hurt, and the
fourth looks like an angel."

Then Nebuchadrezzar went near the door of the burning, fiery furnace and
said, "Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, servants of the Most High God,
come out." Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came out of the fire.
And the officers, governors, and counsellors who were there saw that the
fire had no power over the bodies of these men, and that the hair of
their heads was not singed and that their cloaks were not harmed, and
that there was no smell of fire. And Nebuchadrezzar said, "Blessed be
the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent his angel to
save his servants who trusted in him and refused to obey the king's
command and have offered their bodies, that they might not serve nor
worship any god except their own. Therefore I command that every
people, nation, and race that shall say anything against the God of
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego shall be cut in pieces and their house
shall be made an ash-heap, for there is no other god who is so able to
save as is this one." Then the king gave high positions, in the province
of Babylon, to Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

THE HANDWRITING ON THE WALL

Belshazzar, the king, made a great feast for a thousand of his nobles
and drank wine before them all. Under the influence of wine, he gave
command to bring the gold and silver utensils which his father,
Nebuchadrezzar, had taken from the temple at Jerusalem, that the king,
his nobles, his wives, and the others of his household might drink from
them. So they brought the golden vessels which were taken from the
temple of God which was at Jerusalem. And the king, his nobles, his
wives, and the others of his household drank from them. They drank wine
and praised the gods of gold, of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood, and
of stone.

At that moment the fingers of a man's hand appeared and wrote opposite
the candlestick upon the plaster of the wall of the king's palace; and
the king saw the palm of the hand that wrote.

Then the king grew pale, and his thoughts troubled him, his legs
trembled and his knees knocked together. The king called for the
magicians and those who study the stars and said to the wise men of
Babylon, "Whoever shall read this writing and tell what it means shall
be clothed in purple and have a chain of gold about his neck and shall
be the third ruler in the kingdom." Then all the king's wise men came
in, but they could not read the writing nor te