1. Individually we learn from the behaviour of the three Jews before the terrible King of Babylon, that we have nothing to do with expediency when principle is at stake. How plausibly might they not have reasoned themselves into compliance had expediency been consulted! They were no politicians. They simply asked, Hath God forbidden His people to bow down and worship idols, or hath He not? If He hath, no reasoning can make that right which He hath said is wrong. And as the command was plain and direct, they felt their obedience to it must be plain and direct. Let this magnificent example of heroic steadfastness in the path of duty teach us that simple but difficult lesson how to say NO when we are tempted or threatened in order to make us do what we are aware is wrong. The man who has learned that lesson can go through the fiery furnace of this world unscorched, unharmed, without even the smell of its flame passing on him; for One shall walk beside him who has also overcome temptation — One whose form shall be indeed "the form of the Son of God!"

2. The same considerations apply with added force and on a grander scale to the case of Christ's Church on earth and every part thereof. The history of that church is one of the strangest and. saddest ever written by human passion and human error on the course of time. How the very consolations of God, the sweet ordinances of the Gospel, have, by the cunning of God's adversary and the fierce narrowmindedness of man, been transformed into whips of scorpions, with which loveless zeal and arrogant pride have scourged generation after generation, they know too well who know anything of the story of Christianity.

(C. P. Reichel, D. D.)

I. Follower of Christ, be ready for the question "Is it true?"

1. Do not reckon to live unnoticed, for a fierce light beats about every Christian. You will be sure to meet with some one or other whom you respect or fear, who will demand of you, "Is it true?" Nebuchadnezzar was a great personage to these three holy men; he was their despotic lord, their employer, their influential friend. In his hands rested their liberties and their lives. He was, moreover, their benefactor, for he had set them in high office in his empire. Many young Christians are tried with this temptation. Many worldly advantages may be gained by currying favour with certain ungodly men who are like little Nebuchadnezzars; and this is a great peril. They are bidden to do wrong by one who is their superior, their employer, their patron. Now comes the test. Will they endure the trial hour? They say that they can endure it, but is it true? Nebuchadnezzar spoke in peremptory tones, as if he could not believe that any mortal upon the earth could have the presumption to dispute his will. He cannot conceive that one employed under his patronage will dare to resist his bidding; he demands indignantly, "Is it true?" He will not believe it! He must have been misinformed! You will meet with persons so accustomed to be obeyed that they think it hard that you do not hasten to carry out their wishes. The infidel father says to his boy, "John, is it true that you go to a place of worship against my wishes? How dare you set up to be better than your father and mother?" Often ungodly men profess that they do not believe in the conversion of their fellow workmen. Is it true, John, that you have become religious? A pretty fellow! Is it true? They insinuate that you are off your head, that your wits have gone wool-gathering, and that you are the dupe of fanatics. You will not be able to go through life without being discovered; a lighted candle cannot be hid. There is a feeling among some good people that it will be wise to be very reticent, and hide their light under a bushel. They intend to lie low all the war time, and come out when the palms are being distributed. They hope to travel to Heaven by the back lanes, and skulk into glory in disguise. How was it Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego came up to the front when the king's command was given? They could not consistently keep back. They were public men, set over provinces, and it was needful that they should set an example. Rest assured, my fellow Christians, that at some period or other, in the most quiet lives, there will come a moment for open decision. Days will come when we must speak out or prove traitors to our Lord and to His truth.

2. To be fully prepared to answer the enquiry of opposers, act upon sound reasons. Be ready to give a reason for the hope that is in you with meekness and fear. Be able to show why you are a believer in God, why you worship the Lord Jesus Christ, why you trust in His atoning sacrifice, and why you make Him the regulator of your life. Ask the Lord to help you to go to work with Bible reasons at your fingers' ends; for those are the best of reasons, and bear a high authority about them; so that when the question is put to you, "Is it true?" you may be able to say, "Yes, it is true, and this is why it is true. At such a time God revealed Himself to me in His grace, and opened my blind eyes to see things in a true light." When the mind is established, the heart is more likely to be firm. Know your duty and the arguments for it, and you are the more likely to be steadfast in the hour of temptation.

3. Next, take care that you always proceed with deep sincerity. Superficial profession soon ends in thorough apostasy. Only heart-work will stand the fire. We need a religion which we can die with.

4. This being done, accustom yourself to act with solemn determination before God on every matter which concerns morals and religion. Many very decent people are not self-contained, but are dependent upon the assistance of others. They are like the houses which our London builders run up so quickly in long rows; if they did not help to keep each other up they would all ramble clown at once, for no one of them could stand alone. How much there is of joint-stock-company religion, wherein hypocrites and formalists keep each other in countenance. Where things are not quite so bad as this, yet there is too little personal establishment in the faith. So many people have a "lean-to" religion. If their minister, or some other leading person were taken away, their back wall would be gone, and they would come to the ground. We have need nowadays to set our face as a flint against sin and error. We must purpose in our own heart what we will do, and then stand to our purpose. Happy he who dares to be in the right with two or three. Happier still is he who will stand in the right, even if the choice two or three should quit it. He who can stand alone is a man indeed; every man of God should be such.

5. Once more, when your determination is formed act in the light of eternity. Do not judge the situation by the king's threat and by the heat of the burning fiery furnace, but by the everlasting God and the eternal life which awaits you. Let not flute, harp, and sackbut fascinate you, but hearken to the music of the glorified. Men frown at you, but you can see God smiling on you, and so you are not moved. It may be that you all be discharged from your situation unless you can wink at wrong and be the instrument of injustice. Be content to lose place rather than to lose peace. Now I am sure that these good men believed in immortality, or they would never have dared the violence of the flames. These brave men dared the rage of an infuriated tyrant because they saw Him who is invisible, and bad respect unto the recompense of the reward. You also must come to live a great deal in the future, or else you will miss the chief fountain of holy strength. God make us champions of His holy cause! Heroism can only be wrought in us by the Holy Ghost. Humbly yielding your whole nature to the power of the Divine Sanctifier, you will be true to your Lord even to the end.

II. But now, secondly, IF YOU CANNOT SAY THAT IT IS TRUE, WHAT THEN? If, standing before the heart-searching God at this time, you cannot say, "It is true," how should you act? If you cannot say that you take Christ's cross, and are willing to follow Him at all hazards, then hearken to me and learn the truth.

1. Do not make a profession at all. If it be not true that you renounce the world's idols, do not profess that it is so. It is unnecessary that a man should profess to be what he is not; it is a sin of supererogation, a superfluity of naughtiness.

2. If you have made a profession, and yet it is not true, be honest enough to quit it; for it can never be right to keep up a fraud. A false profession is a crime, and to persevere in it is a presumptuous sin. Will you, then, go back to your old ways?

3. I am sure you will if you cannot answer the question of my text; but remember, that in so doing you will have to belie your consciences. Many of you who are not firm in your resolves yet know the right. You will never be able to get that light out of your eyes which has shone into them from God's word. You can never again sin so cheaply as others; it will be wilfulness and obstinacy in your case.

4. Remember also that by yielding to the fear of man you are demeaning yourself. There shall come a day when the man that was ashamed of Christ will himself be ashamed; he will wonder where he can hide his guilty head.

5. If your avowal of faith in Jesus and opposition to sin is not true you had better withdraw it and be silent; for by a groundless pretence you will dishonour the cause of God, and cause the enemy to take up a reproach against His people. If Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego had stood before Nebuchadnezzar and had made a compromise, it would have dishonoured the name of the Lord. Suppose they had said, "O king, we believe in Jehovah, but we hardly know what to do in our peculiar circumstances. We desire to please thee, and we also dread the thought of the burning fiery furnace, and therefore we must yield, though it greatly grieves us." Why, they would have cast shame upon the name of Israel. O, do not talk about principle, and then pocket your principles because they are unfashionable, or will cost you loss and disrepute. If you do this you will be the enemies of the King of kings.

6. I want you to remember also that if you renounce Christ, if you quit Him in obedience to the world's commands, you are renouncing eternal life and everlasting bliss. You may think little of that to-night, because of your present madness; but you will think differently before long. Soon you may lie on a sick bed gazing into eternity, and then your estimate of most things will undergo a great change.

III. But now, thirdly, let us consider what follows IF IT BE TRUE. I hope that many here can lay their hands upon their hearts, and quietly say, "Yes, it is true; we are determined not to bow before sin, come what may."

1. Well, then, if it is true, I have this much to say to you: state this when it is demanded of you. Declare your resolve. This will strengthen it in yourself and be the means of supporting it in others. Is it true?

2. Then joyfully accept the trial which comes of it. Shrink not from the flames. Settle it in your minds that, by Divine grace, no loss, nor cross, nor shame, nor suffering, shall make you play the coward. Say, like the holy children, "We are not careful to answer thee in this matter." They did not cringe before the king, and cry, "We beseech thee, de not throw us into the fiery furnace. Let us have a consultation with thee, O king, that we may arrange terms. There may be some method by which we can please thee, and yet keep our religion." No; they said, "We are not careful to answer thee in this matter." You may lose a great deal for Christ, but you will never lose anything by Christ. You may lose for time, but you will gain for eternity; the loss is transient, but the gain is everlasting.

3. If it be true that you are willing thus to follow Christ, reckon upon deliverance. Nebuchadnezzar may put you into the fire, but he cannot keep you there, nor can he make the fire burn you. The enemy casts you in bound, but the fire will loosen your bonds, and you will walk at liberty amid the glowing coals. You shall gain by your losses, you shall rise by your down-castings. Many prosperous men owe their present position to the fact that they were faithful when they were in humble employments. Do right for Christ's sake, without considering any consequences, and the consequences will be right enough. If you take care of God's cause, God will take care for you.

4. If you will stand up for Jesus, and the right, and the true, and the pure, and the temperate, and the good, not only will you be delivered, but you will do great good. This Nebuchadnezzar was a poor piece of goods; yet he was compelled to acknowledge the power of these three decided and holy men. The man who can hide his principles, and conceal his beliefs, and do a little wrong, is a nobody. He is a chip in the porridge; he will flavour nothing. But he who does what he believes to be right; and cannot be driven from it — that is the man. You cannot shake the world if you let the world shake you; but when the world finds that you have grit in you, they will let you alone. Nebuchadnezzar was obliged to feel the influence of these men.

( C. H. Spurgeon.)

II. THE SINGULAR TRIAL OF THESE HEBREW YOUTHS. The punishment which Nebuchadnezzar pronounced against those who should disobey his decree was that they should be cast into a burning fiery furnace. This form of punishment seems to have been common in Babylon. Jeremiah speaks of "Zedekiah and Ahab whom the King of Babylon roasted in the fire." That it was so, is moreover evident from the fact that the furnace was to be heated "seven times more than it was wont to be heated." It was in the face, then, of such a terrible doom that these youths determined to stand true to their God — that they refused to conform to the idolatry with which they were surrounded. What a trial of their faith; and what strong faith must theirs have been which enabled them in the face of all this to remain "stedfast and unmoveable." "Though he slay them, yet will they trust in Him." Nebuchadnezzar, unfortunately, is not the only one who has presumed to dictate a religion to his fellows, and sought to enforce his command by the stern logic of the flames. Not long ago we visited the old city of St. Andrews, and saw where Patrick Hamilton and George Wishart suffered amid the fires "for the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ — the reek from the faggots infecting as many as it did blow upon." And, as we east our eyes over the continent of Europe, many similar spectacles rise to view. Now in France it is a Shuch, in Bohemia a Huss; and has not Spain of late been but reaping the harvest which it sowed when kings and nobles gathered themselves together and looked with unpitying eye upon the followers of Christ suffering amid the blazing piles?

