250 return to the hills and valleys of Judah. He loved the Jews, and sought their prosperity, because they were his brethreu and friends. He loved them, also, because they were the people whom God had selected from all the world to be first taught how to worship him aright and serve Him acceptably. Jn the midst of Daniel’s various employments, he yet found time for a careful study of the Holy Scriptures with meditation, and for frequent prayer to God. Those parts of the Bible which predicted the return of the Hebrews to their own country, of course, interested him deeply. He had learned from the writings of the prophèt Jeremiah, that after seventy years' captivity God would provide a way for the Jews to return ιο their own land. Jeremiah had stated this very plainly in a letter which he wrote, many years before, to the Jews at Babylon, and which Daniel undoubtedly saw when it was first received. These seventy years had almost expired when Daniel, in the first year of king Darius, set apart a
