HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Vers. 1-13.-The ceasekss creation of gods. "Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image." "He set it up in the plain of Dura" (ver. I). Questions respecting the image will be discussed in the Expository section. For homiletical purposes we distinguish here between three separate entities, all real enough in their own realm. 1. The image, built up and appearing in due time amid the phenomena of this material world. 2. The idea for which it st.a.nds, existing really enough in the mind of the king and those who thonght with him. The image most likely stood for " Bel," the "world-power" that had (as the king imagined) given him all hie greatness. The idea may have been, was, false, but it had nevertheless a real and influential subjective existence. 3. The author of first the idea, and then of the image, viz. the prince re[erred to in John xii. 31; xiv. 30; xvi. 11; Eph. ii. 2, and elsewhere. All this we shall find very suggestive; for to this hour men have never ceased to set up images for the lwmage of their fellow-men. I. THE IDOL EVER :NEW. Following the suggestion of the lines already laid down, note: 1. The creator. The prince of darkness. It is now the theological fashion to deny, at least to doubt, his existence. But such scepticism seems to us narrow. Surely all good and evil are not confined to earth; and as certainly these may have their influence in the world of men. The Bible implies right through that they have had and continue to have. 2. The intellectual creation. Erroneous thought. A false idea. An evil public opinion. Think of the enormous power exerted over life and -speech and deed of man; e.g. What woman in China dares not to bandage and cripple her daughter's feet? At what terrible cost is caste broken in India? It required a William Loyd Garrison in the early anti-slavery days to protest against the wicked public opinion of the South, with which there was complicity in the North, and then literally at the peril of his life. The sway of anti-theistic, anti-Christian, anti-philan- thropic opinion is nothing short of despotic; e.g. recent treatment of Virchow by the t'-volutionists of Germany. 3. The sensible form. Forms of speech, of act.ion, habit of life, modes of work, forced by false public opinion on men, against which only a fa.itLful few are sometimes found to rebel. These idols are set up to rule everywhere; e.g. in the realm of domestic administration, of social life, in the various Churches, in tLe life of the nation, and even to domineer over the international relations of men. IL THE NildllUS OF THE IDOL. In the old mythologies a cloud of light was often BC(cn, or supposed to be seen, around the persons of the deities. So was it with this image which Nebuchadnezzar set up. One cannot read these opening verses without beiug struck with the halo of splendour thrown around the idol. Majesty of size, brilliance of material, commanding conspicuousness, marked the image itself. With endless iteration-like the refrain of a song-we are told it was "the f!Old:;u image that Nebnchadnezzar the king had set up." Royalty sanctioned it. T.ne aris'ocracy was on its side. Education and literature bowed before it (ver. 8). 'l'he people rndursed the worship. All that the world could do, by calling together mighty cuncourses of people, by pomp of ceremonial, by elaborate musical performance, waa en. nt. 1-30.] THE BOOK OF DANIEL. 121
done, lo give eclat to the idolatry. So is it wilh all the forms of nineteenth-cent,Jry Idolatry, Kings, princes, peoples, the literary and educated claRRes, as by one c<,nsent in many ways, after many fashions,! join to glorify the image that public opinion' olienated from God, uninBpired by his Spirit, too often sets up. Peoples can mek~ imoges ns readily as leings. III. Tm: IMMINENT PENALTY, Enumerate the burning 6ery furnaces which modem devotees of the image kindle for them who will not bow down ; e.g. losses in business, social exclusi,m, denial of political rights, persecutions petty and malianant in many forms. IV. THE QENEBAL PROSTRATION, V. THE FAITHFUL FEW, CoNOLUSIONS, 1. Be no party to the Betting up. 2. Be you one not lu bend the knee.-R.