•«■ - nUNCETON, N. J. 
 
 No. ca.c, i-^3.c'.:BSJ.3.75J 
 No.Sh,H, -4^.„,]:^-u32- - 
 
 No. Booh, JS c.P.p^y ( 
 
 The John >1. Krebs Donation. 
 
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LECTURES 
 
 THE BOOK OF ESTHER 
 
 BY THE LATE 
 
 THOMAS M'CRIE, D. D. 
 
 AUTHOR OF "the LIFE OF JOHN KNOX, 
 &C, &C. &C. 
 
 ROBERT CARTER, 
 
 58 Canal-street. 
 
 1838. 
 
PRINTED BY W. B. & T. SMITH, 
 
 CORNER OF MARKET AND DIYISION STREETS. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 LECTURE I. 
 Esther I. 1 — 9. 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 Introduction. — The Penman — Canonical Authori- 
 ty — Apocryphal x\dditions — Objections Answered 
 —The Age of tlie Book— The Royal Feast 9 
 
 LECTURE II. 
 
 Esther I. 10—22. 
 
 Great Feasts — The King Merry with Wine — The 
 King's Vanity — The Pride of Vasati — Vashti 
 Deposed — The Counsel of Memucan — The 
 Wisdom of Providence — The Study of Provi- 
 dence, 28 
 
IV CONTENTS. 
 
 LECTURE III. 
 Esther II. 5—11; 15—20. 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 The Elevation of Esther— Character of Mordeeai — 
 Personal Beauty — Esther and Moses — Mordecai's 
 Presentiment — Advantages of Education — The 
 Gratitude of Esther— Dutiful Conduct of Esther, 45 
 
 LECTURE IV. 
 
 Esther II. 21—23; III. 1—6. 
 
 Divine Providence— The Treasonable Plot— The 
 Discoverv- — Fondness for Miracles — IMordecai 
 Unrewarded — Haman's Advancement — Morde- 
 cai's Refusal, ^ 64 
 
 LECTURE V. 
 
 Esther III. 6—15. 
 
 Haman's Plan of Revenge — Divination — Calumnies 
 of Persecutors — The Bribe — The Decree is issued 
 — Cruelty of Persecutors — Rulers and People, . . 73 
 
CONTENTS. V 
 
 LECTURE VI. 
 Esther IV. 1—12. 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 Hainan's Arts — Feelings inider Affliction — Morde- 
 cai's Distress — Perplexity of Esther, 91 
 
 LECTURE VII. 
 
 Esther IV. 13—17. 
 
 True Patriotism — Mordecai's Arguments — His First 
 Argmuent — His Second Argument — Foundation 
 of Faith— Activity of Faith — Concluding Argu- 
 ment, 109 
 
 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 Esther IV. 15—17; V. 1—8. 
 
 Approach to the King — Fasting — Fasting Derided — 
 Popery Countenanced — Esther in Royal Apparel 
 — Fasting aud Supplication — Encouragements to 
 Prayer — Esther's Prudence, 127 
 
Vl CONTENTS. 
 
 LECTURE IX. 
 Esther V. 9 — 14. 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 The Joy of the Wicked — Real Greatness — Pride — 
 Haman's Wounded Pride — His Discontentment 
 — x\dvice of his Friends, 147 
 
 LECTURE X. 
 
 Esther VL 1—11. 
 
 Haman's Rage — The Wakefuhiess of the King — 
 JNIordecai's Loyalty — Ingratitude of the World — 
 God's Reward of Services — Haman Outwitted — 
 Haman Humbled, 162 
 
 LECTURE XL 
 
 Esther VL 12—14. 
 
 Overruling Providence — Mordecai's Humility — 
 Haman's Mortification — Miserable Comforters — 
 Haman's Wretchedness, 179 
 
CONTENTS. VU 
 
 LECTURE XII. 
 Esther YII. 1 — 6. 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 Recapitulation — Retributions of Providence — Est- 
 her's Petition — Haman Accused — Reflections — 
 Impolicy of Persecution, 193 
 
 LECTURE XIII. 
 
 Esther VII. 7—10. 
 
 Emotion of Ahasuerus — Haman begs for his Life — 
 Haman's Doom — Punishment of Pride, 208 
 
 LECTURE XIV. 
 
 Esther VIII. 1—5. 
 Haman's Estate Confiscated— Mordecai Exalted- 
 Skill in Scripture— Esther's Intercession— The 
 True Patriot, .^ 221 
 
 LECTURE XV. 
 
 Esther VIII. 7—17. 
 
 Recapitulation — The Persian Law — Mordecai 's 
 Letters — Robes of Office — Pious Rulers — ^Joy of 
 the Jews— Promises to the Church, 236 
 
 • 
 
VUl CONTENTS. 
 
 LECTURE XVI. 
 Esther IX. 1—16. 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 The Conflicting Edicts — The Conflict— Antiimthy 
 to the Jews — Infatuation of tlie Enemy — The 
 Jews' Victory — The fate of Hainan's Sons — 
 Sympathy with Criminals — God's Watchfuhiess 
 — The Jews' Humanity , 255 
 
 LECTURE XVII. 
 
 Esther IX. 17—32. 
 
 The Victory Celebrated — Mordecai's Narrative — 
 The Feast of Purim — Authority for the Feast — 
 Religious Festivals, 275 
 
 LECTURE XVIII. 
 
 Esther X. 
 
 Scripture History — Pious Men — Apocryphal Ac- 
 counts — God's Care of his Church — Instruments 
 Raised up — Luther and Hamilton — Duty of 
 Trust in God— The Old Testament, 293 
 
LECTURES ON ESTHER 
 
 LECTURE FIRST. 
 
 Esther I. 1 — 9. 
 
 Now it came to pass in the days of Ahasuerus (this is Aha- 
 siierus which reigned, from India even unto Ethiopia, over 
 an hundred and seven and twenty provinces,) that in 
 those days, when tlie King Ahasuerus sat on the throne of 
 his kingdom, which was in Shushan tlie palace, in tlie third 
 year of his reign, he made a feast unto all his princes and 
 his servants ; the poicer of Persia and Media, the nobles 
 and princes of the provinces, being before him : when he 
 showed the riches of his glorious kingdom and the honour of 
 his excellent majesty many days, even an hundred undfour- 
 scji'e days. And wlien tliese days were expired, the king 
 made a feast unto all the people that were present in Shu- 
 shan the palace, both unto gnat and small, seven days, in 
 1 
 
10 LECTIIRE3 ON ESTHER. 
 
 the court of the garden of the hmg's palace ; where joerc 
 white, green, and blue hangings, fastened with cords of fine 
 linen and purple to silver rings and pillars of marble : the 
 beds were of gold and silver, upon a pavement of red, and 
 blue, and white, and black marble. And theij gave them 
 drink in vessels of gold, (the vessels being diverse one from 
 another,) and royal wine in abundance, according to the 
 state of the Jang. And the drinking icas according to tlie 
 law ; none did compel : for so the king had appointed to 
 all the officers of his house, that they shoidd do according to 
 every man'' s pleasure. Also Vashti tJie queen made a feast 
 for the women in the royal house whieh belonged to King 
 AJiasuerus. 
 
 The book which bears the name of this distin- 
 guished female stands intimately connected with 
 its two predecessors, and forms an appropriate 
 supplement to them. The writings of Ezra and 
 Nehemiah are chiefly confiaed to the affairs of 
 the Jews who returned to their native country, 
 and bring down the narrative of these from the 
 edict of Cyrus to the settlement of their civil 
 and ecclesiastical polity by Nehemiah, compre- 
 hending a period of about a century. 
 
 The returned captives, however, formed but 
 a small portion of the posterity of Jacob, and 
 
I N T R O D U C r 1 O N . 11 
 
 we feel a desire to be acquainted with the con- 
 dition of those who remained behind their bre- 
 thren, or who were scattered over the extensive 
 territory of the Medo-Persian empire. That 
 God should protect and bless those who obeyed 
 his command by leaving Babylon, who favoured 
 the dust of ZioR, and took pleasure in gathering 
 her stones from the rubbish in which they had 
 long been buried, we were led to expect ; but 
 we might have thought that their countrymen 
 who lagged behind, who preferred slavery or an 
 ignoble ease in a foreign land to the city of their 
 fathers' sepulchres, and the privileges of the 
 house of God, would have been deprived of the 
 special protection of Providence, as unworthy of 
 the name of Israelites, and that they would have 
 been left to reap the native consequences of their 
 own choice, and to bear the indignities and 
 oppression to which strangers and captives are 
 ordinarily subjected by their conquerors and 
 masters. God, however, deals not with his people 
 according to their weakness and folly, but saves 
 them for his name's sake. Accordingly, we 
 learn, from this book, that those who were scat- 
 
12 LECTURES ON liSTHER. 
 
 tered in the lands of the heathen were cared for, 
 as well as those who were gathered mto the 
 holy land, and that they were marvellously p/e- 
 served when a hellish plot had been laid for 
 their utter extermination. 
 
 The watchful care which God exerts over 
 his people in times of danger, is the chief lesson 
 which we are taught by this portion of sacred 
 history ; but it is not the only lesson which it 
 supplies. It lays open to us the wonderful 
 manner in which he who "declares the end 
 from the beginning" provides beforehand for 
 the execution of his purposes, for defeating the 
 schemes of his adversaries, and rescuing those 
 who put their trust in him. It shows how 
 easy it is for him to put down the mighty from 
 their seats, and to exalt them of low degree ; 
 how slippery is the path of ambition, and how 
 deceitful the gale of prosperity, which raises 
 its votaries aloft that it may dash them with 
 greater severity to the ground ; and how much 
 more safe it is to put our trust in God, and 
 walk humbly with him. These, with other 
 important instructions which may afterwards 
 
T H E P E N M A N . 13 
 
 present themselves, are impressively taught by 
 this interesting fragment of sacred history. 
 
 We are not left at any loss as to the writers 
 of the greater part of the books of Scripture ; 
 but this, though an important circumstance, is 
 still but a circumstance, and not essential to 
 their genuineness and authenticity. The Books 
 of Judges, Kings, and Chronicles, in the Old 
 Testament, and the Epistle to the Hebrews, in 
 the New, do not contain in their bosom the 
 names of their penman ; and the name of the 
 person on the title is not always that of the 
 writer. Thus, the Book of Ruth is so desig- 
 nated, not because that female wrote it, but 
 because it contains a narrative of an interesting 
 period of her life; and, perhaps, the same thing 
 may be said of the Book of Job. 
 
 The Book of Esther records certain astonish- 
 ing events in the life of that illustrious woman, 
 but it does not follow from its title that it was 
 composed by her. The supposition that it was 
 written by her cousin Mordecai, carries with it, 
 in my mind, no small degree of probability. 
 He was not only a witness of the transactions, 
 1* 
 
14 L E C T L' R K S ON E « T H K R . 
 
 but acted a principal part in all the scenes 
 which are described. It is impossible, or, at 
 least, difficult to account for the manner in 
 which he acted respecting Esther, in encoura- 
 ging her to offer herself as a candidate for the 
 royal favour, instructing her to conceal her 
 country and her relationship to him, together 
 with other circumstances which will appear in 
 the sequel, without concluding that he was 
 consciously under supernatural direction. " By 
 faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three 
 months of his parents, because they saw he 
 was a proper child." And what was said of 
 them may be applied to Mordecai, with this 
 addition, that he seemed to combine the faith of 
 that pious couple, with the presentiment which, 
 at an early period of life, agitated the breast of 
 their son. What I mean is, that he seems to 
 have possessed the gift of prophecy, or at least 
 an extraordinary spirit, similar to that which 
 fell upon those who were raised up as "Sa- 
 viours" to Israel, to avenge their cause and 
 deliver them from their enemies. Who, then, 
 more likely to have been employed by the 
 
CANONICAL A U T H O U 1 T Y . 15 
 
 Spirit of God in penning this book than he ? 
 In chapter ninth, verse 20th, it is said, — "And 
 Mordecai wrote these things, and sent letters 
 unto all the Jews that were in all the provinces 
 of the King Ahasuerus, both nigh and far." 
 This relates more immediately to what had 
 been done at Shushan, and to the appointment 
 of an anniversary feast in commemoration of 
 their deliverance. But what more natural than 
 that he should afterwards commit to writing 
 the facts which led to an issue so felicitous to 
 his countrymen, and so grateful to himself and 
 his royal relative ? Some, however, have sup- 
 posed that it was written by Ezra, others by 
 Joiachim, the son of Joshua the high priest, and 
 others by the Great Sanhedrim. 
 
 It is of more importance to inquire into its 
 canonical authority. In the first place, it was 
 received and acknowledged as canonical by the 
 ancient church of the Jews, to whom, as the 
 Apostle tells us, "were committed," as a sacred 
 deposit, "the oracles of God." Accordingly, it 
 formed a part of the sacred volume, referred to 
 by our Lord when he said, " Search the Scrip- 
 
1 G LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 tures," and by the Apostle when he said, " All 
 Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is 
 profitable." In the threefold division of the Old 
 Testament made by the Jews, it formed a part of 
 the Hagiograph. Besides, in the regular observ- 
 ance of the feast of Purim, w^e have a standing 
 proof of the authenticity of this book. The 
 later Jews, who have always guarded against 
 the introduction of spurious or apocryphal books, 
 and exerted greater jealousy over the purity of 
 their inspired canon than Christians, not only 
 acknowledge Esther as canonical, but have held 
 it in great veneration, assigning it a place next 
 to the Pentateuch. In their public service, be- 
 sides the five books of Moses, they make use of 
 other five, which they call Megilloth, namely, 
 the Song of Solomon, Ruth, Lamentations, Ec- 
 clesiastes, and Esther. The Song they read on 
 the Passover : Ruth, on the feast of weeks, or 
 Pentecost ; Lamentations, on the fast in comme- 
 moration of the destruction of the temple by the 
 Chaldeans ; Ecclesiastes, on the feast of Taber- 
 nacles, and Esther on the feast of Purim. And 
 as they give to these five books the name of 
 
APOCRYPHAL ADDITIONS. 17 
 
 iWe^i/Zf?^/i, or " volumes," so they call Esther, 
 Megillah, or "the volume," by way of emi- 
 nence. The book of Esther was also acknow- 
 ledged as inspired by the early Christian 
 church, and is expressly mentioned in the cata- 
 logue of the Council of Laodicea. 
 
 In stating the internal evidence, it may be 
 proper to contrast it with the apocryphal addi- 
 tions. In the Romish Bibles, nearly seven 
 chapters are added, and the contrast between 
 them is both striking and instructive. The 
 book itself is extant in Hebrew, the additions 
 are in Greek. In the former, every thing cor- 
 responds with the time at which it professes to 
 have been written ; in the latter, persons and 
 events are mentioned that did not exist until the 
 Persian empire was overthrown. The narra- 
 tive of events in the former is simple, natural, 
 and consistent; the narrative of the latter is 
 confused, and abounds with repetitions, ana- 
 chronisms, and even contradictions. So that it 
 would seem as if Providence had permitted 
 these additions to be made, in order to set in a 
 clearer light the antiquity, genuineness, and 
 
18 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 intrinsic value of the book itself. As there is 
 nothing in it which is faulty, contrary to truth 
 or to good manners, inconsistent with other 
 parts of Scripture, or unworthy of an inspired 
 pen ; so, on the other hand, it is excellently 
 adapted to the confirmation of faith and hope, 
 the consolation of the afflicted, the repressing of 
 pride and vain-glory, and the cherishing of 
 humility and confidence in Divine Providence. 
 
 The objections to its canonical authority may 
 be easily answered. First, it is objected, that 
 " some of the early Christian waiters have not 
 acknowledged it." I answer, some of the early 
 Christian authors have acknowledged apocry- 
 phal writings which were never held sacred by 
 the Jewish church. The reason why some of 
 the fathers did not acknowledge it, was because 
 the Jews, in order to reduce the number of their 
 books to the number of letters in the Hebrew 
 alphabet, joined two books together ; for exam.- 
 ple, Ruth to the books of Samuel, and Lamen- 
 tations to the Prophecies of Jeremiah, and the 
 Book of Esther was one of these. 
 
 It is objected, secondly, that "the name of 
 
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 19 
 
 God is not to be found in this book."' Tiie 
 occurrence or formal mention of the name of 
 God in a book will not prove it to be divine, 
 and the omission or absence of that name will 
 not prove it to be uncanonical or profane. This 
 book is odI}^ a part of sacred Scripture, and 
 borrows light from others. The Spirit, who 
 searcheth all things, is the best judge when 
 and where, and how often, to mention "the 
 dreadful name of the Lord our God. And 
 what though the name of God is suppressed, 
 provided his works, and wonders, and benefits 
 are announced and celebrated? "Though the 
 name of God be not in it, his finger is," says a 
 pious commentator.* The hearts of the two 
 disciples "burned within them" while Christ 
 was talking with them, though they knew not 
 that he was v^'ith them. The heart of the intel- 
 ligent reader of this book may be made to burn 
 
 * Matthew Henry. The above is the ordinary phrase 
 which the author employed when quoting the language 
 of this commentator, to whose well-known Exposition 
 he manifested, towards the close of his life, a decided and 
 increasing attachment, 
 
20 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 with admiration and gratitude at the displays of 
 the Divine wisdom, and power, and goodness 
 which it exhibits, though the Divine name 
 strike not his eye. And what if this suppres- 
 sion was intended to guard us against supersti- 
 tion, and to recall our attention from words and 
 names to things and deeds? Had this book 
 been spurious, it is not likely that it would 
 have wanted the sacred name. It is worthy of 
 remark, that, in the chapter which commences 
 the Romish additions, the name of the Supreme 
 Being is mentioned in the very first verse : — 
 " Then Mardocheus said, God hath done these 
 things ; for I remember a dream," &lc. And 
 the same name occurs no less than eight times 
 in the course of five verses. 
 
 A third objection is, that "this book is not 
 quoted or referred to in the New Testament," 
 All the undoubted books of Old Testament 
 Scripture are not quoted or named by our Lord 
 and his Apostles, and there are books quoted in 
 the New Testament which are not divine. But 
 there are probable references to it ;* and in 
 
 * Compare Esther, ii. 6, with Matt. i. 11. 
 
THE AGE OF THE BOOK. 21 
 
 Hebrews, ix. 34, Paul seems to refer to the 
 deliverance wrought in the days of Esther, 
 when he speaks of those who "by faith escaped 
 the edge of the sword." 
 
 Lastly, it is objected, that "there is no refe- 
 rence to Christ in it."' But this objection 
 would apply also to the Book of Ecclesiastes 
 and Judges. Augustine has said, " Whatever 
 is contained in the prophets was written either 
 of Christ or on account of Christ." This book 
 contains an account of the conservation, and 
 fills up a gap in the history of that people, " of 
 whom, as concerning the flesh, Christ came 
 who is over all, God blessed for ever." 
 
 In entering on the exposition of the book, the 
 first thing which invites inquiry is the age or 
 period in which the events here recorded took 
 place. '• uSoio it came to pass in the days of 
 Ahasuerus [this is Aho^suerus which reigned 
 froiri India even unto Ethiopia, over an hun- 
 dred and seven and twenty provinces), that in 
 those days when the King Ahasuerus sat on the 
 throne of his kingdom, which was in Shushan 
 the palace, in the third year of his reign, he 
 2 
 
22 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 made a feast, &c. That this prince was one 
 of the kings of Persia is evident, for his palace 
 Avas in Shushan, or Susa, and the whole narra- 
 tive refers to the manners of that people. But 
 interpreters are divided as to the particular 
 monarch that is meant. The most probable 
 opinion is that it was Artaxerxes Longimanus, 
 the son of Xerxes. Notwithstanding the disas- 
 ters of his father, his kingdom was not greatly- 
 diminished. The favour "he showed to the 
 Jews under Ezra and Nehemiah is more easily 
 accounted for on the supposition of his having 
 married a Jewess.* 
 
 Some idea may be formed of the extent of 
 his kingdom from verse second, in which his 
 subjects are numbered, not by souls, but by pro- 
 vinces. " He reigned from India even unto 
 Ethiopia, over an hundred and seven and 
 twenty provinces." How many millions of 
 
 * The objection to this view, arising from the appa- 
 rent anachronism, Esther ii. 6, may be solved, by suppo- 
 sing that the person who was carried into Babylon with 
 Jeconiah, was not Mordecai, but his great grandfather, 
 Kish the Benjamite, v. 5. 
 
T H E U O Y A L F £ A S T . Zo 
 
 souls must have been under the dominion of 
 this single man ! Such a sovereign has it in 
 his power to do much harm, but he can do 
 little good; for how is it possible for one man 
 to take cognizance of the affairs of such an 
 immense territory? An overgrovm empire, 
 like that of Britain, which boasts that the sun 
 never sets on her dominions, carries within it 
 the seeds of its own dissolution, and ultimately 
 sinks by its own weight. 
 
 We are next introduced to a gorgeous feast, 
 wdiich the king gave, first to his princes, and 
 then to all his subjects in Shushan. The 
 splendour of the entertainment corresponded 
 with the dignity of the monarch and the wealth 
 of his dominions, of which it was intended to 
 be an image and demonstration, " Whe7i he 
 showed the riches of his glorious kingdom, and 
 the honour of his excellent majesty^ The 
 scene, which was " in the court of the garden 
 of the king' s j}alace,'' — the quality and number 
 of the guests, " the power of Persia and Media, 
 the nobles and princes of the provinces," and 
 ^' all the people that were present in Shushan 
 
~4 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 the palace, both great and small," — the period 
 of the entertamment, which extended to six 
 months and seven days, — the gorgeous and 
 costly character of the decorations, the variega- 
 ted hangings of the pavilions in which the ban- 
 quet was held, '' being fastened loith cords of 
 fine linen aiid purple to silver rings and pil- 
 lars of marble,^^ and the couches on which 
 they reclined being "0/ gold and silver upon 
 a pavevient of red, and blue, and white, and, 
 black -marble ;" while the guests, each of them, 
 raised for the time to a state of regal dignity, 
 *' drank royal wine in vessels of gold, accord- 
 ing to the state of the king, the vessels being 
 diverse one from another," that is, never used 
 above once, but replaced by new ones as they 
 were emptied, — altogether presents an exhibi- 
 tion of worldly magnificence to which modern 
 times can hardly afford a parallel. 
 
 Yet, amidst all this pageantry and ostenta- 
 tion, so well fitted to gratify his vanity, do we 
 suppose that the heart of the monarch was 
 happy? No, my brethren; our Lord has told 
 us that "a man's life consisteth not in the abun- 
 dance of the things that he possesseth." Only 
 
THE ROYAL BANCiUET. 25 
 
 conceive what a weariness it must have been to 
 the king to have kept this feast for so many- 
 days ! What sacrifices of comfort does the 
 world exact from its votaries ! And how much 
 real wretchedness and desolation of heart may 
 be found lurking in the bosoms of those " who 
 are gorgeously apparelled, and live delicately 
 in king's courts!'^ "Better," says the wise 
 nian, " a dinner of herbs where love is, than a 
 stalled ox and hatred therewith." 
 
 And where now is Ahasuerus, with all " the 
 riches of his glorious kingdom, and the honour 
 of his excellent majesty /*" They have passed 
 away, and nothing is left of them but the record 
 before us, which is given only to introduce the 
 history of the deliverance wrought for Israel 
 with which it was connected. " The fashion 
 of this world," like an empty pageant, "passeth 
 away." " All flesh is as grass, and all the 
 glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass 
 withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away. 
 But the word of the Lord endureth for ever." 
 
 Two circumstances, however, characterized 
 this entertainment, which deserve commenda- 
 
 9* 
 
25 L E C T tl R E S ON ESTHER. 
 
 tion — the absence of all compulsion in drink^ 
 ing, for the drinking ivas according to law, 
 none did compel — and the delicacy displayed 
 by Vashti the queen, who, instead of joining in 
 the general debauch, " 7nade a feast for the 
 woman apart in the royal house which belonged 
 to King AhasuerasJ^ The public respect thus 
 paid by heathens, and these too in the highest 
 station, to the rules of temperance and modesty, 
 is a reproach to many in a Christian land, who 
 while they make beasts of themselves with 
 intoxication, compel others to follow their ex- 
 ample ; — a barbarous custom, which modern 
 politeness has almost discarded from good soci- 
 ety, though, w^e fear, it still prevails to no 
 inconsiderable extent, and, under the much 
 abused name of hospitalit}'-, is ruining the mo- 
 rals and shortening the lives of thousands, 
 "Wo unto him that giveth his neighbour drink, 
 that putteth thy bottle to him, and makest him 
 drunken." " Let your moderation be known 
 to all men : the Lord is at hand." " Take 
 heed lest your hearts be overcharged with sur- 
 feiting and drunkenness, and that day come 
 upon you unawares." 
 
27 
 
 LECTURE SECOND, 
 
 ESTHIR I. 10—22. 
 
 On the seventh day, icJicn the heart of the king icas merry 
 with icine, he commanded Mehuman, Biztha, Harbona, 
 Bigtha, and Abagtha, Zethar, and Carcas, tJie seven 
 chamberlains that screed in the presence of Ahasuerus 
 the king, to bring Vashti the queen before the king with 
 the crown royal, to shoic the people and the princes her 
 beauty : for she was fair to look on. But the queen 
 Vashti refused to come at the king's commandment by 
 his chamberlains : tlierefore was the king very wroth, 
 and his anger burned in him. TJien the king siM to 
 (lie wise men, which kneic the times (for so icas the 
 king's manner toward all that kneio law and judgment : 
 and the next unto him icas Carshena, Shcthar, Admatha, 
 Tarshish, Meres, Marsena, and Memucnn, the seven 
 princes of Persia and Media, which saw the king's face, 
 and ichich sat the first in the kingdom ;) What shall we 
 do unto the queen Vashti according to law, bpcause she 
 hath not performed the commandment of the King Aha- 
 suerus by the chamberlains 7 And Mcmucan ansicered 
 before the king and the princes, Vashti tite queen hath 
 not done icrong to the king only, but also to all the 
 
'ib LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 princes, and to all the people that are in all the provinces 
 of the king Ahasuerus. For this deed of the queen 
 shall come abroad unto all women, so that they shall (de- 
 spise their husbands in their eyes, tcJicn it shall be reported, 
 The king Ahasuerus commanded Vashti the queen to he 
 brought in before him, but she came not. Likewise shall 
 the ladies of Persia and Media say this day unto all the 
 king^s princes, which Imvc heard of the deed of the queen. 
 Thus shall there arise too much contempt and wrath. 
 Jf it please the king, let there go a royal commandment 
 from him, and let it be written among the latcs of the 
 Persians and the Medes, that it be not altered, That 
 Vashti come no more before King Ahasuerus ; and let 
 the king give her royal estate unto another that is better 
 than she. And when the king's decree which he shall 
 make shall be published throughout all his empire (for it 
 is great,) all the tcivcs sJuill give to their husbands hon- 
 our, both to great and small. And the saying pleased 
 the king and the princes ; and the king did according to 
 the word of Memucan : For he sent letters into all the 
 king^s provinces, into every province according to the 
 icriiing thereof, and to every people after tJteir language, 
 that every man should bear rule in his own house, and 
 that it should be published according to the language of 
 every people. 
 
 After making some preliminary observa- 
 tions on the writer and canonical authority of 
 
G R E A T F E A S T « . 29 
 
 this book, we, in our last Lecture, entered on 
 the exposition of it. The book opens with an 
 account of a splendid feast, corresponding to 
 the magnificence and riches of a monarch who 
 swayed the sceptre over an hundred and twenty 
 provinces, each of which was itself a kingdom. 
 Ahasuerus feasted all the princes and nobles 
 of his empire for an hundred and eighty days, 
 or six months, after which he entertained the 
 inhabitants of his capital, great and small, for 
 seven days. The wine was served up in ves- 
 sels of gold, none of which were used a second 
 time ; and though there was no compulsion, 
 every one was encouraged to participate libe- 
 rally. 
 
 Those who possess wealth ought to expend it 
 for the advantage of others, instead of hoarding 
 it up, or wasting it on their own pleasures ; for 
 no man liveth to himself. Every one is to live, 
 and to entertain his friends, according to his 
 rank and circumstances ; but those who are of 
 a liberal spirit are in danger of indulging in 
 extravagance, to gratify their vanity and passion 
 for show. Ahasuerus, on the present occasion, 
 
30 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 " showed the riches of his glorious kingdom, 
 and the honour of his excellent majesty." " The 
 pride of life" is not of God, but of the world, as 
 well as "the lust of the flesh and of the eye." 
 
 There is little enjoyment at great feasts; 
 the confusion and noise with which they are 
 accompanied, drown rational conversation and 
 entertainment ; and even the excitement w^hich 
 they produce is usually succeeded by painful 
 depression ; for " even in laughter the heart is 
 sorrowful, and the end of mirth is heaviness." 
 It was scarcely to be expected that a feast at 
 which such an immense company was brought 
 together, and which was prolonged to such a 
 period, could end vAdthout some saddening occur- 
 rence. It was not broken up by a whirlwind, 
 like that of Job's children, nor by a frightful 
 handvrriting on the wall of the festive room, 
 like that of Belshazzar: but it ended with dis- 
 grace to the royal family, and the guests were 
 dismissed with something else to talk of than 
 the magnificence of the entertainer, and " the 
 honour of his excellent majesty.'''' 
 
 This vv^as no riotous bacchanalian meetincf. 
 
THE KING MERRY WITH W I X E . 3 1 
 
 We read of no instance of beastly intoxication, 
 no scene of drunken tumult, or of profane and 
 impious merriment. Care was even taken to 
 withhold the usual provocatives to such ex- 
 cesses. But though it was the king's order that 
 none should compel, example is sometimes as 
 powerful as compulsion, and especially the ex- 
 ample of a host, and that host a prince. The 
 entertainer is sometimes tempted to go beyond 
 the bounds of moderation in order to testify his 
 hospitality : a practice not less foolish than sin- 
 ful — for if the guests follow not his example, 
 he exposes himself to their ridicule ; and if they 
 do follow it, he is incapable of keeping them in 
 order. When the head is giddy, the whole 
 system is disorganized. This was the snare by 
 which Ahasuerus was caught. On the last day 
 of the feast, wishing to make his princes and 
 people happy, he drank too freely, and lost his 
 usual self-command. It is not said that he was 
 drunk, but " the heart of the king was merry 
 with wine." There is a difference between not 
 being intoxicated, and being sober. A person 
 may be able to speak and to walk, and yet may 
 
32 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 be guilty of excess in the use of strong drink. 
 He moLj not have lost the use of his senses, and 
 yet have lost the sound use of his senses. He 
 may lose his guard, and expose himself defence- 
 less to the attack of temptation. Reason is the 
 glory of a man, and whatever tarnishes or dims 
 the lustre of this crown, is criminal. Next to 
 reason, speech is man's glory, and every thing 
 which causes it to falter is sinful. Whatever 
 makes a man slow to hear, swift to speak, swift 
 to wrath — whatever makes him rash in counsel, 
 and precipitate in action — whatever makes him 
 say or do what is unbecoming his character, 
 and what he w^ould be ashamed of at another 
 time — Cometh of evil, and may be the source 
 of great vexation to himself and injury to others. 
 It is the duty of masters and heads of families, 
 as well as of magistrates, to check this tendency 
 to intemperance, which has proved ruinous to 
 the bodies and souls of men, to families and 
 communities. And such indulgence is especial- 
 ly criminal in those who are in public station 
 and authority. " It is not for kings, O Lemuel, 
 it is not for kings to drink wine, nor for prince* 
 
THE king's VANITY. 33 
 
 strong drink; lest they drink and forget the 
 law, and pervert the judgment of any of the 
 afflicted. Give strong drink unto him that is 
 ready to perish, and wine unto those that be of 
 heavy heart." " Wo to thee, O land, when thy 
 king is a child," (every drunkard is weak as a 
 child,) "and thy princes eat in the morning! 
 Blessed art thou, O land, when thy king is the 
 son of nobles, and thy princes eat in due season, 
 for strength, and not for drunkenness !" 
 
 Flushed with wine, Ahasuerus suddenly 
 formed the resolution of calling on Vashti the 
 queen, to dazzle his guests with her beauty and 
 splendour ; and no sooner did the thought strike 
 him, than he gave orders to his seven chamber- 
 lains to introduce her, arrayed with the royal 
 crown. Whatever be the ruling passion of a 
 man, whether it be pride, vanity, or anger, or 
 lust, or impiety, or even benevolence, it will 
 display itself when he is inflamed by strong 
 drink. Vanity was the ruling passion in the 
 breast of the Persian monarch. He had feasted 
 his nobles for weeks to "show the riches of his 
 glorious kingdom ;" and now he would bring 
 3 
 
34 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 in the queen, to " show the people and the 
 princes her beauty.^^ He was vain of Vashti ; 
 and having displayed "the honour of his royal 
 majesty," he would now exhibit the beauty of 
 her royal majesty. We are hurt by the ebul- 
 lition of pride — but ready to laugh at the dis- 
 play of vanity. It is true that it makes its 
 subject ridiculous, but it is a vice as well as a 
 weakness, and is often productive of great mis- 
 chief. The female sex is commonly supposed 
 to be most addicted to vanity ; but men are not 
 free from it, and, if they have nothing to be vain 
 of themselves, are sometimes fain to shine in 
 borrowed feathers. 
 
 The resolution of Ahasuerus was worse than 
 foolish. It disturbed the order of the enter- 
 tainment, as established by himself, and which 
 was no doubt consonant to the manner of the 
 Persians, for w^hile the king feasted his lords, 
 " Vashti the queen also made a feast for the wo- 
 men in the royal house." In the East, the wo- 
 men keep their feasts at the same time with, 
 but apart from the men. How unbecoming 
 was it to lead in an illustrious female as a 
 
THE PRIDE OF VASHTI, 35 
 
 pageant, to expose her beauty to the impudent 
 gaze of half-inebriated nobles, or of a rude pop- 
 ulace ! How degrading to the queen ! how 
 dishonourable to her royal husband ! He was 
 given to be a "covering to her eyes," and was 
 bound to protect her modesty, instead of putting 
 it to the blush. Whatever is dishonourable to 
 the wife, reflects dishonour on the husband; 
 but leaving this out of the account, the conduct 
 of Ahasuerus was imprudent in the extreme. 
 If Vashti complied with his call, the praises 
 bestowed on her would have the tendency of 
 flattering her vanity; and if she disobeyed, he 
 could not fail to be disgraced before all the 
 power of Media and Persia. And thus it turn- 
 ed out; for ''the Queen Vashti refused to come 
 at the Jdng' s commandmentP 
 
 Bad as the conduct of the king v,-as in is- 
 suing the order, it does not follow that the 
 queen was right in disobeying it. If the ac- 
 tion had been in itself positively immoral, then 
 it would have been her duty to have resisted, 
 whatever the consequences might be. No 
 authority can bind, and no danger should con- 
 
36 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 Strain, a Avoman to do any thing- which is 
 vicious, or essentially immodest. Had Vashti 
 of her own accord gone into the company, had 
 she sought the opportunity, or embraced it joy- 
 full}^ she would have been convicted of im- 
 modesty ; but had she complied merely out 
 of respect to authority, and to prevent her hus- 
 band from being dishonoured by her refusal, 
 in the presence of his subjects, her conduct 
 would have appeared in a very different light 
 in the eyes of all reasonable persons. She was 
 a subject, as well as a wife ; and if her royal 
 husband had, when heated with wine, issued 
 an order which reflected on her honour, she, 
 being perfectly sober, might have consulted 
 his. 
 
 But Vashti was as proud as Ahasuerus was 
 vain, and determined that if he was imperious, 
 she would be haughty and unyielding. She 
 was piqued that such a message should be sent 
 to her in the presence of her maids of honour 
 and the great ladies of Persia, and resolved to 
 show her spirit by setting at nought the requ'est 
 of the king her husband. Instead of making a 
 
VASHTIDEPOSED. 37 
 
 modest excuse, or sending "a soft answer which 
 turneth away wrath," she ^ave a fiat and pe- 
 remptory refusal. 
 
 It is easy to conceive the feelings that wo^ld 
 be excited, when the chamberlains, unaccom- 
 panied by Vashti, entered the royal apartment, 
 and with a hesitating voice delivered their un- 
 grateful message. " The king was very wroth, 
 and his anger burned in him^ He felt him- 
 self affronted before his princes, and the con- 
 sciousness that he had brought this upon him- 
 self by his own imprudence, served to irritate 
 him the more. 
 
 It is surprising that more violent measures 
 were not adopted, and one would be apt to con- 
 clude that the chagrin occasioned by the unex- 
 pected refusal of Vashti had dissipated the 
 fumes of the wine, and sobered the king and 
 his guests. The truth seems to be, that the 
 kings of Persia, though arbitrary, were not 
 entirely absolute ; and that females, though 
 subjected to great restraints, were not then 
 regarded as slaves, or exposed to the treatment 
 which they receive in Eastern countries at 
 3* 
 
38 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 present. Her disobedience cost Vashti her 
 crown, but not her life ; and the proceedings 
 against her were characterized, if not by jus- 
 tice, at least by deliberation and a regard to 
 legal forms. " Then the king said to the wise 
 men which knew the times, [for so was the 
 king's manner toward all that knew laio and 
 judgment^ what shall we do unto the Queen 
 Vashti according to law, because she hath not 
 'performed the commandment of the King Aha- 
 suerus hy his chamberlains ?" 
 
