STUDIES IN THE BEN E DICITE COMPILED BY ALICIA BAYNE let eberptfcmg t$at fjatfi breat!) praiae t%e LONDON HATCHARDS, PICCADILLY 1886 2DeDication. TO THE RIGHT REVEREND EDWARD HAROLD, LORD BISHOP OF WINCHESTER, THIS VOLUME WAS DEDICATED (BY PERMISSION) BY ALICIA BAYNE, IN GRATEFUL REMEMBRANCE OF A FRIENDSHIP OF MANY YEARS. 2Detiicatiotu TO THE RIGHT REVEREND EDWARD HAROLD, LORD BISHOP OF WINCHESTER, THIS VOLUME WAS DEDICATED (BY PERMISSION) BY ALICIA BAYNE, IN GRATEFUL REMEMBRANCE OF A FRIENDSHIP OF MANY YEARS. 2OO0561 EDITOR'S PREFACE. THERE are already two well-known works upon the Benedicite, but it seemed to the compiler of this little volume that there was room for yet another. Her desire was to bring together passages illustrating the Song of the Three Children from various sources, such as might bring out its deep meaning and beauty. She only claims to have put together a mosaic, which might be described in the words of Montaigne : ' I have made only a nosegay of culled flowers, and have brought nothing of my own but the string that ties them.' Death prevented her manuscript from receiving the final supervision by her who had devoted much time and thought to gathering together the extracts of which it is composed. No viii Preface. one can be better aware of the disadvantages from which it has suffered than the editor. It is offered to the general reader, in the hope that many may find an interest in the pages which it was a labour of love to the compiler to collect and put in order, and she found in such studies a solace to her last years. CONTENTS. PAGE INTRODUCTION, . . i CHAPTER I. O all ye works of the Lord, praise ye the Lord. Works of the Lord Heavens Indifference of most people to the sky How inanimate things can praise the Lord Haydn's Creation Raphael's Bible, ... 29 CHAPTER II. Angels. Angels in Painting Frequent allusions to, in Holy Scrip- ture Fallen angels Gabriel and Michael Faust Raphael Newman on angels Chaucer's ' sweet St. Cecily ' Spenser's ministering angels Angel of Death Southey's Azrael Arabian Legends Santa Fran- cesca Romana Angels in Sculpture, . . . . 41 CHAPTER III. Waters above and below the Firmament. Heavens Two meanings of ' heaven ' Tintoretto Martin Cabalistic view of heaven Scandinavian x Contents. PAGE view Addison on heaven Firmament created on the . second day Bishop Andrews on heaven Waters above the firmament Importance of dew and showers in hot countries -Water Clouds Ruskin on clouds Wells Stanley on wells Well-worship Sacred wells Seas and floods Mediterranean : its connection with history The ocean Laws which govern the relations between the earth and ocean Depth of the ocean Colour of sea-water Effect of winds and currents Mrs. Hemans on the sea No more sea Hoar-frost Ymir Ambrose Phillips Dante's frozen lake New- fallen snow Glaciers The White King Cowper's 'Winter Morning Walk' Blessing of the rivers in Russia Legends, 58 CHAPTER IV. The Powers of the Lord. Powers of the Lord Kingsley on laws of nature Maurice on earthquake of Lisbon Sun and moon Light Haydn's Creation Meaning of Hebrew word ' lights ' in Genesis Helmholtz on light Return of sunshine to the Arctic regions Jeremy Taylor on sunrise Gay St. Francis of Assisi's Cantico del Sole Sun-worship among Peruvians, Slavonians, Celts, Teutons Broome on the moon Moon no copy of earth Olaf Winckler on moon scenery Brief notice of the creation of stars in Genesis Stanley on ' Science and Religion ' Addison Orion and the Pleiades Chimah Bible Teachings from Nature Astrology Keble on stars Days and nights Mrs. Barrett Browning on sleep Contents. xi )'AGE Animals and plants Night in the desert Winter and summer Old customs Whewell on length of seasons Fire St. Polycarp Emblem of spiritual life Fire- worship Lightning Psalm of the Seven Thunders Wind the emblem of the Holy Spirit Daniel's vision Wind, how used as a symbol in the Bible Milton's ' felon winds ' Shakespeare, Shelley, Kingsley, Tusser on winds Art only able to show effect of wind, ......... 85 CHAPTER V. Earth and her Inhabitants. Adaptation of the earth to man's needs How formed Constant waste and change Heber Ancient views of the earth Mountains : often alluded to by Psalmist and prophet Vaudois hymn Mountains and green things of the earth Water Moss Flowers in Pales- tine Rogation Days Hamerton on this festival Few flowers named by our old poets Grass Corn Dwellers in the waters Whales The fish a Christian emblem Bread and fish used at love-feasts Points in common between fish and birds Flight of birds Duke of Argyll on ' Contrivance ' Vultures, etc. , forbidden as food to Jews Reference to birds in the Bible, especially the dove Mrs. Barbauld on the eagle Shelley and Wordsworth on the lark Drummond and Keats on the nightingale Professor Owen on bird-song at dawn Beasts and cattle Uni- corn or rent Wild animals of Palestine ' The Good Shepherd,' 117 xii Contents. PAGE CHAPTER VI. Song of the Redeemed. All men called to praise the Lord Israel a name expres- sive of the chosen people Jews or Christians The redeemed sing the song both of Moses and of the Lamb 'A song which none but the redeemed can sing ' Priests and servants of the Lord Holy and humble men of heart Spirits and souls Manning on The Faithful Departed Wheatley on prayer for the dead Moses and Elijah Milton on souls in bliss The happiness of heaven Wordsworth on ' the depth of human souls ' All Souls' Day Old customs Fitting conclusion of the Benedicite with an invocation to man George Herbert Longfellow Dean Stanley on the Benedicite, . . . . . . . .148 INTRODUCTION. IT may be well, before considering the Hymn of Praise which forms the subject of these ' studies,' to compare the two rival cities of Jerusalem, emphatically called 'The City of God,' and Babylon, termed by its proudest monarch ' the Great.' There are so many allusions in the Psalms to the aspect of the ' holy city,' that we are enabled to picture it as it appeared to the eyes of the Israelites, and was engraven on their hearts when they were