III. THE SINGULAR DELIVERANCE OF THESE HEBREW YOUTHS

(W. R. Inglis.)

I. WE SHOULD PREFER SUFFERING TO SIN. To have bowed the knee to the golden image on the plain of Dura would have been an aggravated transgression on the part of any of the sons of Jacob. They knew well that there was no other God but the God of Israel, and the first and second commandments of the moral law strictly forbade such an act. Better to run the risk of the threatened punishment than, by yielding, to dishonour their Creator, and cast away their souls. Marvellously were these confessors of Jehovah rescued from the devouring fire; for the Lord, whom they honoured, had great purposes to serve by their preservation. Suppose, however, they had been burned to ashes, would they have been losers by their fidelity? Assuredly not! Only the sooner had they reached the rest that remaineth to the people of God. An early confessor of the Lord Jesus was summoned to the presence of the Emperor of Rome, and threatened with banishment, if be dared to remain a Christian. "Me thou canst not banish," was the noble answer, "for the world is my Father's house." "But I will take thy life," said the Emperor. "Nay, but thou canst not, sire, for my life is hid with Christ in God." a I will deprive thee of thy treasures," continued the Emperor. "I have no treasures that thou canst seize," was the response, "for my treasure is in heaven, and my heart is there." "But I will drive thee away from man, and thou shalt have no friend left," "Nay, that thou canst not," replied the bold and faithful witness, "for I have a Friend in heaven, from whom thou canst not separate me. I defy thee. There is nothing thou canst do to hurt me." Where the risk of loss is greatly less than in the case in which we have just referred, it is always far better to suffer than to sin. The draper lad in the north of Ireland, who would not assist his employer to cheat a customer, and was turned adrift in consequence, was no loser by his integrity. Through this very circumstance he became a minister of the gospel, and afterwards rose to an eminent position in his profession. There is little likelihood that any of us will be exposed to such a fiery ordeal as the three Jews in Babylon. We may, however, have to meet with much petty persecution, if we faithfully follow the Lamb, and show by our lives that we are His.

II. LET US TAKE CARE THAT WE FOLLOW NOT DOWN BEFORE THE GOLDEN IMAGE ERECTED AMONGST OURSELVES. Not in Britain only, but in every land under the sun, does this idol lift up its head. Those who worship at its shrine probably embrace by far the largest number of every kindred, and tribe, and nation. "Thou shalt have no other gods before me," says Jehovah. Yet in the very temple of God is this idol set up by its votaries, and crowds of worshippers devotedly bend the knee. No sweet music of sackbut, or psaltery, or harp, is needed to induce men to adore. This idolatry is even considered respectable. In America this idol is irreverently known by the name of "The Almighty Dollar"; with us it is simply called wealth or money. A mercantile man, who had an extensive acquaintance with various classes of the community, used to state it as his serious opinion that the love of money ruins perhaps more souls than even strong drink. Like other sins, this mammon-worship never dwells alone. In due time it becomes the fruitful parent of many vile things, which will, ultimately, develope into scorpions, to torment the soul that nourished them. How comforting it is to know that imperishable and unalienable wealth can be had simply for the accepting. "The GIFT of God is eternal life, and this life is in His Son."

(Original Secession Magazine.)

I. THE RAGE OF NEBUCHADNEZZAR. Nebuchadnezzar was at the summit of his power; he had introduced a great statue, in the form of an image of his god of battle, to celebrate his universal sovereigns; his decree of universal obedience to his god, which was also an act of homage to himself, seems to have been generally obeyed. The defection of these princes from obedience seems to have reminded him that, after all, there were those who looked beyond him and higher than his fancied god for a true king. There were but two courses open to him. He must either at once recognise the right of the Hebrews to their religious liberty or he must suppress them. To do the former would be to unsay and undo all that was involved in the great celebration now going on; whereas, by summarily enforcing the decree of uniformity, especially upon the persons of the high officers of state, he thought he might increase his power, and by one stroke of severity bring all his subjects unto submission. There are several points of evidence that his conscience was aroused as well as his anger. When we refuse to obey conscience, we are always apt to fly into a rage and do the thing forbidden by conscience with ten times more violence. This king of Babylon is only the type of all the world-powers that have succeeded him, who have been enraged against the faith of God's elect, and have sought to destroy that faith by Violence.

1. The arrest of the three princes. "Then they brought these men before the king." How often since have the children of faith been accused and brought before kings and their magistrates, to give an account of their faith and answer for their disobedience to some ungodly and tyrannical decree uttered for the purpose of destroying the "faith once delivered to the saints." The very means of which heathen kings make use to suppress the faith, is made the instrument of God for its universal spread.

2. The fearful alternative. The king seems, after all, to have greatly respected these princes, and secretly desired to find a way of escape for them. The sight of them and the remembrance of their faithful service and of the peculiar marks of Divine favour which had been bestowed upon them for a moment cooled down his rage.

3. The vain boast of the king. "And who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands?" This bit of vain boasting reminds us of the speech of Pharaoh to Moses: "Who is Jehovah that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not Jehovah, neither will I let Israel go." (Exodus 5:2.) Also of the defiant proclamation of Sennacherib to Hezekiah and Jerusalem: "Who are they among all the gods of the countries that have delivered their country out of mine hand, that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem out of mine hand?" (2 Kings 18:35.) And yet God destroyed Pharaoh, and put a hook in Sennacherib's nose by which He led him in ignominy back to his own city, to perish miserably at the hands of his sons. How empty the boasts, how unbounded the folly of men who challenge Jehovah to conflict!

II. THE DEFENCE OF THE PRINCES.

1. Not careful to answer. "O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter." Had the Holy Spirit already whispered in their hearts the instruction which Jesus afterward gave His disciples? "When they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak, for it shall be given you, in that same hour, what ye shall speak." (Matthew 10:19.) How calmly these young men stood there before the king! God will answer for us when the emergency comes. Argument will not avail against your arbitrary power over us, or against the injustice of your tyrannical decree.

2. Their confession of faith. "Our God whom we serve." In making their answer, they distinctly announced that they believed in the one only and true God, and Him they served. This was their, justification for not bowing down to the idol which the king had set up, nor worshipping any of his gods. Their faith was not speculative, but real. It dominated their lives, and secured their glad service. The full power of faith does not always manifest itself until the time of need comes, but, when once the emergency arises, faith springs to the fore and asserts itself.

3. Their confidence in God. "If it be so, our God is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us out of thine hand, O king." Notice this, that though their faith was absolute as to God himself and their relation to Him, yet it was not absolute as to their deliverance out of the fiery furnace, only as to God's ability to deliver them.

4. Ready to die. If the worst came to the worst, they were quite ready to die.

III. IN THE FURNACE AND OUT AGAIN. God does not promise His saints immunity from suffering in this world; on the other hand, He tells us that He has chosen us in a furnace of affliction.

1. The princes are cast into the furnace.

2. An awful warning. Now a strange thing happened. As the three men who bore these princes to the furnace approached the open door to cast down their helpless victims, a sudden draught of air sent out a volume of flame which slew them on the spot. God seemed to give warning then and there that it was a dangerous thing to touch His saints or do them harm.

3. The astonishment of the king. A while ago he was in a furious rage; now we see him trembling with astonished fear. Not only did the swift death that overtook his three mighty men startle him, but as he looked into the raging flames he saw a wondrous sight. Here was a fact on which he had not counted. By some mysterious power the young men "had quenched the violence of the fire" (Hebrews 11:34), and they were accompanied by the presence of another man, who seemed to have them under his protection. It is not necessary for us to attempt any discussion of this marvellous miracle of deliverance. Whether there was an actual and objective fourth man in the furnace with the three princes, and whether that fourth one was the very Son of God come down in a temporary bodily form, as perhaps the angel of the Lord, or whether the king saw a vision, is of no material importance. That there was a miracle is clear from the fact of the safety of the princes in the flame. There is nothing antecedently impossible in the literal truth of the whole matter. "For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and His ears are open unto their prayers, but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil. And who is he that will harm you if ye be followers of that which is good?" (I. Peter 3:12, 13.)

(G. F. Pentecost, D.D.)

It was like a proud, arrogant, Eastern despot, with an ever victorious army, to signalise a great triumph, by setting up some great colossal image. It was more than a memorial, it was a deification of himself. These Babylonian monarchs were not content with being kings or even priests, they must be gods, the object of their people's veneration. It helped them to keep their iron heel upon the necks of their subjects, and feed their own vanity.

II. THE NATURAL HATRED OF THEIR ENEMIES. This was their chance. They had been watching and waiting for this. It is no wonder that they seized upon it with avidity. There is no love among the children of darkness for the sons of light. The saved of the cross have ever their cross to carry. There are shopmates and associates who are never slow to make you the butt of all their spleen, and to pour out all the malice of their soul upon you. The high offices which these youths held in the State exposed them to the greater vehemence of persecution. It is the way of the world to foster hostility against those above them, and to seek an opportunity to overthrow such. There are men who will sneak into power over your heads, if there be no other way. Yet it is better to endure with Christ than to go alone without Him.

III. THE REFUSED DOOR OF ESCAPE. When their accusers had laid the charge before the king, there seems reason to believe that the king's first flush of anger was at the sense of his possible loss — he could not endure to think that three of his most capable rulers had been so foolish as to expose themselves to death. He could afford to lose a whole host of such accusers better than lose one Hebrew youth. Possibly, also, the shrewd king saw through their too thinly veiled jealousy. Anyhow, the king offered them a way of escape. His words in effect suggest what we pleasantly call diplomacy, "Just say you blundered, you did not properly understand the meaning of my edict, and I will have the whole ceremony gone through again for your sakes, then you can bow down and save yourselves." Many of us would have fallen into that trap; it was so ingenious a compromise. It needed great decision of character to answer that aright. One day the officer came to Bunyan in his prison, on Bedford Bridge, and said, "Now, Bunyan, if you like to go free, you can; there is only one trifling condition imposed,, and that is that you abstain from preaching." "If that is it," answered Bunyan, "then I cannot go out free, for as sure as I reach yonder field, I shall stand up and preach Christ." That one condition was the impossible condition. You have your battles to fight, perhaps the issues are not so clear as in the cases before us, yet I pray that you may be quick to discern the right from the wrong, and swift to do the right.

IV. Now a great moral courage like this must be born of GREAT CONVICTIONS. With Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, convictions were worth having, and worth dying for. To these youths, God was greater, higher than the king. God was first, the king second. Their first consideration was not their prospects, but their duty. He has not the martyr spirit who acts indifferently. When you do not bow to the world's edict, expect not to be credited with conscientious convictions, it will be put down to obstinacy. When John Bunyan refused to keep silent, he was obstinate. When these Hebrews refused to worship idols, they were obstinate. So their persecutors say, but posterity has accorded them justice, and declared it an act of conscience; a spirit of fidelity to God.

