3/25/2023 0 Comments Gears 5 wallpaper 1920x1080![]() If it is no longer a furnace, it has sneering and scorning and social ostracism. The times are refined, but it has still its deadly enmity, as sharp in the teeth as ever. Resist still, and it opens the furnace, no longer the furnace of wood or pitch. Its first commandment is, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me" and for all its beauty and refinement, it is cruel - oh, deadly cruel. ![]() It has allurement still it gathers to it still all music, art, and refinement, - everything that delights the senses, and makes the homage of its worshippers easy but it is arbitrary and capricious as ever. It is the world spirit, the spirit of earthly glory, wealth, success and a right lordly spirit it is, towering, like Nebuchadnezzar's image, aloft, and decked out, too, like it, with flashing gold. It is no longer embodied in outward form of idol or king. Men and women, the image of Dura is with us still. Who is that God, who is able to deliver you out of my hands?" Yes, the image, overlaid with gold, flashing in the sun there, is an image erected to success and human glory. The true man comes out in such phrases as these: "Is not this the great Babylon which I have built?. But it is not difficult to see that Nebuchadnezzar's god was, after all, only a deification of Nebuchadnezzar himself. What is the meaning of this decree? Doubtless, in the first place, it was largely political - a method, not unwise, of uniting the many different elements of his scattered empire, and securing his own supremacy. To a certain magnificence and generosity of character he united vast arrogance, an ungovernable temper, and vindictive cruelty yet he was so religious that all the records of his deeds are ascription to his god. Greater than his victories abroad was his conquest of the magnificent city of Babylon, with its colossal walls and temples, which may justly be called his creation. While yet only crown prince he had swept in triumph through Syria and Palestine, and inflicted a severe defeat on Egypt. He occupies a large space in Scripture, and the disinterred libraries of the East are filled with the records of his glory. No figure emerges from the mist of ancient times more clearly defined than Nebuchadnezzar. And it was of such heroism that the men in our text are an example. To be honest when honesty is the best policy, to be right when broad lines of right and wrong are marked down and acknowledged by all men, that is good but to dare to be honest, and good, and true when it is not the best policy, when it is not popular - commend me to the man of this sort for the highest hero. But if you wish to know who the true heroes of men are, ask who are those who dare to do right, simply because it is right, secure of no applause from the world, certain only of disapproval - standing alone. But there is one thing to be said with regard to all these, they have all one strong inducement to heroism - the onlooking and the applause of the spectators. Noble types of courage all of them - heroes worthy of crosses and of honours. He will swim through the boiling surf, with a rope in his teeth, to the ship that has been stranded. He will rush through suffocating smoke and scorching heat, and come forth presently with the life he has rescued from the flames. Or here is another, there is the fireman. He will dash through a storm of grape, and stand first upon the enemy's breastwork, covered with wounds. Some types of hero at once rise to your mind. ![]() What the world has to decide is the highest kind of courage. Dare great things, look at them in the face, and at once you are secure of the crown of laurel. Hero worship is the one form of religion, if you will allow me to call it so, that binds the whole world. If you found any image copyrighted to yours, Please contact us, so we can remove it or mention its authors name.There are certain Jews whom you have set over the affairs of the province of Babylon, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego these men… Īll images remain property of their original owners.
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