carried into captivity. ' Jerusalem is built as a city that is at unity in itself,' they sang ; ' God is well known in her palaces as a sure refuge'; 'Walk about Sion, and go round about her, and tell the towers thereof; 'Her founda- tions are upon the holy hills '; ' The Lord loveth the gates of Sion more than all the dwellings of Jacob ' ; 'The hills stand about Jerusalem'; 'Very excellent things are spoken of thee, thou city of God ' descrip- tions bearing a twofold character, for the earthly and spiritual are both contained in them, and the earthly Jerusalem was but the type of the heavenly city. ' This world,' says an old divine, ' is but as a quarry, where the living stones of the Heavenly Jerusalem are 2 Stiidies in the Benedicite. cut and moulded.' The chief glory of Jerusalem con- sisted in its being the casket which held the Temple built by Solomon for the glory of God, as he had been charged to do by his father David, who had gathered together for that purpose gold from Arabia, silver, brass, onyx, precious stones, and marble in abundance, for he had said, 'The house that is to be builded for the Lord must be exceeding magnifical, of fame and of glory throughout all countries.' Recollecting David's earnest desire to raise ' a habitation for the Lord,' this seems only what we should expect, but the Books of Kings assign both plan and preparation to Solomon. For seven years the mighty work went on ' No hammers fell, no ponderous axes rang, Like some tall palm the mystic fabric sprang.' * In this respect,' says Bishop Wordsworth, ' the Temple was a figure of the Church. . . . The work of the Spirit is not by violent emotion, but by silent influence.' ' God's work should be done with much care and little noise. Clamour and violence hinder the work of God, but never further it,' is the comment of Matthew Henry. To the Jews it did not seem right that iron, which is used to destroy life, should be employed about the altar of God. Some of the stones of the first Temple remain to this day imbedded in the ancient wall of Jerusalem, and astonish all who see them by their enormous size and the apparent impossibility of lifting them, for the largest of them weighs over one hundred tons, and, as far as we know, machinery was not then used to raise them. The marvel is only to be Introduction. 3 explained , by the fact that human labour was super- abundant. It is believed that the palace built in Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar was erected in fifteen days ! The site of the Temple was Mount Moriah, where once had been the threshing-floor of Araunah, the royal Jebusite, and where Abraham had prepared to sacrifice his son Isaac. There, when the Temple was completed, Solomon assembled all Israel ; and one procession 'came from the lofty height of Gibeon, bearing with it the relics of the old pastoral worship, now to be disused for ever,' while a second brought from the tent ' erected by David on Mount Zion ' the ark of acacia wood, while king and people offered ' sheep and oxen that could not be numbered.' The priests carried the ark, containing now only the two tables of stone which Moses had placed there at Horeb, to the Most Holy Place, divided from the rest of the Temple by folding-doors of oleaster wood ; and a heavy veil or curtain, suspended on chains of gold, and composed of blue, purple, and crimson on a ground of fine white linen, hung outside the doors. With this great event is for ever connected the magnifi- cent Psalm, ' Lift up your heads, O ye gates,' a prophecy of a yet greater day. ' The reverence thus shown for their sanctuary,' observes Dr. Geikie, ' displayed itself rather by the richness of the material so freely expended on it than in form or proportion. In size the Temple could not compare with the great religious buildings of contemporary heathen nations, nor even with a fine cathedral. But size alone has little to do with the 4 Studies in the Benedicite. importance either of a building or a country. The Temple emphatically spoke of a religion requiring personal holiness, acknowledging only one God, and that a holy God. Because God was holy, man must be holy too.' ' Other nations thought of God as Beauty, some as Strength, some as Wisdom, but the Israelites alone recognised Him as Holy, and knew that to fall short of His commands was sin.' l The Jews found this law too strict for them, and they fell away to idols which re- quired no righteousness. Vainly their prophets foretold the desolation of their beloved city if they forgot its God. 'Shall I not visit for these things, saith the Lord,' and by Nebuchadnezzar was the prophecy un- consciously fulfilled. Jehoiakim, king of Judah, was deposed, and, as one version of his fate related, his corpse was thrown out to waste outside the walls of his royal city, exposed to the sun by day and the frost by night, while, says a gloomy legend, on the skin of the corpse ' there appeared in Hebrew characters the name of the demon Codonazer, to whom he had sold himself.' Three months later his son was also deposed, and then came the Captivity, which must have fallen on the Chosen People with a crushing sense of despair such as we can hardly conceive. Jerusalem was pillaged, and 'from the top of Lebanon, from the heights of Bashan, from the ridges of Abarim the widowed country shrieked aloud as she saw the train of her captive king and nobles disappearing in the distant east.' What a 1 Bramston,_/wka and her Rulers. Introduction. 