g to be with you! Nothing
would give me greater pleasure than to be immediately called back to
Babylon. Then side by side would we stand erect, and scorn to bow before
a golden image. But it appears to be the will of Jehovah that I should
be absent. I have confidence that I shall soon embrace you in Babylon:
but if in this I am mistaken, we soon shall meet in the better Jerusalem
above.

"Daniel."

It was with some difficulty that Azariah commanded sufficient control
over his feelings to enable him to read the letter aloud; but with a
trembling accent it was done.

"Thanks be to Jehovah." cried Mishael, "for such consolation in the midst
of sore affliction."

"But what says our beloved Perreeza?" said Hananiah.

No one felt willing to read aloud their sister's letter, so it was read
by each in silence. It ran thus:

"Dear Brothers: With emotions indescribable, Perreeza endeavors to write
these few lines, that may impart some consolation to her dear brothers
while strong waves of affliction pass over their souls. Being much
confined of late to my dwelling, it was but yesterday that I derived any
knowledge of that awful proclamation of the king in regard to his great
image. Uncle Esrom is at present traveling in a far country on important
business, and I am deprived of his counsel and ye are deprived of his aid
in this crisis. Ob, my brothers! the companions and guardians of my
juvenile hours, into whose care and warm affections I was committed by
the parting words of a dying mother! How ardently does your sister love
you! how deep for you is the affection of Perreeza's heart! What can I
say that will cause one sweet ingredient to drop into your bitter cup?
Nothing better do I know, than the favorite sentence of our beloved
Jeremiah. If the good prophet were here would he not say, 'Jehovah is the
strength of all his saints; trust in him and be at peace!' Oh, how
sweetly flowed the gentle words of the man of God! Brothers! dear as ye
seem to my throbbing heart, terrible as the fiery furnace may rage,
Perreeza has no desire that your safety should be purchased at a
dishonorable price. Nay, brothers! if for a moment I should indulge in
such an unholy desire, that moment I should forfeit all right to call you
brothers. I shall not even advise you to stand firm in the fiery trial.
Ah! too well do I know that your noble souls already scorn the command of
an apostate king, who once acknowledged the supremacy of the God of