Page 3 - The Prophet-statesman a Drama of Daniel

AUTHOR’S FOREWORD

The author presents the following story of the Prophet-Statesman as part of himself.
From the dawn of understanding when he sat spell-bound listening to the graphic
unfolding of the narratives of Daniel and his friends by parents, both of whom were

excellent story-tellers, this Hebrew hero has been his favorite of all Biblical
characters. It will be understood that the Heavenly Man, the Incarnate Son Jesus
Christ is always excepted when such comparisons are made.

It is not that he loves Abraham, Moses, David or Elijah less, he just loves Daniel
more! So much has he consorted with Daniel in thought, that it has seemed at times
that he was actually a spectator, hidden behind a door somewhere, of the experiences
of his testings. Close observation yields not a time when the humility, composure,

wisdom, courage born of the faith he had in his God left him for a moment.

It is a truism to say that things do not just happen, and steadfastness of character
even when manifested in youth still finds its explanation in antecedent training and

experience. So while the Scripture itself starts with Daniel that “purposed in his heart
that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s meat nor with the wine
which he drank,” we are impelled to push back into the earlier Jerusalem days and
construct, if from nothing but the fabric of imagination, circumstances in nurture and

instruction as well as association, that would produce a Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and
Azariah that perform so creditably in the first chapter of the Book of Daniel, and
throughout their lives.

Friends who have read the manuscript have said: “Your best character is
Nebuchadnezzar. He has color.” To say that one has “color,” however is to mean that
he is saddled with the caprices of fallen nature, his life a keleidoscope of varying
tempers and dispositions ranging from black to white and back again. In this sense

there is no doubt that the Babylonian autocrat was one of the most colorful figures that
ever lived. Most of us are more like him than we are like Daniel, and so because we
love ourselves so much, we love the reflection of ourselves in him. We see so much

more of ourselves in Nebuchadezzar than we do in Daniel, that we understand him
better, and if we are not careful will even like him better. The glory of Daniel lies in
the unique and unchanging consistency of his color— the azure-blue of Heaven. The
earth-bound mind and the earth-slanted gaze incline to rejoice more in the variegated
colors arising from the soil of earth, then in the unchanging hue of celestial blue.

If it is objected that we should depict Daniel and his friends as down-to-earth men,