5 sad march it must have been of these captives, under the blue unchanging sky and dazzling radiance of the sun by day, and under the ' starry cope of heaven by night'! From the sculptures found on interior walls at Kony- njik, we may picture to ourselves the triumphal march of an Eastern conqueror. Women and children are on foot, or on asses, or in carts drawn by oxen. Other carts and wagons carry furniture and metal vessels, spears and swords. Sheep, oxen, mules, camels, and goats are among the spoil. It was, and is, the custom in the East that after a victory two scribes note down on rolls of leather the number of the slain, and of the sheep and cattle driven off. These numbers were then inscribed in cuneiform characters on the palace walls, where to this day the tale of Oriental conquest may be read. There is none known to exist of the taking of Jeru- salem, but doubtless it ran much as others do : ' The goods I carried off ... the palaces I dug up. I conquered the city of ... the royal side . . . (The Air God, the Sun God.) The citadel and the walls I have built. The men and women folk belonging to them I carried off. The cavalry quarters I destroyed. Three hundred and eight horses I carried off. Over 8000 oxen, 5538 sheep.' The monarch himself appears in his chariot, sur- rounded by his guards, seated, or else standing erect, holding a bow in the left hand, and raising the right in token of triumph. A charioteer accompanies him, and 6 Stiidies in the Benedicite. an attendant bears an open umbrella, from which falls a long curtain. The chariot is drawn by two horses richly decked with tassels and bells ; archers and spearmen precede it. In the case of the Israelitish captives, it is probable that they were led by the shortest route to Babylon. ' High-roads and causeways, which were kept carefully in repair across the desert, united Syria and Palestine with Babylonia ; others branched off to Tadmor (Pal- myra). Walled cities served as resting-places, and wells at regular intervals gave an abundant supply of water during the hottest season of the year.' Assyria was now divided into three portions Lydia, Media, and Chaldea or Babylonia. This last was a province by itself. The vast plain which composed it lay between the Tigris and Euphrates, and was known in the Old Testament as Aram and Shinar, but to the Greeks as Mesopotamia. Nineveh was built on the former, Babylon the golden city, as Isaiah calls it on the latter stream. The surrounding country was then a fertile garden, depending on a gigantic system of irrigation, which has no parallel in anything found in the world at the present day. Now this vast plain is not only uncultivated, but for the most part incapable of cultivation. A large portion has been overflowed by the rivers, and con- verted into a swamp, while the rest is absolutely barren. Thus is fulfilled what Isaiah foretold it is ' a desert of the sea.' At the time of the Captivity the corn-land was so fertile that it is said to have yielded two and Introduction. 7 three hundredfold. Rabshakeh described this district as ' a land of corn and wine, a land of bread and vine- yards, a land of olive and of honey.' Willows and poplars bordered the rivers, date-palms lifted their lofty heads, but other trees there were none. The cedars of Lebanon, the terebinths, the teil-tree, familiar to the eye of the captives, were all lacking ; and strangely new and undreamed of must have been the great city whither they were bound that Babel, whose name reminded them that 'the Lord did there con- found the language of all the earth,' but which may mean not only 'to confound,' but also 'Gate,' a meaning found also in Babelmandeb. At first the Golden City was a mere village built of sun-dried bricks, for no stone exists in this wide district ; and that so magnifi- cent a city should have been constructed under such difficulties can only be accounted for, as Grote well remarks, ' by unbounded command of naked human strength,' combined, we may add, with audacious genius. Its massive walls, according to Herodotus, rose nearly to a height equalling that of the top of St. Paul's Cathedral ; but a more probable measurement is between eighty and ninety feet high, and about thirty wide. Between every two of its hundred gates rose watch-towers, ten feet higher than the walls, except on the western side, where impassable marshes were deemed a sufficient defence. Silver coins have been found at Babylon stamped with a wall thickly studded with towers and gates, probably representing the great city in her prime. 8 Studies in the Benedicite. Among the heaps of ruins to which she is now re- duced a short column of black basalt has been found, on which is graven two inscriptions that throw light on many matters connected with her history. It is divided into ten columns, containing 617 lines, each line form- ing part of some sentence, often so terse as to be some- what obscure. They refer mainly to the construction of temples, palaces, and other public buildings, and are interesting both as records of the piety of the sovereigns of Babylon, and as affording numerous topo- graphical notices of the great city : ' Nebuchadrezzar, King of Babylon, glorious Prince, adorer of the lofty one, the exalted, the possessor of intelligence ; firm, not to be destroyed ; exalted chief, Lord of peace, the valiant son of Nabopolassar, King of Babylon, am I. 1 The great walls of Babylon I built, which Nabopolassar, King of Babylon, had commenced, but not completed their beauty. ' The walls of the fortress of Babylon, its defence in war, I raised, and the circuit of the city of Babylon. The fortresses I skil- fully strengthened. ' The walls of Babylon, whose banner (sic) is invincible, as a high fortress by the ford of the rising sun, I carried round Babylon.' Major Rennel estimates these walls as extending over thirty-four miles eight and a half on each side. They were built of large bricks made from the alluvial soil, mixed with grass and straw, dried either in the sun or in a furnace, and cemented with hot bitumen, the clay being probably taken from the moats filled with water beneath the walls. There is a Babylonian brick in the Fitzwilliam Museum at Cambridge. Its measurements are 9! inches X 1\ inches X z\ thick, and it has an in- Introduction. 9 scription in cuneiform characters, which, by some strange oversight, has never been translated. If the name of Nebuchadrezzar is not there, it would be a great curi- osity, showing it to have formed a part of the older buildings, but on by far the greater number of bricks found in and around Babylon the name of this mighty builder is impressed. Like Thebes, Babylon had a hundred gates, all of great size and strength, and of solid brass, or rather bronze. Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc, and it is doubtful if this latter metal were known to the ancients. Copper and tin make bronze, and we know that tin was used by them, there- fore what is called brass was probably really bronze, or else copper. The inscription already quoted says ' The great gates, whose walls I constructed, with pinewoods and coverings of copper I overlaid them, to keep off enemies from the front of the wall of unconquered Babylon. ' From the same source we learn the names of some of these gates. The ' gate of the deep ' was next the Euphrates, near the great temple of Merodach or Bel ; the ' gate Beautiful,' the ' gate of the Sunrise,' the ' Water-gate,' the ' King's gate,' the ' gate of the Mighty God of the West.' These gates and walls were in- trusted to the care of a guardian. Within, the city was divided into twenty-five grand streets, which extended quite across it from gate to gate, intersecting one another, and thus forming 626 squares. These vast squares were laid out as corn-fields and orchards, palm-groves and gardens. ' Within the walls io Studies in the Benedicite. of Babylon,' wrote Quintus Curtius, 'there was space enough to cultivate corn for the sustenance of the whole population in case of siege ;' and probably, as at Nine- veh, there was much cattle in the fields. The houses were not adjoining, but separate, and were about three or four stories in height, rising in ter- races, so that each of the upper stories receded from the one below it. They were adorned with the greatest magnificence. The Euphrates flowing from north to south, 600 feet wide and 15 deep divided the city into two parts, con- nected near the centre by a singular roofed bridge. On each side of the river was a quay, and in the later days of Babylon these quays were guarded by walls, pierced by small brazen gates, whence steps led down to the water gates open in the day-time that passen- gers might be ferried across, but closed at night. Dean Milman has given us a picture of the Euphrates flowing through this wonderful city : ' Thou river, That flowest exulting in thy proud approach To Babylon, beneath whose shadowy walls, And brazen gates, and gilded palaces, And groves that gleam with marble obelisks, Thy azure bosom shall repose, with lights Fretted and chequered like the starry heavens.' At either end of the bridge were two royal palaces, commanding a view of the whole city, and connected by a tunnel under the bed of the river. The descrip- tions of Herodotus lead us to suppose that Babylon was built on the same general plan as Nineveh, on Introduction. 1 1 whose fall Babylon rose to the proud position of capital of the Eastern world. As in Nineveh, the temples and palaces were raised on lofty platforms of brickwork, often in fortified enclosures, capable of resisting a pro- tracted siege. Mingled with these were the dwellings of the common people, palm-groves, orchards, gardens, and plots of corn-land. Of what was the great temple of Belus which Nebuchadnezzar built, only a high, oblong mass of ruins remains, with his name legible on the bricks of a few feet of wall. Upon another mass of ruins stands a gigantic lion of black basalt, standing over a prostrate figure. The mound is covered with shattered bricks and fragments of pale yellow walls, and ' between the broken walls and the black lion stands a single tamarisk-tree, whose presence among the ruins impresses the Arabs so much that they declare it to be a tree of a peculiar species, never met with elsewhere, and look upon it as a relic from the gardens of the ancient city. At the foot of the wall some slabs of stone have been found graven with the inscription, " This is the great palace of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, who walked in the worship of the gods Nebo and Merodach, his lords." ' Nine miles from this ancient city rises a vast pile, far the most conspicuous of all these mighty ruins. It was long held to be the temple of Bel, but inscriptions on the clay cylinders found in its precincts show it to have been really dedicated to another god. It con- sisted of eight square colossal towers, rising one above another, and gradually decreasing in breadth. Seven 1 2 Studies in the Benedicite. were of different colours gold for the sun, silver for the moon, orange for Jupiter, for Venus primrose, for Mercury blue, while Saturn's was black, perhaps in allusion to his distance from the sun. I cannot for- bear quoting the ingenious suggestion of James Nasmyth as to the origin of the pyramidal form in buildings connected with religion. ' On many occa- sions/ he writes, ' while beholding the sublime effects of the sun's rays streaming down on the earth through openings in the clouds near the horizon, I have been forcibly impressed with the analogy they appear to suggest as to the form of the Pyramid, while the single vertical ray suggests that of the Obelisk. 'In following up this subject, I was fortunate enough to find many examples of this in the Egyptian Collection in the Louvre, at Paris ; especially in small pyramids, which were probably the objects of household worship. ' In one case I found a small pyramid, on the upper part of which appeared the disc of the sun, with pyra- midal rays descending from it on to figures in the Egyptian attitude of adoration. This consists in the hands being held up before the eyes an attitude expressive of the brightness of the object adored. It is associated with the brightness of the sun, and it still survives in the salaam, which expresses profound rever- ence and respect among Eastern nations. It also survives in the disc of the sun, which has for ages been placed like a halo behind the heads of sacred and exalted personages, as may be seen in Eastern and early paintings.' Introduction. 