"Well, they would not be likely to record that fact, except by such an omission, I suppose. I should like to find some about Daniel, though!"

"Yes, it would be very interesting if the excavations now going on should produce something about him; and one feels convinced that a name which became as great in the kingdom as his did, must have been recorded somewhere," said Mrs. Conway. "Most of these tiles, however, seem to have borne the records only of some new building. According to the Scripture, Daniel was the honoured minister of one of the greatest of monarchs, and he was doubtless able in many ways to promote the welfare of his people. There is something in his character peculiarly beautiful, to my thinking; and it had no great blot, as most of the old worthies had. If you young men will listen to my advice, you will take him for a model. Certainly, after reading his history, no one can say that circumstances prevent a man's being religious. Think how he began life, and how in a heathen court he stood his ground when he was but a youth."

"How old do you think he was, mamma?" Stewart asked. "Oh! fourteen didn't you say ?"

"Yes; and we are told that these youths were of royal birth, good-looking, and well taught in their own learning, -just young fellows whom the world would in general excuse if they were rather vain and conceited. You recollect what sort of men all the last kings of Judah were, and the low state of religion that had long prevailed in the Holy Land. And yet, born and bred under such a state of things, and now a captive, favoured by the prospect of a high position if he did but please the king, Daniel resolved not to touch food that was forbidden to a Jew, and killed in a way unlawful to his nation. He made up his mind to risk everything, even life itself, rather than give up his faith."

"There's one thing though, mother," said Stewart, "he could interpret dreams, and people would put up with a good deal from any one who could do that."

"My dear boy, how did he know that he would have that power? He knew nothing of it at that time, so far as we can see. Neither did this gift always avail to defend him from the violence of wicked men, as his after history shews us."

"I should think that some good person must have been about him when he was young," said Janet; "perhaps Jeremiah the prophet."

"Very possibly," replied her mother; "but it was long afterwards that in reading his writings he came upon the famous prophecy which had pronounced the length of the captivity, in the first year of Darius." (Dan. ix. 1, 2). "And in the first year of Cyrus it came true, according to the book of Ezra," said Martin. "Let's see, people generally say that this Darius was Cyaxares, the uncle of Cyrus, the Persian conqueror who succeeded Darius, though there is another story, I believe. At any rate, Cyrus turned the course of the Euphrates, and took Babylon either for himself or in his uncle's name, and then he let the Jews go home. How strange it is that the return took place during Daniel's lifetime, and yet it is not mentioned in his book! You see, he was by the river Hiddekel in the third year of Cyrus; but his countrymen had been told in the first year that they might go. And don't you think, Mrs. Conway, that Daniel had shewed the prophecy in Jer. xxv. 11, to the king? It strikes me that he had; because in 2 Chron. xxxvi. 22, 23, it is said that in order that the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah might be accomplished, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia, and that he said, 'All kingdoms of the earth hath the Lord God of heaven given to me, and

He hath charged me to build Him an house in Jerusalem.' Why, it looks really as if this Cyrus worshipped the true God!"

"The Persians did worship one god only, under the emblem of fire. They were, like the modern Parsees, fireworshippers," Mrs. Conway said,-"something like pure theists; and this would give them a sympathy with the Jews, you see; and perhaps on this account Cyrus would be predisposed in favour of the famous old Jewish minister whom he found in power on his accession. I have but little doubt that it was through Daniel that he became acquainted with Jeremiah's prophecy, but he was not the only prophet who had foretold the return, you know. A whole eentury before this, Isaiah had spoken of Cyrus by name, and of his conquests too (Isa. xlv. 1-3), and in chap. xlvi. 1 the destruction which this king would make among the idols of Babylon had been predicted. Bel boweth down; Nebo stoopeth.'"

"That is remarkable indeed," said Martin, "though the meaning of the words never struck me before. But I wonder why Daniel himself did not go back when he might have done so !"

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Perhaps the king could not spare him," Mrs. Conway said. "He was in grief when we read of him in the third year of this reign as by the Hiddekel, and possibly on that account. The journey, however, would be a great undertaking for an old man; he may have been too infirm, especially as everything would be found in ruins. on their arrival, and he would have no home to go to. But if he could not see the city of his forefathers, he saw in vision a great deal more and further; for it is worthy of note that it was in his old age, after he had long been found faithful, that he had all his visions. the pure in heart; for they shall see God.' seem to me so applicable to him.

'Blessed are

Those words

But where he died