 Here let us remark, first, the great advantage 
 of laws. Law is mind without passion ; and it 
 is better to have a code of laws, however bad, 
 than to have none but the will of a man. Had 
 the king, on this occasion, acted according to 
 his passion, it is more than probable that the 
 scene might have terminated more tragically ; 
 but he acted ^'according to law.^^ Secondly, 
 we see the great advantage of counsel. " In 
 the multitude of counsellors there is safety," 
 says the wise man. This is more especially 
 the case with those who have the lives, the 
 property, and even the religion of others, to 
 
THE COUNSEL OF MEMUCAN. 39 
 
 consider and determine upon. What an advan- 
 tage is it to have for counsellors, good men, 
 who hate covetousness, who have the welfare of 
 their country at heart, and especially those who 
 act under the fear of God ! By following the 
 counsel of his wise men, Ahasuerus was pre- 
 served from the crime of putting his queen to 
 death — a circumstance which I notice in order 
 to remark, that, by her removal from the 
 throne, and the introduction of another, through 
 which a great deliverance was brought about, 
 not a drop of blood was spilt. 
 
 At the request of the king, Memucan deliv- 
 ered his sentiments, aggravating the misbeha- 
 viour of Vashti, as injurious not only to the 
 king, but to all the princes and people in his 
 dominions, inasmuch as it set an example to 
 wives to despise and disobey their husbands ; 
 and concluded w^ith a proposal that she should 
 be repudiated, and deprived of the crown-royal, 
 and that the king should choose another in her 
 place. This motion was unanimously agreed 
 to, turned into an unalterable law, and promul- 
 gated through the whole extent of the empire 
 
40 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 (verses 21st and 2:2.) To this counsel we are 
 not bound to pay any deference; for the autho- 
 rity of husbands and the duties of wives, we 
 have reason to be thankful, are not to be learned 
 either from the manners or the laws of the 
 Medes and Persians, but from the instructions 
 of our Lord and his Apostles, which will be 
 found strictly conformable to the law of nature, 
 and equally conducive to the happiness and 
 honour of both sexes. You may read them at 
 your leisure in Matt. xix. 3 — 9, Eph. v. 22, 
 and 1 Peter iii. 1 — 8. 
 
 We are told, in the beginning of next chap- 
 ter, that " when the w^ath of King Ahasuerus 
 was appeased, he remembered Vashti." There 
 are many things which a man does under the 
 influence of intoxication, which is a temporary 
 madness, that he would fain have undone in his 
 sober moments. The king regretted what he 
 had done, but there were bars in the way 
 which he could not get over. The laws of 
 the Medes and Persians were irrevocable. And 
 besides, had she been recalled, the counsellors 
 who had advised the king to depose her must 
 have been dismissed. 
 
THE WISDOM OF PROVIDENCE. 41 
 
 The whole passage affords us displays of 
 human character, the contemplation of which 
 is highly useful ; but the chief thing which it 
 was intended to exhibit to us, is the wonderful 
 working of God for the accomplishment of his 
 purposes, especially in relation to his church 
 and people. The divorce of Vashti was in- 
 tended to prepare the way for the exaltation of 
 Esther, and she was raised to the kingdom 
 that, by her influence with the king, she might 
 prevent a plot for the extermination of the 
 Jewish race, " whose were the fathers, and of 
 whom, as concerning the flesh, Christ came." 
 And how wonderfully was this brought about ! 
 None of the agents dreamt of such a thing. 
 '\N'one of the Jews were instrumental in effect- 
 ing it. It was brought about by means of hea- 
 thens. Had Esther been previously introduced 
 to the king, it would have appeared as if she 
 had seduced the affections of the monarch from 
 his legitimate spouse. If Mordecai had been 
 one of the seven counsellors, or even chamber- 
 lains, it would have been supposed that he had 
 plotted the ruin of Vashti to raise his cousin to 
 
42 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 the king's bed. You know what disgrace was 
 inflicted on the Reformation of religion in 
 England, by the divorces and marriages of the 
 king, Avho first threw oif the authority of 
 Rome ; and what a handle has been made of 
 this by Popish Avriters ! But, by the wise ordi- 
 nation of Providence, Esther came to her dig- 
 nity without a blot, or the shadow of suspicion 
 on her reputation and character. 
 
 Providences, and even prophecies, are not the 
 rule of duty ; and even though we were per- 
 mitted to see a little into futurity, this ought not 
 to have any effect upon us where duty is con- 
 cerned. But we may be permitted to admire 
 the overruling hand of Providence in ordering 
 events, proceeding from the volitions of reason-iJl^^ 
 able agents, in such a way as to prepare for the 
 execution of his gracious designs. Had Aha- 
 suerus not kept this feast; had any thing occur- 
 red to put an end to it on the preceding day ; 
 had the thought not come into his mind when 
 he was merry with wine; had his favourite 
 whispered in his ear the impropriety of his 
 intended purpose ; had Ahasuerus been less 
 
THE STUDY OF PROVIDENCE. 43 
 
 vain, or Vashti less proud ; had the counsellors 
 been divided in sentiment, or had the laws of 
 the Medes and Persians not been irrevocable : — 
 Vashti would have continued to occupy the 
 throne, and Esther would have remained in 
 obscurity; and there would have been no ob- 
 stacle to the execution of the wicked plot of 
 Haman for the destruction of the Jewish nation. 
 " Lo, these are parts of his ways ; but how 
 little a portion is heard of him ?" 
 
 Providence is the work of God, and in its 
 various movements we trace his goings, and 
 are led to contemplate the displays of his wis- 
 dom, power, holiness, and goodness. But how 
 can we be suitably affected by them, if we do 
 not by meditation, by comparing them with the 
 Scriptures, and by prayer, endeavour to under- 
 stand their character and interpret their lan- 
 guage? This is an important branch of prac- 
 tical religion ; and to the neglect of its due cul- 
 tivation may be imputed much of that darkness 
 and distress of mind which is felt under afflic- 
 tive dispensations. The possession of this 
 knowledge is a mark of wisdom, and a means 
 
44 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 of safety : •' Whoso is wise, and will observe 
 these things, even they shall understand the 
 loving-kindness of the Lord." And, accord- 
 ingly, this is a study in which good and 
 holy men have, in all ages, exercised them- 
 selves, and from Avhich, next to the Scriptures, 
 they have reaped the greatest pleasure and ad- 
 vantasfe. 
 
45 
 
 LECTURE THIRD 
 
 Esther IL 5—11 ; 15—20. 
 
 Now in Shushan the palace there icas a certain Jew, whose 
 name was Mordecai, the son of Jair, the, son of Shimei, 
 tJie son of Kish, a Benjamite; wlio had been carried 
 away from Jerusalem tcith the captivity ichich had been 
 carried awayidth Jeconiah King of Judah, ichom Nebu- 
 chadnezzar the King of Babylon had carried away. And 
 he brought up Hadassah, that is, Esther, his uncle's 
 /laughter : for she had neither father nor mother, and the 
 maid was fair and beautiful; whom Mordecai, when 
 her fatlier and mother were dead, took for his own 
 daughter. So it came to pass wlien the hinges command- 
 ment and his decree was heard, and when many maidens 
 were gathered together unto Shushan the palace, to the 
 custody of Hegai, that Esther teas brought also tinto the 
 kings liouse, to the custody of Hegai, keeper of the 
 women. And the maiden pleased him, and she obtained 
 kindness of him ; and he speedily gave her her things 
 for purification, icith such things as belonged to lier, and 
 seven maidens ichich icere meet to be given her, out of the 
 kings house : and he preferred her and her maids unto 
 the best place of the house of the women. Esther had 
 4 
 
46 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 not showed her people nor her kindred ; for Mordecai 
 had charged her that she should not show it. And Mor- 
 decai walked everyday before the court of the women's 
 house, to know how Esther did, and what should become 
 of her. 
 Now ichen the turn of Estlier, the daughter of Ahihail, tlie 
 uncle of Mordecai, icho had taken her for his daughter 
 teas come to go in unto the king, she required nothing hut 
 what Hegai the hinges chamberlain, the keeper of the 
 women appoiitted. And Esther obtained favour in the 
 sight of all them that looked upon her. So Esther was 
 taken unto King Ahasuerus into his house royul in the 
 tenth month, ichich is the month Tebeth, in the seventh 
 year of his reign. And the king loved Esther above alt 
 the women, and she obtained grace and favour in his 
 sight more than all the virgins; so that he set the royal 
 crown upon her head, and made her queen instead of 
 Vashti. Then the king made a great feast unto all his 
 princes and his servants, even Esthej's feast ; and he 
 made a release to the provinces, and gave gifts, according 
 to the state of the king. And when the virgins were 
 gathered together the second time, then Mordecai sat in 
 the king^s gate. Esther had not yet showed her kindred 
 nor her people, as Mordecai had charged her: for 
 Esther did the commandment of Mordecai, like as when 
 she was brougM up with him. 
 
 In our last Lecture we considered the train of 
 circumstances which led to the divorce and re-- 
 
THE ELEVATION OF ESTHER. 17 
 
 moval of Vashti from the royal estate of Q,ueen 
 of Persia. The narrative is pregnant with 
 useful reflections, but the chief thing on which 
 we endeavoured to fix your attention was, the 
 overruling hand of Providence in ordering 
 events proceeding from the volitions of reasona- 
 ble agents, in such a manner as to prepare for 
 the execution of his gracious designs in the 
 deliverance and exaltation of his enslaved and 
 devoted captives. 
 
 We are next introduced to the individual who 
 was chosen to be the immediate instrument of 
 accomplishing the deliverance in view, and 
 who was unexpectedly raised to the place of 
 the disgraced and repudiated queen. She was 
 a Jewess, and the daughter of Abihail. Her 
 Hebrew name was Hadassah, but it was 
 changed to Esther upon her accession to the 
 crown. We should not be ashamed of the 
 names given us by our parents, especially pious 
 parents; but neither should we adhere to them 
 superstitiously, and we may exchange them for 
 others when it serves any important purpose. 
 Wives, among us, take the names of their hus- 
 
48 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 bands ; and Hadassah did not scruple to assume 
 a new name, whether it was given her by her 
 cousin, for the purpose of concealing for a time 
 her country, or was imposed upon her by her 
 royal husband. 
 
 Esther was a captive and orphan. She had 
 neither father nor mother. Her parents died 
 prematurely, and left their only child helpless 
 and unprovided for in a strange and heathen 
 land. O what a pang must the thought of this 
 have sent to the hearts of the dying parents ! 
 Let us, however, believe that it was mitigated, 
 as it has often been in similar circumstances, by 
 the consolations of religion, by the reflection 
 that the earth was the Lord's, and that his 
 kingdom ruleth over all, and by faith in that 
 promise inade with a special view to his out- 
 casts, " Leave thy fatherless children on me ; I 
 will preserve them alive." In this case he was 
 better than his word. When he passed by the 
 child and saw her polluted in her own blood, 
 " he said to her. Live ; j'-ea, he said to her in 
 her blood, Live." But this was a small matter ; 
 he caused her to increase as the bud of the field, 
 
THE ELEVATION OF ESTHER. 49 
 
 SO that when she grew up *' her time was the 
 time of love ;" she became exceedingly beautiful, 
 and prospered into a kingdom, and her renown 
 went forth among the heathen for her beauty, 
 for it was perfect through his comeliness which 
 he had put upon her. Esther had reason to 
 sing to him, whose name is Jah, " A father to 
 the fatherless is God in his holy habitation. 
 God setteth the solitary in families; he bring- 
 eth out those that are bound with chains." 
 " He hath regarded the low estate of his hand- 
 maiden. He that is mighty hath done for me 
 great things, and holy is his name. He hath 
 put down the mighty from their seats, and ex- 
 alted them of low degree." 
 
 But let us proceed more leisurely in tracing 
 the footsteps of divine care and goodness to this 
 female orphan. First, God provided one who 
 should act the part of a parent to her during 
 her tender years, and of a wise counsellor after 
 she arrived at maturity. This was her cousin 
 MoRDECAi, who was destined to act a conspi- 
 cuous part in the events recorded in this book. 
 On this account, as well as his relation to 
 4* 
 
50 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 Esther, his genealogy is given. He was ^^the 
 son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish, 
 a Benjamite, who had been carried away with 
 the captivity, which had been carried away with 
 Jeconiah, King of Judah, whom Nebuchad- 
 nezzar had carried aioayP We formerly 
 adverted to a chronological difficulty arising 
 from this passage. There is no period of time 
 to which the transactions of this book can be 
 referred with greater probability than the reign 
 of Artaxerxes Longimanus, the son of Xerxes. 
 But if Mordecai was carried captive along with 
 Jeconiah, it is not reasonable to suppose that he 
 could be alive in the time of Artaxerxes, or that 
 his cousin Esther could then have been in the 
 prime of life. The difficulty, however, may 
 be removed by understanding that it was not 
 Mordecai, but his great-grandfather Kish, who 
 was carried captive; or, more generally, the 
 expression may mean that he belonged to a 
 family which was transported to Babylon at 
 the time specified. 
 
 Mordecai was one of those characters which 
 bespeak the hand of a special Providence in 
 
CHARACTER OF MORDECAI. 51 
 
 their formation. Brought up in obscurity, he 
 possessed talents which fitted him for swaying- 
 the sceptre of empire — wisdom, public spirit, 
 decision, courage, disinterestedness, self-com- 
 mand. He was also pious, patriotic, and be- 
 nevolent. On the death of his uncle and aunt, 
 he took their orphan child under his protection, 
 and brought her up as his own daughter. We 
 may see in this the kindness of Providence, 
 which takes the orphan under its wing; but 
 we should also learn from it our duty. We 
 should add to godliness brotherly kindness, and 
 to brotherly kindness charity. It is godlike to 
 have compassion on the fatherless and the 
 widow. Job could protest, " If I have caused 
 the widow's eyes to fail, or the fatherless hath 
 not eaten of my morsel (for from my youth he 
 was brought up with me as w^ith a father), then 
 let mine arm fall from my shoulder-blade, and 
 mine arm be broken from the bone." To 
 allow an orphan relative, and particularly a 
 female, to be cast out on the wide world, to be- 
 come a prey to temptation, or a burden on the 
 public or the church, is to act an unnatural as 
 
52 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 well as irreligious part. " He that provideth 
 not for his own," though they be not imme- 
 diately of his own house, " hath denied the 
 faith, and is worse than an infidel.'' What the 
 apostle says of widows is applicable to the 
 fatherless : — " If any have children or nephews, 
 let them first learn to show piety at home : let 
 them relieve them, and let not the church be 
 charged." The nearer the relationship, the 
 stronger the obligation ; and the remoter the 
 kindred, the stronger is the proof of piety and 
 benevolence. Esther was not the grandchild 
 of Mordecai, nor was she his niece; yet he 
 took her " for his own daughter," and he did 
 not go unrewarded. It is matter of common 
 remark, that this is a thankless task, inasmuch 
 as the adopted child often proves ungrateful to 
 the benefactor, and a source of vexation to him. 
 Instances of this are not rare ; and when they 
 do occur to a pious person, they will teach him 
 to look to heaven for his reward. But this 
 painful issue may be owing to the tutor as well 
 as to the pupil. If the latter is either care- 
 lessly left to servants, or is treated with an 
 
PERSONAL BEAUTY. 53 
 
 indiscreet fondness, or if more attention is paid 
 to bodily accomplishments than to mental im- 
 provement, kindness will turn out a curse. 
 But Mordecai brought up Esther with the 
 anxious care and discreet affection of a judi- 
 cious and pious father ; and by the blessing of 
 God upon his labours, he had the satisfaction to 
 see the qualities of her mind unfold themselves 
 and ripen along with her bodily charms. 
 
 Personal beauty, though the least of her ac- 
 complishments, is here specified for an evident 
 reason. " The maid was beautiful in form 
 and countenance^ as it runs in the original. 
 Esther, in addition to her outward comeliness, 
 was modest, engaging, contented, and possessed 
 all those amiable qualities which adorn the 
 individual, while they make him useful to soci- 
 ety. Beauty is one of the gifts of nature ; but 
 if it consist only in symmetry of form and fine- 
 ness of colouring, it is no more than a beautiful 
 statue ; it can only gratify the eye. That 
 which reflects as a mirror the good qualities of 
 the mind can alone form an object of rational 
 attraction. If destitute of these, or accompanied 
 
54 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 with opposite qualities, beauty creates disgust 
 instead of love ; for " as a jewel of gold in a 
 swine's snout, so is a fair woman without dis- 
 cretion." It has often proved a snare, both to 
 the possessor and to others. It is a-pt to feed 
 vanity and pride ; it leads to idleness, thought- 
 lessness, and extravagance, and in the end 
 pierces the soul with many sorrows. At best, 
 it is but a flower which, if it fade not here, 
 shall consume in the grave. Like riches and 
 honour, it is possessed by the worst of mankind, 
 and it was denied to the best of the children of 
 Eve, of whom it was said, " He hath no form 
 nor comeliness; and when we see him, there is 
 no beauty, that we should desire him." Esther 
 had a striking lesson before her eyes, warning 
 her not to trust in exterior attractions. Vashti 
 was a beauty, and her husband was as vain as 
 she was proud of her charms; yet she had 
 fallen into disgrace. " Favour is deceitful, and 
 beauty is vain ; but a woman that feareth the 
 Lord, she shall be praised." And such was 
 Esther. 
 
 There is a resemblance between Esther and 
 
ESTHER AND MOSES. 55 
 
 Moses. The one was raised up to emancipate 
 the Israelites from cruel bondage, the other to 
 preserve them from a plot which had for its 
 object their extermination. Moses was taken 
 out of the river, and adopted by Pharaoh's 
 daughter. Esther was raised to the bed of 
 Ahasuerus and the crown-royal. After men- 
 tioning the barbarous edict for destroying all 
 their male children, Stephen says, " in which 
 time Moses was born, and was exceeding fair" 
 — " fair to God," as it is in the original, ac- 
 cording to the Hebrew idiom. It was the 
 beauty of the babe, shining through its tears, 
 that excited the compassion of the Egyptian 
 princess ; and it was Esther's beauty which first 
 won the affections of the Persian monarch. 
 But the Apostle, referring to the faith of Moses, 
 lets us farther into the mystery of Providence : 
 "By faith Moses was hid three months of his 
 parents, because they saw he was a proper 
 child." Mordecai was to Esther father and 
 mother ; and what hinders us to think that he 
 participated in the feelings of the parents of 
 Moses, and that when he first looked on the 
 
56 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 beauty of the infant orphan, faith combined 
 with natural affection and benevolence in in- 
 ducing him to take her for his own daughter ? 
 
 If there is any truth or probability in this 
 supposition, it will throw a new and a pleasing 
 light on the conduct of Mordecai in offering his 
 daughter as a candidate for the royal choice. 
 It is true, there was nothing unbecoming in the 
 action according to the manners of the times, 
 and all those who went in to the king, were 
 henceforth considered as his wives, though oc- 
 cupying an inferior place to the maiden who 
 was selected to be queen, and to wear the royal 
 crown. Still it is more consistent with the pure 
 and lofty character of Mordecai, and with the 
 method of Providence, when it employs good 
 men in accomplishing its purposes, to suppose 
 that he was fully persuaded in his own mind 
 that his adopted daughter was destined to be 
 Queen of Persia, and that her distinguished 
 beauty had been given her as a means of her 
 advancement, and of accomplishing ulterior de- 
 signs, connected with the glory of God and the 
 good of his chosen people, which were not yet 
 
M E N T . 5( 
 
 revealed to him. The name Esther is supposed 
 to mean ''secret^' or " hidden.'^ 
 
 Accordingly, when the king's decree was 
 promulgated for assembling fair virgins from 
 different quarters under the charge of the proper 
 officer, Mordecai, after communicating to Esther 
 his views and impressions, and obtaining her 
 consent, (for such a good man and affectionate 
 relative would never have done violence to the 
 feelings of his orphan ward,) procured her ad- 
 mission according to the appointed rules. It is 
 one evidence of the high principles by which 
 he was actuated, that he discovered no undue 
 precipitancy in placing her in the house allotted 
 for the reception of the young women; for "he 
 that believeth doth not make haste." It is natu- 
 ral to suppose that those who wished their 
 daughters or sisters to be advanced to such a 
 high dignity, would be eager to get their names 
 first enrolled, but " it came to pass that, when 
 many maidens were gathered u7ito Shushan, the 
 palace, to the custody of Hegai, Esther was 
 brought also U7ito the king's house.''^ 
 
 O how incalculable are the advantages of a 
 
58 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 virtuous and religious education ! It distin- 
 guishes those who have been blessed with it, in 
 every situation in which they may be placed. 
 Joseph, when sold as a slave to the Egyptians, 
 gained by his good conduct the good graces of 
 his master; and when unrighteously thrown 
 into prison, he secured the partial regards even 
 of that rough character the jailer. In like 
 manner did God bring Daniel "into favour and 
 tender love" with the prime chamberlain of Ba- 
 bylon. Esther carried with her into the king's 
 court the manners and the dispositions which 
 she had acquired under the tuition of Mordecai; 
 and her modesty, discretion, contentment, and 
 sweet temper, soon ingratiated her with Hegai, 
 the keeper of the women. " The maiden pleased 
 him, and she obtained kindiiess of him ; and he 
 speedily gave her her things for purification, 
 with such things as belonged to her, and seven 
 maidens, which were meet to be given to her, 
 out of the king'' s house : and he preferred her 
 and her maids unto the best place of the house 
 of the uwmenP Her rival comrades, proud of 
 their beauty, or confident of the patronage which 
 
ADVANTAGES OF EDUCATION. 59 
 
 they possessed* behaved themselves arrogantly ; 
 they " were haughty, walking with stretched 
 forth necks and wanton eyes, walking and 
 mincing as they went." They were eager for 
 precedence, impatient to have the appointed 
 ceremonies over, that they might be early intro- 
 duced to the monarch ; they were dissatisfied 
 with the attentions which were paid them, and 
 thought that they could not have enough of ser- 
 vice. Esther, on the contrary, was pleased with 
 every thing, and when her turn came to obtain 
 admission to the king, " she required nothing 
 but what Hegai, the kirig^s chamber lain, the 
 keeper of the women, appointed ;" conduct which 
 not only recommended her to him, but height- 
 ening the effect of her personal charms, Esther 
 obtained favour in the sight of all them that 
 looked upon her^ This was an earnest and 
 presage of her ultimate success, and the disap- 
 pointment of her rivals ; for before honour goeth 
 humility, and a haughty spirit before a fall." 
 She soon secured the affections of the monarch, 
 who, in addition to a beautiful queen, obtained a 
 chaste, modest, discreet, and (what he could not 
 
60 L E C T U 11 E S ON ESTHER, 
 
 estimate at this time) pious spouse. " The king 
 loved Esther above all the women, and she ob- 
 tained grace and favour in his sight more than 
 all the virgins ; so that he set the royal crown 
 upon her head, and made her queen instead of 
 Vashti. Then the king made a great feast unto 
 all his princes and his servants, even Esther'' s 
 feast ; and he made a release to the provinces, 
 and gave gifts according to the state of the 
 king:' (v. 17, 18.) 
 
 We have only farther at present to notice the 
 affectionate solicitude of Mordecai, and the du- 
 tiful conduct of his adopted daughter. While 
 the affair was in dependence, that is, for twelve 
 months, " Mordecai walked every day before 
 the court of the womei-u s house, to hiow how 
 Esther did, and what should become of herP 
 Though he did not wish his connexion with 
 her to be known, yet she could send out one of 
 her maids to acquaint him with her health and 
 prospects. I may remark in passing, that al- 
 though the manners of the ancient Persians 
 imposed a greater restraint on females than is 
 practised among us, yet they differed widely 
 
THE GRATITUDE OF ESTHER. 61 
 
 from those of Oriental nations at present ; for 
 if any man were to be seen frequenting the 
 purlieus of a modern seraglio, (those gilded 
 prisons in which the victims of Asiatic volup- 
 tuousness are immured,) it would cost him his 
 life. When the women were assembled the 
 second time to hear the royal pleasure intima- 
 ted to them, ''Mordecai sat in the kiyig^s gate" 
 having, most probably, sold all his property to 
 purchase a situation which, though of an infe- 
 rior kind, might enable him to be near to 
 Esther. He formerly walked in the court of 
 the women as a stranger, now he sits as an 
 officer at the gate. 
 
 Nor was Esther behind with her grateful 
 returns. Too many, when suddenly exalted, 
 forget their former friends, or, what is as bad, 
 forget themselves, become vain and arrogant 
 and so impatient of admonition and good advice. 
 Children, when they grow up, are apt to think 
 that they are released from all obligation even 
 to their natural parents ; they become wise in 
 their own conceits, and spurn advice as if it 
 were an undue assumption of authority. But 
 5* 
 
62 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 " Esther did the commandment of Mordecai, 
 like as when she ivas brought up with him.^^ 
 The least signification of his will was a law to 
 her ; for she knew that he would require noth- 
 ing- of her inconsistent with her duty to God 
 and her husband. He had enjoined her not to 
 make known her kindred or her people ; and 
 this she religiously abstained from, not only 
 when she -was under the conduct of Hegia, but 
 after she was seated in the affections of Aha- 
 suerus, and had come to the kingdom. " Est- 
 her had not yet shoiced her kindred nor her 
 people ; as Mordecai had charged herJ^ She, 
 no doubt, felt a strong desire to make the 
 avowal, and to use her interest with the king 
 for the advancement of her kind benefactor. 
 But even this generous feeling she repressed^ 
 because it would have led to a transgression of 
 his command. To testify her gratitude she 
 would not disobey him, nor run the risk of dis- 
 pleasing him. And she acted thus, though it 
 does not appear that he acquainted her with his 
 reasons for concealment. "Many daughters 
 have done virtuously, but thou excellest them 
 all." 
 
DUTIFUL CONDUCT OF ESTHER. 63 
 
 We may be sure, however, that Mordecai 
 did not impose this silence arbitrarily ; and his 
 caution confirms the remark already made, that 
 he looked forward to something more import- 
 ant that was to be accomplished by the eleva- 
 tion of his daughter, and waited for the oppor- 
 tune occasion when the disclosure of her people 
 and relationship to him would be the means of 
 advancing it. " Known unto God are all his 
 works from the beginning," and " the secret of 
 Jehovah is with them that fear him." 
 
64 
 
 LECTURE FOURTH. 
 
 Esther II. 21—23; III. 1—6. 
 
 hi those days, white Mordccai sat in the king's gate, two of 
 the king^s chamherlains, Bigthan and Teresh, of those 
 tchich kept the door, were wroth, and souglU to lay hand 
 on the King Ahasuerus. And the thing teas known to 
 Mordecai, who told it unto Esther the queen ; and Esther 
 certified the king thereof in MordecaVs name^ And 
 when inquisition was made of the matter, it was found 
 out ; therefore tlvcy were both hanged on a tree : and it 
 teas written in the hook of the chronicles before the 
 king. 
 
 After these things did King Ahasuerus promote Ha7nan, 
 the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, and advanced him, 
 and set his seat ahove all the princes that were with 
 him. And all the king's servants, which icere in the 
 king's gate, bowed, and reverenced Human ; for the 
 king had so commanded concerning him. But Mordecai 
 bowed not, nor did him reverence. Then the king's 
 servants, which were in the king's gate, said unto Mor- 
 decai, Why transgressest tlwu the king' s commandment? 
 Now it came to pass, when Viey spake daily unto him, 
 and he Juirkened not unto them, that they told Human, 
 
DIVINE PROVIDENCE. 65 
 
 to see wliether Mordecat's matters would stand : for he 
 had told them that he was a Jew. And ichen Human 
 saw that Mordecai bowed not, nor did him reverence, then 
 teas Hainan full of wrath. And he thought scorn to lay 
 hands on Mordecai alone ; for tfiey had showed him the 
 people of Mordecai : wherefore Haman sought to destroy 
 all the Jews that were throughout the whole kingdom of 
 Ahasuerus, even the people of Mordecai. 
 
 Our last Lecture traced the steps by which 
 the captive and orphan Jewess was raised to 
 the royal estate of the Glueen of Persia. It 
 was her beauty, heightened by modesty and 
 discretion, that won the heart of Ahasuerus. 
 But how many flowers are born to blush 
 unseen, *br are nipped by the chilling blasts, 
 or are trodden under foot by the beasts of the 
 field or ruthless man ! It was God who gave 
 Esther her charms both of body and mind, that 
 brought her under the notice of the monarch, 
 and gave her favour and affection in his eyes. 
 
 Little did Ahasuerus know of the value of 
 the jewel which he had placed in his crown. 
 Her personal attractions pleased him, her virtu- 
 ous and discreet demeanour fixed his regards, 
 and he might felicitate himself on his good 
 
G6 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 fortune, and bless the happy star which had 
 conducted her to his palace ; but he was inca- 
 pable of estimating her higher qualities; he 
 knew not the God whom she feared, nor the 
 important purposes, connected with his own 
 welfare and that of others, for which Provi- 
 dence had raised her to his throne. 
 
 It was not long, however, till these purposes 
 began to evolve themselves, and give promise 
 of greater things which were to follow in their 
 train, 
 
 Bigthan and Teresh, two of the royal cham- 
 berlains, enraged at some injury, real or sup- 
 posed, which the king had done them, con- 
 spired against his life ; and the access which 
 their official station gave them to the chamber 
 of the monarch, offered them every facility of 
 carrying their black design into execution. 
 Perhaps they had received some slight affront 
 which their pride could not stomach, they had 
 been refused some favour which they had 
 asked, or a rival was put over their heads, or 
 some neglect of duty on their part had been 
 visited with too great severity. And for this 
 
THE TREASONABLE PLOT. G7 
 
 the royal blood must flow, the palace be thrown 
 into mourning, and the empire convulsed. 
 
 O how little reason have we to envy the 
 state of king's and great men ! Assuredly they 
 are set on slippery places, and surrounded with 
 sons of Belial, who, instead of supporting them, 
 cast them suddenly down to destruction. Hoav 
 often are they betrayed into iniquitous and dan- 
 gerous measures by wicked counsellors ! Nor 
 are their own lives safe. They have not the 
 means of discriminating between those who 
 are honest and those who are faithless : they 
 sometimes fix their regards on unworthy fa- 
 vourites, drink in their poisonous flattery, and 
 suflfer themselves to be led blindfolded by them, 
 until a dart strike through their liver. Above 
 all others, an arbitrary prince is least to be en- 
 vied. Where there is no law, or (what amounts 
 nearly to the same thing) where the admini- 
 stration of the law depends on the pleasure of 
 an individual, there is no security to the sub- 
 jects, and no hope of the redress of injuries. 
 Such a state of things produces at once despair 
 and revenofe ; it makes men reckless of their 
 
68 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 own lives, and greedy of the blood of others. 
 Hence the dark conspiracies which have been 
 hatched in the courts of despotic rulers, who 
 have so often been cut off by the dagger and 
 the empoisoned cup. The very frequency of 
 such occurrences is infectious, and acts as a 
 stimulant to the envious and those who are 
 given to change. It is in vain that they multi- 
 ply precautions ; their table becomes a snare to 
 them, their guards their betrayers, their favou- 
 rites their executioners. 
 
 In the instance before us, the plot was hap- 
 pily discovered and defeated ; but by whom ? 
 Not by any of the counsellors, or of the cham- 
 berlains, or other honorary servants who were 
 placed around the king, and bound to watch 
 over his safety ; but by Mordecai, one of the 
 porters who sat at the gate of the palace. Thus 
 in Providence, as well as in grace, " God hath 
 often chosen the foolish things of this world to 
 confound the wise; and base things of the 
 world, and things which are despised hath 
 God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to 
 bring to nought things that are," Whether 
 
T H E D I S C O V E R Y . 69 
 
 the conspirators had broken their design to 
 him, under the idea that, as a foreigner and 
 a captive, he might be inclined to assist them 
 — or whether he had overheard their dis- 
 course at some of their nocturnal meetings — 
 or whether it was by some other means that 
 he came to the knowledge of the plot, we 
 are not informed ; but he lost no time in im- 
 parting the secret to Esther, who told it to the 
 king her husband ; and inquisition being made 
 into the matter, the chamberlains were con- 
 victed and executed. 
 
 Upon what small, and apparently fortuitous 
 circumstances, do life and death depend ! and 
 yet each of these comes within divine pre- 
 science and pre-ordination ! Not a sparrow 
 can fall to the ground without our heavenly 
 Father, and the hairs of our head are number- 
 ed. If Mordecai had not procured a place in 
 the king's gate, he could not have come to the 
 knowledge of the conspiracy — if Esther had 
 not been raised to the place w^hich she now fill- 
 ed, his knowledge might have been useless to 
 the king, and might have proved fatal to him- 
 
 
70 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 self; for Eastern monarchs are inaccessible to 
 all their subjects except a few; — he might have 
 imparted his information to a confident of the 
 conspirators, and they might have been able to 
 fasten the crime upon him, and the faithful 
 informer would have suffered as a traitor and a 
 regicide. 
 
 " Mine eyes shall be on the faithful of the 
 land, that they may dwell with me," says 
 David; "he that walketh in a perfect way, he 
 shall serve me." It is an unspeakable benefit 
 to have those around us, and within our house, 
 who fear God and keep his commandments. 
 Professors of religion often make indifferent 
 servants, but one who is truly pious will be 
 faithful, steady, and affectionate. He will be so 
 to an infidel, and " if he have a believing master, 
 will not despise him, because he is a brother, 
 but rather do him service because he is faithful 
 and beloved, a partaker of the benefit." But, be- 
 sides these qualities, they have often been made 
 a blessing to the houses in which they lived by 
 their good example, their advice, their prayers, 
 and their interest with heaven. " One sinner 
 
THEDISCOVERY. 71 
 
 destroyeth much good;" and, on the other 
 hand, one saint neutralizes and dissipates much 
 evil. " The eyes of the Lord are upon the 
 righteous." The shield of divine protection is 
 spread over those among they dwell. God 
 hath promised not only to bless them, but also 
 " to make them a blessing." Laban was forced 
 to acknowledge to Jacob, envious and churlish 
 as he was, " I have learned by experience that 
 the Lord hath blessed me for thy sake ;" and 
 Joseph's master " saw that the Lord was with 
 him, and made all that he did to prosper in his 
 hands. Esther and Mordecai were fervent in their 
 supplications for the king, and God answered 
 their prayers by preserving him from a desperate 
 plot, and honoured them as the instruments of 
 exposing and defeating it. " The secret of the 
 Lord is with them that fear, him, and he will 
 show them his covenant." When the decree of 
 Nebuchadnezzar had gone forth to slay all the 
 wise men of Babylon, because they could not 
 declare his dream, Daniel and his companions 
 had recourse to prayers. " Then was the secret 
 revealed unto Daniel in a ni2:ht vision. The 
 
72 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 king's matter was made known to Daniel" in a 
 preternatural and miraculous way; because, 
 from the nature of the thing, there was no ordi- 
 nary way of communicating it to him. But 
 God was not accustomed to work miracles in 
 vain, or unnecessarily, even in an age of mira- 
 cles. Providence could so order things as that 
 Mordecai should repair to the spot, without his 
 dreaming of what was going on, where he 
 should hear the conspirators talking over their 
 murderous intent. And in this way the thing 
 was as really made known by God, as if he 
 had sent his angel to communicate the informa- 
 tion, or had announced it with an audible voice 
 from heaven. Accordingly, I have no doubt 
 that Mordecai, like Daniel, "blessed the God 
 of heaven : for wisdom and might are his : he 
 changeth the times and seasons ; he removeth. 
 kings, and setteth up kings ; he revealeth the 
 deep and secret things; he knoweth what is 
 in darkness — for he hath made known to me 
 the king's matter.'' 
 
 We fail in our observation of divine provi- 
 dence, two ways: First, by carelessness and 
 
FONDNESS FOR MIRACLES. / o 
 
 inattention ; and, secondly, by explaining what 
 befalls us in a preternatural way ; for in this 
 last case we overlook, or throw into shade, the 
 display of the Avisdom of God in bringing 
 about the event by the combination of ordinary 
 means. Though it may appear paradoxical, I 
 have no doubt of the truth of the assertion, 
 that one reason why some in the present day 
 have shown such a fondness for immediate 
 revelations and miracles, is that they have not 
 been brought to see how adapted the word of 
 God is to the various circumstances in which 
 we are placed, nor habituated themselves to 
 trace the wisdom of God in the ordinary dis- 
 pensations of his Providence. If I have expe- 
 rienced the kindness of a distant friend for 
 years, and have marked the thousand ways in 
 which he has foreseen and provided for my 
 wants, I will not be in danger, when a sum of 
 money comes unexpectedly to my hands in a 
 time of distress, of supposing that it has dropped 
 from the clouds, or was conveyed to me by a 
 bird of the air. 
 
 Two things we would have expected to fol- 
 
74 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 low the event on which we have been com- 
 menting: First, that Esther, with the permis- 
 sion of Mordecai, would have made known her 
 connexion with that good man and kind rela- 
 tion. This appears a most favourable opportu- 
 nity of avowing what Mordecai had hitherto 
 concealed. But he was wise, and deemed it 
 prudent that things should go on as they had 
 done. He w^as contented wdth the service 
 which he had done. He did not know what 
 envy or hatred it might create; and he -was un- 
 willing that his affairs should embarrass or 
 compromise the safety of his adopted daughter. 
 He resolved still to sit in the gate, " to knoiu 
 how Esther did, and what should become of 
 her ;" Providence would bring forth the secret 
 at the fit time. With this resolution Esther 
 religiously complied, though she burned with 
 desire to make the avowal. 
 