1 3 This was the prayer, if prayer it may be called, of the great king when he had completed this temple, which was named Bix Saggata. How different was it from the consecration prayer of King Solomon ! ' For thy glory, O exalted Merodach, a house have I made. May its greatness advance ! May its fulness increase ! In its midst abundance may it acquire ! May its memorials be augmented ! May it receive within itself the abundant tribute of the kings of nations and of all peoples.' Almost as magnificent was the palace of Nebuchad- nezzar. We quote the excellent description in Miss Keary's Nations Around. ' It is described by ancient writers as having been entirely covered outside with paintings of hunting and battle scenes, interspersed with inscriptions written in blue letters on white enamelled ground ; and the numerous fragments of glazed tiles, painted in rich colours, with trees, flowers, and animals, that cover the heap of ruins where the palace once stood, prove the correctness of their account. The smaller ancient palace repaired by Nebuchadnezzar and the houses of the nobility . . . were no doubt ornamented in a similar fashion. Somewhere in the royal quarter of the city stood the celebrated hanging gardens erected by Nebuchadnezzar to gratify his Median queen, who, coming from a mountainous country, could take no pleasure in the monotonous scenery round her new home. Here plantations of trees, shrubs, and rare flowers flourished high up in the air, raised from the ground by successive tiers of lofty arches, ponderous enough to sustain the weight 14 Studies in the Benedicite. of earth in which they grew. The river, running through the centre of the city, . . . must have greatly added to its beauty, by giving back a second series of rainbow-hued walls and fantastic gardens to the gaze of those who promenaded along the tops of the low, broad walls, which Herodotus says flanked it on either side ; and besides the river, there was an immense lake, constructed by Nebuchadnezzar, in the neighbourhood of his two palaces, which served as another looking-glass for the wonders of the place to repeat themselves in.' Among the buildings of Babylon was a royal library, which owed its origin to Sargon, one of the most celebrated kings of Babylonia, who was father of Sennacherib, and lived B.C. 722. The reader had but to write down the number of the tablet (made of clay, terra-cotta, or alabaster), and it was handed to him by the librarian. Similar tablets have been found at Nineveh, measuring from one to nine inches, and inscribed with minute cuneiform characters, which record royal decrees and historical events, some reaching as far back as thirty centuries before the Christian era. There are about 200 specimens in the British Museum. They are mostly dated from particu- lar events. Three examples of this dating are to be found in Isaiah. Some few are dated from years of an era. The literature which they disclose in many respects resembles our own, except in the quality of compression. They record sales and loans, and other matters of business ; lists of animals, birds, and Introduction. 15 minerals; military records, such as the Egyptian cam- paign of Esarhaddon ; the history of Sargon and his son, hunting texts, advice to kings, natural history, hymns and sacred poetry ; prayers against eclipses and witchcraft; omens, celestial and terrestrial. We may remember that Nebuchadnezzar consulted the omens before starting on an expedition (Ezek. xxi. 21, 22), and we know how earnestly both astrology and astronomy were studied by the Babylonian sages. On the seventh story of the great temple already described there was an apartment fitted up for taking astronomical observa- tions. Such was the city on which the weary eyes of the Israelitish captives rested. Its king was worthy of it. Nabu-kuduri-utsur, as his name is written in the inscriptions, stands a great, distinct, magnificent figure among the crowd of Assyrian kings whom we know as mere names, with little or no personality. He is 'the head of gold,' ' the tree which reached to heaven,' the last conqueror among the primeval monarchies, as Nimrod had been the first, the lord of the then known historical world, from Greece to India, insolent in his unbridled power, yet capable of great tenderness and devo- tion, worshipping his own Merodach, whom he calls ' the great lord, the senior of the gods, the most ancient,' yet bowing before the God of his Israelite captives, who now in a strange land saw the vessels of the Temple presented as an offering to Bel, and the spoils of their city brought into Babylon to grace 1 6 Studies in the Benedicite. the triumphant entry of the great conqueror. Doubtless they recalled that bitter prophecy of Isaiah to King Hezekiah, when the Babylonian ambassadors had brought their message of congratulation, and beheld the treasures of his house. Captives in a strange land ! Well may our Litany include a petition ' for all prisoners and captives.' To remember freedom in slavery, our native land in exile, happiness in sorrow, are among the bitterest of griefs, and has been the subject of pathetic verse from earliest times, but no lament has equalled that Psalm which tells how the Israelites sat and wept by the rivers of Babylon, remembering Sion. ' What an inexpressible pathos,' says Bishop Home, ' is there in these few words ! How do they at once transport us to Babylon, and place before our eyes the mournful situation of the Israelitish captives ! Driven from their native country, stripped of every comfort and convenience, in a strange land, among idolaters, wearied and broken-hearted, they sit in silence by those hostile waters. Then the pleasant banks of Jordan present themselves to their imaginations, the towers of Salem rise to view, and the sad remembrance of much-loved Zion causes tears to run down their cheeks : " We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof." ' The additional circumstance which the divine painter hath here thrown into his piece is, to