V. THREE THINGS THAT CREATED THEIR NOBLE CONDUCT.

1. They made religion a personal thing. It was not a matter of the state or community, but of realised individuality; and personal responsibility to God. No other but a personal religion is worth the name. No other will save your soul.

2. They had repented towards God, and put their trust in Him. They had turned from evil with mind and heart, and set themselves to seek righteousness.

3. They put eternal things before temporal. They saw the world in its true light, and took it at its true estimate. The eternal endures, the temporal passes away.

(F. James.)

II. THEY WERE LOYAL TO THEIR CONVICTIONS. They were called on to pass through a most trying ordeal. The day of the dedication of the golden image was at hand. What should they do?

1. They might avoid all trouble by joining in the acclamations of the multitude and prostrating themselves before the golden image.

2. They might prostrate themselves as a mere matter of form, saying, "After all, religion is of the heart; and God will know that inwardly we are devoted to Him." But compromise, in a question of right or wrong, is the subterfuge of the weak and unworthy.

3. The only alternative was to stay indoors that day. Why not? Then must they have said to one another, "We are three cowards.", God wanted them to go out into the plain of Dura and preach a sermon on heroic piety.

III. GOD TOOK CARE OF THEM. He always takes care of His own. Here is a sure word of promise, "I will never leave thee nor forsake thee."

(D. J. Burrell, D.D.)

1. They overcame, in the first place, the allurements of pleasure. What a festive scene was before them! The "cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, dulcimer, and all kinds of music," united their persuasive notes to tempt them to sin. Pleasure assumed all its most winning and seductive shapes to court their compliance. Yet, though in the midst of health and youth, they steadily refused to join the multitude to do evil; they accounted the reproach of Christ better than all the poisoned baits of the world. They were, doubtless, considered by those around them as gloomy and precise persons, who railed at what others thought innocent pleasures — but they knew the side they had taken; they knew also the power and love of their heavenly Parent, and they feared not the result.

2. Neither, again, could the commands of authority tempt them to commit this sin. They were strangers and captives in a foreign land; the hand of power was over them; they were represented as factious persons, as enemies at once to the government and the religion of the country; Nebuchadnezzar, a despotic monarch, was infuriated against them — yet they stood firm. They knew that the first authority to be obeyed is God.

3. The dread of persecution, we have already seen, they also manfully overcame; nor did they less resist the specious solicitations of kindness and friendship. Many a young Christian, who could have braved all the terrors of open persecution, has given way to this temptation, and has for ever ruined his soul, for the sake of that friendship with the world which is enmity against God. Not so these illustrious sufferers. Though they had received innumerable kindnesses from Nebuchadnezzar, and were in the way of receiving many more; though nourished by his bounty, and loaded with his favours; yet when religion was to be the sacrifice, they would not, they durst not make it. The result is well known; God wrought a miracle in their favour; His presence was with them in the fire; while their persecutors were consumed in the very act of casting them into the flames — an awful proof of the danger of opposing the cause or the people of God. Not even the garments of these triumphant confessors were singed; nothing was consumed in the furnace except their bonds. They became more free than they were before they were thrown into the flame; and in like manner the Christian, in the present day, who resolutely bears the cross of his Redeemer, often finds that the more he is persecuted for righteousness' sake, the more he enjoys freedom and happiness in his own mind. His shackles are consumed in the fire, and he is frequently rendered more bold and persevering in the cause of God, by the very efforts which are made to overcome his constancy.

(Christian Observer.)

I. As to the reality of faith.

(1)It resulted in constancy. They were perfectly respectful, and yet absolutely determined on their course.

(2)It resulted in a proper estimation of their duties of loyalty to their sovereign and of devotion to their God.

(3)It resulted in perfect trust that God would keep and sustain them.

2. As to the reward of faith. In their hopes they were not disappointed; for they had the presence of God which saved them. (Isaiah 43:2; Isaiah 63:9.)

II. Application of the narrative to our own times. The plain of Dura is a picture of the world; Nebuchadnezzar and his image pourtray the mammon-worship to which mankind is called by common consent and by every device. But the true servants of God refuse; they cannot serve God and mammon.

1. The choice requires a deep and abiding faith, which —(1) Dares to be singular; and —(2) Is courageous, constant, persevering, and fearless. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego were not only preserved, but they were also the means of advancing the cause of true religion in the kingdom of Babylon; and so it will be found to be the case with those who suffer for the truth.

(F. Thorne.)

I. In the first place, observe, THE MANDATE OF IMPERIAL POWER WHICH HAD BEEN ISSUED. The person from whom the mandate now referred to had emanated, was Nebuchadnezzar, the monarch of the vast and gorgeous empire of Babylon. New in the mandate before us there was heinous and presumptuous sin; and we shall endeavour to notice the elements of which that heinous and presumptuous sin consisted. And we remark —

1. That it was a tyrannical encroachment beyond the just limits of civil authority. The monarch of Babylon had not, nor has any other monarch or person invested with worldly station or worldly power, the right of anywise controlling or attempting to influence the religious professions and religious deportment of his subjects. Human governments were created by Divine arrangement, in order that monarchs might order things aright in their secular or political capacity; and their legitimate power of interference extends only to overt acts which are socially beneficial, on the one hand, or which are socially pernicious and injurious, on the other. Obedience to reasonable commands in this respect is an obligation; but obedience to commands attempting to control opinion and conscience is no obligation at all.

2. Again, you will observe of this mandate, that it was a daring impiety against the majesty and claims of the only true God. You doubtless remember at once the law which that Creator had promulgated in early times, in direct denunciation of the apostacy referred to, pronounced by His own voice and written by His own finger — "Thou shalt not have any gods before Me." "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image," etc.

3. Again, you will observe of this mandate, that it was a cruel outrage on the impulses of benevolence and of humanity. To threaten men that if they did not fall down and worship a golden image they should be cast into a furnace of fire there to endure the very worst and most excruciating agonies which the human frame can undergo, was, indeed, beyond expression savage. And here we cannot but observe an illustration of the keenness of despotic power in all periods of time.

II. THE MANNER IN WHICH THIS IMPERIAL MANDATE WAS TREATED.

1. And first, you will observe that there was firmness. Let us be "valiant for the truth upon the earth"; and let it be our constant aim, that being "followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises," we may indulge the glowing hope of being ultimately united in their glory.

2. And again, you will observe, that besides firmness there was also meekness. There was no ebullition of self-sufficiency or of anger; there was respect for regal dignity and station — there was forbearance, there was quietness, there was readiness to suffer; they resisted the wrong, but they did not rebel against the penalty. It is always important, in advocating the rights of conscience and of religious truth, that in the same manner mildness should be blended with courage, and gentleness with resolution. The want of this spirit among those who have pleaded the right of conscience and of truth has often inflicted deep injury upon the best and the holiest of causes. There has been the indulgence of a rugged dogmatism and vehemence; there has been not seldom a resort to the use of force, the fighting of battles, and an endeavour after retaliation; and even when revenge would have struck deep injury upon both liberty and religion, and would have mournfully retarded and held back the time of their progress and the era of final freedom,

III. THE PRINCIPLES UPON WHICH THE TREATMENT OF THAT MANDATE WAS FOUNDED, AND UPON WHICH IT WAS JUSTIFIED. You will observe, in the analysis of the narrative, that they were principles worthy of the occasion, and amply vindicating the course which was pursued.

1. Observe, there was conviction of their duty and responsibility to God. Their language is — "our God whom we serve." They were endued with reverence and with love to Him, and these principles, associated with the relationship they embodied, prevented by moral necessity that they could be guilty of the glaring impiety of adoring publicly, in the presence of immense masses, a thing graven by art and man's device, created by man's base passions for man's base and bad designs. In the principle in this manner enunciated, you will observe, they took the highest ground under the highest influences — religion, imparted and preserved by the Spirit of God. And this is alone worthy of the occasion when the rights of conscience and of truth are to be vindicated.

2. Again, you will observe also, there was confidence in the power and readiness of God to deliver. We have seen that the monarch of Babylon uttered this challenge — "Who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hand?" And then they replied — "We are not careful to answer thee in this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us out of thine hand, O king." Let us cherish the confidence now. Let us cherish it for ourselves, and know that "nothing shall separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus the Lord." Let us cherish it in behalf of the cause which is to us dear as our immortal spirits — the cause of the Redeemer's glory in the salvation of man and the conversion of the world; and let us never be guilty even .of dreaming of such an era as when the church shall be in danger. False systems, which have usurped the name, may be in danger, but the true church never. Can the throne of the eternal Father be in danger?

IV. THE RESULTS IN WHICH THE TREATMENT THUS VINDICATED AND JUSTIFIED WAS MADE TO ISSUE. You will observe here what a singular combination of circumstances claims from the narrative our regard. The immediate result was the infliction of the punishment. "Then was Nebuchadnezzar full of fury, and the form of his visage was changed against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego: therefore he spake, and commanded that they should heat the furnace one seven times more than it was wont to be heated." Observe the method in which that deliverance was accomplished. Lastly, you must observe the characteristics by which this deliverance was distinguished. It was accomplished by the agency of the Son of God; and its characteristics require to be noticed. It was, you will observe, indisputably attested. There was nothing equivocal in the mode by which the deliverance was known. And this only indicates a general principle in the Divine interpositions — that when God interposes for the welfare and deliverance of His people, there is nothing uncertain; there is not such an intermingling of secondary instrumentalities that we are unable to separate or to discern the interference of the power of the great First Cause; there is always something in every event by which a devout and enlightened mind is able to pronounce "God is here; here is the work of God." And it is a delightful fact in the history of the church now, as it will be in the annals of the church in time to come, that wherever God interferes for the welfare of His people He accomplishes His work thoroughly. We observe again, that the deliverance produced a vast public impression. The impression, as it was immediately produced, is noticed in the last verses of the chapter: "Nebuchadnezzar spake, and said, Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, who hath sent His angel, and delivered His servants that trusted in Him, and have changed the king's word, and yielded their bodies, that they might not serve nor worship any god except their own Cod. Therefore I make a decree, that every people, nation, and language, which speak anything amiss against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, shall be cut in pieces, and their houses shall be made a dunghill; because there is no other God that can deliver after this sort. Then the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, in the province of Babylon." The decree manifested a mighty impression on the mind of the monarch. Some more especial lessons.

1. And, in the first place, we learn from the narrative before us the value of early piety.

2. Again, we learn also the immense importance of decision for God under the most difficult of circumstances. If the example of these Hebrew youths at this crisis had been wanting, even had their personal piety remained intact, how evil would have been the consequence! Had they with some mental weakness bowed, or had they been absent far away under some plausible pretence or excuse — how different would have been the result! Not a voice to be raised for God amidst that vast assembly, and the honour of God deeply and painfully compromised in that nation and other nations for ages!

3. And then, finally, we learn the folly of opposition to the people and to the cause of God. It cannot be hindered by the blandishments or by the opposition of the world; it stands aloft amidst the wreck of empires, and it suffers not amidst the fury of contending nations; it rides upon the whirlwind and directs the storm, and never shall cease its manifestation until it shall establish an empire bounded only by the limits of the universe, and terminating only with the destruction of the world. See to it that you oppose not that, individually, or by combination, which is indestructible. "He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh, and the Lord shall have you in derision"; and so shall it be, until you shall "perish from the way when His wrath is kindled but a little."

