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reference to his own, she repaid his kindness with equal generosity, giving the king to understand that she had discovered the plot against him by information conveyed to her from him who sat at the gate. Upon careful investigation the whole conspiracy was detected; the guilty parties were put to death, and the affair was noted among the other memorable incidents of the king's reign, in the public annals of the kingdom. Yet, when the danger was averted, and the event recorded, the indolent and luxurious king thought no more of the matter, and Mordecai remained unrewarded for his fidelity. But though unrequited in the meantime, his name was in the record, and his good service was singularly noticed afterwards.

Let us now make some practical improvement of the incidents related in these verses. There are three topics suggested by them, to which we may briefly advert.

1. In the first place, we cannot read this narrative without drawing from it a lesson as to the uncertainty of life. It might seem as if the ordinary contingencies to which those are exposed who traverse the ocean, who have to rush into the battle-field, or who are engaged in other perilous employments, could not possibly reach the luxurious inmate of a palace, who is guarded by troops of armed men, and whose wish can command every thing that pertains to safety, health, and enjoyment. But the destroying sword may be hanging as by a single hair over the head of the ruler of a vast empire, making his life as contingent as that of the mariner when the storm. suddenly bursts forth upon him, or of the soldier when

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If

he is under the thick fire of the enemy. speaking, those who occupy the middle class of society, whose wants are supplied without any danger or painful toil, and who have nothing to dread from the envy and enmity of others, live in greatest security, and have least occasion to fear what is usually called accident, as affecting their life. But even they have no better reason than others to imagine themselves secure. "The silver cord may be loosed, and the golden bowl broken" in a moment, and when there is no external violence put forth to give the decisive blow. This we learn from the experience of every day, and yet men will hardly open their ears to hear this statement pressed upon their attention: it is so often urged. It would be well, however, if would fix your you minds upon it for a moment. many around you, without respect to age or condition, have been cut down with little warning, have had their fairest plans and prospects made void by sudden disease, followed by unexpected death, the same may be your fate. Now if the stroke descend upon you while you are unconverted, you are for ever lost. Is it then a small thing we ask of you, is it not what the forecasting sagacity which you exercise with regard to worldly things would warrant us to suppose that you would do, when we beseech you to keep in view the end and measure of your days, and to live so under the power of the world to come as if at every moment you might be summoned into it? My meaning is not, that we should go about with the fear of death upon us continually, and look upon this world as a graveyard, all gloomy and terrible. To

live under the servile fear of death is not the way to prepare for it. But to have our faith resting upon Christ, the sure foundation, to have the anchor of hope cast within the veil, and to have all our temporal interests so subordinated to those which are eternal, as to shew that we look for our proper existence hereafter, this is to be prepared for the great summons when it is sent to us. And the practical use which we should make of the uncertainty of the present life, is to have a sure interest in Christ, which will render the life to come all certainty and blessedness to us. If a moment transports the victim of sin and folly, the impenitent and unbelieving, into the place of darkness; a moment, a quick knock by Christ at the door of His people, raises them to the region of light and glory, where they see Him as He is, and rejoice for ever in His love.

2. In the second place, the narrative before us teaches us, that whatever station in providence men are called to fill, they may be instrumental in conferring important benefits on others. Mordecai, a man of humble rank, exercising compassion and benevolence, trained up the orphan girl who became queen of Persia, and through whose instrumentality vast benefits were conferred upon the Jews. Mordecai, who sat in the king's gate, saved the life of the king. And many incidents there are, recorded both in ancient and modern history, which illustrate the truth that in human society the several classes are so dependent on one another, that the highest may be made debtor to the lowest, and that the humblest may render services to those above them,

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which cannot be adequately repaid. Such fidelity as Mordecai exhibited has been often exemplified.

But the remark which we have just made may be transposed to services more important than those which have reference to the present life and its concerns. What an immense power, for instance, is possessed by the nurse to whose care the children of a family are committed, and who, by the faithful execution of her trust, may implant the seeds of truth in the youthful heart so deeply that no worldly influence will afterwards efface them. There is something higher here than the mere saving of life. It is good service when the nurse interested in her charge watches over them in their infant troubles, and spends many a sleepless night when disease has fastened on them, and when the hand of affection must be continually about them; but surely it is higher service-service of the kind which it is scarcely possible to recompense-when the growth of right prineiple in the young, the knowledge of divine truth, and the practical exemplification of the power of the truth, can be traced back, as it can sometimes be, to the lessons and training of the nursery. And what we have remarked with respect to Christian fidelity in one particular department of service, may be applied generally. Every follower of Christ, in whatever sphere he moves, may do incalculable good to those around him, even to those who are placed high above him. Every one may be instrumental in bringing the knowledge of eternal life within the reach of some who are perishing for lack of it. And the very exhibition of faithfulness to Christ,

in discharging the ordinary duties of life so that He may be glorified, has a power in it to arrest the attention of the thoughtless, and to commend the gospel even to some who are disposed to regard a very high profession of religion as little better than hypocrisy. Let no Christian, then, say, "I can do nothing." If you cannot do so much as you would, a consistent and faithful life, spent in all the unobtrusiveness of true humility, will be a lesson to some that may be productive of vast benefit.

3. In the third place, from the narrative under review we are led to think of a record of unrequited deeds. Mordecai's information saved the life of the king, and was duly noticed in the annals of the kingdom; but it lay there for a considerable time, apparently as a dead letter. There is evidently a twofold application that may be made of this particular. The acts of wicked men are all recorded, and will be brought into judgment. The hand of justice does not always follow the perpetration of the evil act. Sentence against sin is not always executed speedily; and therefore transgressors harden themselves in their wickedness. Yet the retribution, if it be slow, is certain. Sinners forget their sins; but a book of remembrance is kept on high, and there will be a rendering to every man according to his works.

But it is not so much this aspect of the question that is presented to us in the text, as the more pleasing one, that the services of God's people are recorded, and are not sufered to pass unrewarded in the end. The reward, indeed, may not come in the present life. The faithful disciples