(!. Daniels Ood Honored.?Daniel's
firm stand for Hod had the result of
making Ood to he honored among the
people of the land. Darius was so impressed
lay the incident that he sent out
n proclamation ordering that the name
Jehovah lae feared among the neople.
Afanv people have been brought to
Christ bv seeng the power of Christ
manifested in some humlale life.
Mr. W. T. Fllis. in The Continent
tins co well summed un the character or
Daniel that we give the paragraph in
full:
"To leave a name that will not die, but
through unnumbered centuries stand as
a synomyn for honor, is the highest form
of fame and success. Daniel, the prisoner
and exile, achieved this distinction,
which is accorded to but few in the
world's list of immortals. He won with
all the chances against him; those who
knew him would have been charitable
had lie joined his fellow captives in
wastng away their lives in wailing over
their sorry plight. But of other stuff was
Daniel. In Babylon and in Susa he
gave himself to making the best of conditions,
recognizing, like a good workman,
that one must labor with the
tools at hand and not stand idle, wishing
for better tools and material. "
GEO. D. BOOTH.
New Orleans.
"Take your needle, my child, and
work at your pattern; it will come out
a rose by and by." Life is like that?
onii sincn ai a time taken patiently,
and the pattern will come out all right
like the embroidery.?Oliver Wendell
Holmes.
lx;t not the blessings we receive
daily from God make us not to value or
not to praise him because they be common.
What would not a blind man
give to see the pleasant rivers and
meadows and flowers and fountains that
we have met with??Izaak Walton.
God is a kind Father. He sets us all
in the places where He wishes us to be
employed, and that employment is truly
"our Father's business." He chooses
work for every creature which will be
delightful to them, if they do it simply
and humbly. He gives us always
strength enough and sense enough for
what he wants us to do; if we either
tire ourselves or puzzle ourselves, it is
our own fault. And we may always be
sure, whatever we are doing, that we
can not he pleasing to Him if we are
not happy ourselves.?John Ruskin.
AN OF THE SOUTH.
Young People's Societies
MISSIONS IN AFRICA.
Topic for Sunday, September 21: A Missionary
Journey Around the World.
IX. Missions in Africa, Acts N:2(>-4II.
Daily Headings.
Monday: Souls in desert places. Matthew
9:35-38.
Tuesday: A promise. Isaiah 45: 14.
Wednesday: Kiglit in the gloom. Isa9:2-4.
Thursday: Habituations of cruelty.
Psalms 74:20-22.
Friday: God's Freedmcn. Romans
fi: lfi-23.
Saturday: Help to the uttermost.
Hebrews 7:24-20.
The miracle of modern missions is as
manifest in the "dark continent" as in
the "Flowery Kingdom" or the "Hermit
:\nuon."
There are five hundred thousand
members and adherents of the Church
of England in Uganda, where about
thirty years ago Bishop "FTannington was
mil rdered.
Some of the missions around the great
lakes of Central Africa number their
converts by ten thousands, and that
though the work has hut little more than
begun.
The missions of the United Presbyterian
Church ill Ecvnt hsivo nlmncl rnvn.
lutionized certain localities, and besides
gathering hundreds of thousands of adherents,
have given education and uplift
to the whole valley.
A dark feature in the picture of
Africa is the opposition which the Protestant
faith has had from the French in
Madagascar. Both mission churches
and mission schools have been suppressed,
and all Christian efforts been
interfered with.
The largest single congregation connected
with our Church is in the heart
of Africa, on the banks of a great tributary
of the Congo. There are about
six thousand communicants long prepared
and tested who worship Christ and
send their own missionaries to the
tribes around them.
The missions in the Congo country
have been of inestimable benefit to the
people in social and civic life no less
than in respect, to their spiritual condition.
Tt was largely through the missionaries
that the horrid rule of Leopold
was exposed and its atrocities
stopped.
