  THE JEWS AT BABYLON. FIRST READING.
WHEN the Jews came to Babylon, some were made to live in the city, where they worked at trades, and kept shops. Others lived in the country and worked in the fields. These were not like the fields at home. The goodly land at home was full of hills and valleys, with sloping pastures for the flocks, and vineyards on the sides of the hills; but the land round Babylon was quite flat, with broad rivers flowing slowly and lazily through the meadows, with weeping willows upon their banks. While Jerusalem was being besieged, Ezekiel, at Babylon, drew the picture of the town on a tile, and shut it in with a wall, and lay watching it, and weighing out a little bit of bad bread for himself to eat every day, that the other Jews who were with him might know what was going on among their brethren at Jerusalem, as God told him. And in a vision he saw the angels come and mark in their foreheads all that were good, that they might not be hurt in the siege; while the bad would die by sword, and hunger, and sickness. So it is still, God saves His own good ones. The angels know and mark them, when all the rest are given up to God's terrible anger. QUESTIONS.
EZEKIEL'S VISION.—Ezekiel 1:28. SECOND READING.
THE great prophet Ezekiel was shewn by God how the Jews should be brought back after all their troubles. The Lord made him have a sort of dream, when he saw a whole valley spread over with dry bones, and the Lord said, "Son of man, can these bones live?" And Ezekiel said, "Lord, Thou knowest." Then the Lord bade Ezekiel sing; and as he sung there was a shaking, and the bones came together again and joined in their Just so God said the kingdom of Judah was dead and scattered, but He would breathe on it, and wake it, and join it together again, like the dead bones rising to life. And just so, we know, when all our bodies are dead, and our bones lie in the grave, the call of the Lord's voice will wake them up, and we shall rise on our feet, and His breath will come to us, and we shall stand before Him an exceeding great army. For that is the resurrection of the body which we look for. QUESTIONS.
THIRD READING.
AMONG the Jews who were carried away to Babylon there were some little boys, young princes of the king's family, who had been brought up in the palace of the house of David. They could not have been more than twelve years old when they were thus taken from their homes. The king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, thought he should like to have them to wait on him. So he desired the steward Slaves instead of princes. That was sad enough, but what grieved these boys most of all was that the dinners that were sent to them all came from the king's own table, and they knew that all the meat there came from creatures that had been offered up to idols. Now there was one boy, whose name was Daniel, who knew that it was very wrong for any Jew to eat meats that had been offered to idols. Some of the boys said they did not care, and some said they were very sorry, but they could not help it. Yes, Daniel said, they could help it if they would leave off eating meat and drinking wine, and only have beans and water. LOYAL TO DANIEL. Then three more of the boys said they would stand by Daniel, and have only the beans and water rather than break God's holy Law. Their proper names were Hananiah, Azariah, and Mishael, but the king had changed all the boys' names, and he called them Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego. So Daniel asked their master, Melzar, to give them none of the rich wine and fine dainties, but only water and pulse—that is, beans. But Melzar said they would grow thin and weak on such poor food, and then the king would be angry with him. "Only try us for just ten days," Daniel said. And God so blessed the food, that at the end of ten days, Daniel, Hananiah, Azariah, and Mishael, were fairer and fatter than all their cousins and friends who had been eating the king's dainties. And Melzar had found that none were so true and honest and obedient and painstaking, so he trusted them very much; Now remember how they began. It was by giving up the things they liked when they found it was wrong to have them. When you are tempted to be greedy, would it not be a good thing to recollect Daniel and the other boys eating beans and drinking water? QUESTIONS.
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