No wonder that King David in after years wrote in the 18th Psalm: "I will love Thee, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower. I will call upon the Lord . . . so shall I be saved from mine enemies!" [Illustration] [Illustration] XXXIV. THE GREAT FEAST DANIEL 5.1-31 BELSHAZZAR was the last King of the Chaldeans, and though he little suspected that this was the last Feast he would ever make, the time had suddenly come when his proud reign was ended, and his enemies would be victorious. But all this was among the hidden things of the very next day. It is only God who knows the end from the beginning, unless He makes it known to His own servants, who serve and love Him. So it came to pass that Belshazzar made a great Feast to a thousand of his lords, and he drank wine before his lords. While he was drinking the wine, he thought that he would show off some of the Holy Vessels, which Nebuchadnezzar had brought from God's Temple at Jerusalem. And Belshazzar knew very well that these Vessels had been made entirely for the Service of the Great God, the King of the whole earth. But knowing this, he went on in his profane determination to have the Vessels brought into the feast; and he and his princes, and his wives and concubines, drank wine in them, and praised their gods of gold, and of silver, and of brass, and iron, of wood and of stone. But there fell a sudden hush on the great assembly, for without the slightest warning, there appeared the fingers of a man's hand which were writing on the plaster of the Wall, just above the candlestick of the King's Palace; and the King saw the part of the hand that wrote. [Illustration: THE WRITING ON THE WALL.] Then his face grew white with fear, and his knees trembled and smote one against another, for he could not control his terror. So he called aloud to fetch the soothsayers, and promised, that if any one could tell him the meaning, he should be clothed in purple, and have a chain of gold, and be made the third ruler in the Kingdom. Then all the wise men hurried in, but they could not read the writing, nor give the interpretation. [Illustration: Belshazzar commanded his servants to clothe Daniel in scarlet.] Belshazzar was very frightened. Then the Queen hastened into the Banqueting Hall, and told him not to be frightened, as there was one man in his Kingdom who could tell dark sayings, and in whom there was the spirit which, she supposed, could only come from the gods. She little knew that this man of whom she spoke, loved and served the only True and Great God, who lives in Heaven. So Daniel was brought in before the King, and Belshazzar asked him if he were one of the Captives whom Nebuchadnezzar had brought from Jerusalem? And the King hurried on to tell him of all the gifts which he should receive, if he could tell him the meaning of the writing.