"Thy God whom thou servest continually, He will deliver thee."--_Dan.
6:16._
THERE was another king of Babylon, and his name was Darius. It was the
strange, foolish way of his people to treat him as if he was a sort of
a god, and more than man; and one day his people came to him and begged
him to make a law that for thirty whole days nobody should say their
prayers to any god, or ask anything of any man, except of Darius the
king; or if they did, they should be thrown to the lions, to be eaten
up.
Darius thought this was all to do him honor, so he made the law that
thus it should be. Now when a law had once been made by the king of
that people, it could not be changed. So nobody was to say their
prayers to anyone but the king for all that time.
But by-and-by the king's people came and told him that there was one
old man who did not attend to his law, but that they had watched him in
his own room, and there he said his prayers three times a-day, just as
if the king had made no law at all.
The king was very sorry when he heard who it was, for this man who
would not leave off saying his prayers was the man he trusted most in
all the kingdom. It was Daniel, one of the captive Jews, son or brother
to one of the last kings of Jerusalem. He had been taken to Babylon
when he was a very little boy, and now he was quite an old man, but he
had never ceased praying to the great God of Heaven, and he was not
going to leave off now. He was a prophet of the Lord, and very wise,
and he was one of the king's very best advisers, so Darius was greatly
grieved when he was accused.
But Darius could not help himself; the law that had once been made
could not be broken, and these spiteful people declared that Daniel
must be thrown to the lions. All day long the king tried to get his
wise good counsellor saved from this dreadful fate, but he could not
succeed; and at evening Daniel's enemies came to take him and throw him
to the lions in their den.
[Illustration: THE JEWISH CAPTIVES CONDUCTED BEFORE DARIUS.]
Still, though Darius was a heathen himself, he had one hope; and
when he saw his friend led away, he said, "Thy God whom thou servest
continually, He will deliver thee."
So they took Daniel, and put him into a pit among the lions, and they
fastened up the door and left him there; and the king was so sorry,
that he could not sleep all night for grieving for the good, wise,
brave man who was thrown to the lions because he would not leave off
praying to God, and feared God more than man.
And when daylight came they all went to the den. The enemies hoped to
find that Daniel was eaten up, but the king cried out in a lamentable
voice, "O Daniel, servant of the living God, is thy God, whom thou
servest continually, able to deliver thee from the lions?"
And Daniel's own voice came cheerfully back, and told the king that his
God had sent His angel, who had shut the lions' mouths, so that they
could not hurt him, and had kept him safe all night.
[Illustration: DANIEL IN THE LION'S DEN.--Daniel 6:19, 22.]
And the king was very glad, and commanded them to take Daniel out of
the pit, and to put the spiteful men in instead; and the lions were so
hungry that they brake all their bones in pieces before ever they came
to the bottom of the den.
Only think what Daniel was willing to bear rather than not say his
prayers! And it was because he prayed that God saved him. God's power
shut the lions' mouths, because Daniel had been more afraid to leave
off praying than even to be torn to pieces. How glad we should be that
we can say our prayers safe and unhurt; and how careful we should be
never to miss them out of idleness, if Daniel would not miss them out
of fear.