Delehazzar. God'e chastisement of a father is intended to benefit 11, son and God'a intentions cannot be frustrated with impunity, To despise the lessons of the past is wnnton ein nnd irreparable loss. If Belshazzar's pride bad only been equal to that of hie grandsire, the guilt would have been greater, because he had inherited all the warnings of the past. In proportion to men's advant~gcs are their reaponsibilitie•. Dnniel, though a subject and a captive, does not spare his monarch'& sins. No prospect of preferment, no fear of disfavour, weakens the severity of his reproofs. He charges the mon11.rch with his haughty pride, with hie blatant atheism, his sacrilegious profanation of sacred things, his insane trust in graven images. He arraigns his monarch, as if he were- e. prisoner at the bar brought up to receive sentence for his crimes. He accuses him of ingratitude to the God who had daily sustained him; accuses him of a wa.nton misuse of power; accuses him of a fla.gra.nt abuse of the gift of life. Now the edifice of his guilt ha.a been crowned I Now the last element of aggravation has been added I God's sacred vessels have been desecrated for human debauchery. The die is cast; the hour has struck. "Because jndgment against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the hearts of the sons of men are fully set in them to do evil." IV. THE GOOD MAN'S FORECAST OF THE DEBAUCHEE'S FUTURE. God is not BO highly exalted that he cannot see what occurs upon the earth; nor is he so indifferent to human actions that he will pass by any sin with impunit.y. The hand that wrote the ten commandments on stony tablets-the hand that wrote Belehazzar's doom upon the palace-wall-records all o,ur misdemeanours also. Never still is that Divine hand. The Chaldean monarch's days were all exactly numbered ; the sands had nearly run out; there was but an honr or two for repentance. The Orientals had a belief in future rewards and punishments, and were accustomed to represent the supreme Judge as weighing, in the separate scales of a balance, men's good actions, and the bad. Here God accommodated himself to this prevalent belief, and represented hinself a.a weighing in his balances the character of the king. Daniel plainly announced the result, "Thou art weighed, and "-oh I dread conclusion-" thou art found wanting." 'l'he final stroke was near and overwhelming. The thunder-cloud was, even then, gathering under the dark covert of night, and was about to discharge its Cata.I contents over the doomed city. Not another sun should rise upon Belshazzar's earthly life. His course was run; and in his ruin ten thousand others would be involved. We cannot sin alone; we entice others into the fatal way. We cannot suffer alone; we drag others into the whirlpool of destruction. "In that night was Belsha.zzar, King of the Chaldeans, slain.''-D. Vers. 30, 31.-The Word of God verified. It is not often that the word of Divine warning is so swiftly and so ,·isibly accomplished as it was here. Frequently G:ld allows time (according to human calculation) to intervene. Yet, in every case, the agency is set in motion, so soon as the purpose is formed, and that agency, whether it moves slowly or swiftly, moves surely to its end. But the idea of time is human. The structure of the human mind compels us to introduce the element of duration. But God is. superiot· to this limitation. "With him a thousand years are a.s one day," and vice vers&. I. THE SWIFTNESS OF THE RETRIBUTION. Although this one act of sacrilege and self-debauchery is tbe only event in Belshe.zzar's life which is recorded in the page of sacred history, we are warranted in the conclusion that his public life, and probably his earlier 11rivate life, were series of guilty and impious acts. No man reache5 great excesses of sin at a single step. In all likelihood God had condescended to warn and counsel Belshazzar agnin and yet again, and this last daring act of defiance was the climax of his degenerate course. '!'his was Belshazzar's reply to God's p3ticnt expostulations, and sudden destruction was the most fitting penalty. We a.re sur- prised, not nt the rapid execution of God's warnings, but at his unparalleled forbearance. II. THE SUDDENNESS OF THE CALAMITY. We are not informed by Daniel the minute steps of the royal overthrow; but possibly Belsbazzar had retired to rest, little supposing that retribution was at his very door. It may be that his senses had been overcome by wine and fear; that deep stupor succeeded, as Lhe natural reacti,m of hie s.ensual excess; and that the noise of the city's capture did not reach his ear. 1M TRE BOOK OP DANIEL. [Clll, \rt 1---28,
Very likely he heard no rumour of alarm until some bold anJ. reckless besiegers gained the pal11.ce, 11,nd slew the king in bis bed. In this O&Se he scarcely woke to die. It is not 11.n uncommon thing for punishment to come on the ungodly 11.t le.et, suddenly, as "11, thier in the night." At the moment when Daniel declared the he11.venly MoTIR.rcb's will, 11.mendment was too late, The king was not in possession of his faculties. H6 had drowned them in the wine~up; and, before the fumes of his intoxication had worn off, he was a corpse. Our sin ofttimes disables us for true n,pentance. "No place for it is founJ., though we seek it carefully, and with tears." III. 'l'ml 0011:PLETENESB OF HIS DOOM. It was not a partial disaster, such as the infliction of disease or the loss of his crown; not such a disastor as might yet be repaired by reformRtion or obedience. It was oomplete, final, irreparable. In a moment every possession he held ceased. His sovereign power, his worldly possessions, his health, his life, his hope,-all were destroyed at a single blow. The stroke w11s over• whelming. Nothing was left behind but an obnoxious reputation- beaoon to future voyagel'II. No human mind can estimate the extent of that calamity, What blacker hell can there be than for a man to awake to consciousness in the next life with a sense that he has lost al,l 1 He had a splendid opportunity, but he wasted it I Ho might have gained heaven, but he has irretrievably failed. Existence has become intolerable misery. Now he is compelled to hear this knell of doom, "He that is filthy, let him be filthy still."-D.