The central and southern part of
Africa seem to be the most hopeful for
missionary work. Tn the northern part
Mohammedanism is in power and light
seems to he almost impenetrable except
in parts of the valley of the Nile. But
the crescent will have to yield at last
to the cross.
The development of the dark continent
in which missions have played an important
part, is opening the way wider
and wider every year. The many and
marvellous products of the land invite
trade and commerce- The future is full
of promise. That continent is to the
world what. America was two hundred
years ago.
The (railroads in Africa "will give
special racnites to the work of missions.
Today one may ride from the Cape north,
ward twenty-eight hundred miles on a
Pullman, and southward two thousand
miles from Cairo. Prom the west
coast two hundred and fifty miles of
rail carries one to Stanley Pool, the inner
harbor as it was of all the Congo
Basin, while from the east coast at
Mambosa, one may go five hundred miles
into the very heart of Uganda. Directly
all these lines will meet near
the center, and the cross will cover
Africa!
\
| September 1U, 19.11
The Prayer Meeting
Difficulties, 2 Tim. 2:3, 10. Week Begin,
ning September 17tti.
We often marvel at the adverse conditions
under which we are called upon
to meet the issues of life, perform Its
tasks, or achieve its successes. Consider,
for instance, the fact of temptation. It
is a part of the discipline of every believer.
it conies to us as a part of the
training appointed to us by our lx>rd.
He is not its author, hut it comes by His
permission An inspired npostle said:
"Count it all joy when you fall into divers
temptations" Also, "Blessed is the
man that endureth temptation" We can
well under stand that the man who en
tin res or passes successfully through
temptation is blessed. It is a means of
strengthening character. It not only
increases the power of resistance, but it
stimulates and confirms positive spiritual
qualities
The existence of evil under the Divine
Sovereignity is a great mvstprv v?t an.
(opting as we must,, the fact of evil, we
can understand that overcoming evil
with good is a means of grace, and that
refusing to he oven ome of evil is itself
a process of spiritual development. The
great practical question, therefore, is
not to explain the existence of temptation
but to turn it to the account of our
spiritual maturity. The fact of being
tempted is not a sin. Meeting it in the
fear of God and resisting it by his grace
puts fresh fibre into our spiritual structure,
confirms our faith in the God of
the Covenant and stimulates to persistent
endeavor. The effort that is necessary
to accomplishment develops power
in spiritual as well as in mental and phy.
sical life. We can well understand,
therefore, how an apostle could say,
my brethren count it all joy when ye
fall into divers temptations, knowing this
that the trying of your faith worketh patience!
Again "Blessed is the man that
endureth temptation, for when he is
tried he shall receive the crown of life
which the Lord hath promised to them
that love Him."
Another department of difficulty in
Christian experience is responsibilty.
The apostle to the Gentiles enumerated
a long list of perils through which he
had passed as a witness for the Lord,
and closed the list with the words, "Besides
those things that are without, that
miiun cuiueui upon me daily, the care of
all the churches." The realizaton that
great moral and spiritual interests are
at stake and that an error of judgment
or conduct may work irreparable injury
and that the path of duty is not yet
plain, is aften an impediment to the
highest efficiency. Then it is that we
need to resort to the throne of grace
with utter abandonment of our own sufficiency
and throw ourselves entirely upon
the resources of God. We should
do this in all of life's events, whether
great or small, but it is the crisis of
life when the weight of responsibility
seems ready to crush us that we must
realize how impotent we are and how
resourceful God is. Such an experience
produces remarkable recuperative
effects because grace is given, wise decisions
are made, effective service is
rendered and we are ready to affirm with
ttie apostle, "I can do all things through
Christ which strengtheneth me."
The active, zealous Christian realizes
difficulties in the great work of leading
souls to Christ and guiding them in the
new life. Prayer, solicitude, discreet
and loving counsel, all seem at times to
fail. Often when we are most hopeful,
efforts and expectations come to naught.
What a school this is for teaching us
that it is "Not by might, nor by power,
but by my Spirit, saith the L?ord of
hosts."