the Third Week after Easter
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Daily Devotionals
Our Daily Homily - Volume 3
Daniel 1:21—And Daniel continued even unto the first year of King Cyrus.
Is that wonderful? It may seem so when you consider the uncertainty of Oriental politics, and the feverish haste with which favorites are raised to confidential positions and thrust back again to obscurity. In this very book we have glimpses of the virulence of hatred entertained in the court of Babylon towards Jews, and the mortification with which aspirants for the royal favor found it monopolized by Daniel and his friends. But we cease to wonder when we turn to Daniel 6:10, and discover Daniel’s habit of kneeling upon his knees three times a day, praying and giving thanks to his God. Prayer is the secret of continuance.
To all deep lives there come moments of serious questioning: Shall I be able to hold out? Shall I always be able to withstand the virulent hate of my foes, and overcome the corruption of my heart? Will it be always possible to meet the strong and imperious demands of duty, and the appeal of those who look to me for help? Amid the changes that the years may bring, will it be possible to maintain my ground? Men are so capricious; events so fluctuating; the sea of human life so unstable. To all such suggestions there is but one reply—prayer is the secret of continuance.
It is a dangerous temptation of the adversary, so writes one of God’s hidden ones, when upright minds suffer themselves to be completely cast down by the unbelieving—I had almost said proud—view of their infirmities: in the performance of God’s works such ought only to humble themselves, and go forward. He who loves and exercises prayer, will in due time be translated from self unto God: from being a pitcher, filled and emptied, to a river-bed.