 Another thing which we might have expect- 
 ed, is that Mordecai would have been richly 
 rewarded for his fidelity and vigilance, even 
 although his relation to the queen was not 
 known. In this also we are disappointed. 
 
M K D E C A I UNREWARDED. / O 
 
 They who had plotted against the king's Ufe 
 were punished; but the person that saved it 
 was not rewarded. Such an issue is intended 
 to lead the minds of godly men to look up- 
 wards, and to seek that recompense which God 
 will give them in due season, and, if not sooner, 
 certainly at the resurrection of the just. But 
 this does not lesson the sin of human ingrati- 
 tude. All that Mordecai obtained, was to have 
 his name and service recorded in the chroni- 
 cles of the kings of Persia, that he might be 
 remembered at a future period ; and even this 
 was soon forgotten. He continued to occupy 
 the humble place of a porter at the king's 
 gates. But let this reconcile us to the arrange- 
 ment: "the thing proceeded from the Lord," 
 that the reward might be given at a period, and 
 in a way which served to illustrate his work in 
 the preservation of his people. 
 
 The third chapter of this book, to which we 
 have now come, discloses to us another scene 
 in this eventful and instructive history. Ano- 
 ther actor is brought upon the stage, whose 
 character is placed in striking contrast to that 
 
76 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 of Mordecai. His name was Haman. He 
 was the son of Hammedatha, and is called an 
 Agagite, which is generally understood to 
 mean that he was an Amalekite : being a com- 
 mon name of the kings of Amalek, from whom 
 Haman might be descended. The king had 
 conceived a strong partiality for this stranger, 
 who gradually rose in honours until he was 
 " set above all the pri/ices,^^ being made prime 
 minister of state. It is a common fault of abso- 
 lute princes that they err in the choice of their 
 favourites, fixing upon those who possess showy 
 accomplishments, or who flatter their vanity, or 
 minister to their baser pleasures. The conse- 
 quence of this is, that their subjects is oppressed, 
 and their own reputation and comfort tarnished 
 and marred. Haman no doubt possessed tal- 
 ents, but his conduct shows that he was desti- 
 tute of true magnanimity and courage— proud, 
 ambitious, crafty, and revengeful. 
 
 Kings are not always great men, and great 
 men are not always wise. Ahasuerus had 
 lately been happy in the choice of a queen who 
 knew how to keep her place, and wear her 
 
H A M A N ' S ADVANCEMENT. 77 
 
 honours meekly ; he was now most unhappy 
 in the choice of a favourite, whose ambition, in- 
 stead of being gratified, is inflamed by the un- 
 expected honours which had been showered 
 upon him. He had taken Esther to his bosom; 
 and now he calls to his side one who proved a 
 mortal enemy to her generous benefactor, and 
 to her whole race. 
 
 Personal qualities only will secure the ap- 
 probation of the wise and the good : but how 
 small is the number of this class! The re- 
 commendations to popular favour and applause 
 are quite different things; — adventitious quali- 
 ties — brilliant accomnlishments — wealth, rank, 
 favour, excite the- admiration and draw the 
 homage of the multitude. No sooner was it 
 known that Haman was the favourite at court, 
 and that honours were to be obtained through 
 his influence alone, than all eyes were turned 
 to him, and every knee bent at his approach. 
 In particular, the servants about the palace, 
 who were anxious to retain their places, or to 
 purchase a higher degree, were ready to bow 
 and cringe, and lick the dust, in the presence of 
 
78 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 the minion whom the king delighted to honour. 
 Venal souls ! and no less fickle than venal ! 
 they would be equally ready to exult over his 
 fall, and to help him to his final elevation on 
 the gallows. 
 
 Mordecai was of a different spirit, and there- 
 fore would not fawn on the worthless favourite, 
 or prostrate himself before him, like his timid 
 or mercenary companions. Though willing 
 to "render honour to whom honour is due," he 
 durst not " speak great swelling words, having 
 men's persons in admiration; because of advan- 
 tage." " Mordecai bowed not nor did him re- 
 verence.''^ Some have supposed that Mordecai 
 refused to yield the honours paid to Haman, 
 because they were too great for any creature, 
 and would have involved him in idolatry. 
 Others are of opinion that his refusal turned on 
 the wicked character of the favourite, joined 
 with the implacable hatred of the Jews, borne 
 by Haman's people, the Amalekites, and the 
 consequent malediction under which they had 
 been laid in the law of Moses. But though we 
 should not be able to ascertain the true reason 
 
79 
 
 which actuated Mordecai, we may still learn, 
 from this portion of history, that no danger to 
 which we may be exposed ought to induce us 
 to violate our consciences, by honouring those 
 whom we may and ought to despise ; or by 
 given external tokens of feelings alien to our 
 hearts. We should be steady and resolute in 
 matters of conscience, though this should ex- 
 pose us to censures and threatening. Religion 
 is not inconsistent with civility and good man- 
 ners, and teaches us to render honour to whom 
 honour is due. But it is one of the marks of a 
 true citizen of Zion, that "in his eyes a vile 
 person is despised ; while he honoureth them 
 that fear the Lord." 
 
 Mordecai was aware that his refusal could 
 not long remain a secret to Haman, especially 
 after he had resisted the solicitations of those 
 who urged him to join in the common expres- 
 sions of homage to the royal favourite. It does 
 not appear that any of his fellow-servants were 
 actuated by malice against him. They might 
 wish to recommend themselves to Haman — they 
 might be afraid that the fact would come to his 
 
80 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 knowledge, and that they might be charged 
 with a wish to conceal and abet the indignity — 
 or they might give the information from the 
 mere love of intermeddling, and of excessive 
 curiosity. This last supposition is most favour- 
 ed by the sacred narrative, which says " they 
 told Ha7na?i, to see icheiher Mordecai s matter 
 would standi 
 
 But we must leave the storm brewing. 
 
LECTURE FIFTH. 
 
 Esther III. 6—15. 
 
 And he thought scorn to lay hands on Mordecai alone ; for 
 they had showed him the people of Mordecai : wherefore 
 Human sought to destroy all the Jews that were through- 
 out the tchole kingdom of Ahasuerus, even the people of 
 Mordecai. In the first month, that is, the month Nisan, 
 in the twelfth year of King Ahasuerus, they cast Pur, 
 that is, the lot, before Human from day to day, and from 
 month to month, to the twelfth month, that is, tlie month 
 Adar. And Human said unto King Ahasuerus, There 
 is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among 
 the people in all the provinces of thy kingdom ; and their 
 laws are diverse from all people ; neither keep they the 
 king's laics : therefore it is not for the king's profit to 
 suffer them. If it please the king, let it be written that 
 they may be destroyed: and I will pay ten thousand 
 talents of silver to the hands of those that hare the charge 
 of the business, to bring it irito the king's treasuries. 
 And tlie king took his ring from his hand, and gave it 
 unto Human, the son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the 
 
 7 
 
74 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 Jews' enemy. And the king said unto Human, The 
 silver is given to thee, the people also, to do with them as 
 it seemeth good to thee. Then icere the kins' s scribes 
 called on the thirteenth day of the frst month., and there 
 was written according to all that Hamanhad commanded 
 unto the king's lieutenants, and to tlie governors that 
 were over every province, and to the riders of every people 
 of every province according to the writing thereof, and to 
 every people after their language ; in the name of King 
 AJiasuerus was it icritten, and sealed with the king^s 
 ring. And the letters were sent by post into all the king^S 
 provinces, to destroy, to kill, and to cause to 'perish, all 
 Jews, both young and old, little children and women, in 
 one day, even upon the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, 
 which is the month Adar, and to take the spoil oftliemfor 
 a prey. Tlie copy of the writing for a cammandment 
 to be given in every province was published unto all peo- 
 ple, that they should be ready against that day. The 
 posts went out, being hastened by the king's command- 
 ment, and the decree was given in Shushan, the palace. 
 And ilie king and Haman sat doicn to drink ; but the 
 city Shushan was perplexed. 
 
 It is probable that Baman Avas at first incre- 
 dulous as to the indignity reported to have been 
 done him by Mordecai. He could not believe 
 that there was an individual, much less one 
 occupying so low a place as that of porter to 
 the palacf>, who would have the audacity to 
 
HAMANS PLAN OF REVENGE. 75 
 
 incur his displeasure, or refuse to bow to him 
 Vv'hom the king delighted to honour. But 
 when he marked the conduct of Mordecai, and 
 found that the report brought to him was true, 
 he was " very wroth." 
 
 A meek and humble spirit would have for- 
 given the affront, and made use of it for morti- 
 fying that pride which grandeur, and especially 
 sudden elevation is apt to produce. A person 
 of true magnanimity would have shown him- 
 self above mentioning it, and would have ex- 
 cused what appeared to him unreasonable and 
 pragmatical. Let the man have his humour, 
 what hurt can it do to me? Who would be 
 angry with a Quaker for not taking off his hat 
 when he comes into a room? The greater 
 part of our umbrages arise from our pride, 
 which, if it does not create, aggravates insults ; 
 and the man who insists punctiliously upon the 
 honours which he thinks due to him, exposes 
 himself to mortifications which otherwise he 
 would never feel. " It is better to be of a hum- 
 ble spirit with the lowly, than to divide the 
 spoil with the strong." 
 
76 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 Wounded pride excites revenge, and this 
 always burns hottest in the weakest minds. 
 The lords of the Philistines were content with 
 the removal of David from the presence of 
 Achish. The counsellors of Darius were sat- 
 isfied with Daniel's being thrown to the lions. 
 But Haman ''thought scorn to lay hold onMor- 
 decai aloneP His life must go for his inso- 
 lence ; but that was a poor sacrifice to the inju- 
 red honour of so great a man as Haman. 
 "Would he pursue a dead dog? a flea? He 
 would do something to signalize his revenge, 
 and let all men know what should be done to 
 him who contemned the favourite of the king. 
 He affects to despise the object of his resent- 
 ment ; and yet his conduct showed that he set 
 much on his opinion. Nothing less can as- 
 suage his anger than the destruction of the 
 whole people of Mordecai. 
 
 How insatiable is revenge, especially when 
 it is associated with national and religious ran- 
 cour ! Haman learned that Mordecai was a 
 Jew, a name that called up the bitterest recol- 
 lections in the breast of an Amalekite, and he 
 
resolves at once on the total extermination of 
 that people. ■ Nero wished that the Romans had 
 but one neck, that he might despatch them at 
 once ; and Haman resolves by one decree to 
 sweep off " all the Jews which were in all the 
 kingdom of AhasuerusP That the quarrel was 
 not merely personal, but was inflamed by na- 
 tional hatred, is evident from the designation, 
 " the Jeics^ ene.myr repeatedly given to Haman 
 in this book. The discovery that Mordecai 
 was of Jewish extraction, while it gave a keen- 
 ness to his insult, added a sweetness to Ra- 
 man's meditated revenge : ' Now,' as \i' he had 
 said,'' I shall have an opportunity of avenging 
 the wrongs of my people on that detested race. 
 Come, let us cut them off from being a nation.' 
 Having formed his resolution, he proceeded 
 to take mieasures for executing it in the most 
 sure manner. Superstition and imposture have 
 always been ready to lend their aid to the worst 
 and most diabolical deeds. It was customary 
 among the ancients to divide their days into 
 lucky and unlucky, and they were anxious to 
 undertake any great work on a propitious day* 
 7* 
 
78 LECTURES OK ESTHER. 
 
 Among the various ways to which they had 
 recourse for ascertaining this, was the lot, which 
 was used on this occasion by Haman. " In the 
 first month they cast Pur, thai is, the lot, before 
 Haman from day to day, and. from month to 
 month, to the twelfth month, that is, the month 
 AdarP It is of little importance to ascertain 
 the particular mode of casting the lot, whether 
 it was by means of dice or other instruments 
 cast into an urn, or by throwing arrows or other 
 missiles, accompanied with certain magical ac- 
 tions. This last method Avas used by the Chal- 
 deans, as we learn from the 21st chapter of 
 Ezekiel, in which Nebuchadnezzar is represent- 
 ed as stopping at the spot where the road parted 
 toward the capitals of Judea and Ammon, and 
 using divination to decide which place he should 
 first attack. •' The king of Babylon stood at the. 
 parting of the way, to use divination ; he made 
 his arrows bright, he consulted with teraphim, 
 he looked in the liver. At his right hand 
 was the divination for Jerusalem, that is, the 
 divinations indicated that he should take the 
 right hand toward Jerusalem. Our translation 
 
DIVINATION. 79 
 
 seems to intimate, that Haman had recourse to 
 the lot every day during a whole year ; a pro- 
 cess which appears altogether superfluous, and 
 involving a delay ill suited to the disposition of 
 Haman. The mode adopted by him was, first, 
 to determine by lot which of the months of the 
 year was most auspicious ; and secondly, what 
 day of the month ; and the lot fell upon the 
 thirteenth day of Adar, or nearly twelve months 
 from the time at which the decision was given. 
 And here we may observe the overruling provi- 
 dence of God. During an interval of eleven 
 months, Mordecai and Esther had time to use 
 means for defeating the design, and if they pro- 
 ved unsuccessful, the Jews had time to shift for 
 their lives. The hearts of all men, and of kings 
 among the rest, are in the hand of the Lord, who 
 can turn them as he pleaseth, and he directeth 
 all events, even those which to men are contin- 
 gent and appear fortuitous. " The lot is cast 
 into the lap, but the whole disposing thereof is 
 of the Lord." Haman was the slave of supersti- 
 tion, which controlled his most violent passions, 
 and by means of it his wrath was restrained, and 
 
so LECTURES ON ESTHEr!^ 
 
 its intentions brought to nought. " The Lord is 
 kno^vn by the judgment which he executeth : 
 the wicked is snared in the work of his own 
 hands." " Haman has appealed to the lot, and 
 to the lot he shall go, which, by adjourning the 
 execution, gives judgment against him, and 
 breaks the neck of the plot.''* 
 
 Having settled the matter with his diviners, 
 and fixed on the best time for executing his 
 scheme, Haman applied to the king for permis- 
 sion to destroy the Jews. One would have 
 thought that this would have been the first step, 
 but so much did he presume upon his favour 
 with the monarch, that he had not only formed 
 his plot, but fixed on the very day of its execu- 
 tion before he broke the matter to Ahasuerus. 
 In the same manner did he proceed in his plan of 
 prematurely wreaking vengeance on Mordecai. 
 This is the way in which princes are imposed 
 upon by their favourites and flatterers. They 
 persuade themselves that they are sovereigns, 
 and can do whatever they please, whereas, in 
 reality, they are under the management of those 
 
 * Henry. 
 
CALUMNIES OF PERSECUTORS. 81 
 
 to whom they have given their ear, and their 
 authority is employed to gratify the passions and 
 serve the interests of their unworthy and unprin- 
 cipled minions, 
 
 Ahasuerus, though vain and credulous, does 
 not appear to have been naturally cruel. It was 
 necessary for the wicked minister to proceed 
 subtilely in obtaining the royal assent to his 
 proposal. This he accomplished by a false and 
 malicious representation of the objects of his 
 malice. They were an abject and despicable 
 people — a race of vagrants scattered through 
 all the provinces of the empire. Not only were 
 their manners and customs different from all 
 other people, but they had laws of their own 
 different from those of the king, by which they 
 regulated their conduct, to the disparagement 
 of the laws of the empire; and contemptible as 
 they were in themselves, yet being scattered 
 through all the provinces of the kingdom, their 
 example and influence were dangerous, and 
 might lead to general disaffection and rebellion. 
 In this manner the Samaritan enemies of the 
 Jews represented Jerusalem as " the rebellious 
 
82 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 and the bad city," within which they had " mov- 
 ed sedition of old time.'' 
 
 And it is thus that persecution, both by hand 
 and tongue, has been usually excited against 
 the people of God. They have been rendered 
 odious by falsehood and misrepresentation. 
 Thus Christ was accused of setting himself up 
 as a rival to Cassar, and his followers were re- 
 presented as propagating the same design, as 
 men who turned the world upside down, — 
 "and all doing contrary to the decrees of Csesar, 
 saying that there is another king, one Jesus." 
 Ordinarily there is some truth mixed up with 
 falsehood, which renders the calumny more 
 dangerous. So far as regarded religion, it was 
 true that the Jews had laws diverse from all 
 people, neither kept they the king's laws on 
 this head ; but this did not interfere with their 
 civil allegiance, and their enemies belied and 
 calumniated them when they insinuated that 
 they did not yield a thankful obedience to 
 the laws of the empire in secular matters. In 
 a similar way were the Puritans in England, 
 and the Presbyterians in Scotland, misrepre- 
 
THEBRIBE. S3 
 
 seated and persecuted, because they rejected the 
 ecclesiastical supremacy claimed by the king, 
 and maintained that the church ought to be 
 governed by the laws of Christ, and office- 
 bearers appointed by him as her head and law- 
 giver; they were stigmatized as denying the 
 civil supremacy, enemies to monarchy, setting 
 up an empire within an empire, and " saying 
 there was another king, one Jesus," which was 
 only a different version of the old calumny in 
 our text — " their laws are diverse from all peo- 
 ple ; neither keep they the Jang' s laws: therer 
 fore it is not for the kiyig' s profit to suffer 
 themP Such have been the arts of the chil- 
 dren of the wicked one, who was a liar and a 
 murderer from the beginning. 
 
 But Haman employed another stratagem to 
 ensnare the king into an adoption of his design. 
 It might be alleged that the destruction of such 
 a multitude of persons scattered over the em- 
 pire, would endanger the king's revenue by the 
 loss of the tribute hitherto paid by the Jews. 
 To rem>o-ve this objection, the wicked minister 
 offered to provide against the deficiency,^ by 
 
84 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 paying into the treasury " ten thousand talents 
 of silver, ^^ a large sum, amounting to upwards 
 of two millions sterling of our money, according 
 to the value of a talent in the Babylonian reck- 
 oning, and to double that sum in Jewish reck- 
 oning. This wore the air of disinterestedness 
 and generosity; but, in a reflecting mind, it 
 would have excited the suspicion of some per- 
 sonal motive actuating the author of the despe- 
 rate project. For men are not gratuitously 
 generous; and if it was ''not for the king's 
 profit to suffer them^ where was the need of 
 compensation? or if a pecuniary loss should be 
 sustained by adopting this measure of safety, 
 why should it be made up by the minister who 
 had discovered the danger? 
 
 But thin as was the veil of hypocrisy, it was 
 sufficient to impose on the mind of Ahasuerus, 
 blinded by favouritism. The facile and credu- 
 lous monarch, Avithout inquiry, receives the 
 false representation, and without reflecting for a 
 moment on the barbarity of the measure, de- 
 livers up a whole people to the disposal of a 
 malicious and sanguinary minister, making no 
 
THE DECREE IS ISSUED. bi) 
 
 more account of their lives than he did of the 
 silver v^^hich had been offered by Haman, and 
 vi^hich he declined receiving. Taking from his 
 finger his ring or sign-manual, he gave it to 
 Haman, that he might affix it to any decree 
 which he might draw for the destruction of the 
 Jews. In this way are affairs managed in the 
 courts of despotic princes. Wretched is that 
 kingdom which is under the government of a 
 head without eyes, and having only one ear, 
 and that ear possessed by a serpent! How 
 thankful should we be that we are under the 
 protection of law, and that our lives are neither 
 at the mercy of a despot, nor of a lawless mob ! 
 Having procured the royal authority, Ha- 
 man lost no time in issuing the decree against 
 the Jews. The royal secretaries were in- 
 stantly summoned ; letters were written in the 
 name of Ahasuerus, sealed with the king's 
 ring, and despatched by posts to the king's lieu- 
 tenants, and to the governors of every province, 
 according to their respective languages, enjoin- 
 ing them " to destroy, to kill, and to cause to 
 perish, all Jeivs, both young aiid old, Utile chil- 
 8 
 
86 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 dren and women., on one day^ even upon the 
 thirteenth day of the twelfth 'nwnth, or Adar ;" 
 and to incite them to this work of blood, and to 
 the unsparing execution of it, the property of the 
 slain was not to go to the royal exchequer, but 
 to be appropriated by the executioners. In the 
 conduct of Haman we have an example of the 
 insatiable rage of the church's enemies, and 
 especially of that mystery of iniquity, mystical 
 Babylon, who was "drunk with the blood of 
 the saints and of the martyrs of Jesus." Yes, 
 decrees, equalling this in atrocitj'-, have been 
 issued against Protestants in Spain, in Italy, 
 and in France, that devoted country, to which 
 the eyes of so many are now turned with stupid 
 admiration, without understanding what he 
 who "maketh inquisition for blood" has been 
 doing, and is about to do in it. They had com- 
 mitted no crime — no crime was laid to their 
 charge — the utmost that their malicious ene- 
 mies could insinuate was, that " it was not for 
 the king's profit to suffer them ;" yet they were 
 doomed "as sheep for the slaughter," and the 
 worst passions of the human breast were stirred 
 up and bribed to effect their destruction. 
 
C R U E LT Y OF PERSECUTORS. S7 
 
 " Where," one is ready to ask, " will rulers 
 find persons willing to execute such unreason- 
 able and barbarous orders?" Executioners 
 have seldom been wanting. Many are accus- 
 tomed to do blindly whatever their superiors 
 require, without inquiring whether it be right 
 or wrong. Others act under the influence of 
 fear, while a thousand passions, selfishness, 
 avarice, malice, envy, strife, hatred to godliness, 
 and the innate love of cruelty, take the oppor- 
 tunity of gratifying themselves under the covert 
 of authority, and the pretext of executing its 
 mandates. 
 
 At first, however, this edict appears to have 
 spread surprise and consternation wherever it 
 came. When proclaimed in the capital, " the 
 city Shushan ivas perplexed.^'' The consterna- 
 tion was not confined to those against whom the 
 edict was directed — the gratuitous cruelty of the 
 edict shocked all the natives of the place, 'i'he 
 Jews had conducted themselves well in their 
 captivity, and God had caused the enemy to 
 treat them with kindness. Their peaceable be- 
 haviour was known — their crime was un- 
 
88 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 known. Why, what evil had they done? 
 They were sober, industrious, submissive, cour- 
 teous, kind. They were charged with no re- 
 bellion, sedition, disturbance. " Are we to im- 
 brue our hands in the blood of our innocent 
 and peaceable neighbours ? What is the ten- 
 dency of this order but to arm the idle and pro- 
 fligate part of the community against the sober? 
 Whose life or property will be safe in such a 
 general massacre ? But, on the other hand, if 
 we refuse to execute the order, we shall be 
 looked upon as disloyal, and incur the indigna- 
 tion of the powerful favourite." Their neigh- 
 bours were thus distracted between the claims 
 of innocence and compassion on the one hand, and 
 the demands of authority on the other. They durst 
 not disobey, and yet their hearts revolted from the 
 thought of massacring in cold blood young and 
 old, little children and women ; nor did they 
 know how soon, under such tyrannic regimen, 
 the fate of the devoted Jews might become their 
 own. These feelings are described by the in- 
 spired historian with picturesque simplicity — 
 " The city Shushan was perplexed J^ 
 
RULERS AND PEOPLE. 89 
 
 O how little sympathy of feeling is there 
 often between rulers and their subjects, between- 
 the court and country, or, to come nearer, be- 
 tween the palace and the capital ! Survey the 
 latter, and you will perceive poverty and 
 wretchedness; you hear the cry of oppression, 
 or the secret murmuring-s of sedition and revolt. 
 Look into the former, and behold joy and glad- 
 ness, eating flesh and drinking wine, as if they 
 would say, " Let us eat and drink, for to-mor- 
 row we die." It is this want of sympathy 
 which renders nations unhappy, and shakes the 
 thrones of the mightiest potentates. 
 
 *' The king and Haman sat down to drink ; 
 but the city Shushan ivas perplexed.'^ Some 
 interpreters think that Haman, afraid that the 
 king's conscience should smite him, and that he 
 should wish what he had done undone, engros- 
 sed his company, and engaged him in drink- 
 ing — the method which many weak men em- 
 ploy to drown their own convictions and those 
 of their associates in guilt. But the sacred 
 language describes them as sitting down at 
 ease, and contrasts the pleasure in which they 
 
90 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 indulged with the perplexity of the city. The 
 distress which he had caused to thousands did 
 not enter the mind of the thoughtless, infatuated 
 monarch ; and his more guilty minister, infla- 
 ted with honours, and flushed with success, 
 bade defiance to the pangs of compunction. 
 Conscience exerts little or no power over wick- 
 ed men during the continuance of their prospe- 
 rity ; but when their sun is overcast, and the 
 tempest is ready to break over their heads, then 
 it awakes with a fury proportioned to its former 
 silence, and they are fearfully distracted. 
 
91 
 
 LECTURE SIXTH. 
 
 Esther IV. 1—12. 
 
 When Mordecai perceived all that was done, Mordecai 
 rent his clothes, and put on sackcloth with ashes, and went 
 out into the midst of tJie city, and cried with a loud and 
 a bitter cry ; and came even before the Icing'' s gate : for 
 none might enter into the king^s gate clothed icith sack- 
 doth. And in every province, whithersoever the king^s 
 commandment and his decree came, tJiere was great 
 mourning among tlie Jews, and fasting, and weeping, 
 and wailing; and many lay in sackcloth and ashes. 
 So Esther'' s maids and her chamberlains came and told 
 it her. Then was the queen exceedingly grieved ; and 
 she sent raiment to clotJie Mordecai, and to take away 
 his sackcloth from him; but lie received it not. Then 
 called Esther for Hatach, one of the king^s chamberlains, 
 whom he had appointed to attend upon her, and gave him 
 a commandment to Mordecai, to know wliat it was, and 
 ichy it was. So Hatach went forth to Mordecai unto tJie 
 street of the city, which teas before the king's gate. And 
 Mordecai told him of all iliat liad happened unto him, 
 and of the sum of money that Haman had promised to 
 pay to the king's treasuries for the Jews, to destroy them. 
 
92 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 Also he gave him t/ie copy of the writing of the decree 
 that was given at Shushan to destroy them, to show it unto 
 Esther, and to declare it unto tier, and to charge her that 
 slie should so in unto the king, to make supplication unto 
 him, and to make request hcfoie him for licr people. And 
 Hatach came and told Esther the words of Mjrdecai. 
 Asain EstJier spake unto Hatach, and gavehim command- 
 ment unto Mordecai ; all the king's servants, and the peo- 
 ple oftlie king's provinces, do know, that whosoever, whe- 
 ther man or woman, shall come unto the king into the 
 inner court, who is not called, there is one law of his to 
 put him to death, except such to whom the king shall }u)ld 
 out tJie golden scjptre, that he may lite ; hut I have not 
 lezn called to come in unto the king these thirty days. 
 And they told to Mordecai Esther's words. 
 
 There is one prediction in the Bible which, 
 though it had been single, would have been suf- 
 ficient to establish the divinity of that volume at 
 the head of which it stands. " I will put enmi- 
 ty between thee and the woman," said God to 
 the serpent that beguiled Eve, "and between 
 thy seed and her seed ; it shall bruise thy head, 
 and thou shalt bruise his heel." It pointed 
 eminently to the fulness of the time, when the 
 old serpent instigated Herod and Pontius Pilate, 
 the Gentiles, and the people of the Jews, against 
 
H A M A n' S AR T S. 03 
 
 "the holy child," who was born of a woman, 
 yet without sin ; and when the glorious suf- 
 ferer, according to a plan devised by "wisdom 
 dwelling with prudence," turned his hell- 
 hatched plot upon his own head, converted the 
 curse denounced against sin into a blessing, and 
 "through death destroyed him that had the 
 power of death, that is, the devil." But the 
 prediction was not confined to that event, great 
 and pregnant with great effects as it was. It 
 received an accomplishment soon after its first 
 announcement, and it has been verified in every 
 subsequent age, by the hatred and malice which 
 the children of the wicked one have displayed, 
 whenever they enjoyed a favourable opportuni- 
 ty, against the sons of God, by the bloody per- 
 secutions which they have often raised against 
 them, and the diabolical plots which they have 
 forged for their destruction. The portion of 
 history which we are now considering, presents 
 a striking illustration of this remark. 
 
 Haman, a man of the most unprincipled am- 
 bition, had, by means of those arts which pre- 
 vail most in arbitrary courts, insinuated himself 
 
94 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 SO far into the favour of King Ahasuerus, as to 
 become his prime minister. As an Amalekite, 
 he felt a hereditary antipathy to the people of 
 Israel ; bat, engrossed with his own affairs, he 
 had no leisure to think of the hated race, who 
 might, at least for a time, have escaped his re- 
 sentment, had it not been provoked by an af- 
 front which he received from one of their num- 
 ber. Mordecai, who seems to have discovered 
 the worthlessness of his character, withheld 
 those marks of obeisance which were lavishly 
 bestowed on the favourite by his fellow-servants. 
 The knowledge of this indignity filled Haman 
 with rage, but he thought scorn to lay hands on 
 Mordecai alone, and having learned that the 
 presumptuous individual was a Jew, religious 
 rancour united with wounded pride in deter- 
 mining him to seek the destruction of the 
 whole nation. By malicious misreprcsf nta- 
 tion, and under the pretext of great liberality 
 and regard for the welfare of the monarchy, he 
 obtained his wish from a prince, facile in his 
 temper and devoted to pleasure. The bloody 
 decree is issued, and the whole city of Shushan, 
 
FEELINGS UNDER AFFLICTION. 95 
 
 the capital in which it was first promulgated, is 
 thrown into perplexity and alarm. 
 
 If such was the impression produced upon the 
 inhabitants at large by this proclamation, we 
 may judge what must have been the feelings of 
 the unhappy devoted Jews. We are told in 
 this chapter generally, that wherever it went it 
 spread dismay, and was the signal of a general 
 mourning. '' And in every province, ivkiihej'- 
 soever the king' s commandment and his decree 
 came, there was great mourning among the 
 Jews, and fasting, and weeping, and wailing ; 
 and many lay in sackcloth and ashes." But as 
 you all know that general descriptions convey 
 a very imperfect idea of distress, the Sprit of 
 God has depicted, in very lively colours, the 
 mental anguish of two individuals who were 
 deeply involved in the threatened catastrophe — 
 Mordecai and his royal relative. 
 
 Different persons may be very differently af- 
 fected under distress, and yet all of them may 
 be under the influence of pious and becoming 
 feelings. The manner in which persons ex- 
 press their grief depends greatly on constitu- 
 
96 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 tional temperament. Martha, as soon as she 
 heard that Jesus had reached Bethany, ran to 
 meet him, and poured her sorrows into his 
 bosom ; but Mary, though her grief for her de- 
 ceased brother, and love to the Saviour, were 
 not inferior to her sister's, "sat still in the 
 house." Before judging of the degree in which 
 it is becoming to indulge or testify grief, it is 
 also necessary to attend to the circumstances in 
 which persons are placed, and the aggravations 
 of trouble wdiich these produce, Daniel and 
 his three young countrymen were at different 
 times the victims of a tyrannical edict, subject- 
 ing them to a dreadful death, yet w^e find them 
 tittering no lamentations, and exhibiting none of 
 the usual symptoms of distress. They were 
 required to give their lives as a testimony of 
 their allegiance to the true God, and they were 
 willing to do it — they counted it all joy to suf- 
 fer in such a cause. What was required of 
 them was constancy and intrepidity, and these 
 virtues would have been dishonoured by tears 
 and outward badges of sorrow. The three 
 children stood undaunted before the enraged 
 
97 
 
 monarch and the devouring furnace. When 
 Daniel knew the writing was signed, prohibit- 
 ing prayer for thirty days, " he went into his 
 house ; and his windows being open in his 
 chamber toward Jerusalem, he kneeled upon 
 his knees three times a day, and prayed, and 
 gave thanks before his God, as he did afore- 
 time." Mordecai was placed in very different 
 circumstances. 
 
 Theirs was a personal affliction : his was the 
 affliction of Joseph — of all the tribes of Israel. 
 And, therefore, like the same Daniel, when he 
 thought of the desolations of Jerusalem, he "set 
 his face to seek the Lord, with fasting, and 
 sackcloth, and ashes." Could Mordecai have 
 been permitted to redeem his countrymen from 
 the avenging sword, he would have rejoiced in 
 " offering himself upon the sacrifice of their 
 faith," and have gone to the scaffold, or the fur- 
 nace, or the lions' den, clothed in white, with 
 garlands bound round his temples, and with the 
 song of triumph in his mouth. But he knew 
 that his enemy would have refused this as a 
 kindness and a precious oil," which, instead of 
 9 
 
98 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 breaking his head, would have refreshed and 
 exhilarated his wounded spirit. His grief was, 
 that not only he, but his people were sold — ir- 
 redeemably sold " to be destroyed, to be slain, 
 and to perish." 
 
 But, besides, Mordecai had to reflect that he 
 had been instrumental in bringing tTiis cala- 
 mity upon his people, by refusing the honours 
 claimed by Haman. This could not fail to give 
 him pain, and to aggravate the evil which he 
 deplored. Not that he repented of what he had 
 done, for we find him afterwards persisting in 
 the same line of conduct, and refusing to pro- 
 pitiate the haughty favourite by giving him the 
 marks of reverence. We may innocently, or 
 in the discharge of what we owe to God, do what 
 may be the means of injuring both ourselves and 
 others whom we love. It does not follow from 
 this that we ought to have acted otherwise. 
 But still it is a painful reflection. Jeremiah 
 would not have retracted or eaten in any of the 
 biting censures or threatenings which he had 
 uttered in the name of God, but he felt and 
 complained of the odium which he had neces- 
 
MORDECAl's DISTRESS. 99 
 
 sarily incurred : " Wo is me, my mother, that 
 thou hast borne me a man of strife and a man of 
 contention to the whole earth ! I have neither 
 lent on usury, nor men have lent to me on 
 usury, yet every one of them doth curse me. 
 The Israelites complained that Moses had 
 " made their savour to be abhorred in the eyes 
 of Pharaoh, and in the eyes of his servants, to 
 put a sword in their hands to slay them." 
 And Moses himself complained, " Lord, where- 
 fore hast thou so evil entreated this people? 
 Why is it that thou hast sent me ? For since 
 I came to Pharaoh, to speak in thy name, he 
 hath done evil to this people ; neither hast thou 
 delivered thy people at all." It was a great 
 trial to the faith of Abraham, that he should be 
 employed as the priest to sacrifice his own son ; 
 and it was a great addition to the affliction of 
 Mordecai that the Jews w^ere to be sacrificed in 
 consequence of his having incurred the hatred 
 of a wicked but powerful individual. This also 
 accounts for his grief being more poignant than 
 that of Esther. 
 
 The tidings of the decree, and the manner in 
 
100 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 which it had been procured, threw him into a 
 paroxysm of grief. He rent his garments, not 
 merely in conformity to the manners of the age, 
 but as expressive of inward agony ; and he went 
 out and filled the streets with his wailings, not 
 to excite commisseration, or to bring the matter 
 to the ears of Esther, but like a man who was 
 for the time beside himself, and who knew not 
 and cared not what construction was put upon 
 his conduct. What although a crowd collected 
 around him, and pointing at him, said, " See a 
 poor maniac !" or, " There is a distracted Jew !" 
 He pursued his course, " crying with a loud, 
 and bitter cry," " O that my head were waters, 
 and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might 
 weep day and night for the slain of the daughter 
 of my people !"' And Mordecai would have 
 entered the palace with his weeds of wo, and 
 filled its galleries with his lamentations, had he 
 not been stopt at the gate by the servants, who 
 reminded him that his entrance in such attire 
 was against the law. This reminiscence brought 
 him to himself, and he became calm and collect- 
 ed, like the Apostle who, when reminded that 
 
MORDECAl's DISTRESS. 101 
 
 he stood before the High Priest, apologized for 
 the terms in which he had inadvertently ad- 
 dressed him : " I wist not, brethren, that he w^as 
 the High Priest ; for it is written. Thou shalt 
 not speak evil of the ruler of thy people." 
 " Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man 
 for the Lord's sake." , And a very foolish or- 
 dinance it was. " None might enter into the 
 king' s gate clothed luith sackclothP O, no ! 
 that would have thrown a damp over the mer- 
 riment and festivities that reigned within — it 
 would have excited unpleasant anticipations, 
 and induced the thoughts of that event of which 
 the prosperous wicked resolve never to think 
 until they are incapable of thought. " They 
 that are clothed in soft raiment are in king's 
 courts ;" and the only sound that is welcome 
 there is, " O king, live for ever." Out of the 
 king's gate had lately passed orders which had 
 thrown the capital into perplexity, spread dis- 
 may through the empire, and made many lie in 
 sackcloth and ashes; but they must not be 
 allowed to reflect their shadowSj to disturb the 
 9* 
 
102 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 gaieties which they left behind, or to which 
 they gave occasion ! 
 
 But think not, my brethren, that the folly 
 which I am exposing is confined to palaces and 
 mansions of the great. There are many others 
 the law of whose house is, that none enter their 
 gates clothed in sackcloth — even all those who 
 spend their days in worldly pleasure, exclude 
 the fearers of C4od from their society, and flee 
 from every thing serious as from the pestilence. 
 '' None may enter into the king's gate clothed 
 with sackcloth T' And is Death included in 
 this prohibition ? Have you given orders to 
 your porters and guards to stop this visiter at 
 the gate, and to say to him, — " Hitherto shalt 
 thou come, but no farther?" Or will they be 
 able to persuade him, and his train of ghastly 
 attendants, gout, fever, consumption, and other 
 diseases, to lay aside their sable dress, together 
 with their darts, and spears, and scorpions? 
 " Wo unto them that put far away the evil day, 
 and cause the seat of violence to come near ; 
 that lie upon beds of ivory, and stretch them- 
 selves upon their couches, and eat the lambs 
 
PERPLEXITY OF ESTHER. 103 
 
 out of the flock, and the calves out of the midst 
 of the stall ; that drink wine in bowls, and 
 anoint themselves with the chief ointments ; 
 but they are not grieved for the affliction of 
 Joseph." 
 