the last degree, just and striking. It was not enough to represent the Hebrew captives weeping on the banks of the Euphrates at the remembrance of Zion, but Introduction, 1 7 upon looking up, we behold their harps unstrung, and pendent on the willows that grew there. " How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land ? " ' These words were not given in answer to their enemies, but were the utterance of the Jews among themselves they felt that their songs were too sacred to be sung before idolaters. Contrary, perhaps, to their natural anticipations, the exiles were well treated : " Yea, He made all those that led them away captive to pity them." ' They were permitted to live by themselves, and to keep their own religion, as far as they could do so when deprived of their Temple. Certain of the children of Israel, ' in whom there was no blemish, but well - favoured, and skilful in all wisdom, and cunning in knowledge, and understanding science,' were selected to dwell in the royal palace, in order that they might be taught the language and learning of the Chaldeans. This selection was in accordance with a belief which still exists among Orientals, that a superior mind cannot inhabit an in- ferior body. Among them were three youths of noble race, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, whose names were changed, according to Assyrian custom when foreigners entered the king's service, into others containing, as far as they can be determined, a religious element. Like the Hebrew names which they replaced, they are full of a sacred if heathen poetry. The name of their boy friend and companion, Daniel, was also changed, and B 1 8 Studies in the Benedicite, at the Assyrian court he was known as Belteshazzar. Daniel and Hananiah had dwelt in courts before now, for they were descended from Hezekiah, and therefore of royal race ; and the other two were also either of royal lineage, or belonging to distinguished families. It is very remarkable how steadfastly these boys Daniel was but fourteen years of age clung to their faith, and set themselves steadfastly to serve God amid the temptations and misfortunes of captivity. Chosen to be prepared ' to stand in the king's palace,' a ' daily provision ' of food and wine was appointed them pro- bably of wheaten bread, meats of various kinds, fruit, fish, game, and imported wine, such as would be supplied to all his courtiers at the king's cost. But it seems likely that this royal provision was regarded as a sacrificial offering, and that to partake of it would have been to participate in idolatry ; and therefore Daniel, in the name of himself and his friends, requested that they might merely eat pulse and water a greater self-denial in that luxurious court than perhaps at first sight may appear. Reluctantly the request was granted ; Daniel had won, like Joseph, favour and tender love ; but if this abstinence made them ' worse liking ' than those of the other captives, their guardian, not they, would suffer. At the end of ten days he was fully reassured, and soon he found, too, that ' God gave these four children know- ledge and skill in all learning and wisdom.' Doubtless they too, like Daniel, prayed constantly, ' looking,' as the pathetic narrative says, ' towards Jerusalem.' A portion of one of his prayers is among the opening Introduction. 1 9 sentences in our Liturgy. Three years later the four were brought before the king, the great conqueror, the great builder, the great genius Alexander and Napoleon, as it were, in one. Glad at heart must Melzar their guardian have been when among the youths brought before him Nebuchadnezzar found none like Daniel and his three friends. How long the three remained at court we do not know, but seventy years later, when Cyrus conquered the Golden City, Daniel was still there, and lived to see Jerusalem once more rebuilt, as Jeremiah had prophesied she should be, when Nebuchadnezzar laid his heavy hand upon her. Two years after Nebuchadnezzar reigned alone he had previously been associated with his father Nabopolassar, a Divine revelation was vouchsafed him in a dream, forgotten by him as he woke, but haunting and harass- ing him until, in his anger that his astrologers could not recall it to him, he pronounced a sweeping sentence of destruction upon ' all the wise men of Babylon,' in which Daniel and his friends were involved. Evidently they had not been consulted, for Daniel appears astonished and perplexed by the decree ; and when he understood the cause, he calmly asked for a little time to be given, promising that in that case he would tell both what the dream had been and its in- terpretation. Daniel was a man both of action and of prayer. He next called his friends, and begged them to ' desire mercies of the God of heaven concerning this secret,' and probably himself prayed all night long for it was no dream which answered his prayers, 2O Studies in the Benedicite. but an awful vision a gigantic statue, which presently was overthrown, broken, ground to powder, while a great mountain took its place, and filled the earth. Full of gratitude and awe, Daniel exclaimed, ' Blessed be the name of God for ever and ever : for wisdom and might are His : He revealeth the deep and secret things : He knoweth what is in the darkness, and the light dwelleth with Him.' Arioch, whose mission it had been to put the sages of Babylon to death, hastened to bring Daniel before the king, who instantly recognised the vision now de- scribed to him, listened awestruck to the explanation given by the young seer, and rewarded him by making him ' ruler over the whole province of Babylon, and chief of the governors over all the wise men of Babylon.' In the hour of his prosperity Daniel re- membered his friends, and obtained high posts of honour for all three. After the fall of Jerusalem, Nebuchadnezzar's career was from victory to victory. Tyre fell, after a long and desperate resistance ; Egypt lay prostrate at his feet; and the spoils of Thebes, Memphis, and Tyre were carried to Babylon. The golden image of the plain of Dura was probably erected after one of these campaigns. It has been suggested that this idol was meant as a representation of the statue of his dream ; but it would seem more probable that he was incited to set it up by the jealous Baby- lonian nobles plotting the disgrace and destruction of the three Hebrew governors, at whom the menace in the proclamation evidently points, for the idolatrous Baby- Introduction. 