y of Daniel,
tenth chapter. The story is this: Daniel is an old man now. He is an
exile. He has not seen the green hills of his fatherland since boyhood. In
this level Babylon, he is homesick for the dear old Palestinian hills, and
he is heartsick over the plight of his people. He has been studying
Jeremiah's prophecies, and finds there the promise plainly made that after
seventy years these exiled Hebrews are to be allowed to return. Go back
again! The thought of it quickens his pulse-beats. He does some quick
counting. The time will soon be up. So Daniel plans a bit of time for
special prayer, a sort of siege prayer.

Remember who he is--this Daniel. He is the chief executive of the land. He
controls, under the king, the affairs of the world empire of his time. He
is a giant of strength and ability--this man. But he plans his work so as
to go away for a time. Taking a few kindred spirits, who understand
prayer, he goes off into the woods down by the great Tigris River. They
spend a day in fasting, and meditation and prayer. Not utter fasting, but
scant eating of plain food. I suppose they pray awhile; maybe separately,
then together; then read a bit from the Jeremiah parchment, think and talk
it over and then pray some more. And so they spend a whole day reading,
meditating, praying.

They are expecting an answer. These old-time intercessors were strong in
expectancy. But there is no answer. A second day, a third, a fourth, a
week, still no answer reaches them. They go quietly on without hesitation.
Two weeks. How long it must have seemed! Think of fourteen days spent
_waiting_; waiting for something, with your heart on tenter hooks. There
is no answer. God might have been dead, to adapt the words of Catharine
Luther, so far as any answer reaching them is concerned. But you cannot
befool Daniel in that way. He is an old hand at prayer. Apparently he has
no thought of quitting. He goes quietly, steadily on. Twenty days pass,
with no change. Still they persist. Then the twenty-first day comes and
there is an answer. It comes in a vision whose glory is beyond human
strength to bear. By and by when they can talk, his visitor and he, this
is what Daniel hears: "Daniel, the first day you began to pray, your
prayer was heard, and I was sent with the answer." And even Daniel's eyes
open big--"the _first_ day--three weeks ago?" "Yes, three weeks ago I left
the presence of God with the answer to your prayer. But"--listen, here