AMONG the questions that naturally arise when one reads the history of Daniel and his three friends are these: Why, with all the wisdom and spiritual understanding which these men possessed and were so well able to prove, were they found in a condition of captivity to a foreign power that had no sympathy whatever with their religious beliefs, but was decidedly heathen in its worship of idols? Why was it not possible for these men to exercise their spiritual insight and vision so that, instead of falling victims to the disaster that befell their nation as a whole, they might at least have saved themselves from the fate that befell those of less understanding? Or, again, why was it not possible that the understanding of these men should have saved the whole nation of Judah from captivity to an alien power?
Surely they were possessed of a high degree of spiritual understanding when they could willingly submit their bodies to the lions or to the flames, and suffer no consequences such as would attach to a like course with human beings less spirituailly-minded. Could not absolute reliance upon their God, the one and only true God, have saved them from the necessity of passing through such tests of their faith and understanding? Could it not have shielded them from the shafts of malice and hatred, and have allowed them to dwell in safety in quiet habitations? Could not the wisdom vouchsafed to Daniel, which enabled him to tell the king his forgotten vision after all the Chaldean wise men had been sentenced to death because of their inability to answer the king's seemingly absurd demand—could not such wisdom have foreseen the disaster which was to befall Judah, and have warded it off? Many questions of this nature arise. The Bible is silent as to the answer, except as one is able to read between the lines in the light of spiritual understanding the answers to one's own questions. To the spiritually unillumined there is no answer to such questions; but the spiritual understanding gained from the study and demonstration of Christian Science in daily living does furnish answers that satisfy.
It is recorded in the history of Daniel that as soon as the captives were in the land of Shinar, the king directed that young men of the Hebrews should be selected for the court service. Daniel and his three friends were among those chosen. When it became known to Daniel and his friends that they were expected to partake of the king's food for their sustenance, and later were to be examined in comparison with others to find out who should stand before the king, spiritual intuition showed them that they could not partake of the practices of idol worshipers in any degree, if they were to demonstrate the spiritual wisdom to meet and overcome the seeming opposition to spirituality which they no doubt foresaw was to be their portion among idol worshipers. So they made request that they should not be fed on the king's meat, but upon pulse, a vegetable diet, which may be taken as representing freedom from carnal desire, freedom from the pomp of material riches and opulence.