(J. Parsons.)

(J. Foster.)

I. TRUE PRINCIPLES SEVERELY TESTED. Every principle will sooner or later be tried. There is a fiery furnace that will test the principles and motives of every heart. The test in the case of the young Hebrews was peculiarly severe.

1. They had to oppose the will of a powerful benefactor.

2. They had to incur the odium of an excited public.

3. They had to forfeit the honours and emoluments of office.

4. They had to meet death in one of its most terrible forms.

II. TRUE PRINCIPLE NOBLY MAINTAINED.

1. Their calm demeanour. True godliness possesses sweet sustaining power.

2. Their strong faith. Their language was the language of faith; the language of a pious heart firmly confiding in the faithfulness of Heaven. Their faith took hold of two things. The power of God: "Our God is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace." And also His willingness: "And He will deliver us out of thine hand, O king." These two elements form the basis of true faith. You confide in that person because you believe him to be both able and willing to befriend you.

3. Their inflexible determination. "But if not, we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image."

III. TRUE PRINCIPLE ULTIMATELY TRIUMPHANT. Several very important points were gained by this glorious triumph of true principle.

1. The impious ambition of the monarch was checked.

2. The living personality of the " Divine Son" was established. The deities of the Gentiles were the creations of their own fancy. Nebuchadnezzar had probably no faith in them. But the person whom he saw in the "fiery furnace" was not a myth, but a real living person. The God of Shadrach and his companions was a living person, not an imaginary object we worship not an idea, but a God who has a heart to love us, and an arm to save us.

3. The faith of the weak and the wavering was confirmed. Had their bitter affliction almost driven the poor Hebrew captives into despair? The occurrence on the plain of Dura would revive their hope, and fill them with wonder and gratitude. Many a disconsolate exile would be greatly encouraged, his faith strengthened, and the expiring embers of his religious love fanned into a flame.

4. The welfare of the captive Jews was effectually promoted. Their treatment of the exiles would be more humane and generous; and they would naturally infer that the people whose God would thus interpose on their behalf were not to be despised.

5. The honour of the true God was greatly enhanced. How valuable is vital godliness! It possesses a sustaining power. It brings down upon the soul the richest blessing of God. Be faithful to it. Let its living principles be exemplified in your life.

(J. H. Hughes.)

I. We learn that EMINENT PIETY MAY BE MAINTAINED AMIDST TRIALS THE MOST SEVERE. We are sometimes tempted to believe that man is the creature of external circumstances — that his character is formed for him — not by him; and that, consequently, he cannot be virtuous, as he is not responsible. The narrative before us is calculated to show the erroneousness of this notion, and to establish the important fact that the freedom of the human mind is not destroyed, nor the moral agency of man set aside, by any circumstances in which he may be placed, save and except such as involve the loss of reason, or the eclipse of the intellect. It is true, indeed, that we are frequently influenced by circumstances — our habits too often reflect the form and colour of those circumstances by which we are from time to time surrounded. It is well when such circumstances as favour the growth of piety and godliness are permitted to shed their hallowing influence upon our character. But, to the force of evil circumstances — those circumstances which in themselves tend to foster the development of ungodliness and sin — we need not, we ought not, by any means, to yield. We are responsible for our character. We must, every one of us, give an account of himself to God. Never let us forget that our God has made us free, accountable agents; that most reasonably He holds us bound to do our every duty constantly and unflinchingly; and at the last day will admit no plea whatever for the infidelity of which we have been guilty in this life. "Many men are lamenting their misfortunes, and wishing that their place was changed, that they might the more easily live Christianly. If a man cannot be a Christian in the place where he is, he cannot be a Christian anywhere." The Christian life ever has been, and must be, a self-denying, cross-bearing life; and the future glorious eternal reward of Heaven is for them, and them only, who, through good report and evil report, have followed the Lamb whithersoever He goeth. The three pious Hebrews — Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego — were placed amidst sorest trials — as few are in our day — yet they proved faithful to their God. To be dutiful to their God they had to resist the most powerful temptations — to brave most formidable dangers.

1. They had to rebel against royal authority. "King Nebuchadnezzar was what would be called a man of large ideas and vast undertakings. The great empire he had won and consolidated comprised many different nations, with different gods and different forms of religions service. Seeing that all these nations obeyed him as a king, and were subject to his absolute sway, it seemed to him but reasonable that his god should share his triumph, and that, as there was but one civil, so there should be but one religious obedience. He, therefore, determined to set up a vast golden image of his god in the plain of Dura, and that, at a signal given by bands of music, all the persons assembled together in the vast plain at the time of dedication should fall down and worship this image." The religion of Heaven is by no means adverse, but most thoroughly favourable, to civil obedience. Good men have ever been the truest subjects and the best citizens; and the prevalence of godliness among a people is the best guarantee for the stability of the throne that is based on righteousness, and the surest security for the effective carrying out of all such laws as are just and good. But as the sphere of the civil ruler is limited, so are the obligations of the subject The moral sense cannot be bound by Acts of Parliament; the will cannot be coerced by the magistrate's sword. It was a saying of Napoleon Bonaparte — "My rule ends where that of conscience begins." It would have been well if all civil rulers had recognised this principle. Much bloodshed would have been spared. When the laws of men harmonise with the laws of God there can be no difficulty felt by the good man as to duty in respect to them. But if it is attempted to compel obedience to laws diametrically opposed to the laws of God, then there can remain no doubt as to how the good man must act. We must obey God rather than man. Noble men! no reckless revolutionists, no fanatical politicians were they; but men who understood to what extent they were bound to honour man; and who well understood and deeply felt that there was no consideration which could, by any possibility, free them from their obligation to serve God alone.

2. They had to act in defiance of the popular custom. Grand moral spectacle! Truest heroism this! Here is none of your pitiful time-servers who dare not to differ from the multitude by doing right — here is none of your compromising religious duty by an unhallowed seeming to conform to the world. They did not follow bad customs, lest they should be thought singular. They despised the fashionable religion, and were great and good enough, though Jews, to stand true to their fathers' God in the face of a nation of idolaters. Was not that a brave deed? Warriors never did such a noble thing. Earth's proudest heroes never won such laurels, never deserved such fame! If you would be great in the highest and best sense, dare to be good. If there is one spectacle more contemptible than another, it is that mean-spirited soul whom you see timidly, cowardly crouching down to a popular custom which in his conscience he knows to be wrong, and ignobly following a multitude to do evil. It requires little moral courage, publicly and faithfully to stick to duty when it is popular to do so. It is a comparatively easy thing to wear the Christian name and attend to Christian ordinances when and where it is fashionable to do so. But to dare to be singular, to take sides with "the peculiar people," to endure the world's scorn, to do what few only have heart and conscience to do — that demands sterling piety, no common-place devotedness, more than lukewarm love to God and His cause. In the present day the temptations to renounce and ignore religion altogether are not such as martyrs knew. Our danger comes from another quarter. Our perils lie hid beneath such religious pretensions as find general favour. It is fashionable, nowadays, to be religious. Only infidels and "our city arabs" are irreligious now. It is a disgrace not to belong to some church or another. The demand is for something more genuine — a counterfeit religion is too wide spread. The form of godliness is abundant. The power of it is rare indeed. Men will be religious; but they are far more eager to gain the world than to save their souls. While they are serving God after a fashion, their hearts are going forth after covetousness. Custom is, as it has ever been, the stern, unyielding foe of all earnest, spiritual, thorough-going Christianity. Men generally have little sympathy with the heartfelt, life-purifying religion of Jesus Christ. "Business is business" with them, and religion has no right to show its face in the warehouse or workshop, in the counting-house or the exchange. Strict morality will not pay; they cannot afford to do right. Their neighbours resort to the "tricks of trade," and cheat, and tell lies, and deceive; and so must they, or they may as well give up business at once. It is all nonsense to talk to them about applying Christian rules to secular callings. It would be perfectly ruinous! And then, as to social usages and domestic habits, what has religion to do with these things? It is all very well to sing and pray, and go to church, too. But you would never think of turning Puritans, and make religion to bear upon dress — upon our homes, and our amusements! "Style" has to be kept up. Appearances must be preserved. We must not be thought mean, etc. Thus thousands talk, and apologise for the most thorough-going conformity to the giddy, regardless world. I repeat it, he who will be true to his God in these days, must dare to break through unhallowed customs — must be brave enough to differ from others. He who stops to ask himself, What do others do? or, What are the religious opinions and practices of others? cannot be a true disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. Your Saviour demands of you thorough-going, uncompromising fidelity to truth and equity. He requires you to take His will to be your own rule; and so completely will He have you in subjection to His authority, that, whatever you do, whether you eat or drink, you must do all to His glory!

3. They had to resist the demands of self-interest. It was at a severe cost, an immense sacrifice, that they were prepared to fulfil their obligations to the true and living God (v. 6). By this it would appear that death by burning alive was a very ancient punishment for "heresy." It was a customary punishment among the Babylonians. Jeremiah, in denouncing the false prophets, Ahab and Zedekiah, predicted that they should be put to death by the King of Babylon, "And of these shall be taken up a curse by all the captivity of Judah which are in Babylon, saying, The Lord make thee like Zedekiah and like Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire." See, then, how terrific the threat by which Nebuchadnezzar sought to promote the worship of his god. What a severe trial of the godly steadfastness of these three pious Jews (v. 13, 15). Would you have wondered if, in such circumstances, they had trembled and proposed to themselves some temporising mode of escape from so dreadful a punishment? Ah, threats cannot intimidate them. This noble answer reminds us of what relates of , that when courtiers persuaded him to preserve his life — for it was with great reluctance that the Emperor devoted him to death — when flatterers on all sides urged him to redeem his life by the denial of Christianity, he answered, "There can be no deliberation in a matter so sacred." So our three heroes declare that they are in nowise concerned to vindicate their conduct, or to deliberate upon the expediency of the step they were taking. "Our consciences are bound to serve the God of heaven alone, and Him only will we worship, despite all consequences." But many can, Peter-like, boast grandly of how bravely they will act. Nothing shall move them from their Christian steadfastness till the crisis comes — till the hour arrives for self-sacrifice, for prompt and self-denying action — then they faint and fall away. Not so the three pious Hebrews. They were none of your talking heroes. Their deeds were as glorious as their words. Are we not too much given to time-serving? Are we not deterred oftentimes from faithfully acting out our convictions by the fear of losing someone's friendship, or of incurring someone's frown? by the fear of suffering the loss of certain worldly emoluments, or of missing certain social advantages? Is our devotedness to Christ characterised by all that manly energy — that indomitable courage that breaks through every barrier, and that conquers every difficulty?

II. We learn what are THE SOURCES AND ENCOURAGEMENTS OF TRUE MORAL HEROISM.

1. All things are possible to them who believe. There is the secret of their heroism. It was not natural animal courage — it was not stoical insensibility — it was not indifference to life — it was not the love of distinction, or ambition for fame — it was faith in God.

