Daniel 2:45

Daniel 2:45

(with Proverbs 27:1)

Our subject is the future, and we are to find out what is known, and also what is unknown about it.

I. We owe a great deal, both in the way of stimulus and in the way of education, to the very mysteriousness of the future. It is expectancy call it hope and fear that gives life a rare interest: hope itself sometimes brings with it a sting of pain, and fear now and again brings with it even something of weird pleasure. Life that had no future would be but a flat surface, a stiff and cold monotony, a world without a firmament. But with a future it is a hope, an inspiration, a sweet and gracious promise.

II. We know the great broad features of the future, but next to nothing of its mere detail. Mortality, destiny, the future moral state of the world but detail, nothing!Still, this ignorance of detail ought not to interfere with our right apprehension and proper use of the future. The fact of our ignorance of the future should have a deeply religious effect upon us: (1) dependence; (2) earnestness.

Parker, The Ark of God,p. 222.

References: Daniel 2:46. R. Payne-Smith, Homiletic Magazine,vol. vii., p. 121. 2 J. G. Murphy, The Book of Daniel,p. 85; Preacher's Monthly,vol. ii., p. 184.Daniel 3:1. Ibid.,vol. iv., p. 243.Daniel 3:14. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xxxii., No. 1930; C. Kingsley, The Good News of God,p. 31.