There is another warning in the book of Daniel, in these lessons that you are studying,—the history of Belshazzar. Belshazzar was the grandson of Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar had longed for God, had found God, had become a true worshiper of God, and was saved by the Lord, as any other saint. Belshazzar knew all this,—all people, indeed, knew it; for it was published over and over. When Daniel made known to Nebuchadnezzar the dream that gave him the knowledge of God, that knowledge went to all people. When Nebuchadnezzar set up his image, and the brethren would not worship it, then that was spread among all the people of all the world at that time; for all the governors, the captains, the princes, and the sheriffs were there to see it all; and when they went back to their provinces, they carried it with them, and the fame of it spread everywhere. When Nebuchadnezzar wrote out his own experience, that was sent in a public decree to all the peoples, nations, and languages; it was read to them by the governors; so the message of God came to all the people again and again.
Now Belshazzar knew all this; but he paid no attention to it. He did not glorify God, though he knew all this. And because of that, because he passed it all by and acted in defiance of it all, he was weighed in the balances then, was found wanting, was set aside, and he, with Babylon, perished.
And it is the truth, and you know it, that there are not only grandchildren, but even children of Seventh-day Adventists who know all this that God did for Nebuchadnezzar, as really as Belshazzar knew it. There are children and grandchildren who have been taught all this from their infancy, and have come up now to the age of young manhood and young womanhood, who, though they know all this as really as did Belshazzar, also despise it all as really as did he. These now do not fear God, nor glorify him in whose hand is their life, and from whom they get their breath every day. Their parents taught them these things when they were small. They understood it then, and they have been under the teaching of it all these years. And now that they have reached the age of young manhood and young womanhood, they despise it as did Belshazzar. And they are the Belshazzars of to-day. And that which came to the Belshazzar of that day will come to the Belshazzars of to-day.
Any one who knows these things that came to Nebuchadnezzar, and acts an old Belshazzar in view of these things that he knows came to Nebuchadnezzar, that person is a Belshazzar; and that which came to the other Belshazzar will come to him. And we are now in the time when these Belshazzars are being weighed in the balances and found wanting. And you know that that is so. Then what is the next thing?—After the weighing of the Belshazzars and the finding of them wanting, the next thing another kingdom comes in. It was Medo-Persia that took the kingdom then. There is another kingdom to come in now too, thank the Lord; and it is the kingdom of God,—the kingdom which shall stand forever, and shall not be given to other people.
And there is where we are on that phase of the subject. And this is another illustration of the deep and solemn meaning of the Missionary Reading Circle, as it comes to families from week to week. And surely it reveals that we are in a time that calls upon all to awake out of sleep as never before in the history of this people. It is a call from God to this whole people to awake and study these things, read the literature, and then spread it abroad to all people, in these days when everything is going with swiftness, and when, of all things, the work of God requires haste.
There is one other item in this connection, to which I must call your attention; and that is the character that stood through all this, and was ready for each step of God’s truth as it came, all the way along. At the beginning of the book of Daniel you find a young man of integrity of principle, who takes his stand upon principle, and stands there. There were three others who stood with him. At the next step in the progress of God’s message to the people at that time, you find these four young men faithful, learning from God, and explaining to the king, the king’s dream. The next step was the test of the three young men, in the face of a fiery furnace, and they were still found faithful. The next step was Nebuchadnezzar’s experience; and Daniel must be called to explain that, and he is equal to the occasion still. He is awake to the time, and can give the message of God upon the hour. The next step is Belshazzar’s test. The king’s character and his failure are to be revealed, and the nation is to sink into everlasting ruin: and there is that same man; and he is ready on the hour with the message of God for the hour. And he gave the message.
Then there came yet another test after that, when Daniel was tested over and over, we know not how long. He was systematically spied upon. A trap was set for him by a set of schemers, who were ready to take any advantage, or create any advantage, by which they might accomplish their purpose to discredit him and break him down. A large number of them set themselves to spy upon him day by day, to see whether they could not find some fault with him concerning the business of the kingdom. But when they had done everything they could, when they had examined every place, and every particle of business of a mighty world-empire, they were compelled to confess that there was neither error nor fault that could be found—no error in the business, and no fault in the man.
And that is the kind of character that God calls for to-day. Such character alone can stand in this time, in this last Babylon, in this time when God would make known his truth to the nations, in this time of being weighed in the balances and found wanting.
