of you who are willing to march with me tonight to the relief of Cawnpore, lift up your hands." And then, it is said, that in the darkness and the silence he said, "Men, in the darkness I cannot see your hands, but I know they are there; make ready to march tonight." And so they marched to the relief of the oppressed city. Brooding over this old world, his heart breaking over its sin, its sorrows and its burdens, is the loving Saviour. Down from the rock-ribbed sides of Calvary and up from the deeps of dark Gethsemane we hear him say, "Have not I done my part?" to which we make answer, "Yea, Lord, more than thy part," and to each of us the Master says, "Go ye therefore and make disciples of all nations." Whatever may be God's program concerning the future our business is to do with all our might whatever our hands find to do. "The night cometh when no man can work. Whilst we look and pray for His coming let us ever keep in mind that the command of our Lord is "Occupy till I come." CHAPTER NINE THEME "Impenetrable Darkness and Temples of the Dawn." 9:1-27. Divisional Words Penitence -Petition -Penetration. (a) PENITENCE. 9:1-14. In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes, which was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans; 2 In the first year of his reign, I Daniel understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem. 3 And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes: 4 And I prayed unto the Lord my God, and made my confession, and said, O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his commandments; 5 We have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments: 6 Neither have we hearkened unto thy servants the prophets, which spake in thy name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land. 7 O Lord, righteousness belongeth unto thee, but unto us confusion of faces, as at this day; to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and unto all Israel, that are near, and that are far off, through all the countries whither thou hast driven them, because of their trespass that they have trespassed against thee. 8 O Lord, to us belongeth confusion of face, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against thee. 9 To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgiveness, though we have rebelled against him; 10 Neither have we obeyed the voice of the Lord our God, to walk in his laws, which he set before us by his servants the prophets. 11 Yea, all Israel have transgressed thy law, even by departing, that they might not obey thy voice; therefore the curse is poured upon us, and the oath that is written in the law of Moses the servant of God, because we have sinned against him. 12 And he hath confirmed his words, which he spake against us, and against our judges that judged us, by bringing upon us a great evil: for under the whole heaven hath not been done as hath been done upon Jerusalem. 13 As it is written in the law of Moses, all this evil is come upon us: yet made we not our prayer before the Lord our God, that we might turn from our iniquities, and understand thy truth. 14 Therefore hath the Lord watched upon the evil, and brought it upon us: for the Lord our God is righteous in all his works which he doeth: for we obeyed not his voice. The tyranical Nebuchadnezzar and the sensuous, impious Belshazzar are no more. Darius the Mede now occupies the throne. It is a critical time for the Jewish people. For nearly seventy years they have been in bondage. Men everywhere are asking what will Darius do? It is interesting to note that Daniel still continues to look across the desert sands, praying three times a day with his windows open toward Jerusalem. Though it is a very winsome sight to see a saint upon his knees, it is nothing less than enrapturing to witness heaven open in answer to the prayers of the saints. With the overthrow of Babylon, Daniel occupied himself more than ever with a perusal of the Word of God. Besides having the Pentateuch and other historical books, he possessed most of the Psalms and all of the prophecies of Isaiah, Micah, Joel, Amos, Obadiah and Jeremiah. These he read with great diligence. As he read, the history of Israel passed before him. The deeps of his soul were broken up. Falling upon his knees he prays one of the greatest prayers recorded in history. Of all Bible characters Daniel appears to best advantage. The failures of Abraham, Jacob and David are not recorded of him. Although from every angle he stands head and shoulders above the average, yet this wonderfully good man, personally identifies himself in penitence with the sins of his people. For seventy long years he had been the victim of their evil doings yet now in passionate love he holds himself as equally responsible with them in their shortcomings. Such has always been the spirit of the true prophets of God. In every age this same sign has been evident, the prophet longs to die and be counted accursed for his brethren's sake. One of the secrets of victory is to have soldiers so dedicated to the cause they are fighting for that they are indifferent to personal suffering. At the battle at Scarytown, Va., a soldier by the name of John Haven, the pet of the company, was wounded. When the captain saw him fall he ran and picked him up and conveyed him to a place of safety. "Never mind me, captain," he cried, "but don't let that flag go down." Consecration is not wrapping one's self in a holy web in the sanctuary, and then coming forth after prayer and twilight medita tion, and saying, "There, I am consecrated." Consecration is going out into the world where God Almighty is, and using every power for his glory. It is taking all advantages as trust funds-as confidential debts owed to God. It is simply dedicating one's life, in its whole flow, to God's service. (b) PETITION. 9:15-19. 15 And now, O Lord our God, that hast brought thy people forth out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and hast gotten thee renown, as at this day; we have sinned, we have done wickedly. 16 O Lord, according to all thy righteousness, I beseech thee, let thine anger and thy fury be turned away from thy city Jerusalem, thy holy mountain: because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and thy people are become a reproach to all that are about us. 17 Now therefore, O our God, hear the prayer of thy servant, and his supplications, and cause thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary that is desolate, for the Lord's sake. and 18 O my God, incline thine ear, 19 O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive; O Lord, Prayer that is real prayer, usually follows a threefold form. There is communion-which simply means that a man is on good terms with God. There is petition-which implies the definite asking of God for aid and the gift of special things. There is intercession-which is nothing more nor less than a substitutionary pleading for the sins of others and their needs. The first is upward, the second is inward, and the third is outward. These three forms are found in this prayer of Daniel. The prayer is based on conscious fellowship with God, it seeks personal help and it longs to lift others nearer the Eternal. Such praying is costly. It burns to the very deeps of a man's soul. In a series of evangelistic meetings it was the plan that one minister should preach and another make the personal appeal. On a given evening one of the ministers had finished his sermon and a brother minister arose with much emotion and pleaded with the people to give themselves to Christ. A goodly number responded but still the minister continued pleading for yet another to come. His action seemed almost unwise, for apparently all had responded who were inclined to yield; but still he pleaded on, "Will not another one come?" At last in the rear of the church a young man stood up and started for the front. He had no sooner started than the minister came down from the platform and walked down the aisle. The two men met in the center of the church and were in each others arms. All over the house people were in tears as the minister sobbed out, "My son, my son, thank God you have come, you have come.' Then going back to the pulpit, he said to his brother minister, "I think I would have died if he had not come." Have we that deathless determination, that heart broken concern, that suffering of soul for the sake of others that has been characteristic of God's children in every dispensation of the world's history? What "Impenetrable Darkness" lay all about Daniel. There was the ruined temple, the devastated land and the blindness of the pople. Yet conscious that the mighty God was the everlasting Father, and the terrible One was more gentle than a mother, Daniel makes his petition. The camel and the elephant learn to kneel by loading them so heavily that they are compelled to stoop in order to receive the load. A magnet grows weak when it has no burdens to bear. The "Impenetrable Darkness" covering the people and their land weighed so heavily upon the soul of the Prophet that he learned to bend the knee in petition. The burden of the sin of his people which he carried caused him to grow in power. If you would know the real joy of life, learn through peni |