(5.) The real objection to the book lies, as already intimated, in the supernatural character of its contents—­in the remarkable miracles and prophecies which it records.  The miracles of this book are of a very imposing character, especially adapted to strike the minds of the beholders with awe and wonder.  But so are those also recorded in the beginning of the book of Exodus.  In both cases they were alike fitted to make upon the minds of the heathen, in whose presence they were performed, the impression of God’s power to save and deliver in all possible circumstances.  The prophecies are mostly in the form of dreams and visions; and they are in wonderful harmony with Daniel’s position as a minister of state at the court of Babylon, and also with the relation of Judaism to the heathen world.  In the providence of God, the history of his covenant people, and through them of the visible kingdom of heaven, had become inseparably connected with that of the great monarchies of the world.  How appropriate, then, that God should reveal, in its grand outlines, the course of these monarchies to the final and complete establishment of the kingdom of heaven (2:44, 45; 7:26, 27).  In all this we find nothing against the general analogy of prophecy, but every thing in strict conformity with it.  In the seventh chapter there appears, for the first time, an interpreting angel communicating to the prophet, in connected discourse, the meaning of the vision which he has just seen.  So also in the eighth chapter and onward.  Such a mode of revelation is peculiarly adapted to the communication of details, and in the eleventh chapter these are given to an unparalleled extent.  But this constitutes no ground for denying the reality of the prophecy.  Though the spirit of prophecy does not, as a general rule, give future events in their succession, this is sometimes done.  So it is in God’s announcement to Abraham of the bondage of his posterity (Gen. 15:13-16); and also in our Lord’s prophecy of the overthrow of Jerusalem (Matt., chap. 24).  In this respect it does not become us to prescribe rules for the wisdom of God.

We need not pursue this subject any farther.  No one of the above difficulties, nor all combined, can outweigh the evidence we have for the genuineness and authenticity of the book of Daniel.  On the contrary, the hypothesis that it belongs to so late an age as that of the Maccabees is beset with difficulties inconceivably greater.  It has for its foundation not sober criticism, but the denial of the supernatural.

CHAPTER XXIII.

THE TWELVE MINOR PROPHETS.