Daniel 1:8 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… We have the high thinking that follows "plain living." No doubt the frugal fare helped to keep the brains clear and the minds ready for work. The same Spartan discipline leads to the same results in many a Scottish University and American farmhouse, where some lad is half starving himself and enthusiastically grappling with study. Where do the great scholars and thinkers come from? From "huts where poor men lie," from humble homes where profusion was unknown and poverty often looked in at the window. Pulse and water are helps, not hindrances, to intellectual clearness and progress in knowledge. When the examination day came, the youths who had had "a good time" with "the king's meat," and, no doubt, had often laughed at the strait-laced four, were at the bottom of the lists, if they passed at all, and the four were at the top, as such people generally are. (A. Maclaren.) Parallel Verses KJV: 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: therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself. |
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