then you do not love God above all things. Say to-day three Hail Maries for the increase of your faith, the confirmation of your hope, and the kindling of your love.
Chapter LXXVIII.
KING BALTASSAR.— THE GOD BEL.
[Dan. 5 and 14.]
After the death of Nabuchodonozor, Baltassar, his grandson, ascended the throne. One day Baltassar gave a great banquet [1] to the nobles of his kingdom, and ordered the golden cups, which his grandfather had taken from the Temple of Jerusalem, to be brought forth and used at the banquet.
The sacred vessels were brought, and the king and his wives and his officers drank from them, and they praised their gods of gold and of silver and of stone. At that moment a hand appeared, and fingers were seen writing three words upon the wall over against the king. Baltassar grew pale [2] and trembled, for the joints of that hand were moving and wrote: Mane, Thecel, Phares [3]. He called for his wise men, that they might interpret the writing. But none of them could do so. Then Daniel, who had received from God the gift of prophecy, together with that of explaining hidden things, came forth and spoke to the king:
“Thou hast lifted up thyself against the Lord of heaven. Thou hast praised thy gods of gold and silver; but the Lord of heaven, who hath thy breath in His hands, thou hast not glorified. Thou knowest that thy grandfather was punished for his pride; that he was driven away from the sons of men, and that he ate grass in the field with the ox and the ass, and yet thou hast not humbled thy heart.
- ↑ A great banquet. This was on a day when, every year, the Babylonians celebrated a great feast in honour of their gods. It was a great sacrilege to use the sacred vessels of the Temple in honour of their gods. “While they drank, they praised their gods of gold and of silver, of brass, of iron and of wood and of stones’' (Dan. 5,4); and by so doing they treated with contempt the true God to whom the vessels were consecrated.
- ↑ Grew fate. He was pale from fear, for his guilty conscience told him that the apparition could foretell nothing favourable to him.
- ↑ Mane, Thecel, Phares. These are Chaldaic words and mean: Numbered, Weighed, Divided.