2 1 lonians could have needed no threat to induce them to worship the 'brazen image.' According to the Babylonian inscriptions in the British Museum, there were three places called Dura in Babylonia ; and one was close to the city. A mound south-east of the town, however, bears the name of Dowair, and may be the Dura of the narrative, and here the pedestal of a colossal statue has been found. The image set up by Nebuchadnezzar was colossal, its dimensions corresponding as nearly as possible to those of the gigantic bronze statue raised in honour of St. Charles Borromeo on the shore of Lago Maggiore. It was probably a sitting figure, on a huge pedestal, coated with gold perhaps part of the spoil of Tyre. It may very possibly be to this very image that an inscription refers, which runs thus : ' The chief of the gods, the Prince Merodach, whose fashion the former prince had fashioned in silver, with bright gold accu- rately weighed out, I overlaid. ' Let us now fancy ourselves on the plain of Dura. How striking must have been the scene ! The golden statue glittering in the sunshine, beneath the deep blue sky, seen far and wide over the level plain, where crowds of worshippers were gathered ! We are ex- pressly told that all the Crown officers were there ; and among them necessarily were Hananiah, Azariah, and Mishael; and no doubt hundreds of other Hebrews, whose hearts must have been full of anxious expecta- tion. Daniel, apparently, was for some unexplained cause absent. All the crowd being assembled, a 22 Studies in the Benedicite. herald's voice proclaimed the royal decree, that, when the sound of the various instruments should be heard, every one should fall down and worship the mighty idol, or in that same hour be cast into the midst of a burning fiery furnace. Burning was a common punishment among the Assyrians. ' Saul Mugina, my rebellious brother, who made war with me, in the fierce burning fire they threw him ' says an inscription ; and another runs ' Dunann, in Nineveh, in a furnace they placed him, and con- sumed him entirely.' Probably Nebuchadnezzar was not more cruel than other Assyrian kings, nor more despotic and imperious, and it is not wonderful that his wrath was great when, before the vast assembly gathered at his command on the plain of Dura, containing, no doubt, representatives from east and west, north and south, Greek and Mede, Phoenician and Assyrian, Hebrew and Arab, he saw himself defied by three captives whom he had loaded with favours. And to them the temptation to yield must have been great. ' What matter, amid that crowd ? They owed gratitude to the king ; certain death was before them if they disobeyed ; and their refusal might bring destruction on the Hebrew captives in the whole province.' Assuredly, had they been satisfied to be, as too many are, merely 'no worse than their neigh- bours,' they would have followed a multitude to do evil. But they were not. Challenged by the Chaldean Introduction. 23 informers, evidently men of rank, and summoned by the monarch to obey his command, they answered : ' Our God, whom we serve, is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor wor- ship the golden image which thou hast set up.' After this there was neither hope nor delay, and the furnace was heated one seven times more than it was wont to be. From this source of punishment being at hand, we may infer that it had been used either for melting the gold of which the image was made, or for burning the enamelled bricks which were being made for the build- ings in the city. The heat being increased sevenfold may have had a typical meaning, seven being a sacred number with the Chaldeans as well as the Hebrews. This pause must have tried the faith and courage of the three martyrs, and we may be sure that they sought for strength in prayer. Then at the king's command ' the most mighty men that were in his army ' bound the three, and cast them amid the flames, feed- ing the fire, says the account in the Apocrypha, with such abundant fuel that ' the flame streamed forth above the furnace forty and nine cubits, and it passed through, and burned those Chaldeans it found about the furnace. But the Angel of the Lord came down, . . . and smote the flame, . . . and made the midst of the furnace as it had been a moist whistling wind.' We are forcibly reminded by these words of the 24 Studies in the Benedicite. Arabic legend of the deliverance of Abraham from the furnace into which Nimrod is traditionally reported to have thrown him. 'At the same instant when Abraham was thrown into the burning furnace, heaven with all its angels, and earth with all its creatures, cried as with one voice, " God of Abraham, Thy friend, who alone worships Thee on earth, is thrown into a furnace ; permit us to rescue him." ' But God said, " I permit every one of you to whom Abraham shall cry for aid to help him, yet if he turn only to Me, let Me alone rescue him." ' Then cried Abraham from the midst of the fire, " There is no God but Thee ! To Thee belong praise and glory !" ' The flame meanwhile had consumed Abraham's robe, and the angel Gabriel stepped before him, and asked, "Hast thou need of me?" Abraham replied, " The help of God is all I need." ' All the creatures of the earth now tried to quench the fire ; only the lizard blew upon it, and as a punish- ment became thenceforward dumb. At God's com- mand Gabriel then cried to the fire, " Become cool, and do Abraham no harm." ' Then the fire grew cool, and a fountain sprang up in the midst of the furnace, and roses bloomed therein. Moreover, He sent him a silken robe from paradise, and an angel to keep him company for seven days ; and those seven days he called in after years the most precious of his life.' Introduction. 