cated, they made use of them in their insane debauch, and celebrated their gods of gold and silver, of wood and of stone. And no doubt congratulated themselves, like the Assyrians their predecessors, upon the triumphant superiority of their victorious deities over the feeble divinity of the captive and abandoned Jews.

But their joy was soon turned into mourning, and their intemperate and impious mirth into dismay. The appearance of the fingers of a man's hand, writing in unknown characters upon the wall, cast a sudden damp upon their spirits, and roused them from their dream of folly. Conscience instantly suggested to the profligate monarch that this awful prodigy boded no good to him. His countenance changed, his joints trembled, his knees smote one against another, and he calls aloud for the wise men of Babylon to assemble and explain the portentous message. But he calls, and he interrogates in vain. No one could read the writing or make known the interpretation.

In the midst of this general consternation, the queen-mother, who appears from ancient history to have been a person of great discretion, and to whom the king left much of the management of public affairs, entered the hall, and addressing herself to the alarmed monarch, advised him to send for the prophet Daniel; who, though in high repute in the court of Nebuchadnezzar, had been neglected, and almost forgotten in the reign of his thoughtless and voluptuous descendant. The queen's advice was followed. The prophet was sent for, and in obedience to the royal mandate he appears in the presence of Belshazzar; who requests him, for it was not a time to assume insolent and haughty airs, to read the writing, and, if he were able, to make known the interpretation; promising him the highest honour and rewards which it was in his power to bestow.

The prophet complied with the king's request. He read, and he interpreted; and he announced a doom to Belshazzar, equal to his most formidable apprehensions.

After declining the reward promised, which he foresaw that the monarch would not live to confer, he reminds Belshazzar of the extraordinary judgments with which his powerful ancestor Nebuchadnezzar had been visited by divine providence because of his pride; and then proceeds to charge the humbled monarch, in very plain language, with offences similar to those of his royal progenitor, notwithstanding the public notoriety of the calamity which had befallen Nebuchadnezzar, and of his penitence, and restoration after seven years' exclusion from the throne. The prophet, when he warned Nebuchadnezzar of his danger, had earnestly pressed upon him to repent and reform, that he might avert the threatened evil. But he abstains from all exhortations of this kind, in the case of his profligate descendant. The hour of mercy was gone by; the doom of the monarch was sealed; repentance was too late; sentence was pronounced; and execution had begun. He announces therefore to the unhappy prince that the hand-writing upon the wall was a

message from an insulted God to the imperial monarch himself—that the terrible purport of it was: First, that his days were numbered, and that an end was put to his reign. Secondly, that his character had been tried, and was found deficient. Thirdly, that the Babylonian monarchy was dissolved, and that of the Medes and Persians substituted in its place.

To the credit of this unfortunate monarch, notwithstanding the bitterness of the denunciation, he performed his promise to the prophet as far as he was able. He issued immediate orders for this purpose. But, probably, the horrors of that fatal night, and the dreadful catastrophe of the city, and of the government, prevented their execution.

For no sooner was the prophecy announced than the accomplishment of it began. While they were yet speaking, the Persian army having taken advantage of the riot of the night, and the unguarded state of the city, had entered it through the bed of the river, from which they had drawn

off the water; and marching directly to the palace, under the guidance of two noblemen, burning with revenge for injuries received, they put Belshazzar, his troops, and nobles to the sword; and Cyaxares, king of Media and Persia, in scripture called Darius, the uncle of the great Cyrus, who fought under his banners, ascended the throne, and became the founder of the Median and Persian dynasty.

Thus were tyranny and cruelty punished, the honour of the divine government vindicated, the oracles of God fulfilled, and the justice of the divine administration illustrated. And how far from singular was this monarch's case! O Belshazzar! how many like thee have entered upon the évening with profane and noisy mirth, with revelling and riot, and as sudden, as unexpected, as unprepared as thou, have been summoned before the morning's dawn, to the bar of an omnipotent and inexorable judge.

Without adverting further to the wellknown story from which the text is taken,