Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1154
Delivered by, the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington.
“Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into his house; and his windows being open in his chamber toward Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as he did aforetime”— Daniel 6:10.
Daniel was of royal race, and, what is far better, he was, of royal character. He is depicted on the pages of scriptural history as one of the greatest and most faultless of men. How grand and impressive his first appearance as a young man, when he was introduced to Nebuchadnezzar! The Chaldeans and magicians and astrologers had all failed to divine the secret which perplexed the king and troubled his spirit; till at length there stood up before him this young prince of the house of Judah to tell his dream and the interpretation thereof. No wonder that the excellent spirit which shone in him led to his being made a great man, procured for him rich gifts, and led to his promotion amongst the governor, of Babylon. In after days he showed his dauntless courage when he interpreted the memorable dream of Nebuchadnezzar, in which the king’s pride was threatened with a terrible judgment. It needed that he should be a lion-like man to say to the king, “Thou, O king, shalt be driven from among men, and eat grass as oxen, and thy body shall be wet with the dew of heaven, till thy hairs are grown like eagles’ feathers, and thy nails like birds’ claws.” Yet what he told him came true, for all this, came upon the king Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel discharged his duty to his conscience, so there was nothing to disquiet him. Well might he have said—
“I feel within me A peace above all earthly dignities, A still and quiet conscience.”
In lurid light, in terrible grandeur, Daniel comes forth again, on the last night of Belshazzar’s reign, when the power of Babylon was broken for ever. Persians had dried up the river, and were already at the palace doors. “Thou art weighed in the balances and art found wanting,” said the prophet, as he pointed to the mysterious handwriting on the wall. After this he appears again, and this time in a personal dilemma of his own. Great as he was in the palace, and great in the midst of that night’s carousel, he appears, If possible, greater, because the faith that animates him shines more radiantly when he is upon his knees. The princes have conspired against him. They have, by fraud, perverted the king’s mind, so that he has passed an edict. Though Daniel knows that it is contrary to the law of the realm for him to pray or ask a Petition of any god or man save of king Darius, yet he does pray and give thanks before his God. In the higher sovereignty of the King of kings he believes; and to the edicts of his everlasting kingdom he yields fearless and unqualified obedience. The sequel shows that the Most High God delivers him. Of this Daniel we are about to speak to you.
I. Our first point will be that DANIEL’S PRAYERFULNESS WAS THE SECRET OF HIS POWER. Daniel was always a man of prayer. If you saw him great before the people, the reason was because he was great before his God. He knew how to lay hold of divine strength, and he became strong. He knew how to study divine wisdom, and he became wise.
We are told that he went to his house to pray. He was a great man—the highest in the land—consequently he had great public duties. He would sit as a judge probably a large part of the day. Life would be engaged in the various state offices distributing the favors of the king; but he did not pray in his office, save of course that his heart would go up in adoration of his God all day long. He was in the habit of going to his house to pray. This showed that he made a business of prayer, and finding it neither convenient to his circumstances nor congenial to his mind to pray in the midst of idolaters, he had chosen to set apart a chamber in his own house for prayer. I don’t know how you find it, but there are some of us who never pray so well as by the old arm-chair, and in that very room where many a time we have told the Lord our grief, and have poured out before him our transgressions. It is well to have, if we can have, a little room, no matter how humble, where we can shut to the door, and pray to our Father who is in heaven, who will hear and answer.
He was in the habit of praying thus three times a day. He had not only his appointed seasons of morning prayer and of evening prayer, as most believers have; but he had his noon-day retirement for prayer, as perhaps only a few have. He was an old man, over eighty years of age at this time, but he did not mind taking three journeys to his house to pray. He was a very busy man. Probably no one here has half so much important business to transact daily as Daniel had, for he was set over all the empire, and yet he found time regularly to devote three stated intervals for prayer. Perhaps he thought that this was prudent economy, for, if he had so much to do, he must pray the more; as Martin Luther said, “I have got so much to do to-day that I cannot possibly get through it with less than three hours of prayer.” So, perhaps, Daniel felt that the extraordinary pressure of his engagements demanded a proportionate measure of prayer to enable him to accomplish the weighty matters he had on hand. He saluted his God, and sought counsel of him when the curtains of the night were drawn, and when his eyelids opened at the day dawn, as well as when the full sunlight was poured out from the windows of heaven. Blessing the Lord of the darkness, who was also the Lord of the light, Daniel thrice a day worshipped his God.