Even a writer of such a stamp as Albert Barnes (_Comm. on Dan._ iii. 23)
is obliged to confess that "with some things that are improbable and
absurd, the Song contains many things that are beautiful and that would
be highly appropriate if a song had been uttered at all in the furnace."
But to a contrary effect J. Kennedy goes even further than Dean Farrar,
calling it "an elaborate composition by some one whose imagination
failed to realise what was fitting and natural to men in the position of
the three Hebrews in the fiery furnace" (_Dan. from a Christian
Standpoint,_ 1898, p. 55).
The passage vv. 26 to 34 is provided in Littledale's _Priest's P.B._
(1876, p. 95) as a suitable Scripture reading for those "in fever."
Although there is a kind of appropriateness in the narrative of the fire
being driven off, many would regard this application of the extract as
highly fanciful, and not quite agreeable to the object with which the
piece was written.
OBJECT.
Unless we assume the writer to be purely an imaginative novelist, the
preservation of serviceable traditions as profitable records of
religion, is clearly his principal aim.
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