mmm Jlif t am . i ^mm m m LIBRARY OF THK University of California. QIKT OK Mrs. SARAH P. WALSWORTH. Received October, 1894; Accessions No.S^/O^^ Class No. ' ^TU^t^^h /j^k/c&ZC \ V * > ,y V N \ \ V v\ ^ \ DANIEL, A MODEL FOR YOUNG MEN §1 Stem (tf States, BY THE REV. W. A. S C T T, D. D. NEW ORLEANS. NEW YORK: ROBERT CARTER & BROTHERS, 285 BROADWAY. 1854. ^A Of TEtw/^ TJWBr $7*7*- Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1854, by ROBERT CARTER & BROTHERS, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York. TOBITTS COMBINATION-TYPE, 181 William st PRINTED BT JOHN A. GRAY 95 & 97 Cliff St. DEDICATION To the Young Men of the South and South-West, and especially of New Orleans, this volume is most respectfully inscribed, as an expres- sion of the author's admiration of their enterprise and noble bearing in business. And in making this dedication, lie cannot withhold his fervent prayer, that, like Daniel, they may by an enlightened piety and patriotism serve their country and their God faithfully, and attain at last to everlasting life and glory. RECOMMENDATORY NOTICE. BY W. B. SPRAGUE, D. D. The Lectures that compose this volume, have manifold claims od the patronage of the Christian public. That these claims will be acknowledged and honoured, in due time, there is no reason to doubt ; but meanwhile it may not be amiss just to advert to some of the grounds on which they rest. In the first place, these Lectures are invested with great interest, in consideration of the class to whom they are addressed. They are young persons, who have just entered the great school of life ; whose characters are yet but partially formed, and around whom Christian philanthropy would naturally desire to throw every influence, favour- able to their intellectual and moral culture, with reference to both the life that now is, and that which is to come. They are young men — in whom are prospectively bound up both the civil and Christian well- being of society ; on whom it will devolve a few years hence to settle great problems of weal or woe, that will tell on the destinies of the world. They are more especially the class of young men who reside iv recommendatory notice. in cities; where, more than anywhere else, the tempter holds his throne j where the opportunities for doing good or evil are multiplied indefinitely j insomuch that it takes but little time for a young man in these circumstances to work himself into a model of Christian activity, or a monster of vice and crime. Any well-directed effort then to form the characters of young men, especially in large cities, to virtue and piety and honourable usefulness, is worthy of all praise, and will be sure not to lose its reward. In the next place, the portion of Scripture which forms the subject of these Lectures, is, on many accounts, one of remarkable interest. In its historical details, nothing can exceed it — it records events which stand out in the world's history, and form some of the most impressive illustrations of the Divine character. Its prophecies also are worthy of the most profound and earnest inquiry \ though, as these Lectures were designed to be of altogether a popular character, it was not fitting that they should include any elaborate investigation. Then the char- acter of Daniel is one of the purest and most exalted of which even the inspired record has preserved an account. In respect to intelli- gence, industry, integrity, consistency and devotion, he shone with almost unequalled lustre ; and there is no condition of prosperity, or adversity, or temptation, in which a young man can be placed, but that the example of Daniel, duly considered, may either shed some light upon the path of duty, or suggest some motives for diligently pursuing it. There will be little difference of opinioD, it is presumed, on the question, whether the author has done justice to his noble theme. No intelligent and candid reader will doubt that he has brought out the mind of the Spirit with great clearness and force. He has discussed a RECOMMENDATORY NOTICE. T great variety of questions — historical, theological and practical, that naturally suggest themselves ; and has shown himself at every point thoroughly at home. One very important feature of the work is, that it furnishes incidentally a vast amount of evidence of the Divine authority of the Scriptures — a point upon which young men, especially at this day, need to be enlightened and strengthened, in order that they may resist the insidious and multiform assaults of skepticism. Dr. Scott has left upon every page of his work the impress of a vigor- ous, discriminating, independent mind. Without any affectation of originality, he has his own way of saying things ; and a terse, striking and effective way it is. "Without apparently thinking of the graces of composition, his style is always perspicuous and manly, and sometimes radiant with beautiful imagery. You feel that you are in contact with a mind of bold and lofty impulses, and with a heart that is in unison with every measure for the promotion of human virtue and happiness. There is yet one other circumstance to which I cannot but allude, that seems to me to bespeak for these Lectures a more than common share of attention — I refer to the fact that Dr. Scott's position as a minister in New Orleans, rendered it peculiarly fitting that he should perform just such a service as this : it is doubtful whether there is any other place in the United States in which he could speak to so large a number of young men, especially those who are thrown out of the range of the endearing associations of home ; and the instructions and counsels which he would address to the young men of his own charge, must of course be equally adapted to others of the same class in similar circumstances. And I cannot forbear to add that, to my own mind at least, the work gathers additional interest from the fact that its author was prevented from giving it the revision he intended, VI RECOMMENDATORY NOTICE. by having been kept so constantly in contact with sickness and death during the last summer. His readers, while they will be well con- tented to take the work as it is, will hardly fail to have their gratitude