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Special Testimonies On Education
open the door to a flood of temptations. You are in possession of God’s
heavenly endowment in your intellectual faculties, and you should
not allow your thoughts to be cheap and low. A character formed
in accordance with the precepts of God’s word will reveal steadfast
principles, pure, noble aspirations, The Holy Spirit co-operates with
the powers of the human mind, and high and holy impulses are the
sure result.
Daniel and his companions had a conscience void of offense toward
God. But this is not preserved without a struggle. What a test was
brought on the three associates of Daniel when they were required to
worship the great image set up by king Nebuchadnezzar in the plains
of Dura! Their principles forbade them to pay homage to the idol;
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for it was a rival to the God of heaven. They knew that they owed to
God every faculty they possessed, and while their hearts were full of
generous sympathy toward all men, they had a lofty aspiration to prove
themselves entirely loyal to their God. To meet the appeals of the
king and his counselors that they should comply with the royal edict,
they had a store of arguments set forth most eloquently. The demand
appeared contemptible to them. With Daniel as their companion, they
had prayed and fasted, that they might understand the dream which
God gave the king. The Lord had heard their cries, and had given to
Daniel wisdom to interpret the dream; thus their own lives and the
lives of the astrologers and soothsayers had been saved. Now the very
men who had escaped death through the mercy of God to his servants,
were led by envy and jealousy to secure the decree in regard to the
worshiping of the golden image.
The king declared to the three Hebrew youth, if “ye fall down and
worship the image which I have made; well: but if ye worship not, ye
shall be cast the same hour into the midst of a burning fiery furnace;
and who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hand?” The youth
said to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee
in this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver
us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine
hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will
not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set
up. Then was Nebuchadnezzar full of fury, and the form of his visage
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was changed against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego: therefore
he spake, and commanded that they should heat the furnace one seven