of the Jews, but the glories of the Christian Church. One of these foretold both the blessings to come upon the conquered captives, and the final resurrection of the bodies of all mankind. The hand of the Lord, the prophet says, was upon me, and brought me forth in the spirit of the Lord: and set me down in the midst of a plain that was full of bones. And He led me about through them on every side: now they were very many upon the face of the plain; and they were exceeding dry. And He said to me: Son of man, dost thou think these bones shall live? And I answered: O Lord God, Thou knowest. And He said to me: Prophesy concerning these bones; and say to them: Ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord God to these bones: Behold, I will send spirit into you, and you shall live. And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to grow over you, and will cover you with skin: and I will give you spirit; and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the Lord. And I prophesied as He had commanded me: and as I prophesied there was a noise, and behold, a commotion; and the bones came together, each one to its joint. And I saw, and behold, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them: and the skin was stretched out over them; but there was no spirit in them. And he said to me: Prophesy to the spirit, prophesy, O son of man, and say to the spirit: Thus saith the Lord God: Come, spirit, from the four winds, and blow upon these slain; and let them live again. And I prophesied as He had commanded me: and the spirit came into them, and they lived: and they stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army. And He said to me: Son of man: all these bones are the house of Israel: they say: Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost, and we are cut off. Therefore prophesy, and say to them: Thus saith the Lord God: Behold, I will open your graves, and will bring you out of your sepulchres, O my people: and will bring you into the land of Israel. And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall have opened your sepulchres, and shall have brought you out of your graves, 0 my P people and shall have put my spirit in you, and you shall live; and I shall make you rest upon your own land and you shall know that I the Lord have spoken, and done it, saith the Lord God. CHAP. III. The Prophet Daniel. AMONG the captives brought to Babylon by Nabuchodonosor was a youth of royal blood, Daniel by name, distinguished as much for his piety as for his great talents and handsome countenance. By orders of the Chaldean monarch, he, with three of his companions, Ananias, Misael, and Azarias, or as they were surnamed by the Babylonians, Sidrach, Misach, and Abdenago, were summoned to the king's palace for the purpose of being instructed in the language and learning of Chaldea. Fearing that if they eat the luxuries of the king's table they should eat what was forbidden by the law of Moses, Daniel and his companions entreated the officer who had charge of them to allow them to live upon pulse and water; and after an experiment to discover whether they would retain their health on such diet, the request was granted; and after three years the four young Hebrews were taken into the king's presence, and counted among his wisest subjects. In the second year of Nabuchodonosor's reign as sole sovereign of Babylon, after his father's death, a dream terrified the king so that he could not rest without discovering its interpretation, though the dream itself had passed in its particulars from his memory. He summoned his magicians and diviners, and bade them discover both the dream and its interpretation; and when they could give him no satisfaction, in his fury he put them all to death. Daniel and his companions were involved in the sentence, though the king had not consulted them; and they cried to God to reveal the mystery to them, that their lives might be spared. Then was the mystery revealed to Daniel by a vision in the night; and Daniel blessed the God of: : : heaven, and speaking, he said: Blessed be the name of the Lord from eternity, and for evermore: for wisdom and fortitude are His. And He changeth times and ages; taketh away kingdoms and establisheth them; giveth wisdom to the wise, and knowledge to them that have understanding: He revealeth deep and hidden things, and knoweth what is in darkness; and light is with Him. To Thee, O God of our fathers, I give thanks, and I praise Thee: because Thou hast given me wisdom and strength and now Thou hast shewn me what we desired of Thee, for Thou hast made known to us the king's discourse. After this Daniel went in to Arioch, to whom the king had given orders to destroy the wise men of Babylon; and he spoke thus to him: Destroy not the wise men of Babylon: bring me in before the king, and I will tell the solution to the king. Then Arioch in haste brought in Daniel to the king, and said to him I have found a man of the children of the captivity of Juda, that will resolve the question to the king. The king answered, and said to