awakened, that such a life as his was preserved amidst such self-deny- ing and perilous labours. There is one circumstance pertaining to the history of this pub- lication which I cannot forbear to note, as strikingly illustrative of. the care which Providence often takes of our concerns, through indirect and apparently undesigned instrumentalities. The publishing of this work was originally undertaken by the Harpers ; and the sheets, as they were printed, were sent to me, by the author's request, with a view to my writing an introductory paragraph or two, after I had read them. As the printing was nearly finished, I had written all that I thought necessary, and had forwarded it to the publishers on the very day before the fire swept away their immense establishment. Not only my humble contribution, but the MS. of the Lectures, and even the stereotype plates, which were nearly completed, perished in the conflagration ; and the only copy of the Lectures that remained was that which had been sent to me in the proof-sheets, and which, by the merest accident, had escaped destruction. I congratulate myself on having been thus instrumental in the preservation of a work, the good effects of which I confidently expect will reach far beyond the present generation. It is due to myself to state that the only consideration that has seemed to me to justify, in any degree, the writing of these paragraphs, is that the respected author of this work resides in a part of the coun- try so distant from this, that there may be some circles at the North, and especially in New England, in which he is not so familiarly known RECOMMENDATORY NOTICE. VU as to supersede the necessity of an introduction from some one more immediately identified with this region. It was this circumstance, I am sure, that drew from him the request with which I have now com- plied ', and if what I have written shall procure an additional reader to the book, I shall feel quite satisfied. I will only add that he and I have never yet seen each others' faces ; nor will he have read this brief notice, till the printer has rendered it useless for either his judgment or his modesty to suggest corrections. I am glad of the opportunity thus to give him the hand of fraternal fellowship even a thousand miles off ; and I pray God to cause his course as an author as well as a Christian minister, to shine more and more unto the perfect day. Albany, March 2, 1854. [UNIVBRSITr PREFACE It has been my custom for more than ten years to devote my Sabbath evenings, during the winter and spring months, to young men. On such occasions I have delivered above one hundred and fifty different discourses. During this portion of the year I have to preach three discourses each week, the Sabbath evening discourse being one of them. The lectures now presented to the public are not a selection out of these hundred and fifty, but the Sabbath evening series of the last season. It will be understood, therefore, that these lectures were prepared from week to week amid the pressure of the duties, cares, and anxieties inseparable from a large city congregation. They were listened to by crowded assemblies, and with increasing interest to the close of the series. When these lectures were promised to the publishers, it was my intention to revise them during the leisure moments of summer. But it is well known that early in June the yellow fever became epidemic in our city, and has continued to prevail, with perhaps unparalleled fatality up to the present time. More than ten thousand persons have died in this city since its ravages began in June ; and among them, many of the precious youth who listened to these lectures have fallen its victims, and are now sleeping their long sleep with the dead, in a soil that knows not the dust of their fathers, and from which the trumpet of the last day alone can awaken them. It may be readily supposed that in filling my pulpit, and in visiting the PREFACE. ' ? sick, in burying the dead, and in attempting to instruct, encourage, and comfort the living and the bereaved, and alleviate the miseries of the suffering poor, I have had but little time or heart for the work of revision. And now with the autumn a new campaign opens, that imperatively requires day by day all my time and all my strength. These lectures, then, must be published as they are, or not at all. With the humble hope that they may do good, I have ventured to send them to the publishers. Whoever looks into this volume will see that I do not enter upon the prophecies of Daniel. If it were desirable for me to give the public my views of them, it does not fall within the scope of this effort to do so. The plan of these lectures requires that they should be read with an open Bible, and that the portions of Scripture indicated in each lecture should be read at the same time with the lecture. One great object in view, in this and in all my labors as a minister of the Gospel, is to give prominence to the Scriptures of God, which are the testimony of the Holy Spirit concerning Jesus Christ our Lord, and are intended to lead us to a saving ap- prehension of His Truth and Grace. / am persuaded that the young men required for our times must be thorough Bible men. They must be brought up on the pabulum of Bible truth. And I know of no more effectual method of imparting such truth to them than by explaining and enforcing the doctrines, precepts, and duties set forth in the lives of Bible heroes. The authors that have fallen in my way, and to which I am more or less indebted for help in preparing these lectures, are the following: Prselectiones Joannis Calvini in Librum Prophetiarum Danielis, published in 1571 ; Diodati's Notes; Works of Plutarch and Josephus ; Orton's Exposition ; Layard's Nineveh ; Vaux's Nineveh and Persepolis ; Herodotus ; .Rich's Babylon and Perse- polis ; Fletcher's Assyria ; Kitto's Bible Illustrations ; Gausen's Lec- tures ; White's Provideuce, Prophecy, and Popery ; and especially PREFACE. do I desire to acknowledge my obligations to the first-named above, the immortal Calvin, and, next to him, to Prof. Stuart, for his Com- mentary on Daniel, and to Hengstenberg, for his work on the Genuineness,