2. God is ever present with his faithful people (v. 21-25). We have no reason for supposing that Nebuchadnezzar thought that the fourth person was Jesus Christ, the Son of God; of him he must have known nothing. "A single angel," says Calvin, "was sent to these three men; Nebuchadnezzar calls him a Son of God, not because he thought him to be Christ, but according to the common opinion among all people that angels are sons of God, since a certain divinity is resplendent in them, and hence they call angels generally sons of God. According to this usual custom Nebuchadnezzar says, the fourth man is like the son of a god." No doubt Nebuchadnezzar recognised the Divine interposition in what appeared to him an angel; God was wont by the ministry of angels and otherwise visibly to interpose on behalf of His people, and in a most extraordinary way to effect deliverances for them; and, doubtless, it was God who appeared in human form with the three Hebrews in the fiery furnace, to comfort, support, and deliver them, and to convince their enemies that they were under the protection of. Heaven, and, therefore, in safe keeping. We do not look for any palpable manifestations of the Divine presence to attend us in our trials. We look for no miraculous deliverance from the hands of our enemies. Nevertheless, God has promised to be with us to help and succour us, so that we may triumphantly exclaim, "If God be with us, who shall be against us?" "A man in the right with God on his side is in the majority, though he be alone, for God is multitudinous above all populations of the earth." So that you may boldly say, "God is our refuge," "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me."

3. The social influence of uncompromising fidelity to duty on the part of God's people is mighty (v. 28, 29). We see here the natural working of a truly consistent life. "Ye are the salt of the earth," etc. (Matthew 5:13-16); "The holy seed is the stock of the land" (Isaiah 6:13). "A man ought to carry himself in the world as an orange-tree would if it could walk up and down in the garden — swinging perfume from every little censer it holds up in the air." Ah, how many of us do this? How many of us commend to the world the religion we possess by an unbending, consistent life?

4. Distinguished honours shall crown the fidelity of God's people (v. 30).

(John Williams.)

1. The children of respectable parents may be reduced to humble circumstances.

2. Children deprived of the protection of parents sometimes rise in the world and prosper.

3. Religion is the best preservative of youth when separated from their parents and friends.

4. The effects of early religious education is generally good. These young men's piety was very vigorous. Consider the power of the piety of these young men.

I. ITS PRINCIPLE. It was attachment to the true God.

1. Their attachment to God was natural, and, therefore, strong. Man was made for God. What is unnatural is weak. Unnatural conformation of body is attended by weakness and pain. The body deprived of the natural means of support soon becomes feeble. Unnatural exercise of social affections wastes them. It is so with the moral powers. Idolatry is not natural to man. It is weakness. It cannot reason; it cannot distinguish between matter and mind. It holds no communion with spiritual worlds; it sinks the spirit; it robs God of His right, and man of happiness. God is to man all that his nature wants.

2. Their attachment was individual.

3. Their attachment was uniform.

II. ITS MANIFESTATIONS. Is wonderful, if we consider.

1. Their destitution of religious means. Without public worship, parental protection exposed to the bigotry, example, society of idolaters.

2. The strength of their temptation.

3. The tenderness of their age. They were little more than twenty.

4. Their number was small. There were only three. But were one in life, death.

III. ITS IMPRESSIONS on those who witnessed it.

1. The king admired their character.

2. Called attention to it.

3. Blessed God.

4. Promoted them.

(Caleb Morris.)

(P. H. Hunter.)

I. THESE YOUTHS WOULD NOT, TO SAVE THEIR LIVES, COMMIT EVEN ONE SINGLE ACT OF IDOLATRY (v. 12) Had they not been true servants of God they would easily have quieted their consciences with excuses such as these.

1. All are obeying the command.

2. After all, it was a political rather than a religious act.

3. If they failed to comply with the royal mandate, their conduct might be misconstrued. But men of religious principle do not ask if they will be misunderstood, but what is their duty to God.

II. THEY REFUSED TO PARLEY ABOUT THE COURSE OF DUTY (v. 16). Our declining even to discuss the course of duty, when it is plainly and instinctively recognised by the conscience, is a proof of religious firmness and constancy.

III. THEY TRUSTED IMPLICITLY IN GOD'S SPECIAL PROVIDENCE OF HIS PEOPLE (v. 17). When our hold upon Divine truth is lessening or weak, we trust to the arm of flesh and useless expediences. Examples: Asa and the physicians (2 Chronicles 16:12); Israel and the chariots of Egypt (Isaiah 31:1). Those whose hearts are fixed, and who prove true in the fiery ordeal of trial, fall back upon their inner lines of retrenchment. They realise the fact that the Lord reigns, and personally superintends the order of events, so that the wrath of man is restrained, and also that God watches with jealous care His own people.

IV. THEY DID NOT CONSIDER THE CONSEQUENCES OF THEIR CONSTANCY (v. 18). God has not pledged Himself always to work a miracle or to do anything uncommon to deliver His people. As a rule we must not expect such interpositions. If we were perfectly certain of such help, where would be the worth of our holding out for the truth? It was as much a miracle of grace for the three youths to remain constant as it was a miracle of providence that they were kept safely in the fiery furnace. To determine our conduct, altogether irrespective of the consequences which may follow, shows the value of our religious life.

V. THEY HONOURED GOD BEFORE THE WORLD AND GOD ESPECIALLY HONOURED THEM. As unholy compromises and cowardly denials conduct to shame and confusion, so unflinching courage, and acting upon religious principles, leads to happiness and honour. Such is illustrated in the present case.

1. They are safely protected from the slightest harm in the fiery furnace. The very elements are made to respect them (v. 24, 25, 27).

2. The Son of God blesses them with His company (v. 25; Isaiah 43:2; Proverbs 18:10).

3. Their persecuter, Nebuchadnezzar, bestows greater honour upon them (v. 30; Proverbs 16:7). Is our religion one of fashion, form, education, or one of reality and principle? If the former, then in times of trial we shall fall away; if the latter, we shall by God's grace be kept steadfast. Christians should be prepared to face a fiery ordeal of temptation at some period of their career. This will strengthen and purify their faith.

(C. Neil, M.A.)

(W. J. Macdonald.)

I. THE ACCUSATION. No man may expect to escape from calumny. But happy is the man who can be assailed only because of his virtues — his adherence to religious principles. And such is the base passion of envy, that it withers at another's joy, and hates the excellence it cannot reach," and will, therefore, seek to elevate itself by detracting from the reputation of another.

II. THE TRIAL. The trial of these young men was one of the most extraordinary to which men were ever subjected. It was so as by fire. Now, truth and virtue are on trial. What will be the issue? Come, ye angels that excel in strength; come, all the world that hang in hope upon the truth of religion, and await the result. "But if not, be it known unto thee, O king! that we will not serve thy gods nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up." The answer illustrates:

1. The duty of pleasing God rather than men. "We are not careful to answer thee in this matter." But just here the text is found at which so many fail. Men are careful to answer to their fellow-men, rather than to God, for their conduct. Public opinion is the great golden image before which they fall down in worship. Fashion also sets up its great golden image, and commands all to bow down and worship it. It has passed into an aphorism: "You had as well go out of the world as out of the fashion." God says: "Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind." There is also a great golden image set up in the form of prevailing social customs, by which persons are tried whether they will do right or conform to the example of the company they are in.

2. The confidence that God would take care of them if they honoured Him. "Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery" furnace, and He will deliver us out of thy hand." And their knowledge of the character of God assured them that no real harm could come to them in the way of their duty to Him. But their answer went further; if it had not, it would have lacked in one great element of force, which we shall see presently. They said: "But if God does not deliver us, we will not serve thy gods." If this had not been added, it might have been said: "No wonder they are so heroic, having the assurance that God would save them from the threatened punishment; in other words, they were willing to serve God as long as they were exempt from suffering; as long as it went well with them in this world." That was the kind of religion that the neighbours of Job thought he had — a mercenary religion.

3. We have in this answer an exhibition of true principle as the foundation of a religious life. Their were governed by principle. "True religion," says Albert Barnes, "is a determined purpose to do right, whatever may be the consequences. Come wealth or poverty, honour or dishonour, life or death, the mind is firmly fixed on doing right." A man who loves what is right, and is determined to do what is right because he has deep down in his soul a recognition of the everlasting blessedness of virtue, is not the one who will want to bring weak excuses for worldly conformity; for doing what he has misgivings in his own mind is not right. He who is in earnest about saving his soul will not frame weak excuses for yielding to temptation. In fine, principle, and not impulse, will be the mainspring of his religious activity. True religion is a determined purpose to live for God, come what may.

III. WE COME NOW TO THE CONDEMNATION AND DELIVERANCE OF THESE YOUNG MEN AS THE FINAL GENERAL PROPOSITION OF OUR SUBJECT. They were thrown into the burning fiery furnace. Though they had been so faithful to God, yet He permitted them to be brought into this dreadful place. Now may Nebuchadnezzar utter his infidel sneer: "Who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands?" Even faith itself may be so tried as to say: "It is vain to serve God; He is so indifferent to our efforts to please Hire, or He is powerless against the world." But do not be in haste to judge. God did not save them from the furnace, but He went with them into it and protected them there. So His people may not be exempt from trials, but they have the presence of Jesus in these trials. "In the world ye shall have tribulation," and through great tribulation ye shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. But if He sees that it is necessary that we go into those trials, He will give us blessed compensations. And then, if He sees fit to put us in the furnace in order to purify, and sanctify, and fit us for glory, it is because He knows there is something in us worth the trial. Men do not put dross in the crucible — a thing of no value — and sit there watching over it. Then, if you are in the furnace, there is something in you which God values, and by this process He will develop it. "They walked in the midst of the fire and had no hurt." How true to the history of God's people in all ages of the world-walking in the midst of the fire and not burned. From this we learn that it is not the outward circumstances of an individual that can harm him. His welfare depends upon the inward state of the heart. Hence a Christian has a source of consolation which no earthly influences can turn aside or obstruct. But the same fire which was harmless to God's servants destroyed their enemies. And thus it is that those trials under which Christians are happy are overwhelming to those who have no faith in God. I cannot leave this subject without one more thought. These men were called up out of the furnace. And that was not all; they were promoted in the kingdom. From the fires of trial to which God subjects us, always comes a higher state of life. But this higher state is produced by those experiences which seem so hard to us. We rise upon the wreck of the earthly to the Heavenly. After they were well tried the king came and called these young men out of the trial — out of the furnace. Then the king promoted them in the province of Babylon. And thus will God, when He has seen that we have been suffciently tried, and are fitted for the better world, call us out of the furnace and promote us to the kingdom of everlasting blessedness.

(J. T. Murray.)

