e other is an example of how far a man may
go in perceiving and acknowledging the truth without its influencing his
heart. The decree enforces recognition of Daniel's God, in language
which even prophets do not surpass; but it is all lip-reverence, as
evanescent as superficial. It takes more than a fright caused by a
miracle to make a man a true servant of the living God.

The final verse of the passage implies Daniel's restoration to rank, and
gives a beautiful, simple picture of the old man's closing days, which
had begun so long before, in such a different world as Nebuchadnezzar's
reign, and closed in Cyrus's, enriched with all that should accompany
old age--honour, obedience, troops of friends. 'When a man's ways please
the Lord, He maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him.'

A NEW YEARS MESSAGE

'But go thou thy way till the end be: for thou shalt rest, and
stand in thy lot at the end of the days.'--DANIEL xii. 13.

Daniel had been receiving partial insight into the future by the visions
recorded in previous chapters. He sought for clearer knowledge, and was
told that the book of the future was sealed and closed, so that no
further enlightenment was possible for him. But duty was clear, whatever
might be dark; and there were some things in the future certain,
whatever might be problematic. So he is bidden back to the common paths
of life, and is enjoined to pursue his patient course with an eye on the
end to which it conducts, and to leave the unknown future to unfold
itself as it may.

I do not need, I suppose, to point the application. Anticipations of
what may be before us have, no doubt, been more or less in the minds of
all of us in the last few days. The cast of them will have been very
different, according to age and present circumstances. But bright or
dark, hopes or dreads, they reveal nothing. Sometimes we think we see a
little way ahead, and then swirling mists hide all.

So I think that the words of my text may help us not only to apprehend
the true task of the moment, but to discriminate between the things in
the unknown future that are hidden and those that stand clear. There are
three points, then, in this message--the journey, the pilgrim's
resting-place, and the final home. 'Go thou thy way till the end be: for
thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot at the end of the days.' Let us,
then, look at these three points briefly.

I. The journey.

That is a threadbare metaphor