, he ought to be the best shoeblack in the parish.' If we call
ourselves Christians, we are bound, by the very name, to live in such a
fashion as that men shall have no doubt of the reality of our profession
and of the depth of our fellowship with Christ. It is by our common
conduct that they judge us. And the 'Christian Endeavourer' needs to
remember, whether he or she be old or young, that the best sign of the
reality of the endeavour is the doing of common things with absolute
rightness, because they are done wholly for Christ's sake.

It is a sharp test, and I wonder how many of us would like to go out
into the world, and say to all the irreligious people who know us, 'Now
come and tell me what the faults are that you have seen in me.' There
would be a considerable response to the invitation, and perhaps some of
us would learn to know ourselves rather better than we have been able to
do. 'We shall not find any occasion in _this_ Daniel'--I wonder if
they would find it in _that_ Daniel--'except we find it concerning
the law of his God.' There is a record for a man!

IV. Lastly, note obedient disobedience.

The plot goes on the calculation that, whatever happens, this man may be
trusted to do what his God tells him, no matter who tells him not to do
it. And so on that calculation the law, surely as mad a one as any
Eastern despot ever hatched, is passed that, for a given space of time,
nobody within the dominions of this king, Darius, is to make any
petition or request of any man or god, save of the king only. It was one
of the long series of laws that have been passed in order to be broken,
and being broken, might be an instrument to destroy the men that broke
it. It was passed with no intention of getting obedience, but only with
the intention of slaying one faithful man, and the plot worked according
to calculation.

What did it matter to Daniel what was forbidden or commanded? He needed
to pray to God, and nothing shall hinder him from doing that. And so,
obediently disobedient, he brushes the preposterous law of the poor,
shadowy Darius on one side, in order that he may keep the law of his
God.

Now I do not need to remind you how obedience to God has in the past
often had to be maintained by disobedience to law. I need not speak of
martyrs, nor of the great principle laid down so clearly by the apostle
Peter, 'We ought to obey God rather than man.' Nor need I remind you
that if a man, for conscience sake, r