I. First of all, as we think of these three brave Jews, let us consider THE EXCUSES THEY MIGHT HAVE MADE. They were accused by the Chaldeans, who had so recently been saved from death by Daniel and his three friends. The surest way to be hated by some people is to place them under an obligation. But in this case the wrath of man was to praise God. They might have said to themselves, "It is perfectly useless to resist. We cannot contend against this man. If we submit, we do it unwillingly; and surely, being coerced into it, we shall be but little blamed." It is a bad excuse, but it is one that I have often heard made. "Oh," says a man, "we must live, you know; we must live." I really do not see any necessity for it. Again, they might have said, "We are in a strange land, and is it not written by one of our wise men, 'When you are in Babylon, you must do as Babylon does'? Of course, if we were at home, in Judaea, we would not think of such a thing." Is God the God of this island, and not the God of the Continent? Has He ever given us permission to do abroad we may not do at home? It is a vile excuse, but commonly enough made. They might also have said, "We are in office"; and seeing they were set over the affairs of the province of Babylon, they might have found some difficulty in detaching their private religion from their public duty. A man gets elected to a parish vestry, or a council, or a board, and when he once gets to sit on that board, he seems to have left his honesty at home. I say not that it is so always, but I am sorry to say that it has often been so. The official has no sooner put on his robes of office than his conscience has vanished. But, then, they were prosperous men. They were getting on in the world, and I believe that God sent this trial to Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, because they were prospering. They might have said, "We must not throw away our chances." Among the dangers to Christian men, the greatest, perhaps, is accumulating wealth — the danger of prosperity. May God grant that we may never turn His mercies into an excuse for sinning against Him! You who are rich have no more liberty to sin than if you were poor. Again, further, they might have excused themselves thus. The putting up of this image was not altogether a religious act. It was symbolical. The image was intended to represent the power of Nebuchadnezzar, and bowing before it was, therefore, doing political homage to the great king. Might they not safely do this? They might have said, "We are pollitically bound." Oh, how often we hear this brought up! You are told to regard the difference between right and wrong everywhere, except when you get into politics; then stick to your party through thick and thin. Right and wrong vanish at once. Loyalty to your leader — that is the point. A very soothing salve for their conscience might have been found in the absence of any command to renounce their own religion. They might have encouraged each other to submit, by saying, "We are not called upon to abjure our God." They need not believe the idol to be Divine, nor confess the least faith in it; in their hearts they might make a mental reservation as they bowed, and they might have whispered to one another, and said that it was a devil, and no God. They might have excused themselves to their own conscience by saying that they prostrated themselves to the music, and not to the idol, or that they made obeisance to the king rather than to his image. Anything, in fact, will serve for an excuse, when the heart is 'bent on compromise; and, especially in these half-hearted days, it is very easy to find a specious reason for a false action, if some temporal benefit is attached to it. Modern charity manufactures a multitude of excuses to cover sins withal. A stronger argument, however, might have been secured from the fact of the universal submission to the decree. "Everybody else is doing it," they might have said. Though millions bowed, what had that to do with them? I ask you to cultivate a brave personality. In the service of God, things cannot go by the counting of heads. They might have said, "It is only for once, and not for long. Ten minutes or so, once in a lifetime, to please the king; such a trivial act cannot make any difference; at any rate, it is not enough to brave the fiery furnace for. Let us treat the whole thing as a huge jest. It would be ridiculous to throw away our lives for such a trifle." Not even for a few minutes in a lifetime would these three brave men deny their God. May their stubborn faith be ours! Another excuse that they might have made was, "We can do more good by living than we can by being cast into than furnace. It is true, if we are burnt alive, we bear a rapid testimony to the faith of God; but if we live, how much more we might accomplish! You see we three are Jews, and we are put in high office, and there are many poor Jews who are captives. We can help them. We have always seen justice done to God's people, our fellow-country-men, and we feel that we are raised to our high office on purpose to do good. Now, you see, if you make us bigots, and wilt not let us yield, you cut short our opportunities of usefulness." If an act of sin would increase my usefulness tenfold, I have no right to do it; and if an act of righteousness would appear likely to destroy my my apparent usefulness, I am yet to do it. But they might also have said, "Real!y, this is more than can be expected of us." Remember what Jesus said to the multitudes who went with him, "If any man come to me and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children,. and brethren; and sister, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple."

II. In the second place, let us assure our own hearts by admiring THE CONFIDENCE WHICH THEY POSSESSED. They expressed it very emphatically and clearly. They had a definite, solid, foursquare faith.

1. First, they said, "O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter." The word "careful" there, does not give you the meaning. Read it, "We are not full of care as to how to answer thee." They did answer very carefully; but they were not anxious about the answer. They did not deliberate. They did not hesitate. They said, "Nebuchadnezzar, we can answer you at once on that point."

2. In the second place, they did not judge it theirs to answer at all. I find that it may read, as in the Revised Version, "O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer thee in this matter," meaning, "We will not answer you. It is not for us to answer you. You have brought another Person into the quarrel" Then notice what they say. "Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace."

3. They avowed their faith in the Omnipotent God, knowing that, if He chose, no mighty man of Babylon could ever throw them into that furnace. What is more, they add, "And He will deliver us out of thine hand, O king." Whether they burned in the fire or not, they were sure they would be delivered. If any of you are in great difficulty and trouble, tempted, to do wrong, nay, pressed to do it, and if you do what is right, it looks as if you will be great losers and great sufferers; believe this: God can deliver you. He can prevent your having to suffer what you suppose you may; and if He does not prevent that, He can help you to bear it, and, in a short time, He can turn all your losses into gains, all your sufferings into happiness. The Lord has helped us in the past, He is helping us in the present, and we believe that He will help us all the way through.

III. But here is the point that I want to make most prominent — the third one — THE DETERMINATION AT WHICH THEY HAD ARRIVED. "I not," if God does not deliver us at all, "be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up." Grand language! Noble resolve!

1. They did not pivot their loyalty to God upon their deliverance. They did not say, as some do, "I will serve God if it pays me to do so. I will serve God if He helps me at such and such a time." No, they would serve Him for nothing; theirs was not cupboard love.

2. They resolved that they would obey God at all costs. Let us walk in this heroic path. But some will say, "It is too hard. You cannot expect men to love God well enough to die for Him." No, but there was One who loved us well enough to die for us, and to die a thousand deaths in one, that He might save us. If Christ so loved us, we ought so to love Him. "Well," says one, "I think it is impossible. I could not bear pain." It is possible, for many have endured it. You may never be called to such a trial as that; but still, if you cannot bear the small trials, how would you bear the great ones? To enable us to get the spirit of these three holy men, we must get, first, a clear sense of the Divine presence. It a man feels that God is seeing him, he will not bow his knee to an idol; neither will he do evil; for God's eye is upon him. We must, next, have a deep sense of the Divine law. I have already reminded you of the law. "Thou shalt have no other gods before me," etc. Above all, to keep us right, we must have a mighty sense of the Divine love. We shall never obey God till by His grace we have new hearts, and those hearts are full of love to Him through Jesus Christ. "But what did these three men do?" says one; "they simply did not bow their heads, and they were cast into the fiery furnace. What did they do?" They influenced their age, their people, and all time. These three men influenced the city of Babylon, and the whole Babylonian empire, They certainly influenced King Nebuchadnezzar. These three men command the admiration of Heaven and earth. A fool would have pointed at them and said, "There go three fools — gentlemen high in office, with large incomes, and wives and families. They have only to take their cap off, and they may live in their wealth; but if they do not do it, they are to be burnt alive; and they will not do it. They will be burnt alive. They are fools." Yes, but the Son of God did not think so. When He in Heaven heard them speak thus to King Nebuchadnezzar, He said, "Brave, brave men! I will leave the throne of God in Heaven to go and stand by their side"; and invisibly He descended, till where the fires were glowing like one vast ruby, where the fierce flame had slain the men that threw the three confessors into the burning fiery furnace, He came and stood.

( C. H. Spurgeon.)

(Wayland Hoyt, D.D.)

1. Every man should be at liberty to worship God. according to his own conscience and lights.

2. The law should protect every man in the enjoyment of this liberty, providing always that he does not interfere with the enjoyment of the same rights and liberties by others. My freedom of action is to be limited by the rights and liberties of others. The king had. a perfect right to set up his image. But when he sought to compel others to do as he did he interfered with their liberties, which should have been the measure of his own. The law should. protect us all alike in our religion, if we do not interfere with the rights of our neighbours.

3. No man should suffer civil disability because of his religious belief.

4. No man should have preference in civil matters because of his religious profession.

II. WE HAVE AN EXAMPLE OF RELIGIOUS FAITHFULNESS.

1. We must be true to our God, even if we have to stand alone. Living as we do in times when religion is popular, and to attend public worship is respectable, we cannot fully realise all it means to stand alone for God.

2. We must be true to our God,, even if it makes us seem untrue to men. These men had received, much in this kingdom. They were the sons of conquered people, men of an alien and foreign race, the children of captivity, and prisoners of war. Royal favour had spared, and saved them. Sad and. painful as it may be to appear ungrateful to those to whom we are under obligation, we must not dishonour our God. It is better to lose the friendship of man than the favour of God.

3. We must be true to God, even if it brings loss upon us. A religion which costs nothing is worth only what it costs. Did Moses consider what he would gain if he made common cause with his own people, whom God meant him to deliver? It may well be doubted. if anyone ever suffers much in the long run through faithfulness to God.

(C. Leach, D.D.)

I. Let us study THE MARTYR SPIRIT AS HERE REVEALED.

1. These men had attained to the condition in which conviction had passed beyond the reach of perturbation or question. The everlasting hills were not so firmly rooted as the belief in the God of Heaven, and the essential blessedness of serving Him, was rooted in those young hearts. The rending in pieces of the whole world system around them would have shattered none of their dearest beliefs and hopes (Psalm 46:1-5). Their God made the world, and could make new worlds at His pleasure; but He was the same, from everlasting to everlasting, and His word must stand, whatever else in the universe might fall.

2. They were themselves of that temper, and had come to that strength and unity of character, that they could declare, There are things which we cannot say, there are things which we cannot do, whatever be the cost; it is blankly impossible; here strand we; we can do no other, God help us. I say they were of that temper, and they had come to that strength and unity of character. There must be both to make such martyrs, such witnesses for the God of Heaven as these. If this must be, it must be. God help us; it must be. We cannot speak, we cannot do, this awful lie. "Be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up."

3. There must abide in all martyr spirits an unwavering faith in the omnipotent hand of God. "Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us." His power to rule is clear to us as sunlight. He may choose to help us now, and signally deliver. He may choose to let us suffer, but nothing can shake our belief in His Power to save. We are sure that His will must be done; His cause must triumph; His servants, His soldiers, must be crowned. It may be here; it may be there; we do not question Him; times are in His hand. But here or there it will be, as surely as He reigns. A man may say with unconquerable firmness, I cannot do this thing, I will rather die, even when he believes that death is annihilation. But this faith is essential to the joyous spirit of Christian martyrdom; the exultation in prospect of a death of pain and shame which broke forth in the words, "I am ready to be offered up, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day." To die thus, one must believe that that for which he dies will reign, and he with it, in eternity.

II. We shall better understand the temper of these men WHEN WE COMPARE IT WITH A RECORD WHICH DESCRIBES VERY FAITHFULLY THE QUALITY OF MUCH THAT GOES BY THE NAME OF THE RELIGIOUS LIFE (Genesis 28:16-22). "Bless me, prosper my journey, bring me home again, and I will serve thee," were the terms of Jacob's covenant in Bethel. But if the cross be heavy, the self-denial hard, the battle long and stern, the cry is, Why hast thou brought me forth? "Is not this that" we said unto thee, Let us alone that we may serve the Egyptians?" How grandly beside these terms of bargain rings out the clear defiance of the text. Many a man enters on the pilgrim path in the belief that God will make his way smooth, pleasant, prosperous, and ends by being so wedded to truth and righteousness that he would say quite calmly with these men, "Be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up." Do not be disheartened if you find faith waver in the hour of trial. At the opening of a battle, when the first bullets begin to patter, the boldest soldier draws himself together. When his blood is warm, he thinks of them no more than of summer rain-drops. Pray to the Master that thy faith fail not.

