Who is this that in the presence of the angel is so weak and feeble that for a while he cannot bear even to hear him speak; that he faints and loses speech and sight before him? It is one than whom fewnobler, few greater, or more courageous men have ever been. Daniel is a noble example of the good, great man. He had known what it was to be a captive and a prisoner, and a slave. He knew what it was to be a despot's counsellor and rule half the civilised world; and the one thing which upheld him in his first estate, and guided him to the last, was his clear sense of his own position before God and man; a large wide view of his own being; a clear view of his Master's earthly claims on him, and overspreading and bounding all other things and thoughts, the fear of God, thorough independence of man, perfect dependence upon God.
I. A strong sense of responsibility is the true source of genuine independence of character. To feel and know what we are, where we are, that we have real duties, and are really answerable in the most minute particulars for doing them, and for our manner of doing them this constant thought of insight is the mother of all real and lasting independence of character.
II. True independence in nothing differs more from vanity than that it has a sense of weakness, a sense of need, a craving of strength from above. Foolishness is strong in its own sight. The prophet with all his independence of character ruling provinces, standing before kings and reproving them, how did he behave when he was alone with God? Remember his softness and tenderness, his window opened towards his home, and the man in prayer upon his knees three times a day there. Or think of him, as when in my text God's message came home to him, and he says, "There remained no strength in me." It was because realities to him were real. Let us pray that we may not live as though the things of sight, touch, and taste were real, heaven and eternity shadows, but that we may feel that God and God's law alone are real, and that usages, however prevalent, however accepted, which are not after God's laws, will one day pass away and leave us, if we have trusted them, solitary, helpless, and broken.
Archbishop Benson, Boy Life: Sundays in Wellington College,p. 219.
References: Daniel 10:18; Daniel 10:19. J. Vaughan, Sermons,14th series, p. 13; Preacher's Monthly,vol. vi., p. 368. Daniel 10:19. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xix., No. 1089. 10 Expositor,3rd series, vol. ii., p. 437; J. G. Murphy, The Book of Daniel,p. 162. 10, 11 W. M. Taylor, Daniel the Beloved,p. 203.Daniel 11:31. W. M. Statham, Christian World Pulpit,vol. iii., p. 257. Daniel 11:32. Spurgeon, Morning by Morning,p. 217. Daniel 11:32; Daniel 11:33. Ibid., Sermons,vol. xi., No. 609. Daniel 11:36. Expositor,3rd series, vol. iv., p. 40. 11 J. G. Murphy, The Book of Daniel,p. 166.