ENCOURAGEMENT TO PRAYER.

277

remember that it is for high purposes that we enjoy our privilege, even for the bringing about of the consummation referred to by the prophet Daniel, when he says, "many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased."

Now in conclusion, the lesson which I would leave with you is suggested by Esther's supplications for her people. In the midst of her own elevation, she thought of the daughters of Judah and their children doomed to die, and she wept and entreated for them. This reminds us of Christ's sympathy with His people. True there are no tears in heaven. He who in the days of His flesh made supplication to the Father with strong crying and tears, supplicates in this way no longer. But in His exalted state He is still touched with the feeling of His people's infirmities. And the weakest and poorest who believe in Him have His sympathy. Wherefore be not discouraged, believers, but in the midst of all your trouble look up to Him who looks down upon you in love, and who is able to save unto the uttermost all that come unto God by Him. Amen.

LECTURE XIV.

CHAPTER VIII. 15–17, IX. 1-19.

HE subject of our last lecture was Esther's interces

THE

sion for her people, and the favourable result of it. The king could not, indeed, formally revoke the edict which had gone forth for the extermination of the Jews. To have attempted to do this, would have been so contrary to established usage, that it could not even be thought of "The writing which was written in the king's name, and sealed with the king's ring, no man might reverse." But then, although the edict must remain, something might be done virtually to break the force of it. And accordingly, as we saw, leave was given to the Jews, by a second edict, issued by Mordecai, to stand up in self-defence, and make what provision they best could to resist the attempts of those who might assail them. This, in the circumstances, was a vast boon. It implied that the Jews might regard themselves safe from any violence on the part of the officers of the king; and not only so, but that they might even get assistance from them. At the same time, however, we perceive that by these two enactments the king of Persia authorised, to a certain extent at least, the outbreaking of a civil war in his dominions, which, in whatever way it

terminated, could only be productive of much bloodshed and misery, and which must diminish the strength and resources of his kingdom. No war, indeed, whether civil or foreign, even when it is undertaken on just and necessary grounds, can be prosecuted without immediate consequences so disastrous that the heart of the Christian shrinks from the contemplation of them. The excitement of victory, and the false halo of glory which encircles the conquerors, may for a season dazzle their eyes, and make them insensible of the fearful price which has been paid for their triumph. But when the field of battle is surveyed, and all the other accompaniments of the conflict are noted, which are sometimes as revolting as the carnage of the battle-field itself; then the victors as well as the vanquished have reason to acknowledge that war cannot be waged without tremendous penalties. In no circumstances, indeed, can it be justified, except when it is undertaken in defence of liberty, or for the protection of rights and possessions which lawless ambition would otherwise make a spoil of. Yet, when we glance at the blood-stained pages of history, we perceive that of all the great wars which are there chronicled, very few can be referred to the class which may be vindicated, most of them having originated in guilty ambition, or in the caprice of despotic rulers, who, like Artaxerxes in the instance before us, sported with men's lives and fortunes, as if they themselves had been free from every kind of responsibility. But we must not enlarge upon this point, important although it be; we must proceed to consider the verses which form the subject of the pre

280

REWARD OF HUMILITY.

sent lecture. Ver. 15-17: "And Mordecai went out from the presence of the king in royal apparel of blue and white, and with a great crown of gold, and with a garment of fine linen and purple: and the city of Shushan rejoiced and was glad. The Jews had light, and gladness, and joy, and honour. And in every province, and in every city, whithersoever the king's commandment and his decree came, the Jews had joy and gladness, a feast, and a good day. And many of the people of the land became Jews; for the fear of the Jews fell upon them."

White and blue were the peculiar colours of the royal apparel in Persia; so that it would appear that when Haman said: "Let the man whom the king delighteth to honour be clothed in royal apparel;" he did not mean merely that he should be arrayed in such costly robes as the king himself might not have been ashamed to wear, but in robes precisely of the same kind as he was accustomed to wear. The coronet of gold, and the garment of fine linen and purple, were not so exclusively the ensigns of royalty, as of high nobility. But the ambition of Haman had soared beyond that of any former favourite. Thinking that the honour was to be conferred upon himself, nothing less would satisfy him than the very dress of the king: and thus it came to pass, that while he received. his well-merited reward, the unpretending and humble Mordecai came out from the king's presence in such attire as no subject before him perhaps had ever worn. When it is said that "the city Shushan rejoiced and was glad," this expression, if it is to be understood liter

GRIEF TURNED INTO JOY.

281

ally must mean either that there were public rejoicings by the king's appointment, which is by no means unlikely; or that Haman, by his haughtiness and his oppressive conduct, had made himself so many enemies in all classes of the community, that his downfall caused joy and satisfaction so wide-spread, that the whole city might be said to share in it. To one class, at all events, the advancement of Mordecai afforded unmingled delight, viz., the Jews. Only the day before they had had to regard themselves as a proscribed race, who must wait submissively until the fatal day came that had been fixed for their destruction; and from whom all opportunity of flight and means of resistance were alike withdrawn. But now their captivity is turned back in a few short hours, and they are like men that dream. It is not wonderful that they should have had "light and gladness, and joy, and honour." And then, as the king's messengers travelled into the provinces with the decree which brought the tidings of deliverance to the afflicted people, the publication of the good news was hailed with rapture in every place where a colony of them was settled; so that it was as if the old days of the jubilee had returned, as if the outcast and persecuted had felt that a refuge was once more opened up to them from all their troubles. "In every province, and in every city, whithersoever the king's commandment and his decree came, the Jews had joy and gladness, a feast, and a good day." Then it is added in the concluding sentence, that "many people of the land became Jews, for the fear of the Jews fell upon them." It is very proba

S