III. Let us look at THE SCHOOL IN WHICH MEN ARE TRAINED TO SUCH GOD-:LIKE VIGOUR AND COURAGE which it was God's will that they should practise in great things. They were as resolute against little compliances as against great ones. It is a grand mistake to think that men can leap in one moment of high excitement to such a glorious height of strength and courage. Nothing but trained Christian manhood can endure such strain. Idols! the world is full of them. Golden idols, too, and daily throngs bow down their souls to worship. Are you trained to say, That I cannot do, that trick I cannot practise, that lie I cannot tell, that lust I will not indulge, that worldly success I will not clutch at, though life were hanging on it. I cannot do it; God help me!

(J. B. Brown, B.A.)

II. The exemplary courage and fidelity of these men, in withstanding the impetuous passion of the king, and suffering all the effects of his rage and fury, rather than yield to the impiety of worshipping his idol

III. The happy issue of their constancy, and triumph of their faith in this conflict.

I. As to the idol itself, though the sacred text says nothing of the shape of it, yet I think it is not doubted but that it was made in the figure of a man; some think it was intended for Bolus, the founder of the Babylonian royal family; others, for Nabopollasser, this king's father; but a third opinion is that it was a model of that image which Nebuchadnezzar had seen in his dream, in the foregoing chapter, which he might take to be the genius of his kingdom, and which, therefore, he might hope to render propitious to him and his affairs, by dedicating to him this magnificent statue, and through it offering to him Divine honours and adorations. This, indeed, was agreeable enough to the theology of the ancient Gentiles, who thus venerated their peculiar and tutelar deities. But it was more unpardonable in this king than in others, by reason of the long commerce which he had with the Jews, which makes it impossible to conceive that he could be ignorant of this first and greatest article of their religion, that there was but one God, and that He was to be worshipped in a spiritual way, without any material resemblance. He was well acquainted with Daniel and these three men, whom he had appointed to be bred up in his court, and to be fitted for the high offices of his kingdom, to which he quickly preferred them. I will not now stand to enquire how far it may be lawful to enforce the profession even of true religion by temporal penalties. There is a zeal for God, which His own word approves of in magistrates and ministers; and there is a zeal without knowledge, which runs out into a criminal persecution, for which St. Paul says that he obtained mercy, because he acted ignorantly (1. Timothy 1:13). But surely Nebuchadnezzar could not plead this excuse. He must be well acquainted with the religion of these men; he had the greatest obligations to their God, and was bound to them by the laws of hospitality, and by the faithful service which we may justly suppose they rendered him in their respective stations.

II. Let us now turn to the contemplation of THE EXEMPLARY COURAGE AND FIDELITY OF THESE MEN, who withstood the impetuous passion of the king, and chose to suffer all the effects of his rage and fury rather than yield to the impiety of worshipping his idol. This is a plain argument that their hopes were extended beyond this life; for had they thought the fiery furnace could have put an end to their being, and that there should nothing have remained of them for God to reward or punish in another state, I am of opinion they would have bowed to this image rather than have burned for it. For, however some affirm, that truth is so much more beautiful and con-natural to the soul of man than falsehood, that a wise man would prefer it even for its own sake, though nothing was to be expected after this life; yet if it were to be vindicated with the utter extinction of the whole man, and that on the contrary his receding from it would prolong his existence and his happiness, I am apt to think that it would in such case become an allowed rule of wisdom, to recede from the truth when it could not be held without suffering the loss of soul and body for the sake of it. And this was certainty the motive, why these martyrs of the true God did so cheerfully surrender their bodies to the flames, submitting themselves to Him, to live or die, as He saw most conducive to His own glory; firmly believing that if the fire dissolved their bodies, their souls should pass into His more immediate presence, and be made partakers of His immortal felicities. I believe I need not say much to persuade those who have a competent knowledge of the sufferings of holy martyrs, that many of them have given the best evidence that the consolations of God have far exceeded the torments of men in their greatest extremities.

III. THE HAPPY ISSUE OF THESE MEN'S CONSTANCY, and the triumph of their faith in this conflict. The enraged king had power to throw them into the fire, but he had no power to make the fire burn them. The king, when he called to his counsellors upon this occasion, told them that the form of the fourth man was like the Son of God. By this he might mean that he appeared to be a very august, majestic person; a god-like man, as we would say. This is as much as the expression sometimes imports. But because he could not think that a man of flesh and blood could enter there, and preserve the sufferers in such a miraculous manner, he must rather mean that it was some Divine Being sent from Heaven for this purpose. To this it will be objected that it is not credible Nebuchadnezzar knew anything of this Son of God, so as to be able to say that this person was like him. And we may readily allow that he did not; and yet this objection does not at all overthrow our hypothesis. For the king might mean in general that he seemed to be some Divine person; and this person might be the particular and only Son of God, who in all probability appeared upon the earth in human shape upon some occasion long before His incarnation.

(W. Reading M. A.)

I. CONSIDER THE TRIAL OF THEIR OBEDIENCE. It must be allowed that things good in themselves are heightened in value by circumstances. Why was the liberality of the widow commended, whole file rich cast into the treasury? We are told that they cast in of their abundance; but she of her penury cast in all that she had. The man who is not puffed up in the time of prosperity, is the humble man; he who is not cast down when in danger, and when all other men's strength fails, this is the courageous man.

1. They could plead authority. It was their sovereign who commanded them to fall down and worship the image, and good men must be loyal subjects. Yes, but here is a distinction to be made: we must distinguish between civil and religious concerns, and must obey God rather than man. But this conduct has often given to the servants of God a character for insubordination. Thus Jesus was charged with sedition, and Paul with being tumultuous.

2. They could plead obligation. Nebuchadnezzar had taken these captives from among the Hebrews, and had raised them to offices of trust and emolument. Nothing pleads so powerfully as kindness; favours attach the heart, and good men are sensible of obligations. There is no greater trial than to be unable to oblige a friend. "He that loveth father and mother more than me, is not worthy of me" — this is the trial.

3. They could plead the universality of the example. All around them yielded; and why should they be singular? Singularity, for its own sake, always shows a vain mind, and singularity in little things discovers a weak mind. Decency requires that we should not stand out in little things; but in things important, where a soul is to be lost, and God dishonoured — there we must be "separate, and touch not the unclean thing." A dead fish will swim with the stream; it is a live one only that can swim against it. It was thus that Enoch walked with God alone, and amidst opposition. Thus, Noah was a preacher of righteousness in a sinful world, and Moses refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. You are not afraid to be singular in most things; you are not afraid to be singularly wise — singularly rich — singularly happy! The best wisdom is that "which is from above," and the best happiness is that which is eternal. When you are called on to do good, never ask what others are doing, or what will be said of you.

4. Remark the dreadfulness of the penalty. You sometimes complain that your trials are too much for your virtue. "Oh," you say, "if we follow on in this particular course, we shall" — but let us hear your trials — "we shall be exposed to the burning stake — cast into the lion's den." No, nothing like it. " Shall be deprived of liberty"; nothing like it. "Be reduced to want"; nothing like it. "No; but in order to attend to closet and family devotions," I hear you say, "we must rise a little earlier. Oh! but, if we don't profane the Sabbath, and open our shops on the Sunday, we shall lose some of our customers. If we don't conform to the world, we shall be scoffed at." Eternal God! these are the martyrs of thy religion in our day!

II. THE PRINCIPLE OF THEIR OBEDIENCE. A conduct so tried, and yet so triumphant, must have had principle to support it. A man under the influence of principle will not be under the control of circumstances, nor under the influence of momentary impulse; if a good man errs, he acts from principle. But what armed them? Can we find a principle equal to the effect produced? The servants of God have done great things, and have suffered great trials; and the very thing which has enabled them to suffer is that which some are afraid of, viz., faith. Faith does not lead to licentiousness. It is by faith alone that we can do good works. But faith must have something to lay hold on, and act and work upon. In the faith of these three young men there were three things to act upon.

1. The power of God. "Our God," said they, "is able to deliver us." "He is the Maker of heaven and earth; He has suspended the laws of nature, made iron to swim, and raised the dead; and He is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we can ask or think." It was here that the Jews failed; they asked', "Can God furnish a table in the wilderness? Can He give flesh also?" All nature may change; but His word cannot fail: "He can turn the shadow of death into the morning."

2. It regarded the disposition of God. "He will deliver us out of thine hand, O king!" Perhaps they thought it probable that God would work a miracle in their favour; perhaps they had some inward presentiment of it in their minds; perhaps they concluded this from Scripture. They had doubtless read in the book of Psalms, "I will deliver him and honour him, and I will shew him my salvation." He has engaged to deliver His people in the day of trouble, and He will do it, either here partially or hereafter completely.

3. It regarded a future indemnification in another world. What! did they still persist in their determination — though a painful death was to be the consequence? Yes; but they could not have regaled it as annihilation. If there had been no other world, it would not have become them to have sacrificed life; their martyrdom would, in this case, have been madness. They must, then, have believed in a state of future recompense. Unless we bring the prospect of a future and eternal life to bear upon our conduct, we shall yield to temptation; and it is for want of this that the world leads us astray. When we think of another world, how infinitely superior does it appear to the present life!

III. Notice THE EFFECT OF THEIR OBEDIENCE. How did it end? In promoting the glory of the Master whom they served, and the interests of the religion which they professed. When the people of God suffer in the discharge of their duty, they glorify God, and show how He can deliver those who trust in Him. It resulted in their own honour and advantage. They staid not long in the furnace; but those were golden moments. O what peace and joy in God did they feel! and what holy resolutions did they form while in the furnace? To conclude:

1. Let us be thankful for the biography of the Scriptures — let us be grateful that we have the example of so many good men set before us, who, through faith and patience, do now inherit the promises.

2. If you are the servants of God, His grace is necessary for you. It is happy for us that we live under a paternal government, and are not exposed to the fury and caprice of tyrants.

3. While infidels ridicule you, and the enemies of Christ misrepresent your conduct, there is something in the religion of Christ which will support you; there is a reality in it which can be found in nothing else.

(W. Jay.)

I. The CIRCUMSTANCES which occasioned the address. Babylon the renowned capital of the ancient Chaldean empire; a place not less remarkable for its magnificence than its idolatry. Nebuchadnezzar was a heathen; the royal patron of idolatrous practices; a very powerful and ambitious monarch. And was the object of this imperious prince attained? Did he secure universal compliance? No; these three youths, mentioned in the text, dared to refuse. "Then Nebuchadnezzar, in his rage and fury" — very unfit companions for a king! How little qualified was this man to rule mighty nations, who had no rule over his own spirit! This worm of the earth sets himself in competition with Jehovah! He challenges the Most High, the King of Heaven! He defies the power of Omnipotence! It is the sentiment of an infidel, bloated with pride, and burning with passion.

