Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible: Daniel

“As first among the mighty for usefulness, we are bound to mention him whose name is a household word—MATTHEW HENRY. He is most pious and pithy, sound and sensible, suggestive and sober, terse and trustworthy. You will find him always racy in his metaphors, rich in his analogies, happy in his illustrations, and overflowing in his reflections. He delights in appositions and alliterations; but his style is generally epigrammatic, and full of force. He sees the spiritual meaning of the text at once, and is not content with giving us merely critical remarks upon the words, but enters into the soul of the passage. He is deeply spiritual, heavenly, and profitable, finding food for reflection in every verse, and drawing from all he reads most practical and telling lessons. His is a kind of commentary to be placed where I saw it in the old meeting-house at Chester—chained to the desk for any one to read. It is the commentary for the everyday man, the old Christian’s companion, fit for anybody, instructive to all.

Every minister ought to read Matthew Henry entirely and carefully through at least once. I would recommend this to be done in the twelve months after leaving college. Begin with the beginning, and resolve to go through the land from Dan to Beersheba. You will acquire a vast stock of pulpit matter if you read with a notebook in hand; thoughts will leap to you from every page, like grasshoppers in a summer meadow. If you publicly expound the chapter which you have been reading, your people will wonder at the novelty of your observations and the profundity of your thoughts, and you will then be able to tell them what a grand treasure Henry is.”—C.H. Spurgeon