 But there was one individual in the palace, 
 its defence as well as its ornament, whose ear 
 was open to ihe cry of sacred misery, who had 
 been reared under Adversity, and had not forgot- 
 ten her stern nurse, in consequence of advance- 
 ment. Being, by her servants, informed of the 
 appearance of Mordecai, Esther was " exceed- 
 ingly grievedJ^ How could she be otherwise 
 affected at hearing of the distress of one who had 
 been more than a parent to her, and who, after 
 contributing to her exahation, had refused to 
 permit her to solicit a single favour for himself? 
 She, therefore, sent some of her attendants, with 
 {suitable attire, to Mordecai, requesting him to 
 lay aside his mourning habit. On any ordinary 
 occasion, this expression of sympathy on the 
 part of his royal daughter would have banished 
 his sorrow, and induced him to assume at least 
 the semblance and garb of joy ; but the cause 
 
104 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 of his distress lay too deep to admit either of 
 mitig-atioii or concealment. He refused to be 
 comforted, and returned the raiment which she 
 had sent. Alarmed at this report, the queen de- 
 spatched Hatach, the principal servant of her 
 household, with orders to bring her a true and 
 full account of the causes of this strange affair. 
 Mordecai imparted to this confidential messenger 
 all the facts of the case, gave him a copy of the 
 decree as proclaimed at Susa, and instructed him 
 to charge Esther, in his name, to go in to the 
 king and make supplication for her people. 
 Mordecai had hitherto charged her not to make 
 known her people, any more than the relation 
 in which she stood to him ; but now he not only 
 takes off the inhibition which he had laid on 
 her, but substitutes a charge of a directly oppo- 
 site kind. 
 
 The excellency of the Scriptures, and the 
 wisdom of their Divine Author, are to be seen 
 in what they conceal and keep back, as well as 
 in what they reveal and bring forward. Any 
 other writer would have entertained us with a 
 imnute account of the effect which the^e over- 
 
PERPLEXITY OF ESTHEfl. 105 
 
 whelming tidings produced on the queen — 
 would have described her as swooning in the 
 arms of her maidens, and told us what she said 
 on recovering her senses, and awakening to the 
 awful reality. The inspired historian is silent 
 on this subject, satisfied that we have a general 
 idea of her feelings, sufficiently correct, from 
 what we know of her character, and the descrip- 
 tion given of Mordecai's distress. 
 
 Nor is there less of the truth of nature in 
 what the narrative discloses. Women are or- 
 dinarily inferior to men in constitutional cou- 
 rage; and though, when once resolved, they 
 often display more constancy and firmness than 
 the other sex, yet their timidity leads them to 
 foresee difficulties and magnify dangers; a wise 
 provision, which disposes them to receive ad- 
 vice, at the same time that they minister cau- 
 tion. The queen according^ sent to Morde- 
 cai, by the same trusty messenger, an exact 
 representation of her situation, and the circum- 
 stances which rendered his proposal not only 
 perilous to herself, but almost hopeless in point 
 of success. She reminded him of the law ma- 
 
106 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 king it death for any person, man, or woman, 
 without exception, who should go uncalled into 
 the inner court, with the view of presenting a 
 petition to the throne, unless the king, by way 
 of peculiar grace, should stretch out the golden 
 sceptre as a token of pardon for the intrusion. 
 Esther speaks of it as well known, and indeed 
 it has been recorded by Herodotus, the Greek 
 historian, as a law in Persia during the reign 
 of Xerxes. The law was in every point of 
 view preposterous. It did not provide for the 
 safety of the royal person, as an assassin could 
 have broken through the restriction without 
 ceremony. It proceeded from pride, which 
 induced Eastern monarchs to shut themselves 
 up, that, being seen only on great occasions, 
 they might be adored by their subjects as a spe- 
 cies of divinities. They sought to be dreaded, 
 not loved, by those over whom they reigned. 
 By this means their palaces were converted 
 into royal prisons, and they became at once a 
 burden to themselves, and a terror to others. 
 Their subjects had no access to them to lay their 
 petitions before them, and would rather submit 
 
PERPLEXITY OF ESTHER. 107 
 
 to the extortion pf inferior officers than apply- 
 to their sovereign, at the risk of losing their 
 lives. To crown the absurdity, their v^rives 
 were not exempted from the penalty of the un- 
 righteous statute ; and the same monarch who 
 had divorced one queen for not coming into his 
 presence at his bidding, might have taken 
 away the life of another for approaching him 
 without a previous call. 
 
 But besides this, there was another great dis- 
 couragement in the way of Esther. " I have 
 not been called to come in unto the king these 
 thirty days." She was at that time under a 
 cloud, and discourted, had reason to fear that 
 some one had done her an ill turn with the 
 king, or that he had lost his affection for her, 
 if not transferred it to another. Thus it is that 
 Providence sometimes frowns on the cause of 
 his church and people, by not only exposing 
 them to imminent danger, but by shutting up 
 all the ordinary avenues of escape, so that there 
 appears no evasion for them. This proves a 
 severe trial to their faith, but affords an oppor- 
 
108 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 tunity for displaying his own wisdom and 
 mercy in their uUimate deliverance. 
 
 How happy is it for us, brethren, that we 
 live not under an absolute but a limited mon- 
 archy ! And, more particularly, how thankful 
 should we be that we are under the govern- 
 ment of the King of kings and Lord of lords ! 
 that we have access at all times to a throne of 
 grace, — that we are invited to come boldly to 
 this throne, even into the inner court the holiest 
 of al], by the blood of Christ, — that not the 
 innocent only, but the guilty enjoy this privi- 
 lege, and that " we have an advocate with the 
 Father, even Jesus Christ the righteous." 
 
109 
 
 LECTURE SEVENTH. 
 
 ESTHKR IV. 13—17. 
 
 Then Mordecai commanded to answer Esther, Think not 
 icith thyself that thou shalt escape in the king's house, more 
 than all the Jews. For if thou altogether holdest thy peace 
 at this time, then shall there enlargement and deliverance 
 arise to the Jews from another place ; hut thou and thy 
 father s house shall be destroyed : and loho knoweth whe- 
 ther thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this ? 
 Then Esther bade them return Mordecai this answer, Go, 
 gather together all the Jews that are present in Shushan, 
 and fad ye for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, 
 night or day : I also and my maidens icillfast likewise; 
 and so will I go in unto tlie king, which is not according 
 to the law : and if I perish, I perish. So Mordecai went 
 his way, and did according to all that Esther had com- 
 manded him. 
 
 In our last Lecture we saw the agony of dis- 
 tress into which Mordecai was thrown by the 
 edict procured by Hainan for exterminating the 
 Jews, and the call which he made on Esther to 
 10 
 
110 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 go in to the king, and make supplication in be- 
 half of her people. The queen did not abso- 
 lutely refuse to comply with the injunction of 
 her foster-parent, but she sent him a represen- 
 tation of the obstacles to her success, and of the 
 risk she would incur by making the attempt. 
 She reminded him of the law denouncing death 
 to all without exception who presumed to enter 
 the inner court uncalled, unless the monarch, 
 by way of peculiar grace, stretched out the 
 golden sceptre in token of pardon for the bold 
 intrusion ; and she added, that she had not had 
 an invitation to visit her husband for the last 
 thirty days, a strong presumption that his affec- 
 tions were cooled towards her, if not transferred 
 to another. 
 
 It was impossible to deny the force of the 
 reasons urged by Esther, either as to the per- 
 sonal danger to which she was exposed in ven- 
 turing into the royal presence, or the improba- 
 bility of her succeeding in an application for 
 the reversal of a law of the Medes and Per- 
 sians, procured by the ascendant influence of 
 the favourite. Had Mordecai been a person of 
 
TRUE PATRIOTISM. HI 
 
 ordinary spirit, or had he been actuated by or- 
 dinary principles, he would have ceased from 
 importuning the queen farther, and resigned 
 himself and his countrymen to their fate, or to 
 the immediate and miraculous interposition of 
 heaven. 
 
 It was on this occasion that the character of 
 Mordecai was fully developed. He loved Est- 
 her as his own daughter. His affection for her 
 was of the most disinterested kind. It was 
 enough for him that she was honoured and 
 happy. He had not sought— he had refused 
 to reap any of the fruits of her elevation. Lest 
 she should be subjected to danger or odium on 
 his account, he had commanded her to conceal 
 the connexion and relationship which subsisted 
 between them. He had even charged her 
 not to reveal the nation to which she belonged. 
 But no sooner is that nation — the peculiar peo- 
 ple of Jehovah— in danger of being cut off and 
 exterminated, than he yields himself to another 
 influence, which leads him to act in a way the 
 very opposite to that which he had hitherto 
 pursued. That daughter for whom he would 
 
112 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 willingly have laid down his own life, he is 
 now equally willing to sacrifice for the life of 
 his people: and he presses her to avow herself 
 a member of that devoted nation, with more 
 intense importunity than he had urged her to 
 conceal the fact, when the avowal would have 
 been harmless to her and honourable to him- 
 self The flame which burned in his breast 
 burst asunder and consumed those ties which 
 he had most industriously entwined round his 
 affections ; and the cry of his country's misery 
 drowned every other voice in his ears. " If I 
 forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand 
 forget her cunning. If I do not remember 
 thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my 
 mouth, if I prefer not Jerusalem to my chief 
 joy." This is true patriotism — sacred patriot- 
 ism, devotion to God and the people of God. 
 And is not this a Christian feeling, and as suit- 
 able to the new as to the old economy? Listen 
 to the "Author and Finisher of our faith:" 
 " If any man come to me, and hate not his father 
 and mother, and wife and children, and brethren 
 and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot 
 be my disciple." 
 
MORDECAl's ARGUMENTS. 113 
 
 Having taking his resolution, observe, in the 
 message which he sent to Esther, with what 
 holy art and ingenuity, as well as ardour, he 
 labours to persuade her to put her life in her 
 hand, and appeal to the mercy of the king. 
 
 But before dilating upon this, let us briefly 
 advert to the arguments which Mordecai does 
 not employ. We might have expected him to 
 address Esther in such language as this: 
 *' Think of the uniform kindness with which I 
 have treated you. When your father and 
 mother had left you a helpless orphan, I took 
 you up, adopted you as my child, w^atched over 
 your tender age — fed you, clothed you, caressed 
 you, dandled you upon my knees, kept you as 
 the apple of mine eye. 1 informed your open- 
 ing mind, and taught you the knowledge of the 
 true God, the God of your fathers ; nor did I 
 rest until I had procured ^^our advancement to 
 the honourable place which you now occupy. 
 I therefore adjure you by all the favours and at- 
 tentions you have received, and as you would not 
 prove yourself an in grate, to comply with this 
 my highest w^ish." Mordecai did not use such 
 10* 
 
114 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 arguments as these, he makes no allusion to any- 
 thing that personally concerned himself; they 
 were below the sacred cause for which he plead- 
 ed, and they were too weak to produce the effect 
 which he had in view. In a mind like that of 
 Esther, they would have prompted a generous 
 resolution to testify her love and gratitude to 
 her benefactor by the sacrifice of her life, but 
 they could not have produced that holy heroism 
 which it was Mordecai's object to inspire, and 
 which was necessary to carry her through in 
 this difficult enterprise, by taking and executing 
 her measures calmly, coolly, cautiously, and 
 yet with all that resolution and courage which 
 spring from reliance on heaven's aid in heaven's 
 cause. 
 
 The first consideration which he urges, rela- 
 ting to her own hopes of escaping the calamity 
 which impended over her countrymen, may ap- 
 pear at the first view to be of the same descrip- 
 tion with those just referred to. It is, however, 
 of great importance in the case. False hopes 
 of safety are one fruitful source of delusion, by 
 making persons careless or averse to use means 
 
HIS FIRST ARGUMENT. 115 
 
 for their own escape, or the deliverance of 
 others, from danger, temporal or eternal. They 
 must, therefore, be disabused and undeceived ; 
 the veil of covering which is spread over their 
 minds must be torn off, and they must be shown 
 their real state, and their impending danger in 
 all its nakedness and nearness. We never will 
 persuade sinners to flee to the refuge opened 
 for them, if we do not convince them that wrath 
 is coming upon them. " Save yourselves from 
 this untoward generation." Think not with 
 yourselves that you shall escape their doom, 
 however sober, and decent, and moral you may 
 be, compared with some of them. While pro- 
 fligacy destroys its thousands, fal-je peace and 
 lying confidences destroy their ten thousands. 
 " We have made a covenant with death, and 
 with hell are we at agreement; when the over- 
 flowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not 
 come unto us." To such persons it is not suf- 
 ficient to say, "Behold I lay in Zion for a 
 foundation, a stone, a tried stone, a precious 
 corner-stone, a sure foundation: he that be- 
 lieveth shall not make haste." We must add, 
 
116 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 " Your covenant with death shall be disan- 
 nulled, and your agreement with hell shall not 
 stand; when the overflowing scourge shall 
 pass through, then shall ye be trodden dow^n 
 by it." 
 
 It w^as not unnatural for Esther to flatter 
 herself that she would escape in the general 
 massacre of her countrymen. The fact of her 
 being of Jewish extraction w^as a secret ; and 
 supposing the enemy of her people should come 
 to the knowledge of it, he would not dare to 
 bring the devouring sword into the palace, or 
 turn it against the wife of the monarch. " Then 
 Murdecai commanded to answer Esther, Think 
 7iot iviih thyself that thou shali escape in the 
 Icing's house, more than all the JewsP Flatter 
 not thyself with the delusive hope that the pa- 
 lace will be a sanctuary, or the crown a defence 
 to thee. The edict is universal and unlimited 
 to destroy, kill, and cause to perish all Jews — 
 little children and women ; and it has no saving 
 clause in it, providing for the exercise of the 
 royal clemency by stretching out the golden 
 sceptre. The discovery of thy descent will 
 
HIS SECOND ARGUMENT. Il7 
 
 whet the ingenuity of our inveterate enemy, to 
 whom it will be the luxury of revenge to taste 
 of royal blood. And think not with thyself, 
 that this will not come to light when the fiends 
 of destruction shall be let loose, and when, in 
 the extremity of the destruction, " The brother 
 shall deliver up the brother to death, and the 
 father the child." But though I, and your 
 maidens, and your chamberlain should be silent 
 as the grave, thou wilt become informer against 
 thyself; thy fears, and the anguish that will 
 seize thee at the hearing of thy brethren " killed 
 all the day long," and "counted as sheep for the 
 slaughter," will bewray thee. 
 
 But if this does not move thee, if thou art 
 still spell-bound by thy slavish fears, there is 
 another consideration which demands thy atten- 
 tion. Thy destruction is involved in that of the 
 Jews; but their's is not necessarily involved in 
 thine. Know that ''if thou altogether holdest 
 thy peace at this time, then shall there enlarge- 
 ment and deliverance arise to the Jeivs from 
 another place ; but thou and thy father's house 
 shall be destroyed.'^ Here is a word " sharpel 
 
118 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the 
 dividing asunder of soul and spirit." Here is a 
 word which serves at once for a fire and a ham- 
 mer ; a fire to melt the hard heart into obedience, 
 or, if it prove refractory, a hammer to break it 
 in pieces. 
 
 " There shall enlargement and deliverance 
 arise to the Jews from another place." O the 
 power of faith ! What has it not done 7 what 
 can it not do ? It is " the substance of things 
 hoped for, the evidence of things not seen," It 
 lifts the person above the level of his own mind. 
 It can not only see abundance of rain in a cloud 
 no bigger than a man's hand, but it can prophesy 
 of it, when the heavens above are as burnished 
 brass. The faith of God's elect has removed 
 mountains— not literally — but mountains of dif- 
 ficulties, and mountains of guilt lying on the 
 conscience, and cast them into the sea; dissi- 
 pated clouds — not the visible clouds — but clouds 
 of despair which oppress the soul ; and dried up 
 fountains — not the fountains of the deep — but 
 the fountains of tears in the heart, which flowed 
 day and night for the slain of the daughter of 
 
FOUNDATION OF FAITH. 119 
 
 Zion ! Witness its effects upon Mordecai. How 
 changed is he from the figure in which we saw 
 him lately. He has shaken the dust from his 
 head, his filthy garments he has exchanged for 
 raiment far surpassing that which the queen had 
 sent him ; and the wailings with which he filled 
 the streets of Shushan have been converted into 
 strains of hope and triumph. It is faith — reco- 
 vered faith — which has set his feet upon a rock, 
 and placed him in a pavilion, from the top of 
 which he looks down with derision on the malice 
 and power and expectation of his enemy, and 
 with compassion on his timid, distracted daugh- 
 ter, whom he alternately chides and comforts. 
 
 But what is this faith which produces such 
 astonishing effects? Is it just strong confidence, 
 or a persuasion that what we believe will take 
 place ? It has a more solid foundation than this. 
 There is confidence in it, sometimes rising to 
 full assurance, but the word of the immutable 
 God is the base on which the pillar of faith 
 rests — confidence, the spiral top with which it 
 seeks the skies. On what, then, did the faith of 
 Mordecai rest ? On the promises of God, who 
 
120 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 " is not a man that he should lie, neither the son 
 of man that he should repent: hath he said and 
 shall he not do it ? or hath he spoken, and shall 
 he not make it good?" Some of these were 
 general, securing the preservation of the seed of 
 Jacob. I will " make a full end of all nations, 
 whither I have gathered thee, yet will I not 
 make a full end of thee." " Saving that I will 
 not utterly destroy the house of Jacob." " If 
 those ordinances (of day and niglit) depart from 
 before me, saith the Lord, then the seed of Israel 
 also shall cease from being a nation before me 
 for ever." Other promises referred more parti- 
 cularly to the period succeeding the captivity, 
 when he promised great prosperity to his people, 
 " After the glory hath he sent me to the nations 
 which spoiled you, for he that toucheth you 
 toucheth the apple of his eye. For behold I will 
 shake mine hand upon them, and they shall be 
 a spoil to their servants ; and ye shall know 
 that the Lord of Hosts hath sent me." Appear- 
 ances were indeed unfavourable and gloomy. 
 The hand of the adversary was high; the dan-' 
 ger was imminent, and there was no visible 
 
ACTIVITY OF FAITH. 121 
 
 prospect of relief. The judgment of sense and 
 worldly reason was, " our hope is lost, we are 
 cut off for our parts." But faith looks beyond 
 appearances, and thus Mordecai " against hope, 
 believed in hope;" and believing, he spake, 
 " There shall enlargement and deliverance arise 
 to the JeiDS.^^ 
 
 Wherever there is a true faith of this kind, 
 it will not only establish the heart, but stir up 
 to the use of all due means, according to our 
 station and opportunity, for obtaining salvation. 
 If we refuse this, we have no faith, or our faith 
 is vain, and we shall be excluded from a share 
 in the blessing. "By faith Noah, being Vv^arn- 
 ed of God of things not seen as yet, moved 
 with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his 
 house." The Israelites that came out of Egypt 
 disbelieved God's word, and refused to go into 
 Canaan at his command, and therefore their 
 carcasses fell in the wilderness; while their 
 children, whom they said should be a prey, 
 came in and possessed the land. The noble- 
 man on whose hand the king leaned, having 
 expressed his disbelief of Elisha's word in pro- 
 11 
 
1 22 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 pbesying- plenty to the besieged in Samaria, 
 lived not to see tiie blessing, being trodden to 
 death in the crowd of famishing citizens who 
 pressed forward to obtain a share of the Syrian 
 spoils. Of this Mordecai warns the queen. 
 " If thou akogelher boldest thy peace at this 
 time, then thou and thy father's house shall be 
 destroyed." The day of Israel's deliverance 
 shall be the day of thy destruction. " If thou 
 forbear to deliver them that are drawn unto 
 death, and those that are ready to he slain ; he 
 that keepeth thy soul, doth not he know it? and 
 shall not he render to every man according to 
 his works?" Thou shalt bring destruction 
 upon thyself and me, and all our family, which 
 shall become a hissing and execration in Israel. 
 "He that findeth his life shall lose it, and he 
 that loseth his life for my sake shall find it." 
 
 It is proper to awaken the fears of men, and 
 to set before them the judgments of the Al- 
 mighty; even good men need to be reminded 
 that our God is a consuming fire, and that he 
 loathes lukewarmness, and selfishness, and 
 cowardice. But we must employ higher mo- 
 
CONCLUDING A R G U 31 E N T . 123 
 
 lives for the conviction of sinners, and the ani- 
 mating of saints to great and generous under- 
 takings ; and of this kind is the concluding 
 argument in Mordecai's expostulation with the 
 queen. "But I am persuaded better things of 
 you, though I thus speak." My dear child, 
 towards whom 1 cherish the feelings both of a 
 natural and a spiritual father, I desire to change 
 my voice ; consider what I say : — " Who know- 
 etii whether thou art come to the kingdom for 
 such a time as this?''' 
 
 " Thou art come to the kingdom^ to a crown, 
 to a throne, and in what a wonderful manner I 
 Surely it becomes you to say, with greater rea- 
 son than David, " Who am I, O Lord God, 
 and what is my house, that thou hast brought 
 me hitherto?" And to add, with the same 
 godly king, " What shall I render unto the 
 Lord, for all his benefits towards me?" Born 
 a captive, early left an orphan, lately the repu- 
 ted daughter of a porter, Providence hath rais- 
 ed thee beyond all men's expectation, and of 
 none more than your own, to be the second 
 person in the greatest monarchy of the world. 
 
124 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 Art thou not then bound in gratitude to do this 
 service for God and his church ?" " And who 
 knoweth whether ihou art come to the kingdom 
 for such a time as this?" It is possible; it is 
 highly probable. The singular way of thy 
 elevation, and the striking conjunction of cir- 
 cumstances, point to this, and seem to say, Be- 
 cause the Lord loved his people, therefore he 
 made Esther queen, that by her influence with 
 the king she might defeat the wicked plot for 
 their destruction. The very probability of this 
 was a strong incitement to her to bestir herself; 
 for if God had destined her to be the deliverer 
 of Israel, then he Avould be with her, and give 
 success to her exertions, and this would be an 
 honour greater than the matrimonial crown of 
 Persia ; for " henceforth all generations would 
 call her blessed." 
 
 The event showed that Mordecai was right 
 in his conjecture, and that he had correctly 
 interpreted the ways of Providence, i There is 
 a wise counsel and design in all the works of 
 Him who sees the end from the beginning. It 
 often is unknown to us until it is carried into 
 
CONCLUDING ARGUMENT. 125 
 
 effect, though we might know more of it if we 
 were more diligent students of Providence; 
 and the issue proves, that all was intended for, 
 and conduces to, the good of the church. We 
 should seek to be " workers together with 
 God," and carefully consider for what end he 
 hath put us into the place which we occupy. 
 Have any rank, or authority, or talents, or 
 wealth, or friends? These are the gifts of 
 God, and must be used for his glory. When 
 any special opportunity of serving God and our 
 generation presents itself, we should beware of 
 letting it slip, or excusing ourselves ; for an 
 account will be exacted of us, and exacted with 
 impartiality. Of them to whom much is given 
 much shall be required. Every one hath it in 
 his power to do something. " What knowest 
 thou, O wife, whether thou shalt save thy hus- 
 band? or how knowest thou, O man, whether 
 thou shalt save thy wife ?■' And we should 
 "provoke one another," by our example and 
 our advice, "to love and to good works." 
 
 With another remark we shall conclude. 
 When God, in his adorable providence, raises 
 11* 
 
126 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 Up some great individual, through whose instru- 
 mentality he means to bring about a great de- 
 liverance, he generally associates him with an- 
 other, of a kindred spirit, though differently 
 qualified, to be a fellow-worker with him in the 
 same cause. Moses was joined with Aaron, 
 Elijah with Elisha, Joshua with Zerubabel, 
 Ezra with Nehemiah, Our Lord sent out his 
 disciples " b}^ two and two ;" and, in like man- 
 ner, Mordecai and Esther, two individuals of 
 different qualifications, sex, and station, were 
 associated together in efTecting the deliverance 
 Of the Jewish nation. By this arrangement, in 
 which we may perceive the wisdom of God, 
 provision is made for mutual help, counsel, and 
 encouragement ; the defects of the one instru- 
 ment are happily counterbalanced by the excel- 
 lencies of the other; truth is confirmed by their 
 concurrent testimony, and religion is promoted 
 by their combined exertions. " Two is better 
 than one, and a threefold cord is not easily 
 broken." 
 
127 
 
 LECTURE EIGHTH 
 
 Esther IV. 15— 17; V. 1—8. 
 
 Then Esther bade them return Mordecai this ansicer, Go, 
 gather together all the Jeics that are present in Shu- 
 shan, and fast ye for me, and neither eat nor drink three 
 days, night or day : I also and my maidens tcillfast like- 
 wise ; and so icill I go in unto the king, ichich is not ac- 
 cording to the law : and if J perish, I perish. So Morde- 
 cai went his icay, and did according to all that Esther 
 lutd commanded him. 
 
 Now it came to pass on the third day, that Esther put on 
 Jier royal apparel, and stood in the inner court of the 
 king^s house, over against the king^s house: and the 
 king sat upon his royal throne in the royal house, over 
 against the gate of the house. And it was so, lofien the 
 king saw Esther the queen standing in the court, that she 
 obtained favour in his sight : and the king held out to 
 Esther the golden sceptre that was in his hand. So 
 Esther drew near, and touclied the top of the sceptre. 
 Then said the king unto her. What wilt thou, Q^ueen 
 Esther ? and what is thy request ? it shall be even given 
 
12S LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 tliee to the half of the kingdom. And Esther ansirercd, 
 If it seem good unto the king, let the king and Human 
 come this day unto the banquet that I have prepared for 
 them. Then the king said, Cause Human to make 
 haste, that he may do as Estlier luith said. So the king 
 and Human came to the banquet that Esther had pre- 
 pared. And the king said unto Esther at the banquet of 
 wine, What is thy petition / and it shall he granted thee : 
 and ichat is thy request ? even to the half of the kingdom 
 it shall he performed. Tlien answered Esther, and said, 
 My petition and my request is; If I have found favour 
 in the sight of the king, and if it please the king to 
 grant my petition, and to perform my request, let the 
 king and Human come to the banquet that I shall pre- 
 pare for them, and I tcill do to-morrow as the king hath 
 said. 
 
 We have considered the arguments by which 
 Mordecai endeavoured to persuade his royal 
 daughter to put her life in jeopardy for her 
 people, by venturing into the king's presence 
 though contrary to law, and entreating his pro- 
 tection of the Jews against the wicked decree of 
 Haman. He warned her not to flatter herself 
 that the palace or the crown would prove a 
 protection to her in the day of slaughter. He 
 expresses his confident expectation, that though 
 
APPROACH TO THE KINO. 129 
 
 she should hold her peace, deliverance would 
 arise to the Jews from some other quarter ; in 
 which case she, by her criminal silence, would 
 bring destruction on herself and her father's 
 house. And he called her to consider not only 
 what was due by her in point of gratitude for 
 such unexpected exaltation, but also the high 
 probability that Providence had advanced her 
 to the rank which she filled that she might be 
 the honoured instrument of her country's sal- 
 vation. 
 
 " The words of the wise are as goads, and as 
 nails fastened by the masters of assemblies, 
 which are given from one shepherd." " How 
 forcible are right words !" Mordecai, thou hast 
 prevailed! Esther is twice thy daughter! She 
 is prepared to obey thy injunctions, and to risk 
 her crown and the head that wears it, for the 
 deliverance of her people. She only wanted to 
 be instructed ; and no sooner were her doubts 
 removed, and her judgment informed, than her 
 resolution was fixed. But it was not formed in 
 a fit of enthusiasm. She would not rush into 
 the king's presence, trusting to the influence of 
 
130 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 her beautjr, or of her eloquence, or to miracu- 
 lous interposition: but would, in the first place, 
 prepare her own mind, and seek the blessing of 
 heaven, by engaging in the secret and private 
 exercises of religion; and having entreated the 
 Lord and committed her soul to him in well- 
 doing, she would go in to the king, with these 
 words on her heart, as well as on her tongue, 
 '' If I ferish, I perisV^ 
 
 Highly as she revered ^Mordecai, and great 
 as was her confidence in his wisdom and integ- 
 rity, Esther's was no implicit faith or blind 
 obedience; and, accordingly, he must be in- 
 structed by his pupil, and in his turn must be 
 content to have his duty pointed out to him, and 
 to beurged totheperformanceofit. ''Go, gat/ier 
 togelJier all the Jews that are present in Shu- 
 shan, and fast ye for me, a^id neither eat nor 
 drink three days, night or day ; I also and my 
 maidens will fast likewise; and so ivill I go in 
 VMtn the king, which is not according to the 
 law; and if I perish. I perish. So Mordecai 
 went his way, and did according to all that 
 EUher had commanded him." There is often a 
 
FASTING. 131 
 
 great contest about aiuhority and rights among 
 men. "What right have you to command me ? 
 or what authority have you over my con- 
 science?" None; but God has an absolute 
 authority over us both; and his word, though 
 spoken by a child, by an inferior, or a woman, 
 claims obedience. " Ye younger, submit your- 
 selves unto the elder; yea, all of you be subject 
 one to another, and be clothed with humility." 
 Mordecai had charged Esther, and yet " Mor- 
 decai went his way, and did according to all 
 that Esther had commanded him." 
 
 During three days they neither ate nor 
 drank; that is, they abstained from set meals, 
 and from pleasant food, as Daniel is said to 
 have done when he sought the Lord by prayer 
 and supplication w^ith fasting ; and as John 
 Baptist is said to have come " neither eating 
 nor drinking," when he lived on locusts and 
 wild honey. For to have abstained totally 
 from food, as it would have been superstitious, 
 so it would have weakened Esther both in body 
 and spirits, and unfitted her for appearing before 
 the king. 
 
132 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 We remarked formerly, that though the 
 name of God is not in this book, his finger is in 
 it; and we may observe here, that though 
 prayer is not specified in this passage, yet it is 
 evidently implied.* Fasting is always connect- 
 ed with prayer in Scripture. When sins 
 abound, when judgments are impending, when 
 any great benefit is to be sought, or any difficult 
 work is to be attempted, it is proper to join fast- 
 ing with prayer, to humble ourselves under the 
 mighty hand of God, to confess our iniquities, 
 deprecate deserved wrath, and implore unde- 
 served mercy. That person must be thought- 
 less or impious who does not perceive that 
 there is a loud call for this exercise both pri- 
 vately and publicly, singly and socially, in our 
 day — when there are so many tokens of ap- 
 proaching calamities in the agitated state of 
 Europe, giving dreadful note of preparations 
 for war ; and in our own country, where 
 iniquity abounds, and the love of many has 
 waxed cold, where error is rampant, and the 
 
 * The apocrj'phal additions have prayers. 
 
FASTING DERIDED. loa 
 
 bonds of society are in danger of being burst 
 asunder. Yet who hears the voice, or is pre- 
 pared to obey the call ? " In that day did the 
 Lord God of hosts call to weeping, and to 
 mourning, and to baldness, and to girding with 
 sackcloth ; and to behold joy and gladness ; 
 slaying oxen and killing sheep ; eating flesh 
 and drinking wine ; let us eat and drink, for 
 to-morrow we shall die." It was the complaint 
 of one of old, " When I wept, and chastened 
 my soul with fasting, that was to my reproach. 
 I made sackcloth also my garment: and I be- 
 came a proverb to them." We are now ad- 
 vanced to such a height of impiety, that the 
 very mention of the name of the exercise refer- 
 red to calls forth scorn. There is a certain 
 House — let us not name it, not ev^n in a whis- 
 per, lest a bird of the air should carry it, and 
 proclaim it — not at Westminster, but in Paris, 
 or Madrid, or Rome — there is a certain House 
 in which the very name of a fast is a signal 
 for hooting and laughter. But why need we 
 attempt to hide the fact, Avhen our folly and sin 
 is made manifest to all the world-^when our 
 12 
 
134 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 national councils, under an infatuation, height- 
 ened by the dreams and visions of " light pro- 
 phets,''* have, for the sake of a hollow and 
 false peace, given power to the beast, and 
 strengthened the hands of the votaries of the 
 Mm of Sin, that they should not return from 
 their evil ways, neither repent of their sorceries 
 and spiritual fornications. When the wicked 
 decree of Hanaan was proclaimed, "the city 
 Shashan was perplexed." But on the occasion 
 referred to, our Shushan was in no perplexity, 
 but all ranks joined in urging on our too will- 
 ing rulers; and our ministers of religion were 
 among the loudest in crying, "Go up and 
 prosper." God has punished them by writing 
 foolishness on their measures, and "smiting 
 with a scab" the crown of their glory. But I 
 refer not to the fall of the ministry which had 
 recourse to that measure for their support; I 
 refer not to the convulsions in Ireland, which, we 
 were told it would assuage. I refer to something 
 
 * Zephan. iii, 4, " Her prophets are light and treach- 
 erous persons." 
 
POPERY COUNTENANCED. 135 
 
 nearer. In this city, where the performance of 
 mass, even in the private chapel of a legitimate 
 and native princess, excited the greatest alarm 
 and indignation — in this city mass has lately 
 been openly performed, during the residence of 
 an exiled prince, and a solemn dirge and 
 lamentation for the death of a pope has been 
 sung; the service has been unblushingly adver- 
 tised and reported by a venal and corrupt press, 
 and it was witnessed and countenanced by a 
 crowded congregation, consisting chiefly of per- 
 sons calling themselves Protestants. To say 
 they are unworthy of the name, is to say noth- 
 ing; they are a disgrace to it. If Popery were 
 to be re-established in our land, it would require 
 no gibbets, or prisons, or force, or persuasion, to 
 make such persons converts — to kiss a crucifix, 
 or adore a wafer. O the sin of the poor, blind- 
 ed, deluded papists, and even of those among 
 them who know better things, is light, and 
 trifling, and venial, compared with that of pro- 
 testants, who, being instructed out of the book 
 of God, and knowing that those who do sue? 
 things are worthy of death, not only do th** 
 
136 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 same, but have pleasure in those that do them ; 
 and who, for the sake of entertainment, would 
 countenance those lies and idolatries which are 
 sending souls daily down to hell ! Do not our 
 ears tingle with the words, " Surely this ini- 
 quity shall not be purged from you till ye die?" 
 There is no purgatory for Protestants. 
 
 I said that we have a loud call to fasting. 
 There is a cry, feeble indeed, raised by some for 
 a general fast, and some good men are address- 
 ing petitions to the throne for such an appoint- 
 ment. I respect the intentions of such pious 
 petitioners, but have no hope of good resulting 
 from the measure. Not to say that national 
 fasts have long been appointed in this country 
 by mere regal authority, to the setting aside of 
 the authority of the church, and have been made 
 subservient to political purposes, what prospect 
 is there in the present character of the nation, 
 that a call from the throne would lead to such a 
 fast as the Lord requireth ? Would our ministers 
 of state humble themselves before the Lord, and 
 turn to him with all their hearts ? Would the 
 two Houses of Parliament ? Would our nobility 
 
FASTING AND SUPPLICATION. 137 
 
 or gentry? Would men of literature and 
 science? Would the great body of our people? 
 Ah ! these have " broken the yoke and burst 
 the bands" — "they know not the way of the 
 Lord, nor the judgment of their God." Is 
 there not reason to fear that a national fast, in 
 present circumstances, would be a mockery of 
 the Almighty? that it would add hypocrisy to 
 our irreligion, and infidelity, and profanation of 
 the Sabbath, and other abounding sins? We 
 must be brought into yet deeper waters — our 
 straits, and embarrassments, and plagues must 
 press sorer upon us and come nearer to our 
 souls, before we be in any fit state for devoting 
 a day, as a nation, to bewail our sins before 
 Him who looketh not on the outward appear- 
 ance. In the meantime, let the fearers of the 
 Lord, who tremble at his word and stand in 
 awe of his judgments, let them assemble them- 
 selves for fasting and supplication, and cry 
 mightily to God to spare the people, and not 
 give his heritage to reproach. After having 
 been thus employed, we shall be in a better 
 frame for adopting any measures which have 
 12* 
 
138 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 for their object the glory of God, or the welfare 
 of our people. Such was Esthers course; 
 " Fast ye for me — / also and my wMidens icill 
 fast likeioise ; and so will I go in unto the 
 king, which is not according to the law. 
 
 " To every thing there is a season, and a 
 time to every purpose under the sun. There 
 is a time to weep, and a time to refrain from 
 weeping ; a time to keep silence, and a time to 
 speak." After engaging in religious exercises, 
 Esther found her mind fortified for the task as- 
 signed to her. She was satisfied it was her 
 duty, which to a pious mind is always the chief 
 consideration. Her fears were dissipated, her 
 spirits composed and elevated, and she felt her- 
 self disposed nobly to adventure every thing in 
 the sacred cause. 
 