II. The TEMPER OF MIND discovered in the address. It possesses uncommon beauty, and is highly instructive.

1. Dignified composure. "We are not careful to answer thee in this matter." There was nothing in the least disrespectful in this sentence; they were not indifferent to their situation, or inattentive to their language and behaviour; it intimates rather that they were not perplexed about the answer they should give. The king was exceedingly agitated, but we see nothing of agitation in these young men; they were perfectly collected and composed. They did not begin to declaim against the idols of Babylon, or against the iniquity of this sanguinary edict. We notice here the influence of genuine religion; it is the same in all ages, and in all countries. So far as it is possessed, it quiets the mind; it preserves it unruffled; it subdues those angry passions which disturb the breast of many when their will is thwarted, when their inclination is crossed. Do you complain of the want of self-possession, and of command of temper in the presence of those who revile and persecute you?

2. Decided piety. In the presence of an imperious monarch, who was addicted to the practice of idolatry, and determined on reducing all about him to the same way, these youths explicitly avow "the God whom we serve." Yes, the man who loves God in his heart is not ashamed of his attachment, nor is he afraid to declare it on every proper occasion. Decided piety is productive of Christian courage; and this does not consist in rudeness; it does not oblige a man to intrude religious talk into every company, and at every turn; yet, when his principles are violently attacked, when the honour of God and of the Gospel is insulted, the true Christian will not be cowardly, but decided and firm. Beg of God to strengthen this heavenly principle in you, to fortify your hearts and minds, to preserve you from sinful shame, to make you decided and valiant for the truth as it is in Jesus.

3. Believing confidence is remarkably evident. "If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace; and He will deliver us out of thine hand, O king." They seem to have had a secret expectation that, should Nebuchadnezzar be suffered to carry his threats into execution, their God, by some means, would rescue them. Whether they had any intimation of this given them from Heaven, we are not certain. They trusted in the living God, and by faith "endured, as seeing Him that is invisible! "Ask yourselves, what is the nature, and what are the grounds of your confidence? Is your hope in God?" Does it rest on His truth, and on the certainty that He will secure His own glory? Alas! the confidence of most is easily shaken, and faith wavers with every wind of trial.

4. Steady resolution, at all events, to obey God rather than man, A variety of considerations might have shaken their constancy, and led them to a compliance. Let us advert here, to the disposition of many professors of religion in the present day. Could not you have got over this difficulty without hazarding your life? Would you not have temporised a little? Would you not have yielded, and then, by some expedient, have settled matters with your conscience? Yes, some have settled much more difficult points.

III. The remarkable EFFECTS which the address produced. On Nebuchadnezzar they were effects of more violent anger; it stirred up all his malignant rage, which appeared in the distortion of his countenance; he was "full of fury, and the form of his visage was changed." Henry remarks: "Would men in a passion but look at their faces in a glass, they would blush at their own folly, and turn their displeasure against themselves." But the day is coming when proud tyrants will be called to account, not only for the cruelties which they have themselves practised, but also for those which they have instigated others to commit; and an awful reckoning it will be." This subject suggests a few words:

1. To young persons. The case of these Hebrew youths conveys instruction to you with peculiar energy, and demonstrates the great necessity of steady religious principle. It is true you live not in the court of Babylon; but you live in a sinful world, surrounded with the enemies of God, and of your souls. An image of gold is not set up which you are commanded to worship; but there are other snares, a variety of other trials, which will put your sincerity to the test, and determine whom you serve. And you, parents, we wonder not that young persons, in the present day, are so yielding to vanity and vice; so content to swim with the stream, and to follow the corrupt fashions of the age; for what should hinder? What should induce them to resist? Their minds are not principled;they are not furnished with religious knowledge; and for want of this, their consciences have little sense of evil, their hearts are not inclined to good, they are left without any effectual restraint.

2. To undecided professors. There are many such; and many do not suspect themselves till they are tried. It is an easy thing to follow religion while the world smiles; but when it frowns, when it threatens, when it reviles and persecutes, then is the secret iniquity of multitudes discovered; their principles are abandoned, and their props give way. Remember, if religion demands anything, it demands the heart. You must be decided, or you are nothing. Is it so, that you are led away by the fascinations of the world? You know nothing of the Gospel as you ought to know.

3. Afflicted, persecuted believers are addressed. To you this subject speaks peculiar encouragement. Never was there a more striking illustration, or a more exact fulfilment of the promise, "When thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burnt; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee." And to you Jehovah speaks, as well as to believers in all ages: "I will be with thee" — "I will deliver thee."

4. Are there any persecutors here? This subject speaks closely to you. And let me remind you of the dreadful end of such characters. See it in the death of Herod, who was eaten up with worms; see it in the doom of Pharaoh, who, with his host, sunk like lead in the mighty waters; and see it in the degraded condition of this haughty Chaldean monarch. Many a man is an oppressor, a persecutor, in his own house. His influence, possibly, does not reach much farther; or he may have that regard to his reputation, and to his worldly interest, which binds him to restrain his passion in his general intercourse with men. But see him in his own domestic circle;observe his temper in his own family; how often rage and fury boil in his breast, anger distorts his countenance, and even Nebuchadnezzar could scarcely be more unreasonable in some of his requirements.

(T. Kidd.)

(D. Kelly, B. A.)

1. A specimen of religious intolerance. God alone is "Lord of the conscience." A man's faith and worship are things which lie between himself and his Creater. This liberty is my birthright as a man.

2. How religious intolerance may be met. These three young men simply refused to do what Nebuchadnezzar commanded; or, in modern phrase, they met his injunction with "passive resistance." They would not tolerate any excuses, any casuistry. With similar firmness and humility we should meet intolerance yet.

3. An illustration of the support which Jesus gives to His followers, when they are called to suffer for His sake. These young men were entirely delivered, even as Peter was taken out of prison at a later day. God's servants are not always taken out of tribulations, but they are always supported through them.

4. In the matter of religious intolerance, as well as in some other things, the opposite of wrong is not always right. Nebuchadnezzar gave up the attempt to coerce these young men. That was well; but he issued an edict in reference to Jehovah which had in it elements not less objectionable than his command to worship the image. He had no more right to out men to pieces for speaking evil of Jehovah than he had to put Shadrach into the dames for not worshipping his image. Both edicts were alike unjustifiable.

(W. M. Taylor, D.D.)

(H. J. Hastings, M.A.)

(Dean Payne-Smith, D.D.)

( C. H. Spurgeon.)

(Signal.)

     8217   conformity
     8345   servanthood, and worship

Daniel 3:1-12

     5541   society, negative

Daniel 3:4-15

     5421   musical instruments

Daniel 3:8-12

     7505   Jews, the
     8800   prejudice

Daniel 3:8-23

     7515   anti-semitism

The Jordan: the Decisive Start. Matthew 3:13-17. Mark 1:9-1Luke
3:21-22. The Anvil of Experience: knowledge only through experience--the Fourth, Daniel 3:25.--three Hebrews, Daniel 3.--Babylonian premier, Daniel 6:16-23.--George Mueller--Jesus made perfect through experience, Hebrews 2:10. 5:8, 9. 7:28, l.c.--all our experiences, Hebrews 2:14-18. Philippians 2:7. Hebrews 4:15, except through sin, Hebrews 4:15, l.c. 7:26. 2 Corinthians 5:21, f.c. 1 Peter 2:22. 1 John 3:5, l.c.--Jesus' suffering, Philippians 2:6-8. Hebrews 2:9, 17, 18. 4:15. His obedience, Luke …
S. D. Gordon—Quiet Talks about Jesus

Three Names High on the Muster-Roll
IF YOU READ the second chapter of the Book of Daniel, you will think that Nebuchadnezzar was not far from the kingdom. His dream had troubled him; but Daniel had explained it. Then the king made this confession to Daniel, "Of a truth it is, that your God is a God of gods, and a Lord of kings, and a revealer of secrets, seeing thou couldest reveal this secret." He acknowledged that Jehovah, the God of the Jews, was the greatest of gods, and was a great interpreter of secrets; and yet in a short time …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 37: 1891

The Song of the Three Children
DANIEL iii. 16, 17, 18. O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace; and He will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up. We read this morning, instead of the Te Deum, the Song of the Three Children, beginning, 'Oh all ye works of the Lord, bless ye the Lord: praise …
Charles Kingsley—The Good News of God

The Power and Triumph of Faith. Dan 3:06
…
John Newton—Olney Hymns

The Lord Coming to his Temple
The LORD , whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to His temple; even the messenger of the covenant in whom ye delight: Behold, he shall come, saith the LORD of hosts. But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? For he is like a refiner's fire, and like a fuller's soap, -- and he shall purify the sons of Levi -- that they may offer unto the LORD an offering in righteousness. W hereunto shall we liken the people of this generation? and to what are they like? (Luke 7:31) …
John Newton—Messiah Vol. 1

The Second Commandment
Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am o jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of then that hate me; and shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments.' Exod 20: 4-6. I. Thou shalt not …
Thomas Watson—The Ten Commandments

The Disciple, -- what is the Meaning and Purpose of the Cross...
The Disciple,--What is the meaning and purpose of the cross, and why do pain and suffering exist in the world? The Master,--1. The cross is the key to heaven. At the moment when by My baptism I took the cross upon My shoulders for the sake of sinners, heaven was opened, and by means of My thirty-three years bearing of the cross and by death upon it, heaven, which by reason of sin was closed to believers, was for ever opened to them. Now as soon as believers take up their cross and follow Me they …
Sadhu Sundar Singh—At The Master's Feet

A Sermon on Isaiah xxvi. By John Knox.
[In the Prospectus of our Publication it was stated, that one discourse, at least, would be given in each number. A strict adherence to this arrangement, however, it is found, would exclude from our pages some of the most talented discourses of our early Divines; and it is therefore deemed expedient to depart from it as occasion may require. The following Sermon will occupy two numbers, and we hope, that from its intrinsic value, its historical interest, and the illustrious name of its author, it …
John Knox—The Pulpit Of The Reformation, Nos. 1, 2 and 3.

A Cloud of Witnesses.
"By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau, even concerning things to come. By faith Jacob, when he was a-dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph; and worshipped, leaning upon the top of his staff. By faith Joseph, when his end was nigh, made mention of the departure of the children of Israel; and gave commandment concerning his bones.... By faith the walls of Jericho fell down, after they had been compassed about for seven days. By faith Rahab the harlot perished not with them that were disobedient, …
Thomas Charles Edwards—The Expositor's Bible: The Epistle to the Hebrews

Fragrant Spices from the Mountains of Myrrh. "Thou Art all Fair, My Love; There is no Spot in Thee. " --Song of Solomon iv. 7.
FRAGRANT SPICES FROM THE MOUNTAINS OF MYRRH. HOW marvellous are these words! "Thou art all fair, My love; there is no spot in thee." The glorious Bridegroom is charmed with His spouse, and sings soft canticles of admiration. When the bride extols her Lord there is no wonder, for He deserves it well, and in Him there is room for praise without possibility of flattery. But does He who is wiser than Solomon condescend to praise this sunburnt Shulamite? Tis even so, for these are His own words, and were …
Charles Hadden Spurgeon—Till He Come

Daniel
Daniel is called a prophet in the New Testament (Matt. xxiv. 15). In the Hebrew Bible, however, the book called by his name appears not among the prophets, but among "the writings," between Esther and Ezra. The Greek version placed it between the major and the minor prophets, and this has determined its position in modern versions. The book is both like and unlike the prophetic books. It is like them in its passionate belief in the overruling Providence of God and in the sure consummation of His …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament