according to the revision — that the seventy years of the Babylonian cap tivity were nearly finished, and he be gan to expect God to so something. In Jeremiah 25:11, the prophet of God had said that the whole land of Judah should be a desolation and an astonishment, and that Judah and the surrounding nations should serve the king of Babylon seventy years. The false prophets contradicted this and encouraged the people to expect an immediate return from Babylon, but in a letter sent from Jerusalem and recorded in his twenty-ninth chapter, Jeremiah, in the name of Je hovah of Hosts, commanded the cap tives to settle down in Babylonia for a long stay. Continuing, Jehovah said to them: “After seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you, and per form my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place” (Jer. 29:5-10). Here was a definite promise that the captives in Babylon should be re leased at the end of seventy years. Daniel, who had been perplexed about many of the dreams and visions re corded in his own book, had no trou ble about understanding this fact. “I, Daniel,” he says, “understood by the books.” The prayer of Daniel recorded in this chapter is a model of confession, supplication and intercession. The importance of the revelation which Gabriel is about to make is in dicated by the solemn manner in which he went about it. Daniel writes that the angel touched, or came near to him, about the time of the evening oblation. It was a solemn moment for the devout man of God, that hour most precious, the time of the daily sacrifice. “And,” Daniel goes on, “he instructed me and talked with me and said, ‘0 Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee wisdom and understanding. At the beginning of thy supplications the commandment went forth and I am come to tell thee, for thou are greatly beloved: therefore consider the mat ter and understand the vision’ ” (Vs.
21-23). Notice this command for Daniel. He is to consider the matter and un derstand the vision. There is a simi lar command for us in regard to this identical chapter, in Matthew 24:15, where our Lord Jesus says, “When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the Prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand.)” It is our bounden duty then, as well as our precious privilege, to read M A R Y H AD A LITTLE BOY Mary had a little boy, his soul was white as snow; He never went to Sunday school, 'cause Mary wouldn't go. He never heard the truths of Christ that thrilled the childish mind; While other children went to class, this boy was left behind. And as he grew from babe to youth, she saw to her dismay, A soul that once was snowy white, become a dingy gray. Realizing he was lost, she tried to win him back, But now the soul that once was white had turned an ugly black. She even started back to church, and Bible study, too. She begged the preacher, "Isn 't there a thing that you can do?" The preacher tried— failed and said, "W e're just too far behind, I tried to tell you years ago, but you would pay no mind." And so, another soul is lost, that once was white as snow, Sunday school could have helped, but Mary wouldn't go. these words of Daniel the Prophet, and to understand them. Let us therefore heed the injunction of the holy angel: let us “consider the matter, and un derstand the vision.” It is of supreme importance, in the study of the predictive portion of the chapter before us, in verses 24-27, that we carefully heed every word. In seeking to obey our Lord’s command to understand this language of w . 24- 27, we must beware of any reliance 32
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