THE DREAM FULFILLED.



WHEN Daniel had finished the interpretation of the dream, he gave Nebuchadnezzar excellent advice. He said, "Wherefore, O king, let my counsel be acceptable unto thee, and break off thy sins by righteousness, and thine iniquities by showing mercy to the poor; if it may be a lengthening of thy tranquility." Although Nebuchadnezzar had done very wrong in some things, he had been very kind to Daniel, and had really many good qualities. Daniel loved him, no doubt; but he knew that there was no way for the king to escape the punishment threatened in the dream but to turn from his bad ways and do right.

We are not told whether Nebuchadnezzar tried to follow Daniel's counsel or not. If hedid, he soon forsook it; for about a year after, as he was walking in his palace, or, as the margin reads, upon the palace, he said, "Is not this great Babylon, that I have built ..... by the might of my power, and for the honor of my majesty?" By these words the king showed the pride of his heart, and that he thought all his glory had come through his own wisdom; but ''While the word was in the king's mouth, there fell a voice from Heaven, saying, O King Nebuchadnezzar, to thee it is spoken: The kingdom is departed from thee, and they shall drive thee from men, and thy dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field. They shall make thee to eat grass as oxen, and seven times shall pass over thee, until thou know that the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will.  "Nebuchadnezzar had had abundance of time to repent since the warning given him in his dream a year before, and now his punishment was to come without delay. The Bible says, "The same hour was the thing fulfilled upon Nebuchadnezzar; and he was driven from men, and did eat grass as oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till his hairs were grown like eagle's feathers, and his nails like bird's claws.".

He was in this condition seven years, just as it had been shown in the dream, and then his reason came back to him. He says, "And at the end of the days, I Nebuchadnezzar lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding returned unto me, and I blessed the Most High, and I praised and honored him that liveth forever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from generation to generation. .... At the same time my reason returned unto me; and for the glory of my kingdom, mine honor and brightness returned unto me; and my counselors and my lords sought unto me; and I was established in my kingdom, and excellent majesty was added unto me."

Nebuchadnezzar's gratitude for the return of his reason was so great that he could hardly find words to express it. He says, "Now I Nebuchadnezzar praise and extol and honor the King of Heaven, all whose works are truth, and his ways judgment; and those that walk in pride he is able to abase."