Page 4 - The Prophet-statesman a Drama of Daniel

we reply that we cannot do so without doing violence to the whole concept of them as
we derive it from the Holy Scriptures. They were heavenly men living on earth, as all
Christians should be.

Another thing that we have sought to do is to establish a logical continuity between
the stories as recorded in the first six chapters of Daniel. The dramatic nature of them
has been universally recognized, but we are not aware of any previous attempt to

weave the six into a consecutive narrative. This we have tried to do by resorting to
available historic records and traditions or to what, we trust, is consecrated
imagination.

For instance there is a dream-image in the second chapter and a material image in
the third. They are not identical but there would logically be a connection between
them. This connection we have tried to show, and to build a set of circumstances to
explain Daniel’s absence from the episode of the fiery furnace. We have tried to show

the conflict in the mind of Nebuchadnezzar arising from the respect he had for the
Hebrew Jehovah from the outset, (inclining him to incorporate Him into his pantheon)
and his stubborn refusal to yield to Him. This desperate conflict resulted in his
madness and finally his conversion.

To bridge the gap of over three decades between the fourth and fifth chapters was
difficult, but, we hope will not prove too tedious to the reader but will be found to
maintain the unity of the story which we have sought so earnestly to achieve.

Chronologically the story covers the period from the conquest of Jerusalem under
Nebuchadnezzar to the decree of Cyrus for the return of the people and the restoration
of the city and temple, the seventy years of Babylonian captivity. It is the record of the

impact of a man upon seven kings and two empires, a man who lived a life of
inflexible obedience to his God from shining youth to hoary age. It is designed to
challenge every reader with the tremendous rewards of virtues in the impress that he
made on his own time and the far-reaching effects of his witness upon subsequent

generations, even to the time of the Godly Magi six centuries later who came from the
East to seek the infant Christ. So carefully did Daniel and his friends inculcate the
fraternity of the Magi with the Messianic hope of Israel, that over half of a millennium

later they had a clearer grasp of it than Israel itself.

The urge to put the story into written form has come from the breathless interest
with which the oral story has been received by innumerable audiences on both sides of
the Pacific Ocean. We have sought not merely to fascinate with the dramatic

sequences of the narrative whether spoken or written, but to drive the spiritual lessons
contained in them, to strengthen the faith of those who have faith and to woo to faith