About the same time he seems to
have shown Darius, who, though not an idolater himself, was puzzled
by seeing that the victuals daily spread on Bel's golden table always
disappeared, that after all, the idol was not the consumer. He spread
ashes on the floor at night, and in the morning showed the king the
tell-tale footmarks of men, women, and children, the priests and their
families, the true devourers of the feast. No wonder that after this,
the Persians ruined the Temple of Bel, while decay began in Babylon,
and the river never being turned back into its proper bed, spread into
unwholesome marshes. Daniel, when at Susa, a Median city on the river
Ulai, beheld his last vision, when the Angel Gabriel prophesied to him
in detail all the wars of the Persians, and afterwards of the Greek
kings of Egypt and Syria, who should make Judea their battlefield, and
the afflictions of the Jews under the great Syrian persecutor. He ended
with a sure promise to Daniel himself, that he should "stand in his lot"
when the end of all things should come; and some time after this blessed
assurance, died this "man greatly beloved," a prince, a slave, an exile,
and a statesman, perhaps the most wonderful of all the sons of David,
except the great Anointed One of whom he spoke.
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