Page 9 - The Prophet-statesman a Drama of Daniel

agreed to come and read what he had written by dictation from the mouth of the prophet.
This secretary was Baruch the son of Neriah, a young man of thirty-five, well known in
the cultured circles of Jerusalem as an able scholar and ready writer.

Michaiah, the senior student in the school, was deputed to escort Baruch to the
chamber of Elishama, where the princes were already assembled in solemn conclave.
They rose as the emissary of the prophet entered, and were seated again as the youthful

Baruch bowed deeply in recognition of their greeting. After a brief introduction he
proceeded to read from his roll of parchment. The students of the school remained
standing behind the chairs of their elders during the whole period of the reading.

Among these adolescent students who listened with gravity to the warnings of
approaching destruction of their beloved Jerusalem, were Daniel, Hananish, Mishael,
and Azariah. These four were favorites of Elishama among his younger pupils. There
were three others of the pupils who were present, but listened only halfheartedly to the

reading, their names―Adiel, Manoah, and Asa. These three were part-time students of
Elishama and part-time students in the school of Pashur, the son of Malkiah, a rival
institution inferior in scholastic standing, but more popular with the nobles of the court
of Jehoiakim.

After the meeting was dismissed, accompanying their fathers, the four serious-
minded young scholars of the school of Elishama, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and
Azariah returned to their respective homes. From that day forth over the lives of these

young Jewish patriots hung a cloud. After they had heard the reading by Baruch of the
solemn warnings of the prophet Jeremiah, they spoke often among themselves of these
matters and searched the writings of the former prophets, to see if any further
information could be obtained. One day as they sat poring over a roll of parchment

containing the prophecies of Isaiah, Mishael who read more rapidly than the others cried
out: “Look you to this, Hananiah and you Daniel and you Azariah, what the noble father
Isaiah wrote a hundred years ago! When good King Hezekiah made the mistake of
showing the messengers of the King of Babylon his whole treasure-house of riches,

father Isaiah said to him: ‘Behold the days come, that all that is in thine house, and that
which thy fathers have laid up in store until this day, shall be carried to Babylon: nothing
shall be left, saith the Lord. And of thy sons that shall issue from thee, which thou shalt

beget, shall they take away: and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the King of
Babylon!’ ”

“Are we not ourselves of the seed royal of Hezekiah?” said Daniel. “Think you, O
Mishael, that we may be carried away to Babylon, if the conqueror Nebuchadnezzar

comes hither? Do not the words of our prophet Jeremiah just confirm what the former
prophet hath written? ”