 " He that believeth doth not make haste ;" 
 but neither doth he linger like the slothful. 
 Fasting and prayer are preparatives, not sub- 
 stitutes, for active duties. " The Lord said unto 
 Moses, Wherefore criest thou unto me ? speak 
 unto the children of Israel that they go lor- 
 ward." Good resolutions, when difficulties and 
 
ESTHER IN ROYAL A P P A R E I, . 1 39 
 
 dangers must be broken through, should be 
 speedily performed ; and we should not damp 
 them by prolonging religious exercises. Hav- 
 ing spent the time allotted to fasting, Esther 
 rose from the ground, laid aside her sackcloth, 
 and put on her royal apparel. The apocryphal 
 additions to this book represent her as appeal- 
 ing to God, that she always abhorred these 
 signs of her high estate. That her adorning 
 was in the hidden man of the heart, that she did 
 not glory in her crown and embroidered gar- 
 ments, and would have been willing to have 
 thrown them away for the sake of conscience 
 and the good of her people, is all true. But 
 why should she have abhorred them in them- 
 selves ? There was nothing sinful or necessarily 
 contaminating in their touch : they were given 
 her of God ; they were the badge of the rank to 
 which she had been raised ; and had she ap- 
 peared without them, or worn them in an awk- 
 ward, slovenly manner, she would have dis- 
 honoured her husband, and defeated her laud- 
 able enterprise. Esther did not adorn herself 
 to attract the regards of Ahasuerus, but because 
 
140 LECTURES O x\ ESTHER. 
 
 she felt it incumbent on her to appear in a man- 
 ner becoming her station. There is no sin in 
 persons dressing according to their rank. The 
 king's daughter may be all glorious \Yithin, 
 though her garments are of wrought gold; and 
 the plainest and coarsest garb may conceal a 
 proud and haughty spirit. 
 
 The author of the Apocrypha tells us that 
 the queen Avent into the inner court with a cheer- 
 ful countenance, but a heart full of anguish, and 
 that the king who sat on his throne, lifting up 
 his countenance, which shone with majesty, and 
 looking fiercely upon her, she fell on the arm 
 of her maid in a swoon, upon which the mon- 
 arch, melted into pity, left his throne, and em- 
 bracing his spouse, restored her fallen spirits. 
 This account savours of romance. The simple 
 narrative before us represent? Esther as appear- 
 ing with a dignified modesty becoming a royal 
 suppliant, the urgency of whose errand had 
 prompted her to enter uncalled, and to throw 
 herself on the clemency of her husband. 
 
 " The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord, 
 who turneth it like the waters in a conduit." 
 
ENCOURAGEMENTS TO PRAYER. 141 
 
 He " prospered his servant, and granted her 
 mercy in' the sight of this man." Whatever 
 might be the alienation of his affection before, 
 she now found favour in his eyes ; and he no 
 sooner recognized her than he held out to her 
 the golden sceptre in his hand, as a pledge of 
 royal protection and benignity. This was a 
 token for good, like that which Jacob had when 
 " he wept and made supplication," and was call- 
 ed Israel, " because as a prince he had power 
 with God and men, and had prevailed." O the '"' 
 power, the irresistible efficacy of believing, 
 humble, fervent prayer ! It makes its VA^ay into 
 heaven, and returns fraughted with blessings ; 
 and it opens a way into the most inaccessible of 
 human hearts, making the haughty humble, and 
 the austere gentle and benignant. " What wilt 
 thou, quern Esther 1 And what is thy request ? 
 It shall be even given thee to the half of the king- 
 dom.''' — What encouragement is here presented 
 to those who are called to venture their lives, 
 or their reputation, or their substance, in the 
 cause of God ! They shall not only have these 
 preserved, but in one way or another increased. 
 
142 L E C T r K K S ox ESTHER. 
 
 How often has God prevented the fears, and out- 
 done the hopes of his servants ! It is the cowar- 
 dice of Christians that spoils their fortune. Their 
 fears kill them, and benumb, and palsy, and 
 deaden their exertions for God and his Church. 
 If we had more taith, and "added to our faith 
 fortitude," our trials would be less, and our suc- 
 cess greater. '* Said I not unto thee, that if thou 
 wouldst believe, thou shouldst see the glory of 
 God r 
 
 From the story of the unjust judge, our Sa- 
 viour took occasion to teach that '■ men ought 
 always to pray and not to taint ;" and, without 
 wandering from the subject, I may surely take 
 opportunity from this portion of history to incul- 
 cate the same duty. Did this haughty monarch 
 hold out the sceptre, and say, What wilt thou, 
 and what is thy request ? and shall not God 
 hear his own elect — his chosen spouse, crying 
 to him day and night? Esther had to go into 
 the presence of a proud imperious man. we to 
 go into the presence of a God of love and con- 
 descension. She was not called: we are invited. 
 She went in against the law ; we have both pre- 
 
ESTHERS PRUDENCE. 143 
 
 cept and promise in our favour— yea, precept 
 upon precept, and promise upon promise. "Ask, 
 and it shall be given you : geek, and ye shall 
 find : knock, and it shall be opened unto you." 
 She had no friend at court on whom she could 
 rely, and the g^reat -favourite was the accuser of 
 her brethren, the mortal foe of her name and 
 race ; we, even when we liave sinned, and sin- 
 ned after light anJ pardon, have an advocate 
 with the Father, his beloved Son, in whom he is 
 well pleased, who also is the propitiation for our 
 sins. Esther was encouraged to ask to the ex- 
 tent of the half of the kingdom of Persia ; we 
 are encouraged to ask to the whole of the king- 
 dom of Heaven, with a life rent on earth of ail 
 that is needful for us. Ought we not then to 
 come boldly to the throne of grace V' 
 
 When persons are placed in critical situations, 
 and endeavour to act singly and hontstlj-, wis- 
 dom is granted to them to direct their course. 
 Though she had met with a reception equal to 
 her most sanguine expectations, Esther did not 
 immediately present the request which was near- 
 est her hean, but contented herself with begging 
 
144 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 that the king, accompanied with Haman, would 
 •' come to the banquet of wine which she had pre- 
 parecV^ By this she testified her disinterested- 
 .ness. She did not choose to take advantage of a 
 promise which he had made perhaps from sud- 
 den feeling, and she wished to show him that 
 she valued his company above all the gifts which 
 he could confer upon her, though they should 
 amount in value to the half of his kingdom. 
 She was afraid of precipitating the decision, and 
 sought to avail herself of every prudent method 
 for ensuring success. The inner court of the 
 palace, where the king was surrounded by his 
 servants, was an improper place for the dis- 
 closure of so important and delicate an affair. 
 And it was every way proper that Haman, the 
 adviser and author of the measure, which it was 
 her object to defeat, should be present at the time 
 that the information was communicated to the 
 monarch, whose confidence he had abused. 
 
 Carnal prudence and worldly policy should 
 be discarded by all who embark in the interests 
 of religion. They corrupt the minds of those 
 who employ them, and betray into courses which 
 
Esther's prudence. 145 
 
 the God of truth cannot approve nor prosper. 
 But it is a great mistake to suppose that we are 
 warranted to transgress the ordinary rules of 
 prudence and discretion, in promoting the cause 
 of heaven. " Behold ! I send you forth as sheep 
 in the midst of wolves : be ye therefore wise as 
 serpents, and harmless as doves." Even at the 
 banquet of wine, when the king urged Esther 
 to declare her request, she excused herself 
 Here we are chiefly to observe the providence 
 of God, overruling the mind of Esther, and in- 
 clining her to postpone the disclosure to the 
 next day, that what happened during the inter- 
 vening time might ripen the plans of Heaven 
 for the deliverance of the Jews, by bringing 
 Mordecai into honourable notice, and mortify- 
 ing Haman. " The preparations of the heart 
 in man, and the answer of the tongue, is from 
 the Lord." Yet this was doubtless accomplish- 
 ed by ordinary occurrences affecting the resolu- 
 tions of the queen. We all know how difficult 
 it is for us to break a secret which is big with 
 interest to ourselves and others ; that in waiting 
 for the mollia tempora fandi, the most favoura- 
 13 
 
145 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 ble season of speaking, we allow the time to 
 prs], and are fain to postpone the affair to a fu- 
 ture opportunity. The petition might be upon 
 Esther's lips, but not finding courage to utter it, 
 she was glad of a respite, that she might ask of 
 God a mouth and wisdom. She therefore con- 
 tented herself with requesting the honour of an- 
 other visit on the following day, promising that 
 she would, then, without fail, acquaint the king 
 with the request which had prompted her un- 
 called to seek his presence, and which he had 
 so graciously encouraged her to present. We 
 shall afterwards see what occurred in the in- 
 terval. 
 
 We observe something resembling the holy, 
 artless policy of Esther, in Abraham's interces- 
 sion for Sodom. O that we had the faith, and 
 wisdom, and courage of Esther, joined with the 
 reverence and importunity of Abraham, in deal- 
 ing with the King of heaven ! Then our people 
 might be given at our request, and we should 
 certainly have our souls for a prey, and be sen 
 away rejoicing. 
 
147 
 
 LECTURE NINTH, 
 
 Esther V. 9—14. 
 
 Then went Haman forth that day joyfully and with a glad 
 heart: but icJien Haman saw Mordecai in the king's 
 gate, that he stood not vp, nor moved for him, he was 
 full of indignation against Mordecai. Nevertheless 
 Haman refrained himself: and ichen he came home, he 
 sent and called for his friends, and Zcresh his tcife. 
 And Haman told them of the glory of his riches, and 
 the multitude of his children, and all the things wherein 
 the king had promoted him, and how he had advanced 
 him above the princes and servants of the king. Haman 
 said moreover, Yea, Esther the queen did let no man 
 come in with the king unto the banquet that she had pre- 
 fared but myself; and to-morrow am 1 invited unto her 
 also with the king. Yet all this availeth me nothing, so 
 long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king's gate. 
 Then said Zeresh his wife and all his friends unto him, 
 Let a gallows he made of fifty cubits high, and to-mor- 
 row speak thou unto the king that Mordecai may be 
 lianged thereon : then go thou in merrily with the king 
 unto the banquet. And the thing pleased Haman ; and 
 he caused the gallows to be made. 
 
148 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 When Joab wished to procure an order 
 from David to recall Absalom from banish- 
 ment, he did not go in to the king himself. 
 Though a politic as well as a brave soldier, he 
 was no orator. He could mark the approach 
 of an army, or draw his enemy into an ambus- 
 cade, but he was conscious of unskilfulness in 
 the smooth arts of speech, and that the blunt- 
 ness of his address, and the impetuosity of his 
 temper, might defeat the object he had in view, 
 and offend a prince who, though he longed for 
 the company of his son, was jealous of his 
 honour and duty as a just and impartial judge. 
 He therefore employed a wise woman of Tekoa, 
 as his agent, and gave her a clue by which she 
 with admirable caution and dexterity wound 
 herself into the heart of the king. 
 
 In employing Esther to intercede for the 
 life of his people, Mordecai relied, not only on 
 the relation in which she stood to Ahasuerus, 
 but also on her known wisdom and discretion ; 
 and he was not disappointed. She did not avail 
 herself of the deceptive arts of the Tekoite wo- 
 man. She did not need to "feisn herself to be 
 
THE JOY OF THE WICKED. 149 
 
 a mourner," nor did she tell a fictitious story 
 of distress, but, on the other hand, she neglected 
 nothing that an innocent prudence dictated on 
 the important crisis. When graciously re- 
 ceived by her royal husband, who promised to 
 fulfil her wish, though it should cost him the 
 half of his kingdom, she did not immediately 
 ask the boon nearest her heart, but contented 
 herself with requesting that the king and Ha- 
 man would come to the banquet which she had 
 prepared for them; and- when Ahasuerus dur- 
 ing the entertainment repeated his promise, she 
 merely begged the honour of her guest's com- 
 pany on the following day. He that believeth 
 shall not make haste, even when the storm of 
 adversity has thickened, and threatens every 
 moment to burst ov^er his head. Time must 
 not be lost, but there is a time for every purpose 
 under heaven, and precipitation is as dangerous 
 as procrastination. 
 
 By this prudent delay, Esther ingratiated 
 herself with the king, and lulled the guilty 
 favourite into a security which proved fatal to 
 himself and his projects. ■ 
 13* 
 
150 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 " Then loent Haman forth that day joyful 
 and with a glad heariP The wickedest of 
 men may be not only prosperous, but joyful ; 
 though their hands are stained with blood, 
 though their thoughts may have been "devising 
 iniquity on their beds, that they may practise it 
 when the morning is light," yet they go forth 
 with a glad heart and a light step. With con- 
 sciences as black as hell, they are not afraid to 
 look on the unsullied orb of day, or to be seen 
 by the moon when she walks in brightness. 
 Such is the deceitfulness of sin, especially when 
 it is cherished by prosperity. " They are 
 corrupt, they speak wickedly concerning op- 
 pression: they speak loftily. They set their 
 mouth against the heavens ; and their tongue 
 walketh through the earth. They say, the 
 Lord shall not see, neither shall the God of 
 Jacob regard it." This has often been a source 
 of bitter distress to good men, who have been 
 " envious at the foolish, when they saw the 
 prosperity of the wicked." But this is their 
 infirmity, and they are brought to confess it. 
 Why should they envy that joy which dwells 
 
THE JOY OF THE WICKED. 151 
 
 in a guilty heart — that prosperity which betrays 
 them to their ruin ? There is greater reason 
 for deriding them ; for " the triumphing of the 
 wicked is short." What a pitiable object would 
 Haman be in the eyes of Esther that day, when 
 she viewed him from the lattice of her window, 
 as he left the palace ! •' The virgin, the daugh- 
 ter of Zion, hath despised thee, and laughed 
 thee to scorn ; the daughter of Jerusalem hath 
 shaken her head at thee." 
 
 •' Then loent Haman forth that dky joyful, 
 and with a glad heart.'''' That day was the 
 last of his gladness; next morning's sun should 
 not set before all his glory was laid in the dust. 
 Nay, that very day, and that very moment, 
 when it was most buoyant, his joy was destined 
 to suffer a dash from which it would never 
 completely recover. Before he left the court of 
 the palace, from which he had come out Avith 
 such uplifted spirits, a dart entered his liver, 
 and inflicted a wound, which the zeal and art 
 of all his physicians could not heal. " But 
 ivhen Haman saw Mordecai in the king's gate, 
 that he stood not up, nor moved for him, he loas 
 full of indignation against MordecaiP 
 
152 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 There's a picture ! standing out in bold re- 
 lief, and contrasted with that of the proud but 
 worthless premier. The one haughty and en- 
 raged ; the other humble, but composed and 
 dignified. It is not the port, the state, the pa- 
 geantry ; it is not the rank, riches, or power ; 
 the mind and spirit — that is the man. The 
 person who occupies the place of a common 
 porter, may have within him a soul that towers 
 in real greatness far above that of the proudest 
 and most titled grandee. He may have that 
 within him, which, while it rouses the indigna- 
 tion, quails the courage of him who has armies 
 at his beck. He who is conscious of acting 
 rightly, has no reason to grow pale at the sight 
 of danger. He who is embarked in the cause 
 of God and his people, and whose conscience 
 acquits him of having failed in his duty to his 
 prince, or having done evil to any man, feels 
 himself clad in the panoply of heaven, stands 
 fearless and scathless, is immovable in his pur- 
 pose, and will not do a mean or unworthy, far 
 less a sinful thing, to save his own life, or the 
 lives of those whom he holds dearest. 
 
REAL GREATNESS. 153 
 
 Such was Mordecai. He had had ample 
 leisure to reflect on his conduct in refusing the 
 homage claimed by Haman. That refusal had 
 drawn down the vengeance of the wicked 
 favourite on himself and his people. But still 
 Haman is " contemned in his eyes as a vile 
 person." He exhibited no tokens of positive 
 disrespect. He would not insult him, he would 
 not rail upon him as he passed, or behind his 
 back. But he would not yield him any direct 
 homage; "he stood not up, nor moved for him." 
 An ordinary patriot would have been disposed 
 to act in a different manner. He would have 
 said, "My daughter is employed in using 
 means for obtaining from her royal husband a 
 revocation of the decree for the slaughter of the 
 Jews; but she has to contend against powerful 
 influence. I will endeavour to smooth her dif- 
 ficulties ; and much as I despise this minion, I 
 will for once abase myself before him, and try 
 to assuage his resentment and propitiate his 
 favour, by offering him that obeisance which 
 is so grateful to his pride." Moses did not act 
 on this principle, when Pharaoh, awed by the 
 
154 LECTURES ON ESTHER, 
 
 plagues which he had suffered, offered to allow 
 the Israelites to go, provided they left their 
 flocks and herds behind them : " There shall 
 not an hoof be left behind !" Our Saviour did 
 not act upon this principle, when the Pharisees 
 said, "Get thee out and depart hence, for Herod 
 w^ill kill thee." " Go, tell that fox, behold, I 
 cast out devils, and do cures to-day and to-mor- 
 row, and the third day I shall be perfected." 
 Nor would Mordecai act upon this principle. 
 Haman had devised a deed which created hor- 
 ror both in heaven and earth ; the devoted 
 Jews were cast on the special protection of 
 Providence j Mordecai was persuaded that en- 
 largement and deliverance would arise to them 
 from some quarter, and he entertained sanguine 
 hopes that Esther had come to the kingdom for 
 this very end. He would not, therefore, dis- 
 please God, and dishonour himself, by having 
 recourse to the mean expedient of cringing to 
 the author of his country's wrongs, lest the day 
 of their deliverance should witness his own de- 
 struction and that of his father's house. 
 
 This conduct on the part of Mordecai ex- 
 
PRIDE. 155 
 
 ceeding-Iy enraged Haman. Perhaps he had 
 heard of the distress into which the object of his 
 hatred had been thrown by the decree for exter- 
 minating the Jews, and therefore expected, the 
 next time they met, to see him grovelling in 
 the dust. But when he found his independent 
 spirit unbroken, and that he neither rose up 
 nor moved at his approach, he boiled with in- 
 dignation, and his wounded pride demanded 
 instant revenge. " O that I had of his flesh! I 
 cannot be satisfied." 
 
 " Proud and haughty scorner is his name 
 that dealeth in proud wrath." Pride was the 
 first sin that entered into the universe. It was 
 pride that turned angels into devils. It was 
 pride that, after thinning heaven and peopling 
 hell, invaded our world, and drove man out of 
 paradise. It was pride that caused the first-born 
 on earth to embrue his hands in the blood of an 
 only brother. Pride has broken the peace of 
 families and nations, and carried fire and sword 
 through the earth. It is equally the parent of 
 oppression and licentiousness, setting the father 
 against the son, and the son against the father ; 
 
156 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 the master against the servant, and the servant 
 against the master ; the sovereign against his 
 subjects, and the subjects against their sove- 
 reign. Pride has marred the work of God, 
 given birth to infidelity, apostasy, impiety, 
 blasphemy and persecution ; it is the mother of 
 heresy, and has fomented strife and contention, 
 and wrath, and swellings, and tumults, within 
 the sacred enclosures of the house of God. O 
 beware of giving place to this monster ! The 
 man that harbours pride in his heart, harbours 
 a murderer, a fratricide, a parricide, a suicide, a 
 deicide; — for it crucified the Lord of glory, and 
 still crucifies him afresh in his doctrine and in 
 his members. 
 
 Revenge, instant revenge, was the cry of the 
 wounded pride of Haman. He would have 
 drawn his sword and run the insolent caitiflf 
 through the body, had not prudence whispered 
 that this would be derogatory to his dignity. 
 He would have commanded one of the passive 
 tools of power which stood by to execute his 
 wish, had not malice bridled fury, and insisted 
 on a sweeter though a more tardy revenge. 
 
No doubt Providence restrained him, but it 
 restrained him by means of his own passions. 
 " JETe refrained himself.''^ 
 
 " Great peace have they that love God's law, 
 nothing shall offend them." "But there is no 
 peace to the wicked, who are as the troubled 
 sea, that cannot rest, casting forth mire and 
 dirt." Mordecai kept his place at the king's 
 gate, while Haman returned to his house, fret- 
 ting with disappointment and fuming wit*!:! rage, 
 a vexation to himself and all about him. 
 
 He instantly calls a privy council of his 
 friends, with Zeresh his wife at their head, who 
 appears to have been, for a woman, as ambi- 
 tious and unprincipled as her husband. In 
 their presence he makes a speech, in which he 
 states his case, and craves their advice. He 
 first declares his good fortune, — dwells upon 
 the riches he had acquired, the flourishing state 
 of his family, and the high honours to which 
 the king had promoted him; concluding with 
 this, that he only, of all the princes, had been 
 invited by Esther, the queen, to the banquet 
 which she had prepared for the king, and that 
 14 
 
158 LECTURES ON ESTHER, 
 
 he was to have the same high honour on the 
 following day. Poor pride ! There is noth- 
 ing here but good fortune. The basest of men 
 have obtained riches, and children, and honours. 
 He can say nothing of what he has done ; all 
 has been done to him. Foolish pride ! " Ha- 
 man pleased himself with the fancy that the 
 queen, by this repeated invitation, designed to 
 honour him ; whereas really she designed to 
 accuse him, and in calling him to the banquet 
 did but call him to the bar." The pride of 
 thine heart hath deceived thee, O Haman! 
 The point of elevation in which thou gloriest is 
 the pinnacle from which thou art ready to be 
 cast into destruction. 
 
 But if such be thy good fortune, what aileth 
 thee, Haman ? Why that downcast counte- 
 nance? These marks of discontent? That 
 melancholy air which thou hast thro^\-n over 
 the recital of thy honours? "All this availeth 
 me nothing, so long as I see Mordecai the Jew 
 sitting at the king's gate." Worldly grandeur, 
 what art thou? — a name, a shadow, a phantom, 
 a lie. Riches, family, dignities, royal favour, 
 
HIS DISCONTENTMENT. 159 
 
 is this ail that ye can do for yonr possessor ? 
 Does their happiness, after all that ye have be- 
 stowed upon them, depend on something else, 
 and does the presence of some slight inconve- 
 niences rob them of all, and render them 
 Avretched ? " All this availeth me nothing so 
 long as" — what? As I am not king? No. 
 As I have any rival in the royal favour 1 No. 
 What then? "So long as Mordecai the Jew 
 sitteth at the king's gate." Mordecai was a 
 common servant, a dead dog, and one who in a 
 little was to have the burial of a dog ; and yet 
 a slight affront from him, a look, or rather, no 
 look from him, damped Haman's joy, and 
 affected him to such a degree, that he could not 
 take comfort in anything he enjoyed, unless 
 this hated object w'as swept from the face of 
 the earth. But this affords a lesson and a 
 reproof to persons who are by no means so bad 
 as the wicked minister of Ahasuerus. Those 
 who are disposed to be uneasy, will never want 
 something to disturb them; and how much 
 soever a proud or discontented person may 
 have, if he has not all that he wishes, he has 
 
160 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 nothing. How often do we hear persons ex- 
 claiming, ''All this availeih me nothing;''^ and 
 yet if a humble modest man had the hundredth 
 part of what they possess, it would give him as 
 much happiness as he expects from the world. 
 It is thus that our wickedness corrects us, and 
 makes us self-tormentors. 
 
 Similar to the character we have been de- 
 scribing, is that of the friends by whom he was 
 surrounded. His wife and the rest of his coun- 
 sellors gave him an advice which suited his 
 disposition and present feelings. " Then said 
 Zeresh his wife, and all his friends unto him, 
 Let a galloios be made of fifty cubits high, arid 
 to-morroio speak thou unto the king, that Mor- 
 decai may be hanged thereon ; then go thou in 
 merrily with the king unto the banquet^ " Why 
 shouldst thou suffer such an insignificant thing, 
 such a dead dog to stand in thy way, and to 
 cast its shadow over thy happiness % Despatch 
 it. The king, who has already granted you so 
 much, will not refuse you this small gratifica- 
 tion. Presuming on his consent, cause a gal- 
 lows to be made for Mordecai. Let it be fifty 
 
ADVICE OF HIS FRIENDS. 161 
 
 cubits high, that all may behold the fate of 
 the insolent offender, and let it be erected 
 before thy door, that thou mayest gratify thy 
 wounded pride." " And the thing pleased Ha- 
 inan, and he caused the gallows to he made." — ■ 
 O what desperate cruelty and barbarity can 
 dwell in the breast of man ! " The thing 
 pleased Haman" — it did more for him than all 
 his riches and honours could do — it allayed the 
 irritation of his mind, and gave him for the 
 time a diabolical contentment. " The wicked 
 plotteth against the just, and gnasheth upon 
 him with his teeth. The Lord shall laugh at 
 him; for he seeth that his day is come." 
 
 1 4^ 
 
162 
 
 LECTURE TENTH. 
 
 Esther VI. 1—11. 
 
 On that night could not the king sleep, and he commanded 
 to bring the hook of records of the chronicles ; and they 
 icere read before the king. And it was found written, 
 that Mordecai had told of Bigthana and Tcresh, two of 
 the king's chamberlains, the keepers of the door, who 
 sought to lay hand on the King Ahasuerus. And the 
 king said, what honour and dignity hath been done to 
 Mordecai for this ? Then said the king^s servants that 
 ministered unto him, There is nothing done for him. 
 And the king said, Who is in the court 1 Now Human 
 was come into the outward court of the king's house, to 
 speak unto (lie king to hang Mordecai on the gallows 
 that he had prepared for him. And the king's servants 
 said unto him. Behold, Human standeth'in the court. 
 And the king said, Let him come in. So Human came 
 in. And the king said unto him. What shall be done 
 unto the man wJwm the king delightcth to honour 1 
 Now Human thought in his heart, To whom icould the 
 king delight to do honour more than to myself? And 
 
HA man's rage. 163 
 
 Hartian answered the king, For the man whom the king 
 delightetk to honour, let the royal apparel be brought 
 which the king useth to icear, and the horse that the king 
 rideth upon, and the crown-royal ichich is set upon his 
 head : And let this apparel and horse be delivered to 
 the hand of one of the king's most noble princes, that 
 they may array the man withal whom the king delightetk 
 to honour, and bring him on horseback through the street 
 of the city, and proclaim before him, Thus shall itbedone 
 to the man ichoni the king delighteth to honour. Then 
 the king said to Haman, Make haste, and take the ap- 
 parel and the horse, as thou hast said, and do even so to 
 Mordecai the Jew, that sitteth at the king's gate : let 
 nothing fail of all that thou hast spoken. Then took 
 Haman the apparel and the horse, and arrayed Mor- 
 decai, and brought him on horseback through the street 
 of the city, and proclaimed before him, Thus shall it be 
 done unto the man whom the king delighteth to honour. 
 
 In our last Lecture we saw the rage which 
 seized Haman on observing that Mordecai did 
 not rise up at his presence, as he passed from 
 the banquet at which the queen had entertained 
 him along with the king. " Wrath is cruel," 
 but nowhere does it inflict such havoc as in the 
 breast within which it rages. It blighted Ra- 
 man's honour, poisoned his enjoyments, and 
 
164 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 made him wretched in the possession of all that 
 this world can contribute to happiness. " All 
 this availeth me nothing, so long as I see Mor- 
 decai the Jew sitting at the king's gate." Such 
 was his exclamation after he had told his wife 
 and assembled friends *'of the glory of his 
 riches, and the multitude of his children, and 
 all the things wherein the king had promoted 
 him, and how he had advanced him above all 
 the servants of the king." His friends per- 
 ceived the sacrifice which his wounded pride 
 demanded ; and to allay his anger, or rather 
 anguish, they advised him next day to ask of 
 the king an order to hang Mordecai ; and, as 
 there was no reason to fear a refusal, to cause 
 the gallows to be instantly prepared for his 
 execution. The advice pleased Haman, who 
 gave immediate orders for the erection of the 
 gibbet. 
 
 The chapter on which we now enter opens a 
 new scene of the most surprising kind, and 
 represents a transaction, by which Providence 
 made way for the deliverance of the Jews, and 
 the destruction of their implacable enemy. 
 
WAKEFULNESS OF THE KING. 165 
 
 Having arranged his plans against the life of 
 Mordecai, and soothed his own resentment by 
 the prospect of speedy revenge, Haman com- 
 posed himself to rest. But sleep fled from the 
 eyes of Ahasuerus. " On that night could not 
 the king sleep.^^ Various are the causes by 
 which this kind restorer of nature is prevented 
 from paying her nightly visits. She is put to 
 flight by whatever deranges the body, or dis- 
 composes the mind, by the working of any of 
 the strong passions, such as anger, fear, revenge, 
 grief, or joy, as well as by sickness or pain. 
 To none of these does the monarch appear to 
 have been subject on the present occasion. 
 We read of no bodily malady or sudden indis- 
 position by which he was seized, and his mind 
 appears to have been unruflied and serene. 
 He made no complaint to his servants. It was 
 a preternatural wakefulness, for which he 
 could not account. God, who suffered Haman 
 to be lulled into fatal security, waked Ahasue- 
 rus to consideration, and the same hand directed 
 him to the means w^hich he employed to spend 
 his vigils. He did not call for instruments of 
 
166 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 music, by which the Persian monarchs were 
 wont to be regaled, and the melody of which 
 might have induced slumber ; but " he com- 
 manded to bring the book of the records of the 
 chronicles.^' 
 
 Had Ahasuerus been a pious man, and ac- 
 quainted with the word of God, he would have 
 filled up the watches of the night with religious 
 meditations, or called for the book of the law of 
 the Lord, in which he would have found both, 
 instruction and entertainment. Next to that the 
 book for which he sent was the most suitable 
 for a prince, for it would inform him as to the 
 state of his kingdom, and remind him of duties 
 which he had neglected in the midst of his 
 pleasures. There are two things with which 
 great people are little versant — meditation and 
 reading. But they will prefer the latter to the 
 former. Perhaps Ahasuerus acted upon the 
 maxim, Anything to beguile the tedious hour ; 
 perhaps the secret influence which withdrew 
 slumber from his eyelids threv/ an air of seri- 
 ousness over his spirits, and prompted him to 
 graver employments. 
 
LOYALTY. 167 
 
 In the course of reading, the servant came to 
 that part of the record which contained the 
 minute of Mordecai's having discovered a con- 
 spiracy against the life of the king by two of his 
 chamberlains. The Jewish doctors have a tra- 
 dition, that the book opened at this place, and 
 the reader, thinking the narrative of too gloomy 
 a cast for the present feehngs of the monarch, 
 turned to another place, upon which the leaves 
 flew back, so that he was forced to begin with 
 the paragraph which first struck his eye. This 
 savours of the fabulous stories to w^iich the 
 modern Jews are so much addicted, and is only 
 fit to be brought forward as a foil to the natural 
 simplicity of the inspired narrative. 
 
 We should not be too anxious to proclaim 
 our good services, nor offended at their being 
 forgotten. God will bring them to light, and 
 that at the most proper season. Mordecai 
 could have reminded the king of the claim which 
 he had upon him through the same channel by 
 which he had conveyed the information of his 
 danger ; but he was silent and content. It was 
 enough to him that he had done his duty as an 
 
163 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 honest man and a loj-al subject And still he 
 was silent; though the king, led away by 
 wicked counsel, had unconsciously rendered 
 him evil for good, hatred for love, by delivering 
 him and all his people to the sword, without the 
 allegation of a single crime. Had the king 
 called him to account for transgressing his 
 orders, by not doing honour to his favourite, 
 (the only ground on which he could be charged 
 with a failure in duty,) he had only to put the 
 question. What honour has been done to the 
 man who saved the king's life? to force from 
 the royal lips the confession, " Thou art more 
 righteous than I." But still he was silent. If 
 we reflect on the humilitj^ the modesty, and 
 self-denial of Mordecai, we shall be cautious in 
 condemning his refusal to bow to Haman, and 
 be in no danger of classing him with those who 
 are " presumptuous, self-willed, and not afraid 
 to speak evil of dignities." 
 
 It was impossible for Ahasuerus to listen to 
 the record of the danger to which his life had 
 been exposed, without feeling a transient emotion 
 of gratitude to Pro\ddence for the narrow escape 
 
I X G R A T I T U D E OF THE WORLD. 1 G9 
 
 which he had made, and this produced a corres- 
 pondent feeling of compunctioa for the ingrati- 
 tude which he had shown to .the instrument of 
 his preservation. The name of Mordecai was 
 not unknown to the king. It had, no doubt, 
 been pronounced in his ears, and that_ in no 
 indifferent accents, by the lips of the queen. It 
 must have been mentioned in the course of con- 
 versation on the interesting subject, and perhaps 
 his intention was to have rewarded him ; but 
 more urgent suitors had pressed forward, and 
 he was forgotten. Now, however, conscience 
 rang in the royal ear the name of Mordecai. 
 He tasked his merhoiy. Where is he ? what 
 has been done to him ? And memory answered, 
 " Nothing."' But when memory tells us our 
 faults, we are ready to appeal from her testi- 
 mony, and to put the question to others, as if we 
 believed her to be untrue. " The king said. 
 What honour and, dignity hath been, done to 
 Mordecai for this? Then said the king's ser- 
 vants, that ministered to him. There is nothing 
 done for kimP O ye smooth sycophants, where 
 were your tongues before ? Ye were not igno- 
 15 
 
170 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 rant of the important service performed by Mor- 
 decai. Ye knew well the mean office which 
 he continued to discharge. Why did you not 
 embrace the opportunity which j^our access to 
 the king's person gave you to remind him of 
 the merits of a neglected servant ? You had 
 too many favours to ask for yourselves and your 
 friends. Oh ! if Haman had come a little 
 earlier, you would have abetted his plea, and 
 might have been found bearing witness that 
 Mordecai had blasphemed the king and his 
 favourite. 
 
 We should not, and good men will not, look 
 for their reward from creatures. The world is 
 full of ingratitude. It is often seen that " the 
 greatest merits and the best services are for- 
 gotten, and go unrewarded among men; little 
 honour is done to those who best deserve it, are 
 fittest for it, and would do most good with it."* 
 Modest merit is overlooked, while the aspiring, 
 the ambitious, and the time-serving rise to hon- 
 our and riches. Nor is ingratitude confined to 
 
 * Henry. 
 
171 
 
 courts. It is the vice of the low as well as the 
 high — the sovereign 'peojole, as well as sovereign 
 princes. " There was a little city, and few men 
 within it; and there came a great king against 
 it, and besieged it, and built great bulwarks 
 against it. Now there was fomid in it a poor 
 wise man, and he, by his wisdom, delivered the 
 city ; yet no man remembered that same poor 
 man. Wisdom is better than strength ; never- 
 theless the poor man's wisdom is despised^ and 
 his words are not heard." Ingratitude to God 
 and to his servants are nearly allied. " The 
 children of Israel remembered not the Lord 
 their God, who had delivered them out of the 
 hands of all their enemies on every side : neither 
 showed they kindness to the house of Jerubbaal, 
 namely, Gideon, according to all the goodness 
 which he had showed unto Israel." You know 
 who it was that " went about doing good ;" and 
 yet, as a reward, the Jews sought to stone, and 
 at last crucified him. 
 
 " Think upon me, my God, for good, accord- 
 ing to all that I have done for this people." 
 The king of heaven has his records — his " book 
 
172 LECTURES OX ESTHER, 
 
 of remembrance," in which are entered not 
 only the good deeds which they have done in 
 his service, but also their dutiful words and 
 their gracious thoughts. This book is not only 
 written before him, but it is always open before 
 him. He whom you serve slumbers not nor 
 sleeps at any time. He stands in no need of 
 remembrancers, and no adversary can poison 
 his ear to their prejudice. He may delay the 
 reward, but he will not baulk their expectations. 
 He " is not unrighteous, to forget your work 
 and labour of love, which ye have showed 
 toward his name." When the books are open- 
 ed, he shall read, " I was an hungered, and ye 
 gave me meat ; I was thirsty, and ye gave me 
 drink ; I was a stranger, and ye took me in ; 
 naked and ye clothed me; I was sick, and ye 
 visited me ; I was in prison, and ye came unto 
 me." 
 
 If we are thoroughly convinced of our neglect 
 of duty, and sorry on account of it, we will lose 
 no time in repairing the injury. Satan is ahvays 
 at hand to divert us from a good purpose. Had 
 Ahasuerus delayed acting on his present im- 
 
god's reward of services. 173 
 
 pressions, a temptation would have assailed him 
 which might have proved too strong-, and led 
 him to add cruelty to ingratitude, by taking 
 away the life of one who had preserved his 
 own. 
 
 " The king said, Who is in the court ? And 
 the king's servants said unto him, Behold, Ha- 
 man standeth in the court ;" for he had already 
 come, early as the hour was, " to speak unto the 
 king to hang Mordecai on the gallows that he 
 had prepared for him^ By such cross pur- 
 poses, on the part of men, does the Most High 
 accomplish his counsels. We weary ourselves 
 and perplex others with intricate questions as 
 to the manner in which God influences the free 
 volitions of men ; it would he more profitable 
 were we to observe how he overrules the pas- 
 sions and free actions of men for promoting his 
 own holy and wise designs. It is equally easy 
 Avith him, the All-wise and All-powerful, to 
 gain his end by the conflicting as by the com- 
 bined purposes of the instruments whom he 
 employs: just as the engineer completes his 
 machine by a combination of wheels which ap- 
 15* 
 
174 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 pear to a superficial eye to be moving in confu- 
 sion, and to counteract one another. Herod 
 and Pilate became friends, when they had to 
 perform an important part in that work which 
 "his hand and counsel had determined before 
 to be done" for the salvation of his elect. And 
 on the occasion before us, the opposite designs 
 which the king and his favottrite had formed, 
 unknown to one another, are made to forward 
 heaven's plan for the enlargement and deliver- 
 ance of the Jews. '• Lo, these are parts of his 
 ways, but how little a portion is heard of him!'' 
 " Whoso is wise, and will observe these things, 
 even they shall understand the loving-kindness 
 of the Lord." 
 
 Haman is brought in, and before he has time 
 to present his request, the king asks his advice 
 on the point which at present engrossed his 
 thoughts, — " What shall be clone to the man 
 whom the king delighteth to honour ?^^ How 
 natural the parenthesis which fills up the 
 pause between the question of the monarch and 
 the reply of the courtier ! " Noio Haman 
 thought in his heart'' (O how many thoughts 
 
HAM AN OUTWITTED. 175 
 
 are indulged in the heart which we dare not 
 express !) ''to whom would, the king delight to 
 do honour more than to myself P^ — There are 
 two things we ought especially to guard against, 
 because the deceitfulness of the heart leads us 
 to indulge them — too high an opinion of our. 
 selves, and two high an estimate of the place 
 we hold in the good opinion of others. The 
 conceit we have of our own merits leads us to 
 think that we stand as high in the judgment of 
 others ; and reliance on the good opinion of 
 others feeds our vanity and pride. The high 
 favour which the king had shown him, and the 
 solid as well as showy proofs of it which he 
 had experienced, had so inflamed and puffed up 
 his mind, that he thought nothing too great for 
 him to expect, and flattered himself that the 
 royal mind w^as occupied with nothing but de- 
 vising methods for his aggrandizement. Who 
 so worthy of this new honour as I ? and who 
 bids so fair for obtaining it ? "The pride of 
 thine heart hath deceived thee," Haman ! 
 
 Thinking that he was devising honours for 
 himself, while, at the same time, he could not 
 
17(j L K C T IJ II E S ON !■: S T II I", R . 
 
 ho accused ofscclvint^ his own honour, Ik; (h^visod 
 liberally. He had already been londcd willi so 
 many suh.stantial marks of royal niag'nificence, 
 that it was didicult to ask anythin;^^ new; but 
 ambition sharjx ned his invention. His ])ro- 
 posal amounted to tliis, that he should appear 
 and be honoured for a time as kinc;-. " liCt the 
 man whom the king delighteth to honour l)o clad 
 in the royal apparel, Avith the royal crown upon 
 his head ; let him be set on the king's own 
 horse, and let one of the king's most noble 
 princf.s, as his laccjiicy, lead liini throiiijh the 
 streets of the city, and proclaim before him, 
 Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king 
 delighteth to honour." 
 
 riaving given his advice, Haman, with afTect- 
 cd indifference, but real imj)atience, waits for 
 the words, " 'I'hou art the man." But how was 
 he thunderstruck when instead of this, the king 
 said, with a tone of satisfaction and firmness, 
 " Make, haste and take the appard, and the 
 horse as ihou hast said, and do even so to Mor- 
 dtcai the Jeii\ that sillcth at the klng^s gate : 
 let nothing fail of all that thou hast spoken /" 
 
II A M A N n TJ M B L K D . 1 77 
 
 These words turned the cars of Ilaman into 
 lead, and his heart ijito stone. They unmanned 
 him. The haughtiness of his heart was hrought 
 down, his pride was laid low, not in humility 
 and penitence, but in abject and mean prostra- 
 tion. Had it been any other — had it been even 
 a rival courtier, to whom this homage was to be 
 paid, the disappointment, though sore, would not 
 have been mortal ; but Mordecai the Jew, the 
 man whom above all others he hated, and whom 
 he had doomed to an ignominious death, that 
 he should be so honoured — that this honour 
 should have been pronounced by Hainan him- 
 self — and that he should jje obliged to carry it 
 all into execution ! Can we conceive a blacker 
 mortification to a haughty and malicious spirit? 
 "Where the word of a king," and especially 
 a despotic king, "is, there is a power." Ha- 
 man knew the consequences of disobedience, 
 and he was not the man to encounter them. A 
 person of courage would have met death sooner 
 than submitted to such degradation ; but he who 
 can coolly contrive abloody massacre to avenge 
 a petty affront, is a coward at heart, and will 
 
178 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 submit to any indignity to save his life or his 
 falling- fortunes. Accordingly, the humbled 
 favourite carried into execution the orders of his 
 master — took Mordccai from the gate, clothed 
 him with the royal apparel, placed him on the 
 king's horse, with the crown, and leading him 
 through the streets of the capital, proclaimed 
 him as the man whom the king delighteth ta 
 honour. 
 
 In this manner does God sometimes make the 
 enemies of his church and servants to honour 
 them. He not only makes the sinners' hands to 
 forge the snares in which themselves are caught, 
 but he compels them to weave the crown and 
 impose it on the head of the righteous. " I will 
 make them of the synagogue of Satan, which 
 say they are Jews and are not, but do lie ; be- 
 hold I will make them to come and worship 
 before thy feet, and to know that I have loved 
 thee." " And kings shall be thy nursing fathers, 
 and their queens thy nursing mothers ; they 
 shall bow down to thee with their face toward 
 the earth, and lick up the dust of thy feet; and 
 thou shalt know that I am the Lord : for they 
 shall not be ashamed that wait for me." 
 
179 
 
 LECTURE ELEVENTH. 
 
 Esther VI. 12—14. 
 
 A nd Mordectti came again to tlie king's gate. But Human 
 hasted to his Jiouse mourning, and having his head cov- 
 ered. And Haman told Zeresh his wife and all his 
 friends every thing that Jiad befallen him. Then said his 
 wise men and Zerish his wife unto him, If Mordecai be 
 of the seed of the Jeics, before ichom tlwu hast begun to 
 fall, thou shalt not prevail against him, but shatt surely 
 fall before him. And ichile they were yet talking with 
 him, came the king's chamberlains, and hasted to bring 
 Haman unto the banquet that Esther had prepared. 
 
 A CAREFUL observer of what befalls him, or 
 passes before his eyes, will perceive many in- 
 stances of providential management in the 
 course of an ordinary life ; and if he be of a 
 devotional spirit, will find ample reason for con- 
 fessing, " O Lord ! I know that the way of man 
 is not in himself: it is not in man that walk- 
 
180 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 eth to direct his steps." Man's goings, the pre- 
 parations of the heart, and the answer of the 
 tongue, are all of the Lord. Man proposeth, 
 but God disposeth ; and how remote from their 
 intentions is the issue to which he brings 
 the matter, and in the accomplishment of 
 which they are sometimes made unconsci- 
 ously instrumental ! But there are special 
 acts of Providence in which the divine hand is 
 to be seen conspicuously, though not miracu- 
 lously, — works ^vhich are effected by such a 
 complicated display of wisdom and prescience 
 as to arrest the attention of the most careless, 
 and make the most reluctant to own, " This is 
 the finger of God !" Such have often been 
 the deliverances which God hath wn'ought for 
 his people, by defeating the plots of their ene- 
 mies and turning them, to their own destruction. 
 Haman had come at an early hour to the 
 palace, with the view of asking permission to 
 hang Mordecai on the gallows which he had 
 already prepared for him. But He, in whose 
 hand are the hearts of kings, had paid an ear- 
 lier visit, and pre-occupied the mind of Ahasne- 
 
AMBITION. 181 
 
 rus with very different thouglits. The favourite 
 is called in, and is prevented from offering his 
 request by the question, — " What shall be done 
 to the man whom the king delighteth to hon- 
 our ?" Ah ! had Haman suspected the direc- 
 tion in which the roj^al favour lay, he would 
 have returned a very different answer ; and if 
 he durst have expressed what was uppermost in 
 his heart, it would have been, " Let him be 
 elevated fifty cubits high, on a gallows." But 
 *'he thought in his heart. To whom would the 
 king delight to do honour more than to my- 
 self?" Now, Haman, thou art fairly caught in 
 the meshes of thy own selfish ambition. O, 
 how insatiable is pride and the love of honour ! 
 One would have thought that this man was 
 already sated with honours, and had attained 
 the summit of his wishes. We find him lately 
 dilating before his friends on his good fortune, 
 and one would have thought he was satisfied, 
 and would have been completely happy, pro- 
 vided one small insect, which was an eye-sore 
 to him, had been brushed away. But no sooner 
 is the word " honour" pronounced, than it ap- 
 16 
 
182 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 pears that he is as avaricious of it as ever he 
 had been. The more that an ambitious man 
 obtains, the more he requires. Why ? Is it 
 owing to the greatness of his stomach? No, 
 but the lightness of the food, which serves but 
 to whet, not to satisfy the appetite. The man 
 that lives on worldly honours never saith, " It 
 is enough," because " he fcedeth on the w^ind." 
 But the chief thing that we are to notice 
 here is, that Haman's ruling passion is made 
 the means, first of his mortification, and uki- 
 mate]y of his ruin. His rage against Morde- 
 cai was a secondary passion — it was the effect 
 of wounded pride, and though, as an Amale- 
 kite, he had an hereditary enmity to the Jewish 
 jrace, he might not have thought of signalizing 
 jt by extirpa-ing them, had not he received an 
 affront from a Jew. He does not therefore 
 say, "For the man whom the king delighteth 
 to honour, let his greatest enemy, who alone 
 had withheld from him his due honour, be de- 
 livered into his hand, that he may do with him 
 what he pleaseth." No doubt Haman flattered 
 himself that he would obtain the life of Morde- 
 
OVERRULING PROVIDENCE. 183 
 
 cai at any time, and that it would cost him only 
 a word after the additional honour which he 
 eagerly anticipated. But this does not detract 
 from the overruling providence of God, which 
 made "his own wickedness," his pride, to "cor- 
 rect him." It is not merely the external actions 
 of men, but the thoughts and intents of their 
 hearts also, which are subordinate to the control 
 of the Governor of the universe. The heart of 
 the king who meditated honour for Mordecai 
 and the heart of the favourite who devised honour 
 for himself, how adverse soever in themselves, 
 are made to conspire in accomplishing the pur^ 
 poses of heaven. 
 
 Haman was forced to carry his own advice 
 into execution, and, however reluctantly, to 
 grace the triumph of Mordecai. Having 
 clothed him with the roj^al apparel, and set him 
 on the king's own horse, with the royal crown, 
 he led him through the streets of the capital, 
 proclaiming, as he went, — " Thus shall it be 
 done to the man whom the king delighteth to 
 honour." 
 
 In the narrative which follows, we have an 
 
104 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 example of that decency and propriety with 
 respect to circumstances which is always ob- 
 served in Scripture, and which may be traced 
 in what is omitted, as well as what is introduced. 
 Nothing is said of what passed between Mor- 
 decai and Haman, either at the beginning or 
 close of the ceremony. The inspired writer 
 gives us no account of the acclamations of the 
 multitude whom the spectacle drew together. 
 They would no doubt act, poor souls, as 
 they are always accustomed to do, hail the fa- 
 vourite of the day, and echo back the voice of 
 the herald. Let them alone — they would have 
 done the same for Haman. We are even left 
 to conjecture what were the thoughts of the 
 judicious few, both Jews and natives, who might 
 be led by this strange event to augur the ap- 
 proaching fall of the arrogant prime minister, 
 and the rising fortunes of the object of his hatred. 
 The sacred narrative passes over these things, 
 and hastens to the crisis. 
 
 The pageant is now over, and we see, issuing 
 from the dispersing crowd, the two principal 
 persons, moving in different directions, and in 
 opposite moods of mind. 
 
MORDECAl's HUMILITY. 185 
 
 "■' Mordeccd came again to the king's gate. 
 But Hainan hasted to his house mourning, and 
 having his head covered.'''' There is a double 
 portrait drawn with one stroke, but it is by the 
 hand of a master ! We see the hearts of the 
 two men depicted in their loolcs and gait ; the 
 composure and humility of the one, and the 
 confusion and bitter mortification of the other. 
 These two lines give us a deeper insight into 
 the characters of the men than a would-be 
 painter could have conveyed by the most elabo- 
 rate representation. 
 
 " Mordecai came again to the "king's gateP 
 He did not remain to prolong his triumph, and 
 to drink in the incense offered by the crowd. 
 He did not go to his own house, and gather to- 
 gether his friends and countrymen to tell them 
 of his high honours, and to receive their con- 
 gratulations. He did not hurry back to the 
 palace in expectation of receiving some more 
 substantial mark of the royal favour. He did 
 not seek an audience of the king, to bring an 
 accusation against his mortal enemy. But he 
 came again to the king's gate from which he 
 16* 
 
186 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 had been taken, and resumed his former place 
 as a servant. He was not elated — he was not 
 even discomposed by his honours, "i/e stood 
 not up, nor movecl,^^ for all that Haman had 
 done to him. 
 
 " If the spirit of the ruler rise up against 
 thee," (saith the wise man,) " leave not thy 
 place." But it is still more difficult to keep 
 our place, when we are visited with the favour 
 of the ruler. Few can bear honours and dig- 
 nities wdth equanimity, even when they come 
 upon them gradually: but such sudden and 
 high advancement was enough to make any 
 ordinary person giddy, to cause him to forget 
 himself, and behave unseemly. What fatal ef- 
 fects upon the head and heart do we often wit- 
 ness in persons who have all at once been raised 
 from poverty to riches and rank. Even good 
 men are not always proof against the intoxi- 
 catmg influence of such transitions. How inco- 
 herently did the disciples talk on the mount of 
 transfiguration ! That vessel needs to be well 
 ballasted, which, after being long becalmed, 
 has all its sails at once filled with a favourable 
 gust of wind. 
 
But Mordecai kept his place ; like a gallant 
 ship, firmly moored in a bay, which during a 
 flood-tide heaves, and seems for a time borne 
 along with the lighter craft, but, obeying its 
 anchor, comes round and resumes its former 
 position. The pageantry of an hour could not 
 unsettle his mind ; he regarded it in its true 
 light — a vain show. Had he had a choice, 
 he would have declined it ; as it was, he suffer- 
 ed rather than enjoyed it. It may be difficult to 
 determine which of the two felt most awkward 
 and constrained — Haman in conferring, or 
 Mordecai in receiving the extravagant honours. 
 Not that the latter was insensible or a stranger 
 to feeling on the occasion. But then he view- 
 ed it, not as a prelude to his own aggrandizement, 
 but as an earnest of the deliverance of his peo- 
 ple ; and as his confidence of this event rested 
 on surer grounds than his own advancement 
 or the influence of his daughter, his heart was 
 filled with astonishment and with gratitude 
 at the prospect ; he possessed his soul in pa- 
 tience — he stood still, and waited for the salva- 
 tion of God. 
 
188 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 But let us now turn to Hainan. He had not 
 confidence to return to the palace to present the 
 request for which he had visited it in the morn- 
 ing. Nor could he endure the sight of the 
 people, before whom he feh himself dishonour- 
 ed. But he " hasted to his house, mourjiing, 
 a7id with his head covered.''^ Had Haman been 
 a man of virtue and true dignity of mind, this 
 occurrence could not have disturbed his peace, 
 far less broken his heart. " Why % what harm 
 has it done to me ? I have been selected as ' one 
 of the king's most noble princes,^ to do this tem- 
 porary honour to a man who saved the royal 
 life." At most he would have regarded it as 
 one of those freaks which fortune delights to 
 play in arbitrary courts, and which break the 
 dull monotony of a palace. He would have said, 
 " I have seen servants riding upon horses, and 
 princes, like servants, walking on the earth," 
 But the man who could complain that all his 
 wealth and honours " availeth him nothing, so 
 long as he saw Mordecai the Jew sitting at the 
 king's gate," could not fail to be stung to the 
 quick by the recent transaction. Hatred, and 
 
MISERABLE COMFORTERS. 189 
 
 disappointment, and mortified pride, rankled in 
 his breast, and, to torment him still more, 
 awakened remorse for the past, and fearful 
 forebodings of the future. Surely such a sight 
 is sufficient to cure those who have been smitten 
 with pride, or with envy at worldly greatness. 
 It was some relief to Haman to open his 
 lacerated breast to his wife and friends. " He 
 told them every thing that had befallen himP 
 But he found them "miserable comforters." 
 O the unhappiness of wicked men, that their con- 
 fidential friends and advisers are as unprincipled 
 as themselves, and equally destitute of true wis- 
 dom ! They are powerful to encourage them 
 in evil, and inflame their base passions, but feeble 
 to extricate them from those difHcuhies into 
 which their foolish advice had contributed to 
 betray them. Though a good man has no 
 friends at hand to counsel or comfort him in the 
 day of trial, he can always go to the word and 
 throne of God. The ungodly have no such 
 refuge. " Wo unto them that decree unrighte- 
 ous decrees, and that write grievousness which 
 they have prescribed ! What will ye do in the 
 
190 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 day of visitation, and in the desolation which 
 shall come from far ? to whom will ye flee for 
 help? and where will ye leave your glory?" 
 
 It was but the day before that Haman con- 
 sulted them, when, instead of counselling him 
 to lay aside his deadly hate to Mordecai, or at 
 least to despise him, his friends had fomented 
 his passion, and suggested a plan for gratifying 
 it; and now when they find that their plot has 
 been confounded, "they have no more spirit in 
 them," and all that they can do is to pronounce 
 his doom, and torment him before the time with 
 their prognostications. Thus Satan first tempted 
 Judas to betray his Master, and then left him to 
 despair, when he went and hanged himself 
 Believe it, my friends, tempters to sin will, at 
 one time or another, in this world or the next, 
 prove tormentors. 
 
 " Then said his loise men and Zeresh his wife 
 unto him, If Mordecai be of the seed of the Jeivs, 
 before ivhom thou hast begun to fall, thou shall 
 not prevail against him, but shall surely fall 
 before hi?n" The ascent to honour and great- 
 ness, is steep, and those who aspire after them 
 
must climb it slowly and with difficulty ; but 
 the descent is easy, and so precipitous, that when 
 they lose their footing, they fall in minutes what 
 they rose in years. There is no medium 
 between the loss of an arbitrary prince's favour 
 and ruin. Haman's friends anticipated his fall, 
 for irreligious people are often superstitious ; or 
 Providence may have employed them as instru- 
 ments to warn him of his impending fate. And 
 they had reason ; for it is dangerous to fight 
 against God and his church. " Thou shalt not 
 prevail against him, but shalt surely fall before 
 him." 
 
 Well did Haman know that " Mordecai was 
 of the seed of the Jews;'' and these words were 
 like arrows shot at him, and fixed in his core. 
 In place of being relieved by retiring to his bed, 
 or having time to allay his mortification, while 
 his friends were consulting with him, " mes- 
 sengers came from the king to bring him to the 
 banquet that Esther had prepared.'''' Wretched 
 Haman ! in one day thy plagues have come 
 upon thee: in the morning thou didst decree 
 honours for the man who was destined to be thy 
 
192 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 successor ; at noon thine own familiar friends, 
 and the wife of thy bosom, have pronounced thy 
 doom ; and before evening it shall be carried 
 into execution. 
 
193 
 
 LECTURE TWELFTH, 
 
 Esther VII. 1—6. 
 
 So the king and Haman came to banquet with Esther 
 the queen. And the king said again untj Esther on the 
 second day at the banquet of wine, What is thy petition, 
 queen Esther ? and it shall be granted thee : and what 
 is thy request ? and it shall be performed, even to the half 
 of the kingdom. Then Esther the queen answered and 
 said, if I have found favour in thy sight, king, and if 
 it please the king, let my life be given me at my petition, 
 and my people at my request : For tee are sold, I and 
 my people, to be destroyed, to be slain, and to perish. But 
 if we had been sold for bondmen and bondwomen, I had 
 held my tongue, although the enemy could not countervail 
 the king's damage. Then the king Ahasuerus answered 
 and said unto Esther the queen, Who is he, and where is 
 he, that durst presume in his heart to do so ? And Esther 
 said, The adversary and enemy is this wicked Haman. 
 Then Haman was afraid before the king and the queen. 
 
 In our last Lecture we viewed the contrast 
 between Mordecai and Haman, in their states of 
 17 
 
194 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 mind, at the close of the ceremony in which 
 the latter acted as herald in the all hut royal 
 honours done to the former. Instead of being- 
 elated with such high and unexpected marks of 
 favour, Mordecai came again to the king's gate, 
 and resumed his humble place as a porter, 
 inwardly adoring the wonderful interposition of 
 Providence, but viewing it not as a prelude to 
 his own aggrandizement, but as an earnest of his 
 people's enlargement and deliverance. " But 
 Havian hasted to his house, mournings and 
 having his head covered ;''' an emblem of his 
 soul, which was covered with all that confusion 
 which arises from mortified pride and disap- 
 pointed rage. He had not only been disap- 
 pointed in his design against the life of Mor- 
 decai, but employed in doing honours to the man 
 Avhom above all others he hated, and that in 
 pursuit of an advice which he himself had given 
 under the fallacious notion that he was the 
 person whom the king intended to honour. 
 Under these feelings, he told all that had befallen 
 him to his spouse and confidential friends, who 
 aggravated his misery by reversing the opinion 
 
RECAPITULATION. 195 
 
 which they had lately given, and predicting his 
 fall before that man whom but yesterday they 
 had instigated him to murder. 
 
 In surveying a providential deliverance, we 
 may see much wisdom not only in the body of 
 the work, but in its dress and drapery, in the 
 time, and other circumstances with which it is 
 attended. No leisure is left to Haman to re- 
 cover his spirits, or to prepare for the storm 
 which was ready to burst upon his head. " While 
 they were yet talking icith him, came the king's 
 chamberlains, and hasted to bring Haman to the 
 banquet that Esther hadprepared." And thus 
 he was harried away like a felon into the pre- 
 sence of his judge and accuser, self-condemned, 
 exanimate, and ready to fall before the word of 
 a woman. He was even incapable of hearing 
 the voice which warned him as he went along, 
 "Agree with thine adversary quickly, while 
 thou art in the way with him ; lest at any time 
 the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the 
 judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be 
 cast into prison." 
 
 " So the king and Haman came to the banquet 
 
196 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 loith Esther the queen i^ literally, it is ^' to 
 drink with Esther the queen^^ for in Persia 
 wine is served up at the beginning of an enter- 
 tainment, and more time is spent in drinking 
 than in eating, on which account Esther's feast 
 is called repeatedly " a hanquet oftvineJ^ 
 
 " Give strong drink to him that is ready to 
 perish, and wine unto those that be of heavy 
 hearts. Let him drink, and forget his poverty, 
 and remember his misery no more," says Solo- 
 mon. Haman was of a heavy heart, but the 
 cup which he drank was that which is put into 
 the hand of the criminal before mounting the 
 scaffold. How strikingly marked are the retri- 
 butions of Providence ! It was most probably 
 when banqueting with the king, and after the 
 latter was merry with wine, that Haman had 
 obtained the consent of the easy monarch to the 
 extermination of the Jews, and now it is at a 
 banquet that his own sentence is pronounced. 
 He had given others " gall for their meat, and 
 vinegar to drink," and now " his table is turned 
 into a snare, and that which should have been 
 for his welfare is become a trap." 
 
ON. 197 
 
 Esther had promised to acquaint her husband 
 at this time with the boon for which she had 
 ventured into his presence uncalled; and the 
 delicacy which had hitherta sealed her lips, 
 increased the avidity of the monarch to possess 
 the secret. He, therefore, urges her a third time 
 to make her request, adding- the gracious assu- 
 rance which he had formerly vouchsafed—-" it 
 shall be granted thee — it shall be performed, 
 even to the half of the kingdom.''^ Had Ahasue- 
 rus forgotten the subject, and continued to con- 
 verse in ever so pleasant a manner upon other 
 topics, Esther might have felt at a loss hoAv to 
 introduce what behooved to be painful to both 
 her guests; but thus encouraged and assured, 
 she broke silence. How must the monarch 
 have been astonished, when, instead of asking, 
 as he expected, some gift to a servant or a friend, 
 she proceeded in a tone which marked the deep- 
 est emotion : '' If I have found favour in thy 
 sight, O king, and if it please the king, let my 
 life be given me at my petition, and my people 
 at my request .'" " Thy life ! thy people ! Thy 
 life is my life, and thy people my people. Who 
 17* 
 
19S LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 shall harm the one or the other ?" This thought 
 darted through the mind of Ahasucrus as the 
 queen proceeded — " For we are sold, I and my 
 people, to be destroyed, to be slam, and to perish; 
 but if we had been sold for bond-men and bond- 
 icomeii, I had held m,y tongue, although the ene- 
 my could 7iot countervail the king's damaged 
 This impassioned declaration convinced the 
 king that some dark and diabolical plot must 
 have been hatched, though he could not conceive 
 where it had originated, nor how it had been 
 carried on; for as yet neither he nor Haman 
 had the least suspicion that Esther was of Jew- 
 ish extraction. He therefore inquired, in a 
 tone of anxiety and agitation, " Who is he, and 
 where is he, that durst presume in his heart to 
 do so?" Upon which Esther, pointing to the 
 prime minister, replied, " The adversary and 
 enemy is this icicked Haman .'" That sentence 
 was a dart, which, grazing the king, pierced the 
 heart of the favourite on whose arm he leaned. 
 Haman now saw the precipice on the brink of 
 which he had been blindly treading, while he 
 was laying snares for others, and over which he 
 
HAJIAN ACCUSED. 199 
 
 was now ready to be precipitated. In his 
 malice against Mordecai and the people of the 
 Jews, he had never once dreamed of the relation- 
 ship in which the queen stood to the one or the 
 other. O, if he had known this sooner ! But 
 at present he was incapable of such a thought ; 
 one feeling only occupied and filled his soul — 
 fear, and an anxiety for his own safety. " Then 
 Havian was afraid before the king and the 
 queenP " The thoughts of his heart were 
 revealed." If the king had forgotten the black 
 transgression, if all remembrance of the pretexts 
 on which the barbarous edict was obtained had 
 been erased from his mind, if he did not recol- 
 lect of taking the signet from his finger and 
 giving it to the favourite, the guilty countenance 
 of Haman was enough to bring the whole 
 scene fresh before his mind, and satisfy him 
 that the accusation of the queen was just. The 
 scales fell from his eyes ; he saw the individual, 
 in whom he had so long implicitly confided, in 
 all the vileness and deformity of his character, 
 and he sprung from him as one would do from 
 the contact of a serpent. 
 
200 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 Before proceeding farther in the narrative, 
 and leaving the king to his ruminations, there 
 are some reflections on what we have cursorily- 
 examined, which it would be improper to omit. 
 
 (I.) When called to speak for God and his 
 people, we must summon up our courage, and 
 act with becoming confidence and decision. In 
 undertaking to intercede for the Jews, Esther 
 showed a becoming diffidence and modesty, and 
 the measures which she took were characterized 
 by prudent preparation and delay ; but when 
 the season for acting came, had she altogether 
 held her peace, under the influence of timidity 
 or false prudence, or spoken with reserve as to 
 the designs against the Jews, and their author, 
 she would have been rejected as an instrument 
 of Jacob's deliverance, and her name would not 
 have stood at the head of one of the inspired 
 books. But she heard and obeyed the call, 
 •' Open thy mouth for the dumb, in the cause 
 of all such as are appointed to destruction. Open 
 thy mouth, judge righteously, and plead the 
 cause of the poor and needy." And, when 
 required by the king, she boldly named the 
 
PRACTICAL REFLECTIONS. 201 
 
 author of the mischievous plot- — giving him his 
 true character, ''that icicked HamanP To 
 rise up for God against evil doers, to uphold the 
 standard of the Lord when the enemy cometh 
 in like a flood, to lift up the voice like a trumpet 
 against all impiety, to turn the battle to the gates, 
 to stand in the breach, wrestling against princi- 
 palities and powers, and spiritual wickednesses 
 in high places, requires choice spirits, who count 
 not their lives dear unto themselves, so that they 
 finish their ministry, and are faithful unto death, 
 (2.) When persons resolve singly and con- 
 scientiously to discharge their duty in critical 
 circumstances, they are often wonderfully help- 
 ed. The manner in v/hich Esther managed 
 her cause was admirable, and showed that her 
 heart and tongue were under a superior influ- 
 ence and management. She first lays before 
 the king her request simply, according to his 
 desire, thereby appealing to his royal word 
 which he had plighted, " Let my life be given^ 
 What could be more reasonable than this? 
 She then states the danger to which they were 
 exposed : "/or we are sold, I and my 'people, to 
 
202 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 he destroy edP She next urges the extremity 
 of the case as a reason for her boldness : '' If ue 
 had been sold for bond-men and bond-icomen, 
 I had held 7ny tongue.''^ In fine, she enforces 
 her plea by urging the injury which would 
 accrue to the king and his realm by the execu- 
 tion of the decree, " The enemy could not coun- 
 tervail the king's damaged Though they had 
 been sold their price would not have enriched 
 thee, but have been a real loss, how much more 
 when they have been sold for nought, and given 
 to the slaughter. 
 
 For a preacher to spend his whole time in 
 prayer, without any other preparation, would 
 be worse than folly, but in such a case as that 
 of Esther, prayer is the best preparation, — it 
 composes the mind in reliance on heaven's sug- 
 gestion and aid. In such a case it is not art, 
 but nature, sustained and directed by grace, that 
 is available. It is the heart that must speak, 
 and it knows best how to body forth and present 
 its own feelings and desires. The most eloquent 
 orator, and the most cunning artificer of periods, 
 the greatest master of assemblies could not have 
 
REFLECTIONS. 203 
 
 sought out more acceptable words than those of 
 Esther. How becoming, too, her manner and 
 the spirit with which she spoke! At a subse- 
 quent interview (ch. viii. 3) she "fell down at 
 his feet and besought him with tears;" but now 
 she stood up with the spirit of an innocent and 
 injured woman, and spoke in a tone which drove 
 the tears, which had started into her eyes, back 
 to their cell. When placed in similar circum- 
 stances, we are warranted to feel the same con- 
 fidence in reliance on the promise of our Lord : 
 "When ye shall be brought before governors 
 and kings for my sake, lake no thought how or 
 what ye shall speak ; for it shall be given you 
 in that same hour what ye shall speak." 
 
 (3.) It is possible to plead the most interest- 
 ing of all causes, that of innocence and truth, 
 with moderation and all due respect. The 
 address of Esther was respectful to Ahasuerus 
 as a king and a husband, "If I have found 
 favour in thy sight, O king, and if it please the 
 king." "Sanctify the Lord God in your 
 hearts: and be ready always to give an answer 
 to every man that asketh you a reason of the 
 
204 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 hope that is in you, with meekness and fear." 
 Esther was calm as well as courageous, respect- 
 ful as well as resolute. 
 
 (4.) It argues no want of respect to those in 
 authority, to describe evil counsellors in their 
 true colours, in bringing an accusation against 
 them, or in petitioning against their unjust and 
 destructive measures. " The adversary and 
 enemy is this ivicked Haman.'''' 
 
 (5.) It is horrible to think, and hard to believe 
 that there is such wickedness as is perpetrated 
 in the world. " Who is he, and where is he, that 
 durst presume in his heart to do so ?" — We can 
 scarcel}'- believe that a wretch could be found to 
 kill his brother, that a son could rebel against 
 a father Avho loved him as his own soul, and 
 pluck the crown from his head to place it on his 
 own ! We might well ask, Who was he that 
 betrayed his master, and where did they live 
 who crucified the Lord of glory? Who, or 
 where is he that dares presume to say, even in 
 his heart, There is no God, — that denies a 
 Providence, profanes the name and day of God, 
 turns the Bible into a jest-book, mocks at prayer 
 
REFLECTIONS. 205 
 
 and fasting, and scoffs at judgment to come? 
 And yet, my friends, such persons are to be 
 found in our own time — in our own land — and 
 in high places. But, — 
 
 (6.) We sometimes startle at the mention of 
 vices to which we ourselves have been acces- 
 sary. " Who is he, and ichere is he, that durst 
 presume in his heart to do so?^ He is not 
 unknown to thee, neither is he far from thee, O 
 king. Thou art the man ! When Nathan told 
 David the story of the poor man and his one 
 lamb, " David's anger was greatly kindled" 
 against the pitiless ravisher, and he swore ven- 
 geance against him, little thinking he was pro- 
 nouncing his own doom. When our Lord, 
 after speaking the parable of the husbandman 
 who evil-entreated the messengers, and killed 
 the heir of the proprietor, asked the Jews what 
 they thought the latter would do, they replied, 
 " He will miserably destroy those wicked men, 
 and let out his vineyard to other husbandmen, 
 which shall render him the fruits of the seasons ;" 
 not thinking that he had spoken this parable 
 against them. When we read the treatment 
 18 
 
206 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 which Christ received from the Jews, we feel in- 
 dignant at their conduct, without reflecting that 
 we have served ourselves heirs to their sin, and 
 been guilty of crucifying the Son of God afresh 
 by our unbelieving rejection of his grace, and 
 quenching of his Spirit, and of putting him to 
 open shame by our untender, unholy, and scan- 
 dalous conduct before the world. And how 
 seldom do we reflect on the degree in which we 
 have been accessary to and participant with the 
 sins of others by our bad example, our criminal 
 silence, and the neglect of those means which 
 were in our power, and which we had a right 
 to employ for checking them ! 
 
 (7.) Persecution is not more uujust than it is 
 impolitic. If there was nothing more than the 
 loss of the prayers of those who fear God, and 
 the incurring of the wrath of him in whose sight 
 the blood of saints is precious, this should 
 be sufficient to deter rulers from persecution. 
 Darius and Artaxerxes showed favour to those 
 who ministered in the house of God at Jerusa- 
 lem, " that they might pray for the life of the 
 king and his sons, and that there might not be 
 
IMPOLICY OF PERSECUTION. 207 
 
 wrath against the realm." How lamentable is 
 it that the rulers in Christian countries should 
 be more blind or more irreligious than heathen 
 princes ! Verily the kings of Persia shall rise 
 up in the judgment against the rulers of Britain, 
 and shall condemn them. But though religious 
 considerations should be set aside, persecution 
 is politically bad. " The enemy could not coun- 
 tervail the kinii' s damage" If the Jews had 
 
 CD O 
 
 been sold for bond-men, their price would not 
 have enriched him, and his diminished revenues 
 would have proclaimed the folly of the measure. 
 The pious are always the most sober, indus- 
 trious, peaceable, truly loyal, and least apt to 
 engage in plots and conspiracies, to take part in 
 riots, to speak evil of dignities, to meddle with 
 them that are given to change. How many 
 provinces have been depopulated, and impover- 
 ished, and turned into a wilderness, deprived of 
 arts, and manufactures, and commerce, by the 
 sword of persecution ! In Germany, France, 
 and Italy, persecutions have taken place, from 
 the disastrous effects of which these countries 
 have not recovered for ages. 
 
208 
 
 LECTURE THIRTEENTH. 
 
 Esther VII. 7 — 10. 
 
 And the king arising from the hanquet oficine in his wrath, 
 went into the palace garden ; and Haman stood tip to 
 make request for his life to Esther the queen ; for he saw 
 that there teas evil determined against him by the king. 
 Then the king returned out of the palace garden into the 
 palace nf the banquet of icine ; and Haman was fallen 
 upon the bed where Esther teas. Then said the king, 
 Will he force the queen also before me in the house ? As 
 tJie word went out of the king^s mouth, they covered 
 Haman's face. And Harbonah, one of the chamber- 
 lains, said before the king, Behold, also, the gallows, fifty 
 cubits high, ichich Haman had made for Mordecai, who 
 had spoken good for the king, standeth in the house of 
 Haman. Then the king said, Hang him thereon. So 
 they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared 
 for Mordecai. Then was the king's wrath pacified. 
 
 In our last Lecture we left off at the crisis of 
 the late of Esther and her people. At the second 
 
EMOTION OF AHASUERUS. 209 
 
 banquet given to Ahasuerus and his favourite, 
 the queen, encouraged by the assurance of her 
 husband, now repeated for the third time, named 
 the boon, for the sake of which she had already- 
 risked her life by entering uncalled into the 
 royal presence. When she requested her own 
 life, and that of her people, the king was aston- 
 ished. When she told him that she and her 
 people were " sold to be destroyed, to be slain, 
 and to perish," he felt confounded and alarmed. 
 But when she pointed to the person on whose 
 bosom he lay, as the author of her countless 
 wrongs, the scene became altogether indescriba- 
 ble, and accordingly the inspired historian dis- 
 misses it by a fine graphic touch : " Then 
 Haman was afraid before the king and the 
 queen. And the king, arising from the banquet 
 of wine in his loralh, went into the palace gar- 
 den; and Haman stood up to make request for 
 his life to Esther the queen ; for he saw that 
 there ivas evil dMermined against him." 
 
 Neither the king nor Haman appears to have 
 had the slightest idea that Esther was a Jewess ; 
 and accordingly the disclosure of the secret fell 
 18* 
 
210 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 as a thunderbolt on both, though the emotions 
 which it produced were very different, accord- 
 ing to the part they had acted in the cruel de- 
 cree, and the situation in which they stood. 
 The one was filled with fear, the other inflamed 
 with anger. Though every trace of the transac- 
 tion had been erased from the memory of 
 Ahasuerus, the conscious guilt depicted on the 
 countenance of the favourite was enough to bring 
 it to his recollection. Rising from the table in 
 great agitation, he burst out of the room, and 
 retired into the garden to indulge his passionate 
 feelings. 
 
 His emotion was of a mixed kind. First, 
 there was, or at least ought to have been, a feel- 
 ing of shame and indignation against himself, 
 for being so silly as to become a tool in the hands 
 of a worthless person, and to place his signet in 
 his hand, that he might affix it to whatever deed 
 of iniquity and blood he chose to devise and per- 
 petrate. " Fool that I was, and worse than fool, 
 to doom to destruction, without the least inquiry 
 into the allegations brought against them, a 
 whole people, and my own queen among the 
 
EMOTION OF AHASUERUS. 211 
 
 rest!" In a similar manner ought we to be 
 angry Avitli ourselves and our sins. " So foolish 
 was I, and ignorant; I was as a beast before 
 thee." " This self-same thing that ye sorrowed 
 after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought 
 in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves, yea, 
 what indignation, yea, what fear, yea, Avhat vehe- 
 inent desire, yea, what zeal, yea, what revenge," 
 -—Again, there was indignation against the 
 tempter. He felt indignant, and justly indig- 
 nant, that one whom he had raised from the dust, 
 admitted to his counsels, loaded with honours, 
 advanced above all his princes, taken to his 
 bosom, should have so basely abused his confi- 
 dence, and acted so ungratefully as to employ 
 his influence with his royal benefactor to accom- 
 plish his own selfish designs, and to gratify his 
 private malice. 
 
 It would have been Avell if the king had felt 
 
 and acted in this manner at a former period if, 
 
 when Haman first proposed the slaughter of the 
 innocent Jews, and endeavoured to bribe his con- 
 sent, he had spurned him from his presence, 
 saying, " Thy money perish with thee." Then 
 
212 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 he would not have had such cause for self- 
 reproach as he now had. But it is not until 
 "sin has slain us," or at least inflicted a mortal 
 wound, that we become sensible of its deceitful- 
 ness. And it is better to discover this late than 
 never. 
 
 "The wrath of a king^ (a despot) is as a 
 roaring lion, and as messengers of death," 
 (Prov. xvi. 4.) The agitated frame of Aha- 
 suerus, and the hasty manner in which he left 
 the apartment, without putting a single ques- 
 tion, or uttering a remark, convinced Haman 
 that " there loas evil determined against him.'''' 
 He perceived that his honours had fled, his 
 w^ealth was on the wing, and his life preparing 
 to follow them. "Skin for skin, yea all that a 
 man hath will he give for his life." For once, 
 Satan, thou hast spoken true. " Hama7i stood 
 up to make request for his life to Esther the 
 queen;^^ and, in the agony of his terror and en- 
 treaties, he threw himself on the bed, or sofa, 
 on which she reclined. Men who have risen 
 to greatness, are not always great of heartl- 
 and '■' those who are most haughty, insolent, 
 
HAMAN BEGS FOR HIS LIFE. 213 
 
 and imperious when tliey are in power and 
 prosperity, are commonly the most abject and 
 poor-spirited when the wheel turns upon them." 
 A man of spirit, on perceiving that his plans 
 had failed, and that he was caught in his own 
 toils, would have resigned him.self to his fate, 
 and prepared to meet his doom with fortitude j 
 but a guilty conscience extinguishes moral 
 courage ; and the man who could in cold blood 
 doom a whole nation to the sword, in revenge 
 for a petty affront, was a coward at heart, and 
 w^ould submit to any indignity to save his life. 
 Had Mordecai been present, Haman would 
 have knelt to him. 
 
 " Before honour is humility, and a haughty 
 spirit before a fall." Esther had lately been 
 neglected, and doomed to the slaughter, and 
 forced to sue for her life, while Haman had ac- 
 cess to her husband at all times, and swayed 
 him according to his pleasure ; but now she is 
 honoured, and her sworn enemy owns that he 
 is at her mercy, and begs his life at her hand. 
 Now, God had " regarded the low estate of his 
 handmaiden, and scattered the proud in the im- 
 
214 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 aginations of his heart." In this manner does 
 God sometimes reverse the condition of the op- 
 pressor and the oppressed, even in this life. 
 And these instances of temporal retribution pre- 
 sent in miniature a picture of what shall be ex- 
 hibited on a more magnificent scale at the last 
 day, when those who now despise the saints, 
 and say to them, " Bow down that we may go 
 over," will become suppliants to them ; and as 
 Haman did on the present occasion, shall sup- 
 plicate in vain. " Give us of your oil, for our 
 lamps are gone out. Nay, lest we have not 
 enough for ourselves, but go rather to the mer- 
 chants and buy for yourselves." "Father 
 Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Laza- 
 rus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in 
 water, and cool my tongue ; for I am tormented 
 in this flame. Son, remember that thou in thy 
 lifetime receivedst thy good things, and like- 
 wise Lazarus evil things : but now he is com- 
 forted, and thou art tormented." 
 
 It is the misery of those who have been detect- 
 ed in the commission of great crimes, and it is a 
 just part of their punishment, to be suspected or 
 
HA man's DOOM. 215 
 
 accused of that of vv'hich they are guiltless. 
 But yesterday, all that Haman said or did was 
 viewed with a favourable eye; now, the most 
 innocent actions are construed to his disadvan- 
 tage. Haman lay prostrate at Esther's feet, im- 
 ploring her intercession for his life. What? 
 exclaims the king, on returning to the apartment 
 — " Will he force the queen also before me in 
 the house ?''' Not that he suspected him of any 
 such intention ; but it was a cutting sarcasm, 
 intimating at once the king's rage against him, 
 and his opinion that there was no crime of 
 w^hich such a base wretch was not capable. 
 '' As the icord went out of the kings mouth, 
 they covered Haman^s facel'' as one odious to 
 their master, and already doomed to die. Those 
 who formerly durst scarcely look upon the 
 favourite, now approach without ceremony, 
 and treat him as a felon about to be led out to 
 execution. 
 
 We are not told that the king said, W^ho is 
 in the court % And they answered, Mordecai 
 is in the outer court; and he said, let him 
 come in. Nor that the king said, What shall 
 
216 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 be done to the man who has dishonoured the 
 king, and sought the life of the queen ? And 
 Mordecai said, Let him be hanged on a gallows 
 fifty cubits high. Nothing of this kind hap- 
 pened. Haman resented the condact of Mor- 
 decai in refusing him the honours of which he 
 was so covetous. But Mordecai never touched 
 a hair of his head. It was not he, but one of 
 those who had been most lavish of their adula- 
 tion, and had fawned most servilely upon him, 
 who moved his death, and pointed to the mode 
 of its execution. Harbonah, the chamberlain, 
 who had been sent to attend him to the royal 
 banquet, now tells what he had seen in his 
 house. "■ Behold also the gallows, fifty cubits 
 high, which Haman had made for Mordecai 
 who had spoken good for the kig, standeth in 
 the house of Haman." The star of Mordecai 
 is now in the ascendant, and therefore Har-» 
 bonah, like a prudent courtier, speaks to his 
 praise, while Haman being in disgrace, every 
 thing which could incense the king against 
 him is brought forward and proclaimed. It is 
 our duty to observe the conduct of Providence 
 
PUNISHMENT OF PRIDE, 217 
 
 in rendering a recompense to the wicked, and 
 we should adore its justice ; but we are not to 
 confound this with the motives of those who are 
 instrumental in carrying it into execution. 
 
 O, how little reason Imve proud men to boast 
 of that influence which they have over those 
 who are beneath them ! 
 
 Courtiers have a wonderful sagacity in disco- 
 vering the inclinations, and adapting themselves 
 to the temper and disposition of their princes. 
 Harbonah does not say — Let Haman be execu- 
 ted : but the king, seizing the information com- 
 municated to him, exclaims, " Let him be hang- 
 ed thereon ;'^^ and his sentence was executed 
 without delay. " So they hanged Haman on 
 the gallou's thai he had prepared for Mor- 
 decai" 
 
 See how pride is humbled and persecution 
 punished ; cmd see how mischief falls on the 
 head of those who have prepared it for others. 
 ^There are two circumstances in the present in- 
 stance in which retributive justice appears; 
 First, Haman had procured an edict for the de- 
 struction of the Jews, without any proof of, or 
 19 
 
218 LECTL'RES ON ESTHER. 
 
 investigation into their guilt ; and now he is 
 oidered to execution by the arbitrary wilt of 
 the prince, without any trial. Secondly, he is 
 hanged on the gibbet which he had erected for 
 Mordecai. In this manner have the wicked, 
 and the enemies of the church of God been 
 taken in their own craftiness. The Lord is' 
 known by the judgment which he executeth ; 
 the sinners' hands make the snares, by which 
 they themselves are caught. 
 
 In fine, from this history, we learn that pun- 
 ishments are not merely preventive and cor- 
 rective, according to the narrow and erroneous 
 views of some modern philosophers and politi- 
 cians, but retributive and vindicatory. One 
 design of the punishments in the Mosaic law 
 w^as, that the land might be cleansed from blood. 
 " Then was the king's wrath pacified.^^ And 
 the Prince of the kings of the earth, when he 
 inflicts vengeance, (so it is called in Scripture, 
 times without number,) says, — " Ah ! I will 
 ease me of mine adversaries, and avenge me of 
 mine enemies ;" " I will cause my fury to rest 
 upon them, and I will be comforted." 
 
PUNISHMENT OF PRIDE. 219 
 
 There is nothing like passion in the divine 
 mind, but there is a judicial displeasure which 
 belongs to the Supreme Governor and Judge of 
 the world, and which he displays in the punish- 
 ment of transgressors. We know Him that 
 hath said, " Vengeance belongeth to me ; I will 
 recompense, saith the Lord." And again — 
 " The Lord shall judge his people." 
 
 Whatever doctrine has a tendency to set aside 
 or to relax the influence of the principle of 
 *' godly fear," is not of God. It may be called 
 evangelical and seraphic, but it is ultra-evangeli- 
 cal, yea, ultra-angelical doctrine. In the vision 
 of the prophet, the seraphimsare represented as 
 covering their faces and feet with their wings, 
 while they cry one unto another, " Holy, holy, 
 holy, is the Lord of Hosts!" Some are fond of 
 resolving all the attributes of God into one ; and 
 in the present day, it is the attribute of benevo- 
 lence. We cannot speak too highly of the 
 benevolence of the Divine Being ; but we dis- 
 honour him, or rather, we form a god of our own 
 imagination, if we extol his love at the expense 
 of his holiness, justice, or veracity. He is 
 
220 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 "glorious in holiness," as well as in grace. 
 " God is love," but the same Apostle tells us 
 •'God is light and with him there is no dark- 
 ness at all." "Our God is merciful and gra- 
 cious," but "our God is a consuming fire.'* 
 You know the adage, — "A God all mercy, 
 were a God unjust ;" but it is not enough to 
 apply this against those who deny the necessity 
 of a satisfaction for sin, unless the display of his 
 justice in dealing with our surety, produce a 
 holy awe upon our spirits, inducing us to "fear 
 the Lord and his goodness." "Wherefore, we 
 receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, 
 let us have grace, whereby we may serve God 
 acceptably with reverence and godly fear." 
 
221 
 
 LECTURE FOURTEENTH. 
 
 Esther VIII. 1—5. 
 
 On that day did the king Ahasuerus give the house of 
 Ilaman the Jew's enemy, unto Esther the queen. And 
 Mordecai came before the king ; for Esther had told what 
 he was unto her. And the king took off his ring which he 
 had taken from Haman, and gave it unto Mordecai. And 
 Esther set Mordecai over tlie house of Haman. And 
 Esther spake yet again before the king, and fell down at 
 his feet, and besought him with tears to putav:ay the mis- 
 chief of Haman the Agogite, and his device that he had 
 devised against the Jews. Then the king held out the 
 golden sceptre toward Esther. So Esther arose, and stood 
 before the king, and said, If it please the king, and if I 
 have found favour in his sight, and the thing seem right 
 before the king, and I be pleasing in his eyes, let it be 
 written to reverse the letters devised by Haman, the son 
 of Hammedatha, the Agagite, which he wrote to destroy 
 the Jews which are in all the king^s provinces. 
 
 In our last Lecture we saw how pride is 
 humbled, and in what a surprising way mischief 
 19* 
 
222 LECTURES ON ESTHER, 
 
 is sometimes made to fall on the head of him 
 who had devised it for others. He who made 
 himself miserable if a single individual did not 
 worship him, is fain to become a humble sup- 
 pliant for his life, and supplicates for it in vain. 
 " He shall be judged without mercy who hath 
 showed no mercy." Haman had procured an 
 arbitrary edict to put all the Jews to the sword 
 without any inquiry into the charges brought 
 against them; and he is ordered to execution 
 without the form of a trial. And that the retri- 
 bution might be more signal, he is hanged on 
 the very gibbet which he had prepared for 
 Mordecai. Thus " the wise are taken in their 
 own craftiness, and the heathen are sunk in the 
 pit which they had prepared. The Lord is 
 known by the judgments which he executeth ; 
 and the wicked is snared in the work of his own 
 hand." Higgaion, meditate on this. 
 
 " Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee ; 
 and the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain." 
 The king ordered Haman to execution when he 
 was in wrath ; and it was an act which, while 
 it approved itself to those w^hose minds were 
 
tranquil, he could not repent of when his pas- 
 sion had subsided. But it was fit that what re- 
 mained should be done coolly and dispassion- 
 ately. " Then was the king's wrath pacifiecV^ 
 Esther and Mordecai were the two persons 
 whom the king, though unconsciously, had 
 more immediately injured, and it was proper 
 that he should begin with repairing that injury. 
 They had peculiar claims upon him personally, 
 the one fi'om the near relation in which she 
 stood to him as queen-consort, and the other as 
 the man who had saved his life. " On that day 
 did the king Ahasuerus give the house of Ha - 
 man, the Jewi enemy, unto Esther the queenP 
 This does not refer to the family of the de- 
 ceased favourite, whose fate is afterwards men- 
 tioned, but to his palace and estate, which, as 
 confiscated property, had fallen to the crown by 
 the condemnation and death of the owner. His 
 houses and lands, his silver and gold, his goods 
 and chattels — all the wealth he had heaped up 
 during his prosperity, and of which we found 
 him boasting to his friends, was now gifted to 
 Esther, in addition to the royal provision already 
 
224 LECTURES ON ESTHEit. 
 
 made for her. Haman had offered the king ten 
 thousand talents of silver as a remuneration for 
 the lives of the Jews; to which the king replied 
 — " The silver is given to thee, the people also, 
 to do with them as it seemeth good to thee." 
 But now he gives to Esther not only the life of 
 Haman, but also all that he had, that she might 
 do with it what seemed good to her. Thus it 
 is that the " wealth of the sinner is laid up for 
 the just, and the innocent divides the silver." 
 
 *' Esther set Mordecai over the house of Ha- 
 man^^ as steward, to oversee and manage it for 
 her interest. How galling would it have been 
 to Haman to have foreseen that the man whom 
 he most hated should " rule over all that 
 wherein he had laboured, and wherein he had 
 showed himself wise under the sun!" How 
 deceitful is favour — how vain are riches! Shall 
 we set our hearts on that which is not ? For 
 that w^hich may be another's to-morrow cannot, 
 in any proper sense, be called mine. Haman's 
 case w^as peculiar in some circumstances ; but 
 in the main it is a common case, and is fraught 
 with admonition. " Surely every man walketh 
 
MORDECAI EXALTED. 225 
 
 in a vain show ; surely they are disquieted in 
 vain : he heapeth up riches, and knoweth not 
 who shall gather them," knoweth not whether 
 he shall be a wise man or a fool, yea, a friend 
 or foe. In this respect the situation of a poor 
 man is happier than that of the rich ; for if he 
 bequeath nothing to his friends, he leaves as 
 little to his enemies. How much surer and 
 wiser is it to lay up those treasures, and acquire 
 those honours of which none can strip us, so 
 that when we come to die, we may be able to 
 say, " I carry all my wealth with me!" 
 
 Esther had hitherto kept the secret of her 
 relationship to Mordecai, in obedience to his 
 injunctions; but the time was now coming for 
 revealing it.. All the purposes which Provi- 
 dence had intended to serve by its concealment 
 were accomplished. To have retained it longer 
 would have been an intolerable burden on her 
 own mind, a piece of ingratitude to her hus- 
 band, and a source of danger to her guardian. 
 His life had recently been in imminent peril by 
 the king's ignorance of the fact, and she would 
 not tempt Providence by keeping it longer back. 
 
^26 
 
 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 Without farther delay she informs her royal 
 husband that Mordecai is her near relation — 
 her second father, who had taken her up when 
 left an infant orphan, and reared her with all 
 the kindness and care of a parent. Mordecai is 
 instantly sent for, leaves his humble place to 
 return to it no more, and is introduced at court 
 as the queen's cousin. The monarch now 
 found himself more than ever bound to confer 
 honour on Mordecai. The question now is, 
 what shall be done to the man who has saved 
 the life of both the king and queen ? Haman 
 is not now in the court to answer the question: 
 but Haman's place shall answer it. " The king- 
 took off the ring which he had taken from Ha- 
 man, and gave it to Mordecai," thereby not only 
 giving a pledge of royal favour, but investing 
 him with the high office of first minister of the 
 state. Nor was this done without reason. The 
 wisdom and spirit displayed by Mordecai in the 
 whole of the late affair, together with his 
 modesty, humility, and self-denial, marked him 
 out as a person of no ordinary accomplish- 
 ments, both moral and intellectual, and whose 
 
MORDECAI EXALTED, 227 
 
 advancement would contribute at once to the 
 security of the throne and the happiness of the 
 people. 
 
 Such were the morning and evening of this 
 day, the transactions of which must have ap- 
 peared to those immediately concerned in them 
 as a dream. How many important events are 
 sometimes crowded into the small space of 
 twenty-four hours ! Years of our life pass away 
 without anything occurring worthy of notice, 
 and in the course of one da^^ we shall see a 
 complete revolution of our fortunes and those 
 of others. How little did either Haman or 
 Mordecai think, when they rose in the morn- 
 ing, that their situations would be reversed be- 
 fore evening — the former, that he should be 
 suspended on the gibbet which he had prepared 
 for Mordecai, and the latter, that he should be 
 advanced to the post of honour held by Ha- 
 man ! But it was the work of the Lord ; and 
 with Him " a thousand years are as one day, 
 and one day as a thousand years." 
 
 The king had slept none on the preceding 
 evening, and it is probable that the queen slept 
 
228 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 as little during this night, Her spirits must 
 have been discomposed by anxiety, and by the 
 desirable but affecting termination of the impor- 
 tant affair in which she had embarked, so far 
 as it had proceeded. But there still remained 
 ground of anxiety ; the chief part of her peti- 
 tion was still unanswered. Her life had been 
 given her at her petition, but not " her people 
 at her request." The disgrace and death of 
 Haman secured her and Mordecai from danger. 
 But the Jews, scattered through one hundred 
 and twenty provinces, were still doomed to the 
 sword, and they had many enemies who looked 
 forward to the time fixed by the decree for 
 their slaughter and spoliation. If, contented 
 with what she had obtained, she had now held 
 her peace, and ceased to importune the king 
 for their protection, she would have betrayed a 
 selfishness at variance with her former con- 
 duct. It might be thought that Mordecai, now 
 received into court, and intrusted with power, 
 should have taken the direction of the affair ; 
 but it was more fit that he should receive orders 
 from the monarch, instead of obtruding his ad- 
 
SKILL IN SCRIPTURE. 229 
 
 vice at the commencement of his ministry ; and 
 that Esther should have the honour of com- 
 pleting the business which she had hitherto 
 conducted with so much wisdom and success, 
 
 " Sit still, my daughter, until thou know how 
 the matter will fall : for the man will not be in 
 rest until he have finished the thing this day." 
 {Ruth, iii. 18.) Such was the advice of Naomi 
 to her daughter-in-law ; but if Esther had acted 
 upon it on the present occasion, she would have 
 spoiled the work which she had so auspiciously 
 begun. It is not enough to be able to quote 
 Scripture ; Satan can do that, and with great 
 dexterity. There are two keys necessary for 
 opening the mysteries of the kingdom of hea- 
 ven ; the key of doctrine or interpretation, and 
 the key of application. Knowledge will qualify 
 one for using the former; wisdom and expe- 
 rience are requisite for the right handling of the 
 latter. A person may be well acquainted with 
 all the tools in an artisan's shop — he may know 
 not only their names, but the several purposes 
 they are intended to serve ; and yet may be in- 
 capable of using them. The right use of Scrip- 
 20 
 
230 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 ture lies in the application. It is to this that the 
 Apostle appears immediately to refer, when he 
 says to Timothy, " Study to show thyself 
 approved unto God, a workman that needeth 
 not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of 
 truth." A clever student may prove but a sorry 
 preacher. In applying Scripture, discrimina- 
 tion is necessary. We need to distinguish be- 
 tween general maxims and particular direc- 
 tions; and even when the latter may contain a 
 general principle, we are to divest it of its 
 specialties, and to attend to the circumstances of 
 person, place, and time, which may be of such 
 a kind as to render it totally inapplicable to the 
 situation in which we are placed. There was 
 a wide difference between the case of Ruth and 
 Esther, in two respects. In the first place, the 
 former was not a case of life and death, like 
 the latter. Where the matter merely concerns 
 our comfort, after having used ordinary means, 
 we may warrantably and wisely " sit still until 
 we know how the matter will fall;" or, as the 
 words are rendered in the Chaldee Targum, 
 •' imtil we know how it is decreed in heaven," 
 
SKILL IN SCRIPTURE. 231 
 
 (a proof, by the way, that those early para- 
 phrasts were predestinarians;) but when the 
 point at issue is of vast importance to ourselves 
 or others, or in any way involves necessary duty, 
 to sit still is to sin, to refuse to be workers to- 
 gether with God, the Father of mercies, and to 
 cover our own indolence or cowardice with a 
 pretended regard for the divine decrees. If Es- 
 ther had sitten still, she would have tempted the 
 Lord her God, as really as Jesus would have 
 done had he thrown himself from the pinnacle 
 of the temple, trusting in the promise, " He shall 
 give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee 
 in all thy ways : they shall bear thee up in 
 their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a 
 gtone." In the second place, there was a great 
 difference in respect of persons. Boaz was a 
 pious and wise man, and might be trusted with 
 doing what was proper and right, after the mat- 
 ter was brought under his notice. Ahasuerus 
 was a heathen and a monarch, who, in his great- 
 ness, and in the midst of his pleasures, might 
 forget those who were " drawn unto death," and 
 might afterwards say, " Behold, we knew it 
 
232 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 Accordingly, Esther went in a second time 
 to the presence of the king, and was encouraged, 
 as formerly, to present her request, by his 
 stretching out the golden sceptre to her. What 
 she asked of the king was, " to put aioay the 
 mischief of Haman the Agagite, and his device 
 that he had devised against the Jews^ Haman 
 was dead, but his mischievous decree still lived 
 — it had all the strength of a law — an irrevo- 
 cable law, by which thousands, and ten thou- 
 sands, might be sacrificed to his manes. In 
 respect of active exertion, it is true that in the 
 grave "the wicked cease from troubling;" but, 
 so far as the consequences of their actions, and 
 the execution of their plans are concerned, it 
 may be said, that, though dead, they yet speak 
 and work mischief This is especially true of 
 sinners of splendid talent and high station. It 
 holds true of rulers that enact unrighteous laws, 
 — of men of rank who lead a profligate life, — 
 and of learned men, who leave behind them 
 writings which go on to taint and vitiate the 
 principles of men from generation to generation. 
 To them Ave may at least accommodate the v/ords, 
 
Esther's intercession. 233 
 
 " Some men's sins are open beforehand, and go 
 before to judgment ; and some men they follow 
 after." We read of the judgments inflicted for 
 *' the sin which Jeroboam caused Israel to sin." 
 long after that prince was rotten in his grave. 
 It was with great earnestness, and evident 
 marks of affection, that Esther urged the king 
 to interpose his authority to prevent the execu- 
 tion of the bloody decree. " Sh". fell doion at 
 his feet, and besought him loith tearsP We 
 have here a bright example of female patriotism. 
 At her first appearance we read of nothing of 
 this kind. Then she was a party concerned, 
 — and, with the dignity which became a queen, 
 and one of an injured and innocent race, she 
 pled her cause, and boldly arraigned the enemy 
 and adversary. But now, her own life having 
 been secured, she appears as an intercessor and 
 advocate for others. Her whole soul was em- 
 barked in the cause which she had undertaken 
 — very different from a man of law, or one who 
 engages to act the part of his client for fee and 
 reward. She " preferred Jerusalem above her 
 chief joy." When her own life was in danger 
 20* 
 
234 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 she bent no knee, she shed no tear ; but now 
 she weeps and makes supplication, and refuses 
 to rise from the ground unless her people are 
 given at her request. To obtain this there is 
 no humiliation to which she will not submit, 
 no entreaty that she will not employ. She will 
 not separate herself from her kindred, and, like 
 the wife of Phinehas, cannot think of surviving 
 the destruction of her people. " For how" she 
 exclaims, " ca?i I endure to see the einl that shall 
 come unto my people, or hoiv shall I endure to 
 see the destruction of my ki7idredV^ 
 
 The true patriot is ready to sacrifice every 
 thing for the public weal; he prefers public to 
 personal interests, and would rather die than 
 witness the desolations of the church of God 
 and the ruin of his country. Such was the 
 patriotism of Moses : — " Yet now, if thou wilt 
 forgive their sin ; and if not, blot me, I pray 
 thee, out of thy book which thou hast written." 
 And such was the patriotism of the New Tes- 
 tament Moses, the Apostle Paul : " I say the 
 truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also 
 bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, that I 
 
THE TRUE PATRIOT. 235 
 
 have grep-t heaviness and continual sorrow in 
 my heart. For I could wish that myself were 
 accursed from Christ for my brethren, my 
 kinsmen according to the flesh ;" — a passage, 
 the beauty of which is not half seen unless it is 
 compared with the close of the preceding chap- 
 ter, in which we find the Apostle exuhing in 
 the love of God, and declaring his persuasion 
 that nothing could separate him from Christ. 
 •'.Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? 
 Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or 
 famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Nay, 
 in all these things we are more than conquer- 
 ors, through him that loved us." But what all 
 these things could not do, singly or together, 
 his love for his brethren would have induced 
 him to undergo. " For I could wish that my- 
 self were accursed from Christ (separated from 
 his love) for my brethren, my kinsmen accord- 
 ing to the flesh." 
 
236 
 
 LECTURE FIFTEENTH. 
 
 Esther VIII. 7—17. 
 
 Then the King Ahasuerus said unto Esther the queen and 
 ■to Mordecai the Jew, Behold, J have given Esther the 
 house of Haman, and him they hate hanged upon the 
 gallows, because he laid, his hand ujjon the Jews. Write 
 ye also for the Jews, as it likcth you, in the king's name, 
 and seal it with the king's ring : for the icriting which 
 is written in the king''s name, and sealed with the king^s 
 ring, may no man reverse. Then were the hinges scribes 
 called at that time in the third month, that is, the month 
 Sivan, on tlie three and ticentieth day thereof; and it was 
 written according to all that 3Iordecai commanded unto 
 the Jews, and to the lieutenants, and deputies and rulers 
 of the provinces which are from India unto Ethiopia, an 
 hundred itcenty and seven provinces, unto every province 
 according to the icriting thereof , and unto every people 
 after their language, and to the Jeics according to their 
 writing, and according to their language. And he wrote 
 in the King Ahasuerus'' name, and sealed it unth the 
 king^s ring, and sent letters by post on horseback, and 
 riders on mules, camels, and young dromedaries ; wherein 
 
RECAPITULATION. 237 
 
 the king granted the Jeios which were in every city to 
 gather themselves together, and to stand for their life, to 
 destroy, to slay, and to cause to perish, all the power of the 
 people and province that icoidd assaidt them, loth little 
 ones and women, and to take the spoil of them for a prey, 
 upon one day in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, 
 namely, upon the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, 
 which is the month Adar. The copy of the vyriting for 
 a commandment to he given in every province was pub- 
 lished unto all people, and that the Jews should he ready 
 against that day to avenge themselves on their enemies. 
 So the posts that rode upon mules and camels went out, 
 being hastened and pressed on hy the king's command- 
 ment. And the decree was given at Shushan the palace. 
 And Mordecai went out from the presence of the king 
 in royal apparel of hlue and white, and loith a great 
 crown of gold, and icith a garment of fine linen and 
 purple : and the city of Shushan rejoiced and was glad. 
 The Jews Iiad light, and gladness, and joy, and honour. 
 And in every province, and in every city, whitliersoever 
 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 hecame Jews; for ilie 
 fear of the Jews fell upon them. 
 
 After considering the advancement of Mor- 
 decai to the place of Haman, we, in our last 
 Lecture, entered on the account of Esther's 
 
238 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 second audience of the king. Though the dis- 
 grace and execution of Haman, with the ad- 
 Tancement of Mordecai, was a sufficient decla- 
 ration of the royal sentiments in favour of the 
 Jews, the latter were still exposed legally to all 
 the penalties of the exterminating decree, which 
 had been published throughout the wide extent 
 of the Persian empire, and there were many 
 who, inflamed by hatred, or lured by the pros- 
 pect of a rich booty, looked forward eagerly to 
 the day fixed for slaughter and spoliation. It 
 was, therefore, necessary for Esther to bestir 
 herself for the protection of her countrymen. 
 Having met with an encouraging reception 
 from the king, she begged that he would re- 
 verse the letters which Haman had devised to 
 destroy all the Jews in all the king's provinces. 
 This request was presented with all due re- 
 spect. " If it please the king, and if I have 
 found favour in his sight, and the thing seem 
 right before the king, and I be pleasing in his 
 eyes." But it was made and enforced with the 
 most afTectionate and moving earnestness. In- 
 deed these two are blended tosfether both in ac- 
 
RECAPITULATION. 239 
 
 tions and words. " She fell down at his feet, 
 and besought him with tears." And her words^ 
 corresponded to her actions. " For how," ex- 
 claims she, " can I endure to see the evil that 
 shall come unto my people 1 or how can I en.- 
 dure to see the destruction of my kindred?" 
 
 Such a tender scene would have melted a 
 harder heart than that of Ahasuerus, who, 
 though luxurious and thoughtless, was not 
 cruel, and, besides his love for Esther, felt 
 ashamed and grieved at the facility with which 
 he had yielded to the false representations and 
 wicked proposals of a worthless minister. His 
 reply indicated that he was pained at the dis- 
 tress of the queen, and at the recollections which 
 it brought up in his own breast. " Then the 
 king Ahasuerus said unto Esther the queen, 
 and to Mordecai the Jew, behold I have given 
 Esther the house of Haman, and him they have 
 hanged upon the gallows, because he laid his 
 hand upon the Jews ;" as if he had said. You 
 might have taken this as an evidence, that I 
 was as anxious as you can be that every thing 
 should be done to prevent their slaughter ; but 
 
240 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 that this may be done with every legal formali- 
 ty, " Write ye also for the Jews, as it Jiketh you, 
 in the king's name, and seal it with the king's 
 ring : for the writing which is written in the 
 king's name, and sealed with the king's ring, 
 may no man reverse," v. 7, 8. This last clause 
 may be understood as intimating the difficulty 
 W'hich stood in the way of granting literally the 
 request of Esther to reverse the letters procured 
 by Haman, and as pointing out to Mordecai 
 the necessity of adopting an expedient to defeat 
 the operation of the unrighteous decree. 
 
 It was a fundamental article in the constitu- 
 tion of Persia, that a law once enacted was irre- 
 vocable. A most preposterous provision ! and 
 worse than preposterous, irrational and unrighte- 
 ous. Of all the absurdities into which nations 
 have fallen in their systems of legislation, 
 especially where the power is intrusted to the 
 arbitrary will and caprice of a single individual, 
 this is the most absurd — giving perpetuity and 
 effect to every species of injustice, and oppression, 
 and cruelty, proceeding on the presumptuous 
 assumption of infallibility, and arrogating the 
 
T H E P E R S I A N L A W . 241 
 
 right which belongs exclusively to the Supreme 
 Being, who cannot do wrong, all whose enact- 
 ments are necessarily founded in truth and 
 rectitude, and "the righteousness of whose tes- 
 timonies is everlasting." This arrogance of the 
 Persian despots has never been equalled, except 
 by the claim to infallibility set up by "the man 
 of sin, the son of perdition, who opposeth and 
 exalteth himself above all that is called God, or 
 that is worshipped ; so that he, as God, sitteth in 
 the temple of God, showing himself that he is 
 God." No human authority, civil or sacred, 
 whether exercised singly or collectively, is free 
 from error, and consequently its decisions and 
 enactments must always be subject to review 
 and reversal. Some laws may be morally un- 
 alterable, in consequence of their being founded 
 on the eternal principles of rectitude and justice, 
 so that the repeal of them would be unjust and 
 morally wrong; but this does not belong to 
 them simply as human laws, with respect to all 
 of which the maxim of our law holds good — the 
 legislatL;;e which enacts can annul. 
 
 This absurd pretension to inviolability in 
 21 
 
S42 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 the Persian code necessarily led to expedients 
 equally absurd in themselves, when it was found 
 that measures had obtained the royal assent 
 which were impolitic and pernicious — or when 
 new princes and ministers wished to set aside the 
 measures of their predecessors. Recourse was 
 had to one of them on the present occasion. 
 The letters of Haman, giving permission and 
 authority to kill the Jews, could not be revoked ; 
 but other letters were written by Mordecai, 
 giving permission and authority to the Jews, in 
 every city, to gather themselves together for the 
 defence of their lives, and " to destroy, to slay, 
 and cause to perish all the power of the people 
 and province that would assault them." These 
 letters were written by the direction of Mordecai, 
 according to the powers given him in the king's 
 name, and sealed with the king's ring. Copies 
 of them so sealed were sent to the Jews, and to 
 the lieutenants, deputies, and rulers of every 
 province of the empire, in their respective lan- 
 guages. Two months had elapsed since the 
 former letters were issued and circulated ; and 
 nine months remained before the day fixed in 
 
MORDECAl's LETTERS. 243 
 
 them for the destruction of the Jewish nation. 
 There was, therefore, time for the circulation of 
 the new letters; but that time was precious, and 
 there was no room for delay. " That the Jews 
 should be ready against that day to avenge 
 themselves on their enemies," Mordecai sent 
 the " letters by posts on horseback, and riders 
 on mules, camels, and young dromedaries:" 
 with strict injunctions to use all despatch in cir- 
 culating them. In the meantime " the decree 
 was given at Shushan the palace;" that is, it 
 was published in the capital where the court 
 was held, to give it the greater authority. 
 
 This decree was an exact counterpart of 
 Haman's. It gave the Jews authority to slay 
 all that should assault them ; it protected or 
 indemnified them, if, in their necessary defence, 
 they should put to death women and children ; 
 and it authorized them to take the spoil of their 
 enemies. Not that Mordecai intended them to 
 proceed so far, and we shall afterwards see that 
 the Jews stopped short of this. But these pro- 
 visions were requisite at once for their indemni- 
 fication, and to strike their enemies with terror. 
 
244 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 In both cases the decree was circulated with 
 speed; but in the Jattercase there was a greater 
 urgency on the part of the king — for the couriers 
 who went out were " hastened and pressed on by 
 the king's commandment." 
 
 But in other respects there was a great dif- 
 ference between the two edicts. After the 
 former had been issued, "the king and Haman 
 sat down to drink," regardless of, if not exult- 
 ing over, the misery they had created. After 
 the last decree was issued, "Mordecai went 
 out from the presence of the king," that he 
 might fulfil the duties of the high trust with 
 which he was now charged ; and that all might 
 know that the king had transferred his confi- 
 dence to him, he went out, by the king's orders, 
 " in royal apparel of blue and white, and with 
 a great crown of gold, and with a garment of 
 fine linen and purple." What a reverse ! But 
 a few days ago, Mordecai appeared in the 
 streets of Shushan in sackcloth, and with ashes 
 on his head ; now, he is conducted through the 
 same streets clothed in purple, and with a coro- 
 net on his head. True it is, that these thinofs 
 
ROBES OF OFFICE. 245 
 
 are in themselves of no importance ; and none 
 but a weak man will be vain of them. They 
 are mere trappings, which are often worn by 
 the most worthless, so far as character is con- 
 cerned. The true ornaments do not consist 
 "in wearing of gold or putting on of apparel, 
 but those of the hidden man of the heart, in that 
 which is not corruptible." Mordecai was as 
 great — nay, he was greater in the sight of God, 
 and more deserving of respect and honour from 
 men, when he was clad in sackcloth, than 
 when he went out from the presence of the 
 king gorgeousl}; apparelled. But what we are 
 required to consider here is the work of the 
 Lord, and the operation of his hands. It was 
 not Ahasuerus, but the providence of God, 
 which said, " Bring forth the best robe and 
 put it on him." This was done to the man 
 whom the King of heaven delighted to honour; 
 and in honouring him he showed the regard 
 which he had for his people, the people of the 
 God of Abraham, Mordecai in sackcloth was 
 the representative of Jacob in trouble, — Morde- 
 cai in purple is the representative of Jacob in 
 21* 
 
246 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 triumph ; and the honour conferred on him. 
 was an earnest, not only of the deliverance of 
 the scattered tribes of Israel, but of the enlarge- 
 ment to be granted to those who had returned 
 to their own land, and which they came to ex- 
 perience under the administration of Ezra and 
 Nehemiah. " I am the Lord thy God, the 
 Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour; I gave 
 Egypt for thy ransom, Ethiopia and Seba for 
 thee. Since thou wast precious in my sight 
 thou hast been honourable, and I have loved 
 thee : therefore will I give men for thee, and 
 people for thy life." " Awake, awake; put on 
 thy strength, O Zion, put on thy beautiful gar- 
 ments, O Jerusalem, the holy city : for hence- 
 forth there shall no more come into thee the 
 uncircumcised, and the unclean. Shake thy- 
 self from the dust ; arise, and sit down, O Jeru- 
 salem: loose thyself from the bands of thy 
 neck, O captive daughter of Zion. For thus 
 saith the Lord, Ye have sold yourselves for 
 nought, and ye shall be redeemed without 
 money." 
 