25 It is a pretty legend, but its trivial details strongly contrast with the simple dignity of the Biblical narra- tive : 'And these three men . . . fell down bound into the midst of the burning fiery furnace. 'Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astonied, and roseup in haste, and spake, and said unto his counsellors, Did not we cast three men bound into the midst of the fire ? They answered and said unto the king, True, O king. He answered and said, Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt ; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.' In the hour of trial an angel surely stands near the righteous, though hidden by a veil which our mortal eyes cannot yet pierce ; but it is a received opinion that the fourth and sublime form which Nebuchadnezzar saw was verily and indeed our Blessed Lord. On the transcendent occasion of the first voluntary martyrdom for the Faith related in the Old Testament, we may well believe that the Son of Man vouchsafed to come down from heaven. It is some confirmation of this idea that on the first martyrdom mentioned in the New Testament that of Stephen he saw the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God. According to the Apocryphal version, it was on perceiving their celestial companion that the Three Children broke into the hymn of praise and blessing known to us as the Benedicite or Song of the Three Children, this last word having here its old meaning of youths of noble blood. 26 Studies in the Benedicite. ' In some copies of the Greek version of Theodoret,' says Dr. Gray, ' this book is inserted between the twenty-third and twenty-fourth verses of the third chapter of Daniel, as at the beginning of the book is prefixed the History of Susanna, and at the end is added that of Bel and the Dragon ; but none of these additions are to be found in any Hebrew copy, nor do they appear ever to have existed in the Hebrew or Chaldaic language. It is probable that the same author invented or composed from traditional accounts all the Apocryphal additions which he interwove with the genuine work of Daniel. Both in the Latin version and in Coverdale's translation this canticle is called " The Prayer of Azarias, and the Song of the Three Holy Children."' It appears to have been used as a hymn in the Jewish Church, though not received into the Hebrew Canon. ' It was probably composed by an Alexandrine Jew as a paraphrase upon the i48th Psalm, and was used by the Christians in their devotions from the most early times. St. Cyprian quotes it as Holy Scripture, in which opinion he is supported by Rufinus, who inveighs against St. Jerome for doubting its Divine authority, and informs us that it was used in the Church of Toledo long before his time, who himself lived A.D. 390.' According to the Fourth Council of Toledo, it was 'used by the Church over all the world,' and therefore was ordered to be sung by the clergy of Spain and Galicia every Lord's Day, and on the festivals of the Church, under pain of excommunication. Introduction. 2 7 ' In the ancient English offices the matins (noc- turnes] terminated with Te Deum, and were im- mediately followed by lauds (ancient matins). This office began with several psalms, of which one was the "psalm Benedicite" or "The Song of the Three Children," as it was variously called. This canticle was retained in the position it now occupies, and is appointed to follow the first lesson, in place of Te Deum, at the pleasure of the officiating minister. In the Mosarabic or ancient Spanish office Benedicite is also used at lauds. The ancient liturgies of the Gallican and Spanish Churches prescribed the Song of the Three Children to be sung between the lessons, and we adopt the same rule in the office of Morning Prayer. Benedict and Amalarius both speak of Bene- dicite as used at matins (lauds), and Athanasius ap- pointed it to be said at the same time. When used as appointed by the English office, it may be regarded in the light of a responsory psalm.' Be its history what it may, we must feel with Kingsley that ' it is a glorious hymn, worthy of those three young men, worthy of all the noble army of martyrs ; and if the three young men did not actually use the very words of it, still it was what they believed ; and because they believed it, they had courage to tell Nebuchad- nezzar that they were not careful to answer him, had no manner of anxiety whatsoever as to what they were to say when he called on them to worship his gods. For his gods, we know, were the sun, moon, and planets, and the angels, who (as the Chaldeans believed) 28 Studies in tJie Benedicite. ruled over the heavenly bodies ; and that image of gold is supposed by some learned men to have been a sign or picture of the wondrous power of life and growth which there is in all earthly things. ... So that the meaning of this Song of the Three Children is simply this : " You bid us worship the things about us, which we see with our bodily eyes. We answer that we know the one true God, who made all these things, and that therefore, instead of worshipping them, we will bid them to worship Him.'" ' We will now proceed to study the first versicle of their song, first reverentially using the prayer of Bishop Andrews : ' Blessed art Thou, O Lord, who didst create the firmament, the heaven, and the heaven of heavens, inhabited by the celestial powers, angels and archangels, cherubim and seraphim ; who didst divide and fix the waters that be above the firmament, and make those mists and exhalations, from whence pro- ceed showers and dew, hail and sleet, snow like wool, hoar-frost scattered like ashes, ice cast out like morsels, clouds brought from the ends of the earth, lightning and thunder, winds which Thou drawest out of Thy treasures, and storms which fulfil Thy word.' CHAPTER I.