Daniel was weighed in the balances every day. He put himself in the balances before God every day, and held himself before God, in God’s balances every day, and had God’s judgment passed upon him every day; so whenever the time came for him or anybody else to be weighed in the balances, he was not afraid to go into the balances. He had put himself into the balances, and against himself and all that he was, and all that he ever could have had, he had put the merit of Jesus Christ; and when that was there, there was no weight of sin or anything else that could overbalance that: he was perfectly secure.
While these men were thus systematically conspiring against Daniel, and continually spying upon him, looking suspiciously into every piece of business, and narrowly and with prejudice examining every record with which Daniel was in any way connected, or for which he was in any way responsible, how do you suppose Daniel took it? Do you suppose that Daniel set on foot any arrangement or any scheme to shut that off, or to oppose it, for fear they would discover some fault, or that they might find something that was wrong? Do you think he did? Was Daniel afraid that they would find something wrong?—No. In all this Daniel did simply as he did aforetime. He was not afraid that they would find something wrong.
This is not to say that Daniel had proudly set himself up, and said, There is nothing wrong in me. I am perfect. I am infallible. Not at all. But Daniel was so thoroughly in earnest, so thoroughly honest, so thoroughly just, that he would have been just as glad of the discovery of an error as any enemy in all the land could be. He was always trying to find just such a thing as that himself: and that is how he escaped them all. So if they had found any error, he would have been glad of it, and would have said, All right, we will correct that instantly. And I thank you for pointing it out.
That was Daniel, and that is the kind of business men God wishes in these last days. He is calling for them now in every institution, everywhere among all Seventh-day Adventists throughout the world. And any one in charge of business who is not of that kind, any one who pretends to be a business man and is not of that sort, is not Daniel’s sort, and he is not the kind that God is calling for. If there is any one in charge of business anywhere throughout all the ranks of Seventh-day Adventists, who would not be glad to have anybody in the wide world, even a prejudiced, conspiring enemy, point out a mistake, or detect an error, or discover a fault, in the way that business is conducted—any one, I say, who is not glad to have that done is not fit for that place, and is not a Christian business man at all.
And that is what Daniel’s business character is put in that book for. It is drawn out thus, and is set before you and me in all its details, and brought down to us in these last days, in order that in these times when God wishes men whom he can trust anywhere, who will be ready to give the Third Angel’s Message at any point that may arise, at any crisis that may come, he may find us ready on the instant to give the message of God, ready on the instant to stand whatever test the enemies or friends, God or man, may put upon us.
That is the kind of character alone that will stand in these days and in these fearful times in which we are: I do not say to which we are coming; but in which we are.
Is it not high time that we were doing missionary work? Is it not high time that we, each one of us, were in that place where Daniel stood before God,—weighed daily in the balances, and not found wanting, because of the merit of Jesus Christ, which is our only hope?
This is simply what the Third Angel’s Message is—“the hour of his judgment is come.” And when the message says that the hour of his judgment is come, as certainly as I believe that message, I believe that the hour of his judgment132is come to me. And as certainly as I believe that the hour of his judgment is come to me, so certainly will I enter into that judgment, and put myself into the balances to be weighed. I will put myself into the balances of God, the balances of the sanctuary. I will put myself there in the righteousness and fullness of merit of Jesus Christ, who is the “minister of the sanctuary” himself. He who holds the balances knows all the fullness and richness of the merit of the Lord Jesus. And when Jesus Christ’s merit is found there in my behalf, I am not afraid to put myself into the balances; for I know that I shall not be found wanting; for he presents me “faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy;” he presents me “holy and unblamable and unreprovable” in the sight of God. His merit is able to take away every sin, to make complete atonement, and to save to the uttermost every soul who comes to God by him. Bless his name.
And so, in the very nature of things, it is only such a character as Daniel’s was, such as Jesus Christ’s is, that we must have to-day. That is the only thing that will win; that is the only thing that will carry us through, and make us ready for each crisis as it comes.
Then may such study be given to the Missionary Reading Circle as never was given by Seventh-day Adventists before. And may it be attended with such earnestness and such devotion that the blessing of God may come upon each one; for now is the time when this word must go to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people. We are on the verge of the days when life is to be given to the image of the beast by the very machinery that has been created for this time. May the Lord save his people from the mistakes that Israel made of old. May we awake and give to the world that which God has given to us to give to the world, even while there is yet a little time of quietness and of comparative peace. May we gather from the study of the book of Daniel the principles that will make manifest in us the character of Daniel, so that we shall be ready for every test and every crisis, as was Daniel.