Then said these men, We shall not find any occasion against this
Daniel, except we find it against him concerning the law of his
God.'--DANIEL vi. 5.

Daniel was somewhere about ninety years old when he was cast to the
lions. He had been for many years the real governor of the whole empire;
and, of course, in such a position had incurred much hatred and
jealousy. He was a foreigner and a worshipper of another God, and
therefore was all the more unpopular, as a Brahmin would be in England
if he were a Cabinet Minister. He was capable and honest, and therefore
all the incompetent and all the knavish officials would recognise in him
their natural enemy. So, hostile intrigues, which grow quickly in
courts, especially in Eastern courts, sprung up round him, and his
subordinates laid their heads together in order to ruin him. They say,
in the words of my text, 'We cannot find any holes to pick. There is
only one way to put him into antagonism to the law, and that is by
making a law which shall be in antagonism to God's law.' And so they
scheme to have the mad regulation enacted, which, in the sequel of the
story, we find was enforced.

These intriguers say, 'We shall not find any occasion against this
Daniel, except we find it against him concerning the law of his God.'

Now, then, if we look at that confession, wrung from the lips of
malicious observers, we may, I think, get two or three lessons.

I. First, note the very unfavourable soil in which a character of
singular beauty and devout consecration may be rooted and grow.