ST. ANDREW’S PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume 1, Issue 277, 4 November 1884, Page 2

ST. ANDREW’S PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.

On Sunday evening last, the Rev. J. McAra delivered another of his monthly sermons on “ The Young men of the Bible,” to a crowded congregation, taking for his subject the character of Daniel who, he said had heert termed the “ blameless man ” as in point of excellence he stood far above most of the other characters whose lives are given in the Scriptures, and of whom blemishes are recorded. Daniel was born 620, 8.C., of the blood royal of Judah, and was between 10 and 16 years of age when he was carried into captivity to Babylon, away from his home, friends and religious associations, to a city of levity, idolatry, and wickedness, but he carried his religious principles with him. Not like some young men who came to these colonies and talk of the bigotry of their fathers, and blame the restraints put upon them at home, for the excesses they indulge in out here. Daniel and his three companions received a mental and physical training to fit them for the position they were destined to occupy. Here occurred the first trial of Daniel, although it may seem to us a trivial thing, merely a matter of eating and drinking, yet still, being offered to idols it was repugnant to Daniel’s convictions, as he had been taught by the law of Moses. He stood strong to his convictions and succeeded in overcoming the difficulty. Three years afterwards he was elevated to the position of courtier, and the King at once recognised in him one who might in after years hold a high position. Whin Nebuchadnezzar had a dream that entirely went from, his recollection, and he commanded his astrologers to declare the same and the interpretation, or to suffer the penalty of death, we find Daniel with his companions going in prayer to God who was pleased to reveal the secret to Daniel in a night vision, and by this means their lives were saved, and for some time he seems to have occupied a lofty position in peace and quietness. Then occurred the second dream of King Nebuchadnezzar, und we see how nobly he stood forth, and how faithfully he shewed him his sin, and yet how tenderly he pleaded with him “ to break off his sins by righteousness, and his iniquities by shewing mercy to the poor,” and it might be the means of averting the threatened punishment. He was faithful in the discharge of his duty to God and his King. After this for some time he seems like Joseph in the time of the Pharaoh’s to have been left in thejj cold shade of forgetfulness until the occasion of Belshazzar’s great feast, when the drunken carnival was suddenly stopped by the mysterious writing upon the plaster of the wall which (when on the advice of the King’s mother Daniel was sent for) the old man, faithful to the last, did not hesitate to pronounce as the final sentence against the wicked and drunken King. The crowning trial of his life was when Darius, the Median, had exalted Daniel over the 120 princes, and this stirred np the envy of his subordinates, as is often the case now when a man gets on in the world. Those who are not so successful are envious of him • and would rejoice in his downfall. In (he case of Daniel his enemies could find no fault with him in his civil administration, and they therefore induced the foolish King to pass a decree that none should offer a prayer except to him on pain of death from lions, but in spite of this Daniel was consistent and true to his God. He feared the Lion of the Tribe of Judah more than the Lions of Babylon. The King had to carry out his foolish decree (the same as Herod, whose rash vow caused him to behead a man he reverenced), but Daniel’s God stopped the lion's mouth and saved his servant. In concluding this very interesting discourse, Mr. McAra earnestly entreated his hearers to copy the noble example of Daniel who had an enlightened conscien e and carried out his conscientious scruples in defiance of custom, and the friendship of many worldly associates, and at the present time there were many noble men and women who from the same conscientious scruples and the fear of having their weaker brethren who were advocating the noble cause of temperance in defiance of the barrier of custom and the apparant want of friendship