These men could find no fault, 'forasmuch as Daniel was faithful.'
Neither was there any error'--of judgment, that is,--'or
fault'--dereliction of duty, that is,--'found in him.' They were very
poor judges of his religion, and they did not try to judge that; but
they were very good judges of his conduct as prime minister, and they
did judge that. The world is a very poor critic of my Christianity, but
it is a very sufficient one of my conduct. It may not know much about
the inward emotions of the Christian life, and the experiences in which
the Christian heart expatiates and loves to dwell, but it knows what
short lengths, and light weights, and bad tempers, and dishonesty, and
selfishness are. And it is by our conduct, in the things that they and
we do together, that worldly men judge what we are in the solitary
depths where we dwell in communion with God. It is useless for
Christians to be talking, as so many of them are fond of doing, about
their spiritual experiences and their religious joy, and all the other
sweet and sacred things which belong to the silent life of the spirit in
God, unless, side by side with these, there is the doing of the common
deeds which the world is actually able to appraise in such a fashion as
to extort, even from them, the confession, 'We find no occasion against
this man.'
You remember the pregnant, quaint old saying, 'If a Christian man is a
shoeblack, he ought to be the best shoeblack in the parish.' If we call
ourselves Christians, we are bound, by the very name, to live in such a
fashion as that men shall have no doubt of the reality of our profession
and of the depth of our fellowship with Christ. It is by our common
conduct that they judge us. And the 'Christian Endeavourer' needs to
remember, whether he or she be old or young, that the best sign of the
reality of the endeavour is the doing of common things with absolute
rightness, because they are done wholly for Christ's sake.
It is a sharp test, and I wonder how many of us would like to go out
into the world, and say to all the irreligious people who know us, 'Now
come and tell me what the faults are that you have seen in me.' There
would be a considerable response to the invitation, and perhaps some of
us would learn to know ourselves rather better than we have been able to
do. 'We shall not find any occasion in _this_ Daniel'--I wonder if
they would find it in _that_ Daniel--'except we find it concerning
the law of his God.' There is a record for a man!