Daniel, whose name was Baltassar: Thinkest thou indeed that thou canst tell me the dream that I saw, and the interpretation thereof? And Daniel made answer before the king, and said: The secret that the king desireth to know, none of the wise men, or the philosophers, or the diviners, or the soothsayers, can declare to the king; but there is a God in heaven that revealeth mysteries, who hath shewn to thee, O King Nabuchodonosor, what is to come to pass in the latter times. Thy dream, and the visions of thy head upon thy bed, are these. Thou, O king, didst begin to think in thy bed what should come to pass hereafter: and He that revealeth mysteries shewed thee what shall come to pass. To me also this secret is revealed, not by any wisdom that I have more than all men alive; but that the interpretation might be made manifest to the king, and thou mightest know the thoughts of thy mind. Thou, O king, sawest, and behold, there was as it were a great statue: this statue, which was great and high, tall of stature, stood before thee and the look thereof was terrible. The head of this statue was of fine gold; but the breast and the arms of silver; and the belly and the thighs of brass ; and the legs of iron; the feet part of iron, and part of clay. Thus thou sawest till a stone was cut out of a mountain without hands: and it struck the statue upon the feet thereof, that were of iron and of clay, and broke them in pieces. Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of a summer's threshing floor: and they were carried away by the wind, and there was no place found for them: but the stone that struck the statue became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth. This is the dream: we will also tell the interpretation thereof before thee, O king. Thou art a king of kings; and the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, and strength, and power, and glory: and all places wherein the children of men, and the beasts of the field do dwell: He hath also given the birds of the air into thy hand, and hath put all things under thy power: thou therefore art the head of gold. And after thee shall rise up another kingdom, inferior to thee, of silver and another third kingdom, of brass, which shall rule over all the world. And the fourth kingdom shall be as iron. As iron breaketh into pieces, and subdueth all things, so shall that break and destroy all these. And whereas thou sawest the feet and the toes part of potter's clay, and part of iron; the kingdom shall be divided, but yet it shall take its origin from the iron, according as thou sawest the iron mixed with the miry clay. And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly broken. And whereas thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay, they shall be mingled indeed together with the seed of man; but they shall not stick fast one to another; as iron cannot be mixed with clay. But in the days of those kingdoms the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed: and His kingdom shall not be delivered up to another people: and it shall break in pieces, and it shall consume all these kingdoms: and itself shall stand for ever. According as thou sawest, that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and broke in pieces the clay and the iron, and the brass, and the silver, and the gold, the great God hath shewn the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is true, and the interpretation thereof is faithful. Then King Nabuchodonosor fell on his face, and worshipped Daniel, and commanded that they should offer in sacrifice to him victims and incense. And the king spoke to Daniel, and said: Verily, your God is the God of gods, and Lord of kings, and a revealer of hidden things; seeing thou couldst discover this secret. Then the king advanced Daniel to a high station, and gave him many and great gifts and he made him governor over all the provinces of Babylon, and chief of the magistrates over all the wise men of Babylon. And Daniel requested of the king, and he appointed Sidrach, Misach, and Abdenago over the works of the province of Babylon: but Daniel himself was in the king's palace. CHAP IV. Daniel's Three Friends thrown into the Fiery Furnace. AFTER this, King Nabuchodonosor made a statue of gold, of sixty cubits high, and six cubits broad: and he set it up in the plain of Dura, of the province of Babylon. Then Nabuchodonosor the king sent to call together the nobles, the magistrates, and the judges, the captains, the rulers, and governors and all the chief men of the provinces, to come to the dedication of the statue which King Nabuchodonosor had set up. Then the nobles, the magistrates, and the judges, the captains, and rulers, and the great men that were placed in authority, and all the princes of the provinces, were gathered together to come to the dedication of the statue, which King Nabuchodonosor had set up. And they stood before the statue which King Nabuchodonosor had set up. Then a herald cried with a strong voice: To you it is commanded, O nations, tribes, and languages: that in the |