Page:PracticalCommentaryOnHolyScripture.djvu/377

 is able  to  save  us  from  the  furnace  of  burning  fire;  but  if  He will  not,  we  will  not  worship  thy  god,  nor  adore  the  golden statue.” The  king  then  ordered  that  a furnace  should  be  heated seven times  more  than  ordinarily,  and  that  three  of  the  strongest soldiers of  his  army  should  bind  the  young  men  and  cast  them, clothed as  they  were,  into  the  furnace.

The order  was  instantly  executed. But the  angel  of  the  Lord went down  with  the  three  holy  youths  into  the  furnace,  and behold, inside  the  flames  were  extinguished,  but  outside  the  fires burned and  flashed  and  destroyed  the  men  who  had  executed  the king’s cruel  order. They were  instantly  consumed  by  the  raging  fire.

Within the  furnace  the  air  was  cool  and  fresh,  like  to  the breeze when  the  dew  is  falling. And the  three  young  men,  seeing themselves so  wonderfully  preserved,  sang  a glorious  canticle  of praise  and  thanksgiving,  which  the  Church  of  God  still  sings  in her  divine  service.

The king,  astonished  to  hear  voices  in  the  furnace  singing, rose up  and  said  to  his  nobles:  “Did  we  not  cast  three  men, bound, into  the  midst  of  the  fire? I see four  men,  loose,  and walking in  the  midst  of  the  fire,  and  the  form  of  the  fourth  is like  the  Son  of  God.”

Then going  to  the  door  of  the  furnace,  he  said:  “Ye  servants of the  Most  High  God,  go  ye  forth  and  come.”  Thereupon  the young men  came  forth  safe  and  sound:  not  so  much  as  a hair of their  head  was  burned,  nor  was  the  smell  of  fire  on  their garments. Seeing this  prodigy,  Nabuchodonozor  blessed  God, saying: “Blessed  be  the  God  of  Ananias,  Misael  and  Azarias, who has  sent  His  angel,  and  delivered  His  servants  that  believed in Him.”

He then  decreed  that  whosoever,  in  all  his  kingdom,  blasphemed the  God  whom  these  young  men  adored  should  be  put