Homilist Daniel 5:5 In the same hour came forth fingers of a man's hand… This chapter develops two solemn facts. 1. That neither the revolutions of time nor the opposition of man can hinder the fulfilment of the Divine word. 2. That at the period when men fancy themselves most secure the peril is frequently the most imminent. I. THAT IT IS AN "HOUR" THAT MUST DAWN ON THE MOST OBDURATE NATURES. There are two classes of dormant consciences; those that have never been aroused — infants and savages; and those that have been partially quickened, but deadened again — seared. There is an hour for the awakening of each — even the most lethargic. It was so now with Belshazzar. Other consciences of the same class have had their awakening hour — Cain, Herod, Judas, Felix, etc. II. THAT IT IS AN "HOUR " INTRODUCED BY A DIVINE MANIFESTATION. There "came forth fingers of a man's hand, and wrote over against the candlestick upon the plaister of the wall of the king's palace: and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote." 1. It was very quiet; no lightning flashed, no thunder pealed, but the gentle movements of a mystic hand. 2. It was very unexpected; it was in the midst of the gladness, when the tide of festive joy ran high. 3. It was very palpable; there was no way of ignoring it. It moved against the light of the candlestick. It is in this quiet, unexpected, and palpable manner that God frequently brings that idea of Himself into the soul, which ever rouses the conscience. III. THAT IT IS AN "HOUR" ASSOCIATED WITH GREAT MENTAL DISTRESS. "Then the king's countenance was changed, and his thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote one against another." Two things are observable here" 1. The influence of an awakened conscience upon "thoughts." Our thoughts are governed by different principles. Sometimes intellect controls them, and we are ever in the region of investigation; sometimes imagination has the command, and then we sport in the realms of beauty; sometimes avarice, and then the market is our home, and good bargains the joy of our heart; sometimes "fleshly lusts," and then the whole nature is brutalised. But here the guilty conscience controls them, and this is Hell. A guilty conscience always throws the thoughts upon three subjects — the wrong of the past, the guilt of the present, and the retribution of the future. 2. The other thing observable is the influence of "troubled thoughts" upon the physical system. "The joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote one against another." David felt thus, for he said, "When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long." IV. IT IS AN "HOUR" WHICH IS SOMETIMES THE HARBINGER OF ETERNAL RETRIBUTION. Oftentimes the hour of moral awakening ushers in the bright and propitious morning of conversion. It was so in the case of Zaccheus, the sinners on the day of Pentecost, the Philippian gaoler, and others. Indeed, such an hour must always precede the dawn of true religion in the soul. But here, as with Judas, it was the harbinger of retribution. "In that night was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain." What a night! "That night" separated him for ever from his pleasures, his friends, and his empire; "that night" terminated for ever his opportunities of spiritual improvement, and quenched every ray of hope within his breast; "that night" every star in the firmament of his being went down to rise no more, and left the whole of the boundless expanse overhung with clouds surcharged with the elements of inconceivable storms. Sinner, the day of grace is waning fast; the hour of awakening steals on. That hour shall either issue in the dawn of a new and happy life, or the chaos of moral anguish and despair! (Homilist.) Parallel Verses KJV: In the same hour came forth fingers of a man's hand, and wrote over against the candlestick upon the plaister of the wall of the king's palace: and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote. |
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