and patience experience, and experience hope:" and when once they have been tried, they shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him." Let, then, the afflicted Christian recollect this with gratitude, that he has one who both hears and sees him; "a friend that sticketh closer than a brother; -"a very present help in time of trouble." Let him only do his duty stedfastly and sincerely; reposing all his confidence in God, and the atonement of his Saviour; and he will never be utterly cast down. God in his good season will release, will bless, will save him. In the mean time, let him be persuaded, that "He is faithful that hath promised;" and that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate him from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

109

SERMON VIII.

THE HANDWRITING ON THE WALL.

DANIEL, V. 5.

In the same hour came forth fingers of a man's hand, and wrote over against the candlestick, upon the plaster of the wall of the king's palace; and the king saw the part of the hand that

wrote.

THE text describes a circumstance, which took place at a feast given by Belshazzar, the profligate grandson and successor of Nebuchadnezzar. The banquet was exceedingly splendid; for it was attended by a thousand of his satraps or lords, besides the princes, wives, and concubines of his own household. Indeed, contrary to the established custom of that country, the king himself was present, and joined in the festivities; or, as the Prophet expresses it, "drank wine before the thousand." In the midst of this feast, it was, that Belshazzar determined upon an act of the most daring im

piety and profanation. To add to the magnificence of his revels, he resolved to offer service to his idols, out of the vessels of the sanctuary of the living God; "the gold and silver vessels, which Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple of the house of God, which was at Jerusalem." This was a premeditated insult against that Almighty Being, whom he well knew his grandfather had been compelled to acknowledge by a dreadful humiliation. In the midst of his pride and hardness, Nebuchadnezzar had been deposed; driven from the sons of men; his heart made like the beasts; his dwelling appointed with wild asses; fed with grass like an ox; and his body wet with the dews of heaven; even until he was convinced, that the Most High God ruled in the kingdom of men, and that "he appointeth over it whomsoever he will." Belshazzar knew all this. He knew that Nebuchadnezzar had closed this scene of degradation, by praising, extolling, and honouring the King of Heaven; all whose works are truth, and his ways judgment; and "those that walk in pride, he is able to abase." But hear his own words. "At the end of the days, I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding returned unto me, and I blessed the Most High, and I praised and honoured him, that liveth for ever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion,

and his kingdom is from generation to generation. And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou ?' At the same time, my reason returned unto me; and for the glory of my kingdom, mine honour and brightness returned unto me and my councillors and my lords sought unto me: and I was established in my kingdom, and excellent majesty was added unto me." Such was the result of this wonderful visitation upon the predecessor of Belshazzar in the empire: and he knew it well; for he knew it in all its particulars. Yet, in spite of this, his better knowledge, he dared to "lift himself up against the Lord of heaven," to pollute and profane his sacred things, and to insult and defy him publicly. He commanded the vessels of the temple to be brought; and "the king, and his princes, his wives, and concubines, drank in them,"-" and praised their accustomed idols, their gods of gold and of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood, and of stone." This was, indeed, the height of audacious rebellion to the Great King of kings, who has declared himself a jealous God; to him, whose mercies and compassion were still extended over Israel, and who had suffered the captivity of

those sacred utensils, only as the punishment of repeated affronts; to Him, who had in his anger humbled Nebuchadnezzar to the dust, till he had allowed that there was no God, but the Most High. Such a defiance in the face of the nobles and princes of the land, and so proud a triumph of idolatry, was not likely to go unpunished. This sacrilegious insult was followed by an immediate manifestation of divine displeasure; and that, of a nature the most awful which can be imagined, for the purpose of striking the guilty heart with sudden dismay and confusion. In the very heat of drinking, merriment, and impious blasphemy, the summons of death to Belshazzar himself arrives: but such a summons, as (although yet unknown to him,) must have thrilled his conscious breast with the pangs of a thousand deaths, by its miraculous and mysterious introduction. "In the same hour, came forth fingers of a man's hand, and wrote over against the candlestick, upon the plaster of the wall of the king's palace; and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote." Never was there so terrific an intrusion, upon the thoughtlessness and security of godless pleasure! "Then the king's countenance was changed, and his thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote one against another." The king cried aloud to bring in the astrologers,