Dan. vi. 25 — 27. Then King Darius wrote unto all people, nations, and languages, that dwell in all the earth ; Peace be multiplied unto you. I make a decree, That in every domi- nion of my kingdom men tremble and fear before the God of Daniel ; for he is the living God, and stedfast for ever ; and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed ; and his dominion sh-all be even unto the end. He delivereth and rescueth, and he worketh signs and ivonders in heaven and in earth, who hath delivered Daniel from the power of the lions.
IT is the prerogative of God, not only to defeat all the designs of men or devils against him, but to ad- vance his own glory by the very means which his enemies use to obstruct it. The wisdom and fidelity of Daniel had secured for him at the court of Persia the same influence as he had been honoured with by the kings of Babylon ; but the princes of that empire sought his destruction, and, together with that, the subversion of all the influence of Daniel's God. They devised a plan, in which they too fatally succeeded, to establish a law, by which Daniel must of necessity, if faithful to his God, be condemned. King Darius, when he saw into what a snare he had been drawn, sought to deliver Daniel from the sentence which the law, so inconsiderately enacted, denounced against him : but he could not prevail ; and therefore at last consented to the execution of it on his faithful and unoffending servant. Daniel was cast into the den of lions : and with him, the hope of further protection to the Jewish captives must cease. But behold, God, as Darius himself had hoped, interposed for the pre- servation of Daniel ; and thereby shewed to the con- viction of Darius, that he was the One omnipotent and only true God. Darius now ordered the very punishment which Daniel's enemies had sought to in- flict on him, to be executed on them; and immediately issued throughout the whole extent of his dominions the decree contained in our text.