But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s meat, nor with the wine which he drank.”— Daniel i. 8. It is not for me to stress the war hysteria, jingo patriotism that was generated, encouraged and gradually grew into a frenzy. All industries except war industries were depleted of workers, prices rose, wages rose slowly, the unemployed army had gone into the fighting army. The hotels were glad to take anyone into slavery, so in the catering trade entered men and women refugees, too old for the army, as cooks, chambermaids etc. Some had never seen the inside of a kitchen before, but the wages were good and everybody was happy. Ninth, to dare to be a Daniel means to include other believers in opportunities God provides – Daniel 2:49 and Daniel 3. Daniel did not hog the spotlight. He involved others and delegated authority to them: No doubt Daniel's stand was costly. Imagine the comments of the other captives - even old buddies from home: "What are you trying to prove? You’re going to get us all killed!" Or, "Here comes Deacon Daniel!" Or, "Quit trying to play God, Daniel!" Imagine having to eat vegetables and drink only water for three years (vs15-16)! Not too exciting! It wasn't easy, but Daniel made up his mind that he would be faithful to the Lord.

The whole Bible—from start to finish—is about Jesus (v. 44). In particular, it is about His suffering, death and resurrection for the forgiveness of sins (vv. 46-47). That means that the whole Bible is about the gospel, the good news that God saves sinners in Christ Jesus. Unless we come to terms with what Jesus is saying in this passage, what we say about human examples of faithfulness in the Bible will turn into mere moralism. What it means to be a believer will be answered with nothing more than "Be brave like Daniel,""Be valiant like David," etc.

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The majority of Jewish exiles probably reasoned this way. The majority usually does reason like that. Using their misguided "common sense," they rationalized themselves right out of the will of God (Daniel 1:4-7). Fourth, to dare to be a Daniel means to respond to problems with prayer – Daniel 2:14-19a. Daniel was confronted with an impossible task. King Nebuchadnezzar had a dream that perplexed and frightened him. He needed an interpretation. But being the Trumpian leader of his day, he demanded the magicians and wisemen of his court that he had been paying so well, to earn their money. He demanded they tell him what the dream was rather than merely respond to the King’s description of the dream. If they couldn’t do so, they would be executed. Impossible? Seemed so. But when Daniel found out about it he responded to the problem with prayer. The AFB set up a publishing division, taking the name of the old Freedom Press (1886-1935). It was infiltrated by many bourgeois literary careerists who gradually, hived off FP as their own, leading to a split.

All these demands after a lot of excited and dramatic opposition, in just over one hour. There was no more work that day. The whole staff, after singing, eating, drinking, laughing, formed up outside the staff entrance and marched to the syndicate’s hall. In the hall a small band was playing workers’ songs, then came speeches. This was kept up till past 12 midnight. So ended, as one speaker said, the first round of our war on capitalism and its profits. This is the whole point of Hebrews 11: faith leads God's people to look to their heavenly reward and therefore act with bold confidence in God during their earthly sojourns. How should we respond to these examples? We, "since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses," must "lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely," and "run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith" (Heb 12:1-2). In other words, we should follow the example of the saints of old as they too looked forward to heaven in faith and hope. It should mightily strengthen and encourage us to learn of the countless ways in which God's people have been able to look to God's saving grace and thereby find strength to remain near to him by faith during their earthly pilgrimages (Heb 11:13). Following their examples is as far from moralism as is possible. God has been faithful to save his people during all generations, and he has left us a record of this in the Bible to help us on our way to our heavenly home.How exciting! Why ruin such a future by verbalizing their faith in the one true God? Why risk their lives when a little compromise would eliminate so many problems and so much stress? At the very least they could conform to the king’s commands and eat his top-notch food! And if they were silent now, maybe they could get a word in for God later - after they had established a reputation for good behavior. A little compromise now might even be a subtle way of reaching the Babylonians when the time was right. Why force things? Why go against the flow? Why be outspoken about their faith in the God of Israel? The fact that most of the captives compromised, and conformed to the ways of Babylon, shouldn’t be surprising. Some Christians do the same thing when they find themselves in non-Christian environments! Think about the Christian teen who leaves his home situation, where he was safe and secure among Christian friends and family, and arrives in the "big city" or on the secular college campus. There will be a strong tendency for that young Christian to hide his faith - or even drop it altogether. The temptation to compromise and conform is very great. Almost unconsciously he may start to make excuses for his attitudes and actions. Daniel was never intimidated by earthly position. He was not a respecter of people or their positions. Daniel was not disrespectful to people, but his highest respect was reserved for God. alone. When you dare to be a Daniel you are not swayed by peer pressure of pander to people, you serve the Living God; you serve the Lord Jesus (e.g. Galatians 1:10).

Here let me put it on record that neither in the Waiters’ Union nor in our syndicate during our four years of strike actions was there one coward or traitor. Not one out of those thousands could be bought or bribed. Every one was loyal to themselves and to their revolutionary union. Press reporters, managers of catering firms, police, all tried to find out what we were doing next. As an example, a Daily Telegraph reporter said if we could give him some copy, he would see that hotel and restaurant unemployed had a separate column all to themselves. Well, he was given some copy, useless copy, but he kept his word and the column was an accomplished fact, from then to the outbreak of the war. The next thing, dear friends, is that we must prove that the old faith produces much love of our fellow-men. You know that, nowadays, the watchword is, “the enthusiasm of humanity.” It is a curious thing that those churches that have such a wonderful “enthusiasm of humanity” speak of us as if we were always talking of God and forgetting men. Well, well; which of these new-fangled churches has an orphanage? It is very fine to talk about Christian socialism, and what you are going to do for the poor; but what have you done? Much of it is just chatter, chatter, and nothing else. But the godly, who feel that God is all, are, after all, those who care most for men; and those who believe most firmly that the unbelieving sinner will be lost are the men who are most anxious to have him saved. Those who believe that there is no salvation but by the precious blood are determined that Christ shall see of the travail of his soul. Those who believe that salvation is all of grace from first to last are moved to preach it with heart and soul wherever they have the opportunity. And, when God makes up his last account, it shall be found, I trust, that the best lovers of men have been those who were first of all the best lovers of God. By your help, by your kindness, by your benevolence, prove it, so that, when they come to look at you who have eaten nothing but pulse, and who have drunk water, they may find that after all you appear fairer and fatter in flesh than all the children who ate the portion of the king’s meat, and drank his wine. Let our labour for the conversion of souls be incessant. Let us abound and super abound in it.John 17:15–17 (NKJV) – 15 I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. What a sight met the eye! It was just a room about five yards by five with one small window, sawdust on the floor, gas, hot-and-cold water pipes all along the walls, alive with rats at night, mice and beetles on the floor. That was the general scene of all kitchens in the City of West End. Some were on the top floor, some in the basement, some a little larger. That is all that might be slightly different.