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HUMILITY HONOURED.

of the minutest trifle, as when he is filled with vain thoughts of his own importance. He is sure to be ruffled and chafed, and that exactly in proportion to the estimate which he forms of himself. And when the humiliation comes, he is loaded with ridicule instead of meeting with sympathy, and the higher his pretensions have been, the more degrading is his fall.

2. But in the second place, and as suggested by the text, rather than directly taught by it, there is encouragement here for the humble-minded. Perhaps there was not an individual in the whole city of Susa, who thought more meanly of himself than Mordecai. Yet there was a book of remembrance kept by the king in which his good deeds were recorded, and although the recompence was not soon made it was made in due time. When he was least expecting it, and when he was thinking whether there could possibly be a way of escape from death opened up to him, he was singled out by the king as worthy of the highest honours. He learnt by experience, that it is better to be of "an humble spirit with the lowly, than to divide the spoil with the proud." And so it holds good in higher matters, my friends, when you form a true estimate of yourselves as utterly unworthy of the divine favour. I do not say when you express this in words;-but when you feel it, then the Lord casts a gracious eye upon you. "God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble." The selfemptying spirit is just that which Christ the King rejoices in. And those who look up to Him, feeling that they have nothing, are in the direct way to obtain

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more than they could have ventured to ask, out of His glorious riches. Whether for well-being in time or in eternity, then, humility is our proper ornament. Pride and vanity must be cast away.

But we must now look for a moment at the remaining verses of the chapter. Ver. 12-14: "And Mordecai came again to the king's gate. But Haman hasted to his house mourning, and having his head covered. And Haman told Zeresh his wife and all his friends everything that had befallen him. Then said his wise men and Zeresh his wife unto him, If Mordecai be of the seed of the Jews, before whom thou hast begun to fall, thou shalt not prevail against him, but shalt surely fall before him. And when they were yet talking with him, came the king's chamberlains, and hasted to bring Haman unto the banquet that Esther had prepared."

We have here to notice again, what has been referred to before, the humility of Mordecai. After all the honour that had been paid to him, he comes to occupy his old position, as if nothing extraordinary had taken place. We may suppose, indeed, that the strange incidents of the day had inspired him with hope that the Jews would yet escape from the plot which had been laid for their destruction; but there was no haughtiness expressed in his deportment, and if any further advancement was designed for him, he was contented to wait for it in his usual place of service. But it is Haman we have principally to look at. He had retired to his house before, a miserable man for a foolish reason. Now, however, as we have said already, he has some cause to be

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mortified and dejected, to cover his head and to mourn. Yet who can pity him? It is a just retribution that has overtaken him; it is his own wicked heart that has prepared for him this cup of bitterness. He would have one of the king's most noble princes lead the horse of the man whom the king delighted to honour. He conceived himself to be the very noblest of all, and it was only fitting, therefore, that, as a punishment of his pride, he should have this duty to perform to Mordecai. In his former trouble, his wife and his friends had been able to administer at least temporary comfort to him, but now they can suggest no remedy. On the contrary, his wise men, i.e., the astrologers whom he kept and consulted, strangely enough, spoke so as to add to his misery. "If Mordecai be of the seed of the Jews, before whom thou hast begun to fall, thou shalt not prevail against him, but shalt surely fall before him." The language is somewhat obscure, but the purport of it evidently is, that the advancement of Mordecai was not only in itself an omen of no good to Haman, but that it was an indication that his scheme to destroy the Jews would fail, and that his own ruin might be the consequence. How they came to speak so, has been the subject of many conjectures. Some have supposed that as Balaam and Caiaphas were enabled to prophesy truly, so these astrologers may have been unconsciously guided at this time by a divine influence. But conjecture is vain. No doubt Haman was alarmed when he heard their words, but he had not time to ask an explanation. The king's chamberlains broke up the conference, by coming to bring him to Esther's banquet.

Now, the concluding remark which I would leave with you on a survey of the whole subject we have reviewed, respects the security and advancement of God's people amid all the troubles to which they are exposed. There is nothing miraculous in this part of the narrative. Everything falls out in accordance with the ordinary laws of nature. And yet there is such an arrangement and piecing together of events as is equivalent to a miracle, if I may so speak. Even so still, the Lord can provide for the safety and honour of His own in the common course of His providence. See to it, my friends, that you can claim Christ as your brother, and have your names written among God's children, and then you need be exercised by no anxious and depressing cares, for all things work together for good to them that love God and are members of His family. Amen.

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LECTURE XII.

CHAPTER VII. 1-10.

THE last discourse brought under our review a wonderful change in the affairs of Haman and Mordecai, in which, though unseen, the hand of a special providence was immediately concerned. The wicked Amalekite had left his house early that morning, and repaired to the palace, that he might obtain from the king a warrant for the death of Mordecai. He was admitted to an audience of the monarch sooner than he could have expected. But ere he had time to make the request which he was so anxious to submit, and which he had hoped would be granted without inquiry or difficulty, the king anticipated him, by asking what should be done to the man who was entitled to receive the highest honours which the sovereign could confer. Haman, full of vanity and self-importance, could not for a moment doubt that he himself was the person whom the king had in view; and accordingly, under this impression, he proposed such honours for the favoured individual as no one else would have ventured to name. His counsel fell in with the present humour of the king, and he was directed forthwith to go and confer this honour upon Mordecai the Jew, and to wait upon him personally as his attend