changed." "Command"-say they" that the sepulchre be made sure until the third day, lest his disciples come by night and steal him away, and say unto the people, He is risen from the dead, so the last error shall be worse than the first. Pilate said unto them; Ye have a watch; go your way, make it as sure as ye can. So they went, and made the sepulchre sure, sealing the stone, and setting a watch."*

Joy and exultation reigned through the evil world. The victim was slain. The well-beloved, whom the king "thought to set over the whole realm" was deposed for ever. Again in spirit is the cry of Joseph's brethren raised "Let us slay him and cast him into some pit, and we will say, some evil beast hath devoured him; and we shall see what will become of his dreams!" The presidents and princes, congratulated themselves on their victory. The Chief Priests and Rulers made Jerusalem re-echo with their gratulations! The night consumed in sorrow and mourning by the King, is passed in feasts and revelry by the people.

Lo! morning dawns. Scarcely have the first streaks of light appeared, before the Monarch hastens to the sepulchre of Daniel: like God in Spirit "early in the morning when it was not dark," to the grave of Christ. He tears away the seal; he rolls back the stone; and calls hurriedly on the name of his favoured and faithful minister. The voice scarcely reaches him, ere he answers. He lives! he is uninjured; he is saved! "O king,"-he exclaims-"my God hath sent his angel, and hath *Mat. xxvii. 64.

shut the lions' mouths, that they have not hurt me, forasmuch as before him, innocency was found in me; and also before thee, O king, have I done no hurt." The prophet was of a soul too spiritual; too divine; too free from a carnal imagination and the things of sense, for the Lions to assail him! He was to them little else than a shade; -an image reflected before them as in a glass. A thing of air and light; impalpable to their touch. They looked; they prepared to spring as he descended; but they were subject to a higher Power; an imperative instinct still kept them back; an instinct, which at once unnerved their strength, and deadened their wonted appetites. God sent his angel and shut the lions' mouths. How could it be otherwise?-For these Lions? They were the evil Spirits of Darkness. The appointed ministers of Satan, by the will of God, to devour the soul fallen and condemned through sin. Daniel in the Den, was the figure of the soul in the grave,-in the state of death;-and the Lions find their natural and necessary resemblance in the torturers of the soul, on whom the judgment of God's wrath has been past; and who have been delivered by that sentence into the dominion of Hell. They were savage and cruel in their appetites; lusting for flesh and blood; greedy after those gross aliments, which corresponded and harmonized with the ferocity of their own natures. The sinner; the unjust; the extortioner; the adulterer; -the men whose depravity of soul had lowered them to their own level, and likened them unto themselves; - these formed their proper and desired food;-and the descent of these, was

the signal for joy and triumph through the dark dwelling of the Evil One.

But to Jesus?-their mouths were closed. He was unassailed and unhurt. Unassailed;-though the Devil as a roaring lion goeth about seeking whom he may devour. Unhurt, in accordance with the prophetic prayer of the Psalmist, "Lord, rescue my soul from their destructions; and my darling from the lions."*

"Then the king commanded that they should take Daniel up out of the den. So Daniel was taken up out of the den, and no manner of hurt was found upon him, because he believed in his God." Christ on the third day was thus taken up by God from the tomb, uninjured by the violence of death. He arose from the grave despite the lions within ; despite the seal; despite the great stone rolled before its mouth; -for God came unto him in the morning of his Resurrection, and loosened the bands which held him ; - resuscitated his spirit; and commanded that he should be taken up out of the Den. And not only did he arise; not only stand in his former power over the world, over which he had been already placed chief, amongst the Presidents and Princes of the realm; but he arose in greater might and greater glory than before. He was exalted in authority, far above his former state. He stood the Sole Ruler in the Court of Darius ;-before whom all nations and kindreds of the king's dominions were commanded to bow;-before whom every knee was to bend "of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; — and * Ps. xxxv. 17.

every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."*

One thing yet remains to complete the figure. A dreadful sign for the sinner and unjust of every age! -A sign to cause terror-even in that heart which lives insensible to God's love. The king, by a stern, though just law of retribution, commands, on the Resurrection of Daniel, that his accusers should be brought, and that "they, their children and their wives" - all in truth that belonged to them, "should be cast into the same den," in which they had immured his favoured minister. He would purify his Court from the contamination of their presence;

- he would let none survive! The whole race was evil; and had participated in the joy and triumph of their late success. He commands them to be brought forth! His will was executed with that word! They are led into the presence of the King; and the presence of the revived Daniel! His Power restored; exalted to the highest pitch of greatness, he stands at the right hand of the Monarch, the virtual Judge, in the condemnation of his enemies. They behold him whom they persecuted; -him whom they pierced;-him whom they slew "with sharp arrows; even bitter words." They behold him ;→→→ and oh! galling thought- aggravation of that dreadful judgment-they feel that their Victim is the Arbiter of their fate!

It was but a moment's thought :--The Law engraven in characters, imperishable as God's own nature, has already condemned them;-" He shall

* Phil. ii. 10.

have judgment without mercy that hath shewn no mercy. The Law has prevailed. They are cast into the gulf.

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But what an instant change has been wrought upon the Lions! At the very sight of the Adversaries of Daniel their nature has returned to them! Their instinct is again free;-their mouths are loosened. Their savage appetites are again predominant. They are awakened in an instant. They knew;-they recognized their own proper prey. They behold gross and carnal natures assimilated to their own-they had the mastery over them, and brake all their bones in pieces, or ever they came to the bottom of the Den." And the accusers of Christ;-were they not cast by their Heavenly Father into the pit of destruction in all their then existing generations? Was not the blood of the Innocent on them and on their children? Was not their city burnt up with fire and their rule scattered to the four winds of Heaven? Yes:-not one of them survived. They found in the fierce passions and wrath of the Roman, a violence and a hate that was equal to their own; and fell into "the pit that they intended for others." They became a byword; a reproach; and in the extirpation of their race stood forth, with the enemies of Daniel, an example of the severe judgment of the Psalmist, "A wicked man shall not live out half his days." "Evil shall hunt the wicked person to overthrow him."

It is to reflections like these, that this history would lead us;-to points of such high and godlike mystery, that to the devout and pious mind, the

* James ii. 13.

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