 Nor is it a small matter, or a thing to be 
 
PIOUS RULERS. 247 
 
 despised or overlooked, when the ensigns of 
 worldly honour are put into the hands of piety, 
 and men who fear God are advanced to power. 
 This is an earnest of that expected and desirable 
 day, when " the kingdom and the dominion, and 
 the greatness of the kingdom under the whole 
 heaven, shall be given to the saints of the Most 
 High." And it is an event highly advantageous 
 to the temporal welfare of those over whom 
 their authority and influence extend. 
 
 Nations have sometimes suffered from the 
 imbecility and incapacity of their rulers, but 
 much more frequently from their selfishness, 
 ambition, and want of principle. Those that 
 fear God will hate covetousness, and cultivate 
 justice, mercy, and peace. The Persian em- 
 pire had groaned under the oppression of a 
 wicked minister, and welcomed the accession 
 to power of one of an opposite character, though 
 his talents for rule were yet untried. This is 
 strongly expressed in the contrast of feeling 
 which pervaded the capital at the issuing of the 
 two decrees. When the decree for extermina- 
 ting the Jews was promulgated, " the city Shu- 
 
248 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 shan was perplexed ;" but when the second de- 
 cree was made known, and Mordecai was pro- 
 claimed minister of state, " the cily Shuslian re- 
 joiced, and ivas glad.^^ The former feeling no 
 doubt reflects credit on the Jews, as it shows that 
 they had conducted themselves inoffensively in 
 the land of their captivity, so that their masters 
 sympathized with their afflictions ; but it also 
 shows how odions the haughty favourite had 
 made himself. Though none of the natives 
 durst breathe a wkisper against him, and Mor- 
 decai alone had the firmness not to bow a knee 
 to the minion, yet they secretly dreaded and ex- 
 ecrated him ; and, now when he is fallen, they 
 exult in the prospect of the happiness which 
 they anticipate under the administration of one 
 who was as unlike him as light is to darkness. 
 " When it goeth well with the righteous the 
 city rejoiceth ; and when the wicked perish, 
 there is shouting. By the blessing of the up- 
 right the city is exalted : but it is overthrown 
 by the mouth of the wicked." These are the 
 words of a Book which was not intended to 
 teach political economy, or the way to national 
 
PIOUS RULERS. 249 
 
 wealth, but which teaches a far higher wisdom, 
 — that moral and religious economy, which is 
 the way to national, as well as domestic and in- 
 dividual happiness, and to true greatness, for it 
 is " righteousness that exalteth a nation." 
 
 If the heathen inhabitants of the capital re- 
 joiced at the change which had taken place, 
 what must the feelings of the Jews have been ! 
 Formerly, "in every province whithersoever 
 the king's commandment and his decree came, 
 there was great mourning among the Jews, 
 and fasting, and weeping, and wailing, and 
 many lay in sackcloth and ashes." But now, 
 how changed is every thing ! " The Jews had 
 light, and gladness, and joy, and honour ; and 
 in ever}'- province, and in every city, whither- 
 soever the king's commandment and his de- 
 cree came, the Jews had joy and gladness, a 
 feast, and a good day." What a blessing is a 
 wise and upright administration of government, 
 and what are all the trophies of ambition, and 
 all the pleasures which an eastern court can 
 present, compared with the glory and the luxu- 
 ry which that prince enjoys, who sees his pec- 
 
250 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 pie happy and grateful under his sway ! And 
 how may this be accomplished 1 Listen to the 
 oracle. " The God of Israel said, the Rock of 
 Israel spake to me, He tliat ruleth over merii 
 must be just, ruling in the fear of God. And 
 he shall be as the light of the morning when 
 the sun riseth, even a morning without clouds ; 
 as the tender grass springing out of the earth 
 by clear shining after rain," 
 
 The joy felt by the Jews was greatly en- 
 hanced by the distress into which they had 
 lately been plunged, and by the suddenness and 
 strangeness of the transition. They felt like a 
 sick man at the point of death, when he hears 
 the voice, Deliver from going down to the pit; 
 or like a criminal expecting the hour of ^his 
 execution, when a pardon is put into his hand. 
 They felt like their fathers when the Lord turn- 
 ed back the captivity of Zion ; "they were like 
 them that dream ; their mouth was filled with 
 laughter, and their tongue with singing." And 
 such, my friends, will be the feelings of the 
 ransomed of the Lord, when they shall come to 
 the heavenly Zion ; the recollection of all that 
 
J Y F T H E J E W S . 251 
 
 they have suffered here shall only serve to 
 accent their happiness, and convert it into a joy 
 unspeakable and full of glory. " Beloved, 
 think it not strange concerning the fiery trial 
 which is to try you, as though some strange 
 thing happened unto you ; but rejoice, inasmuch 
 as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings ; that 
 when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be 
 glad also with exceeding joy." 
 
 The deliverances experienced in time by the 
 church and people of Jehovah are earnests of 
 that felicity and glory which shall be enjoyed 
 in the future world. But they are also produc- 
 tive of benefits in this life, which make them 
 sources of joy and thanksgiving to all well- 
 affected minds. Besides confirming weak dis- 
 ciples, and adding alacrity to the strong, they 
 are often blessed for making converts, and 
 inducing strangers to join themselves to the 
 people of God. Thus it is written, " The 
 Lord will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet 
 choose Israel, and set them in their own land ; 
 and the strangers shall be joined Avith them, 
 and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob." 
 
852 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 A similar prediction, or rather promise, was 
 given forth by Zechariah, when the fasts 
 hitherto kept by the returned captives should be 
 turned into joy and gladness, and cheerful 
 feasts. " There shall come people, and the in- 
 habitants of many cities ; and the inhabitants of 
 one city shall go to another, saying, let us go 
 speedily to pray before the Lord, and to seek 
 the Lord of hosts : I will go also. Yea, many- 
 people and strong nations shall come to seek 
 the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem, and to pray be- 
 fore the Lord. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, 
 In those days it shall come to pass, that ten 
 men shall take hold, out of all languages of the 
 nations, even shall take hold of the skirt of him 
 that is a Jew, saying, We will go with you ; 
 for we have heard that God is with you." 
 
 These promises were partly fulfilled in con- 
 sequence of the visible interposition of divine 
 providence, on the occasion referred to in the 
 text. " Many of the people of the land became 
 Jews, for the fear of the Jews fell upon them." 
 They became proselytes to the Jewish religion, 
 (for no other meaning can be applied to the 
 
PROMISES TO THE CHURCH. 253 
 
 words, when the Jews were foreigners,) renoun- 
 ced idolatry, and worshipped the true God. 
 "When the church prospers, and is smiled 
 upon," says a pious commentator, "many will 
 come into it that will be shy of it when it is in 
 trouble." But w^e must not altogether despise 
 such conversions. Though nothing but will- 
 ing and cordial submission will advantage 
 the souls of individuals, God can glorify him- 
 self, and Christ is glorified in the " professed 
 subjection" of men. " Thou hast delivered me 
 from the strivings of the people ; and thou hast 
 made me the head of the heathen ; a people 
 whom I have not known shall serve me. As 
 soon as they hear of me, they shall obey me; 
 the strangers shall submit themselves unto me ;" 
 or, as it is in the margin, "shall yield feigned 
 obedience unto me." Not fear, but love, is the 
 principle of genuine and evangelical obedience. 
 But the Spirit of God makes use of the natural 
 principle of fear, in awakening persons to a 
 concern about salvation. " Save yourselves 
 from this untoward generation," was an apos- 
 tolical exhortation ; and among the effects pro- 
 22 
 
254 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 fluced by the preaching and miracles of the 
 primitive church, this is particularly specified^ 
 that " fear came upon ever}'- soul ;" and again, 
 "great fear came upon all the church, and 
 upon as many as heard these things;" after 
 which it follows, " and believers were the more 
 added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and 
 
255 
 
 LECTURE SIXTEENTH 
 
 Esther IX. 1—16. 
 
 Noic, in the twelfth month (that is, the month Adar,) on the 
 thirteenth day of the same, when the king^s commandment 
 and his decree drew near to he put into execution, in the 
 day that tlie enemies of the Jews hoped to have power over 
 them, (tliough it teas turned to the contrary, that the Jews 
 had rule over them that hated them,) the Jews gathered 
 iliemselves together in their cities, throughout all the 
 provinces of the king Ahasuerus, to lay hand on such as 
 sought tlieir hurt : and no man could withstand them; 
 for the fear of them fell upon all people. And all the 
 rulers of the provinces, and the lieutenants, and the 
 deputies, and officers of the, king, helped tlie Jews ; because 
 the fear of Mordecai fell upon them. For Mordecai was 
 great in the king^s house, and his fame went throughout 
 all the provinces : for this man Mordecai icaxed greater 
 and greater. Thus the Jews smote all their enemies icith 
 the stroke of the sword, and slaughter, and destruction, 
 and did what they would unto those that hated them. And 
 in Shushan the palace the Jews slew and destroyed Jive 
 
256 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 hundred men. And ParsJiandatha, and Dalphon, and 
 Aspatha, and Poratha, and Adalia, and Aridatha, and 
 Parmashta, Arisai, and Aridai, and Vajezatha^ the ten 
 sons of Hainan the son of Hammedatha, the enemy of the 
 Jews, slew they; hut on the spoil laid they not their hand. 
 On that day the number of those that were slain in 
 Shushan the palace was brought before the king. And 
 the king said unto Esther the queen, The Jeics have slain 
 and destroyed five hundred men in Shushan the palace,, 
 and the ten sons of Haman : what have they done in the 
 rest of the king's prociyiccs 1 Now ichat is thy petition ? 
 and it shall he granted thee : or what is thy request 
 farther? and it shall he done. Then said Esther, Jf it 
 please the king, let it he granted to the Jews which are in 
 Shusha7i to do to-morrow also according to this day^s 
 decree, and let Haman's ten sons be hanged upon the 
 gallows. And the king commanded it so to he done : 
 and the decree icas given at Shushan; and they hanged 
 Hamuns ten sons. For the Jews that were in Shushan 
 gathered themselves together on the fourteenth day also 
 of the month Adar, and slew three hundred men at 
 Shushan; hut on the prey they laid not their hand. But 
 the other Jeics that tcere in the king's provinces gathered 
 themselves together, and stood for their lives, and had 
 rest from their enemies, and slew of their foes severity and 
 five thousand, hut they laid not their hands on tJie prey. 
 
 In our last lecture we considered the decree 
 which Esther obtained from the king in behalf 
 
THE CONFLICTING EDICTS. 257 
 
 of her countrymen, with the effect which its 
 promulgation had, both on the Jews and on the 
 natives of Persia. The city of Shushan rejoiced 
 and was glad ; the Jews had light and gladness, 
 and joy and honour ; and this feeling was not 
 confined to the capital, but diffused itself over 
 every province and city, in which the decree was 
 made known. Nor was this all — many Pagans 
 were induced by it to become proselytes to the 
 Jewish religion, so evident and palpable was the 
 interposition of heaven in their behalf Thus 
 was accomplished the prediction uttered some 
 time before by the prophet Zechariah. 
 
 This account is prospective, and not limited 
 to the time which elapsed between the procla- 
 mation and execution of the decree. That 
 interval was necessarily a period of suspense 
 and anxiety, both to the Jews and to their ad- 
 versaries. There were two royal edicts equally 
 in force — the one authorizing the slaughter of 
 the Jews on the 13th of the month Adar; and 
 the other authorizing the Jews to draw the 
 sword in defence of their lives on that day. In 
 any other country a proclamation would have 
 22* 
 
25S LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 been made, declaring- that the former decree 
 had been procured by surprise and on false 
 information, annulling it in all its clauses, and 
 prohibiting- all the subjects from taking- away 
 the life of a single Jew, touching his property, 
 or in any way molesting him. But this rational 
 method of procedure was prevented by a pre- 
 posterous constitution in the Persian govern- 
 ment, which provided that whatever had passed 
 the royal signet, no man, not even the monarch, 
 could reverse. The latter decree did not set 
 aside or abrogate the former, so that it was legal 
 to destroy the Jewish nation ; and any one who 
 should take away the life of a Jew, and seize 
 his property, was secured by law against pun- 
 ishment or responsibility. It was a species of 
 judicial combat. The cause of the Jews was to 
 be tried by battle, and the day was fixed by 
 authority. Judging of this affair humanly, we 
 perceive at once impolicy and injustice. A 
 civil war is proclaimed : two paities in the state 
 are armed against one another ; the innocent 
 and the guilty are placed on a level — or rather, 
 innocence is perilled on the accidents of war ; 
 
THE CONFLICT. 259 
 
 and authority, instead of interposing in its de- 
 fence, and for the preservation of public tran- 
 quillity, stands by, as a passive spectator of the 
 sanguinary struggle. These things ought not 
 to have been so ; and that they were so, was not 
 the fault of Esther and Mordecai, whose busi- 
 ness and duty it was to avail themselves of all 
 the means which nature and the laws of the 
 country afforded for defending their lives and 
 those of their kindred. But there is another 
 light in which the affair is to be viewed, and in 
 which we see every thing to be praised. It was 
 the plan of heaven for the deliverance of the 
 chosen people, and the punishment of their ene- 
 mies. The cause of the Jews was subjected to 
 the judgment of God, who is the Lord of armies, 
 and who had laid his plans so as to secure the 
 ■victory to calumniated and persecuted innocence. 
 
 In the passage under consideration we have 
 an interesting account of the decisive struggle. 
 The day of decision came ; both parties were 
 prepared for the combat, and victory declared 
 for the right. 
 
 The first feature of the conflict is that the 
 
260 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 aggression was on the part of the enemies of the 
 Jews, who stood entirely on the defensive. All 
 that was granted to the Jews by the king was 
 " to stand for their life, to destroy, to slay, and 
 to cause to perish, all the power of the people 
 and province that would assault them.'' And 
 they did not go beyond this, for they " gathered 
 themselves together in their cities, and through- 
 oat all the provinces of the king Ahasuerus, to 
 lay hand on such as sought their hurt." They 
 stood for their lives, and touched none but their 
 " enemies/' and those " that hated them." Self- 
 preservation is the first law of nature, and defen- 
 sive war is founded upon it. It is a dictate of 
 common reason that it is lawful to repel force 
 by force, and to take arms against those that 
 come in hostile array. The tendency of the 
 opposite doctrine, in the present state of human 
 nature, would be to bind the hands of the inno- 
 cent and peaceable, and expose them as a helpless 
 prey to the turbulent and mischievous. It is as 
 warrantable to employ carnal weapons against 
 carnal violence, as it is to use spiritual weapons 
 against spiritual violence. 
 
ANTIPATHY TO THE JEWS. 261 
 
 It might be thought that the declared favour 
 of the king, together with the known fact that 
 Mordecai was the prime minister and chief 
 favourite at court, would have effectually de- 
 terred any from attacking the Jewsf, and con- 
 sequently that there would be no reason for the 
 shedding of blood. But we find that it was 
 otherwise, nor is it difficult to account for the 
 fact. The Jews had many enemies among the 
 nations which composed the Persian empire, 
 including those who had been carried captive 
 from the countries bordering on Palestine. 
 The decree of Haraan had called forth the 
 ancient and hereditary hatred of such, while it 
 induced others to join them by the prospect of 
 a rich booty which it held out. During the 
 three months which elapsed between this and 
 Mordecai's decree, there was sufficient time for 
 this hostile feeling to manifest itself Looking 
 upon the Jews as a devoted people, their ene- 
 mies would not scruple to declare, in every 
 way, their intentions to revenge upon them their 
 old quarrels; and when once persons have 
 avowed their intentions, and fairly embarked in 
 
262 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 any cause, however desperate, they are apt to 
 persevere in it with unrelenting obstinacy. 
 We see how Pharaoh hardened his heart, and 
 continued to refuse to let Israel go, though his 
 land was laid waste with plagues and judg- 
 ments inflicted, according to his own repeated 
 confession, by heaven. In like manner, the 
 Canaanites, though the tidings of the victories 
 gained by the Israelites over Og and Sihon 
 made their hearts meJt, so that no more courage 
 remained in any man, yet they soon rallied, 
 formed powerful confederacies among them- 
 selves, and appeared repeatedly on the field of 
 battle. The proclamation of Mordecai's decree, 
 in proportion as it gladdened the hearts of the 
 victims of their fury, must have thrown a damp 
 on the spirits of those who thirsted for blood and 
 rapine. But it also whetted their revenge, by 
 adding to it disappointment, chagrin, and fear. 
 The fall of Haman, and the advancement of 
 Mordecai, instead of convincing them of the folly 
 of their enterprise,servedbutto exasperate their 
 minds, and make them more outrageous. They 
 had gone too far to retract. They had provoked 
 
INFATUATION OF THE ENEMY. 263 
 
 the Jews beyond the hope of forgiveness, as they 
 concluded, by their threatenings, their taunts, 
 and their injuries. Their names, and abodes, 
 and concerns were all known ; and if they sat 
 still, or discovered cowardice or irresolution, 
 what might they expect but that they would be 
 rewarded as they had purposed to reward the 
 Jew^s? They were more numerous and pow- 
 erful than the objects of their hatred. The 
 contest was to be decided by the sword. What 
 would these feeble Jews do ? Would they 
 make an end of their adversaries in a day? 
 The decree procured by Haman protected them 
 from being called legally to account for the 
 slaughter they might commit. And as for the 
 wrath of Mordecai, he held his place by the pre- 
 carious favour of an arbitrary prince, which he 
 might soon lose. The sudden advancement of 
 a stranger had raised the envy of the proud 
 sataps of Persia, and means might be found 
 to take him ofT before the day of decision 
 arrived. By such considerations they would 
 encourage themselves, and strengthen their con- 
 federacy, during the nine months which inter- 
 
264 LECTURES ON ESTHER, 
 
 vened. The eighty-third Psalm, if not com- 
 posed on this occasion, may be viewed as de- 
 scriptive of their feelings and plans. 
 
 We may learn from this part of the history 
 how dangerous it is to enter on a wicked 
 course, especially in concert with others. Per- 
 sons go on from evil to worse ; they encourage 
 one another in mischief This is especially 
 true as to those practices which originate in 
 malice, as to which the devil, who was a mur- 
 derer from the beginning, exerts a peculiar in- 
 fluence, in urging his children to the most vio- 
 lent extremes. " This is the message that ye 
 heard from the beginning, that w^e should love 
 one another. Not as Cain, who was of that 
 wicked one, and slew his brother. And where- 
 fore slew he him? Because his own works 
 were evil, and his brother's righteous." But in 
 addition to the considerations mentioned, we 
 should stand in awe of the righteous judgment 
 of God, who gives up wicked men to the un- 
 controlled corruption of their own hearts, and 
 to the suggestions of the evil one, so that they 
 often rush with their eyes open upon ruin. 
 
THE JEWS VICTORY. 265 
 
 "Whom God means to destroy, he first infatu- 
 ates." 
 
 This was remarkably exemplified in the case 
 before us. In spite of all the discouragements 
 thrown in their way, and though heaven and 
 earth both frowned upon them, the enemies of 
 the Jews persisted in their hostile intentions, 
 and assumed an offensive posture on the long 
 looked -for day. 
 
 Infatuated men ! Do you not consider that 
 you are fighting against heaven, whose pecu- 
 liar charge the Jews, as the worshippers of the 
 true God, are 7 That ye are rushing on the 
 thick bosses of Jehovah's buckler, and must be 
 crushed in the conflict? " Their Redeemer is 
 strong; the Lord of hosts is his name; he shall 
 thoroughly plead their cause, that he may give 
 rest to the land." 
 
 The Jews were the conquerors. " The day 
 in which their enemies hoped to have power 
 over them was turned to the contrary, so that 
 the Jews had rule over those that hated them." 
 This was the doing of the Lord, and ought to 
 be wondrous in our eyes. But though the vic- 
 23 
 
266 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 tory was of God, means were employed in win- 
 ning it 5 and the first was, the valour and good 
 conduct of the Jews themselves. They " stood 
 for their lives," and " remembering the Lord, 
 who is great and terrible," "fought for their 
 brethren, their sons, and their daughters, their 
 wives, and their houses." And their prudence 
 equalled their courage. Had each endeavour- 
 ed to protect himself and his family, they would 
 have become an easy prey to their foes ; but 
 they " gathered themselves together in their 
 cities in all the provinces," and in this way en- 
 couraged one another, and presented a formi- 
 dable front to their adversaries. Secondly, 
 their enemies were struck with terror. Dis- 
 appointed of the hopes which they had cherish- 
 ed, perceiving the boldness and wise conduct of 
 the Jews, and convinced in their own breasts 
 that they were embarked in an unjust and cri- 
 minal design, they lost courage and yielded up 
 the day. Thirdly, the rulers in the different 
 provinces encouraged the Jews by their coun- 
 tenance, being induced to this by the awe in 
 which they stood of Mordecai, who not only re- 
 
THE FATE OF HAMAN's SONS. 267 
 
 tained his high place, but rose daily in the 
 royal favour, and in his reputation as an able 
 and virtuous statesman. 
 
 Yet the victory was not so easily gained as 
 might have been supposed. The enemies of 
 the Jews made a desperate resistance, as men 
 who, in drawing the sword, had thrown away 
 the scabbard, and staked their all in the contest. 
 This appears from the numbers killed, amount- 
 ing to seventy-five thousand, in all the provinces. 
 It may be collected also from the circumstance, 
 that it was necessary for the governors of 
 provinces to help the Jews; and in fine, it 
 appears from the fact, that the struggle was not 
 over on the first day in some places of the 
 empire. 
 
 On the evening of this eventful day, the king 
 acquainted Esther with the result — that her 
 countrymen had slain in Shushan five hundred 
 men, including the ten sons of Haman ; adding, 
 that he was ready to grant any additional 
 request for securing the lives of her country- 
 men, and avenging them of their enemies. She 
 asked two things, — first, that the dead bodies of 
 
268 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 Haman's sons should be hung up on the gal- 
 lows which their father had destined for Mor- 
 decai. Haman had boasted of the muhitade of 
 his children ; and as the names of the ten are 
 mentioned, it is likely that they had been ad- 
 vanced to high offices during their father's min- 
 istry. At the time of his death, Esther had not 
 sought their life, and they might have escaped; 
 but they chose to remain in the capital, and fell 
 in the oreneral slaughter of the adversaries of 
 the Jews. The family had conspired for the 
 destruction of the Jews ; and the suspension of 
 the dead bodies of great criminals has been 
 common among nations both ancient and mod- 
 ern. A second request presented by Esther was, 
 that it should be granted to the Jews to continue 
 the battle on the following day. There is no 
 part of Esther's conduct which warrants us to 
 conclude that she was of a sanguinary disposi- 
 tion, or took pleasure in slaughter. But this 
 was necessary to crush the malignant part}', 
 and to strike terror into the minds of the invete- 
 rate enemies of the Jews. Accordingly, it was 
 confined to the capital, from which the news 
 
SYMPATHY WITH CRIMINALS. 269 
 
 would spread through the empire, and convince 
 all that the king was determined to protect and 
 favour a people which had been unjustly devo- 
 ted to extermination. None will be disposed to 
 blame this measure, who entertain a due reve- 
 rence for the Scriptures, and who recollect the 
 prayer of Joshua : " Then spake Joshua to the 
 Lord, in the day when the Lord delivered up 
 the Amorites before the children of Israel, and 
 he said in the sight of Israel, Sun, stand thou 
 etill upon Gibeon ; and thou, Moon, in the val- 
 ley of Ajalon. And the sun stood still, and the 
 moon stayed, until the people had avenged 
 themselves upon their enemies. Is not this 
 written in the book of Jasher ? So the sun 
 stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted 
 not to go down about a whole day. And there 
 was no day like that before it, or after it, that 
 the Lord hearkened unto the voice of a man; for 
 the Lord fought for Israel," (chap. x. 12 — 14.) 
 It is dangerous to trust our feelings in mat- 
 ters of moral right and wrong. Hitherto they 
 have been on the side of the innocent Jews, 
 doomed as they were to the slaughter; and 
 23* 
 
270 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 now when we come to their deliverance, as 
 planned by heaven, and accomplished in the 
 only way in which, without a miracle, it could 
 have been accomplished, consistently with the 
 laws of the country, our feelings are apt to 
 rebel, and to go over to the side of the enemy 
 and the oppressor. At the oxecution of a 
 criminal we are apt to forget the enormity of 
 his crime, and to sympathize with him ; and 
 this sympathy is sometimes directed against the 
 prosecutor who procures his conviction, and 
 the judge w^ho pronounces his doom. But we 
 should recollect that this is not always a feeling 
 of pure humanity, but is mixed up with a sense 
 of present security, in consequence of our 
 knowing that he is put beyond the power of 
 doing mischief We should recollect also that 
 the ruler ought to b© a terror to evil works, 
 that " he beareth not the sword in vain, for he 
 is the minister of God, a revenger (avenger) to 
 execute wrath upon him that doeth evil." It 
 was an ancient law of heaven, and never abro- 
 gated, — " He that sheddeth man's blood, by 
 man shall his blood be shed." " Whosoever 
 
GODS WATCHFULNESS. 271 
 
 hateth his brother is a murderer" in the sight 
 of God; and those who are convicted of having 
 conspired to take away the lives of their fellow 
 creatures, are murderers in the eye of human 
 laws, and ought to be punished accordingly. 
 They may be overlooked, or acquitted, or par- 
 doned by man ; but they shall not escape the 
 righteous judgment of God in the future world, 
 and they are often overtaken by it in the pre- 
 sent. 
 
 After all, it is not the conduct of Esther, or 
 the Jews, which should occupy our chief atten- 
 tion ; it is the hand of God, in the moral gov- 
 ernment of the world, watching over his chosen 
 people, defeating the plots hatched for their 
 ruin, and executing signal vengeance on their 
 implacable adversaries. " Behold, they shall 
 gather themselves together, but not by me: 
 whosoever shall gather against thee shall fall for 
 thy sake. No weapon that is formed against 
 thee shall prosper ; and every tongue that shall 
 rise against thee in judgment thou shalt con- 
 demn. This is the heritage of the servants of 
 the Lord; and their righteousness is of me, saith 
 
272 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 the Lord.-' " I am the Lord thy God, the 
 Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour: I gave 
 Egypt for thy ransom, Ethiopia and Seba for 
 thee. Since thou wast precious in my sight 
 thou hast been honourable, and I have loved 
 thee ; therefore will I give men for thee, and 
 people for thy life." 
 
 There is one part of the conduct of the Jews 
 which deserves notice, — they did not touch the 
 property of those whom they slew. To incite 
 their neighbours to massacre them, it was pro- 
 vided in Haman's edict that their executioners 
 should take their property. The same liberty 
 was granted to the Jews in Mordecai's edict. 
 But by universal agreement they declined avail- 
 ing themselves of this tempting permission. 
 " But on the spoil laid they not their handP 
 This is thrice repeated in the account of each 
 day's execution in Shushan, and also throughout 
 the provinces. It was most probably owing to 
 express instructions from Esther and Mordecai, 
 and it reflected honour on their religion, their 
 wisdom, and their humanity. It was to the 
 honour of their religion, as it showed a disin- 
 
THEIR HUMANITY. 273 
 
 terested and generous superiority to wealth, and 
 must have convinced their neighbours that they 
 did not employ the interest which they had at 
 court to enrich themselves, but to save their 
 lives. It was to the honour of their wisdom, 
 that by declining to amass riches in a strange 
 country, they did not tempt the cupidity of those 
 among whom they dwelt to invent calumnies 
 against them, with the view of getting posses- 
 sion of their wealth ; an evil to which their 
 modern descendants have been often exposed. 
 And it was to the honour of their humanity, 
 that they left the property of their enemies to 
 their widows and surviving children. For 
 though the edict authorized them in their own 
 defence to slay women and little ones, yet they 
 slew^ only " those who sought their hurt." 
 According to Jewish tradition, after Haman's 
 ten sons Avere slain, Zeresh his w-ife escaped, 
 and was found on the second day bagging her 
 bread. This was a just humiliation for the part 
 she had taken in the wricked device of her hus- 
 band ; but it does not appear that the proceed- 
 ings of the Jews w^ere marked by gratuitous 
 
274 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 cruelty, or by anything resembling a spirit of 
 revenge. Against this it becomes us carefully 
 to oruard, even when witnessinq- the retributions 
 of Providence. "Dearly beloved, avenge not 
 yourselves; but rather give place unto wrath : 
 for it is written, Vengeance is mine ; I will 
 repay, saith the Lord." 
 
275 
 
 LECTURE SEVENTEENTH 
 
 Esther IX. 17—32. 
 
 On the tJiirteenth day of the month Adar; and on the 
 fourteenth day of the same rested they, and made it a 
 day of feasting and gladness. But the Jews that were 
 at Shushan assembled together on the thirteenth day 
 thereof, and on the fourteenth day thereof; and on the 
 fifteenth day of the same they rested, and made it a 
 day of feasting and gladness. Therefore the Jews of 
 the villages, that dwelt in the unwalled towns, made 
 the fourteenth day of the month Adar a day of gladness 
 and feasting, and a good day, and of sending portions 
 one to another. And Mordecai wrote these things, and 
 sent letters unto all the Jews that were in all the pro- 
 vinces of the King Ahasuerus, both nigh and far, to 
 stablish this among them, that they should keep the four- 
 teenth day of the month Adar, and the fifteenth day of 
 the same yearly, as the days wherein the Jews rested 
 from tlieir enemies, and the month which icas turned 
 unto them from sorroio to joy, and from mourning 
 into a good day : that they should make tliem days of 
 feasting and joy, and of sending portions one to 
 another, and gifts to tlie poor. And the Jews undertook 
 
276 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 to do as they had begun, and as Mordccai had written 
 unto them; because Human the son of Hammedatha^ 
 the Agagite, the enemy of all tJie Jews, had devised 
 against the Jews to destroy them, and had cast Pur, that 
 is, the lot, to consume them, and to destroy them ; but 
 when Esther came before the king, he commanded by 
 letters that his wicked device, ichich he devised against 
 the Jews, should return upon his own head, and that he 
 and his sons should be hanged on the gallows. Where- 
 fore they calkd these days Purim, after the name of 
 Pur : therefore for all the icords of this letter, and of 
 that u'hich they had seen concerning this matter, and 
 which had come unto them, the Jews ordained, and took 
 upon them, and upon their seed, and upon all such as 
 joined themselves unto them, so as it should not fail, tliat 
 they would keep these two days according to their writing, 
 and according to their appointed time, every year ; and 
 that these days shoidd be remembered and kept throughout 
 every generation, every family, every province, and every 
 city; and that these days of Purim shoidd not fail from 
 among the Jews, nor the memorial of them perish from 
 their seed. Then Esther the queen, tJie daughter of 
 Abihail, and Mordccai the Jew, icrote with all authority, 
 to confirm this second letter of Purim. And he sent the 
 letters unto all the Jews, to tlie hundred ticenty and 
 seven provinces of the kingdom of Ahasuerus, icith 
 words of peace and truth, to confirm these days of Purim 
 in their times appointed, according as Mordccai the 
 
THE VICTORY CELEBRATED. 277 
 
 Jew and Esther the queen had enjoined them, and as 
 they had decreed for themselves and for their seed, the 
 matters of the fastings and their cry. And fie decree of 
 Esther confirmed these matters of Purim ; and it teas 
 written in the book. 
 
 In our last Lecture we reviewed the victory 
 which the Jews obtained over their enemies. 
 The thirteenth day of Adar, the fixed day for 
 their destruction arrived. Their enemies, trust- 
 ing to the superiority of their numbers, and the 
 immunity secured to them by the unrevoked 
 decree of Haman, were prepared for a general 
 massacre. On the other hand, the Jews, en- 
 couraged by the late decree, and trusting to the 
 goodness of their cause, and the protection of the 
 God of Israel, gathered themselves together to 
 stand for their lives, and being helped by the 
 provincial governors, who were afraid of the 
 power of Mordecai, they obtained a complete 
 victory, causing to perish all the power of the 
 people in each province w^ho assaulted them. 
 We are now to consider the celebration of this 
 victory, and the provision made for commem- 
 orating the deliverance wrought by it. 
 24 
 
278 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 It has been usual to celebrate victories by- 
 public rejoicings, even when they have been 
 gained by the loss of thousands of lives on the 
 side of the victors, as well as of the vanquished. 
 When wars are undertaken for conquest, when 
 they are unjust or unnecessary, all such rejoi- 
 cing is evil ] and if accompanied with religious 
 ceremonies, it is a mockery of Him whose ten- 
 der mercies are over all his works, and who 
 hates robbery for burnt-offering. But when a 
 Avar is purely defensive, when a people are 
 forced to appear in arms for all that is dear to 
 them, their lives, their liberties, and their re- 
 ligion, against an enemy who, without any 
 provocation, aims at nothing less than their total 
 destruction, and when the God of armies gives 
 them the victory, they may lawfully rejoice, 
 and assemble to offer solemn thanksgivings. 
 Thus Moses and the children of Israel celebra- 
 ted a religious triumph after the destruction of 
 Pharaoh and his host. The eighteenth Psalm 
 is a triumphal ode, composed by David " in the 
 day that the Lord delivered him from the hand 
 of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul." 
 
THE VICTORY CELEBRATED. 279 
 
 In like manner, when n^ystical Babylon was 
 overthrown, a voice was heard saying", " Rejoice 
 over her, thou heaven, and ye holy apostles and 
 prophets ;" and instantly the shout of victory 
 was raised, " Alleluia ; salvation and glory, 
 and honour, and power, unto the Lord our God : 
 for true and righteous are his judgments ; for 
 he hath judged the great whore, which did cor- 
 rupt the earth with her fornication, and hath 
 avenged the blood of his servants at her hand ; 
 and again they said, Alleluia." 
 
 There were two individuals who were more 
 deeply affected than the rest with this wonder- 
 ful and almost miraculous deliverance, — Esther 
 and Mordecai. They had been equally devoted 
 to destruction with their countrymen, and the 
 life of one of them had been chiefly aimed at. 
 But a sense of personal safety was only a sin- 
 gle ingredient in their cup of gratitude and joy. 
 They had taken a deep interest in the welfare 
 of their people; the prospect of their danger 
 had thrown them into an agony of spirit. They 
 had fasted and prayed, and made supplication to 
 God and to man for their escape ; and now that 
 
280 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 they had prevailed like princes, and been made 
 the honoured instruments of their country's sal- 
 " vation, no wonder that they felt an overflow of 
 joy and gratitude. " It is meet that they 
 should make merry and be glad." But they 
 were not satisfied with expressing their joy per- 
 sonally, and for the present; they exerted their 
 influence to stir up others to join with them, 
 and to transmit the memory of this national de- 
 liverance to the latest posterity. 
 
 To accomplish this two modes were taken, 
 the one literal, the other symbolical. " Mor- 
 decai wrote these things," that is, he committed 
 to writing a narrative of the whole affair, from 
 the commencement of Haman's conspiracy 
 against the Jews, to the time of their deliverance, 
 and sent copies of it through the provinces. 
 Though they already knew the leading facts, 
 yet they were ignorant of the secret springs 
 both of the plot and of its defeat; and accord- 
 ingly, their subsequent resolution is said to have 
 proceeded upon "that which they had seen 
 concerning this matter, and which had come 
 unto them," (v. 26.) This narrative, together 
 
with what was afterwards prefixed and appended 
 to it, is supposed by some interpreters, and not 
 without probability, to constitute the Book of 
 Esther, as it now stands in our canon. It is a 
 singular fact, and worthy of particular notice, 
 that the first thing which ever was committed 
 to writing by the express command of God, was 
 the victory which Israel gained over Amalek, 
 from whom Haman was descended. Exod. 
 xvii. 14 — 16. The spirit of God has paid par- 
 ticular attention to the history of the church 
 in all ages, and has preserved a minute and 
 faithful record of the wonderful interpositions 
 of Providence in her behalf What is said 
 of prophecy may be applied to the history of the 
 Bible : it "came not in old time by the will of 
 man ; but holy men of God spake as they were 
 moved by the Holy Ghost." And as they spake 
 they wrote. *' Write the vision, and make it 
 plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth." 
 Of some portions of the Jewish history we have 
 double narratives, as in the books of Kings and 
 Chronicles: and of the life of our Saviour we 
 have four. In constructing these, the Holy 
 24* 
 
282 LECTURES ON EST HE R . 
 
 Spirit excited, and took under his unerring and 
 supernatural management, the sacred zeal which 
 holy men felt to propagate and perpetuate the 
 doings of the Lord. "Forasmuch as many- 
 have taken in hand to set forth in order a de- 
 claration of those things which are most surely 
 believed among us, even as they delivered them 
 unto us, which from the beginning were eye- 
 witnesses and ministers of the word; it seemed 
 good to me also, having had perfect understand- 
 ing of all things from the very first, to write unto 
 thee, in order, most excellent Theophilus, that 
 thou mightstknow the certainty of those things 
 wherein thou hast been instructed." 
 
 Along w^ith this narrative, Mordecai sent 
 letters, exhorting his countrymen to observe an 
 annual feast, in commemoration of their delive- 
 rance. — The Jews throughout the provinces 
 having obtained a complete victory over their 
 enemies on the thirteenth of Adar, feasted on 
 the fourteenth; but those of the capital, being 
 still engaged in hostilities on that day, did not 
 keep their feast until the fifteenth. Mordecai 
 therefore proposed that the festival in future 
 
THE FEAST OF PUIIIM. 283 
 
 should continue during both these days; a pro- 
 posal which was warmly approved of by the 
 Jews, who agreed for themselves and their pos- 
 terity, and such as should become proselytes to 
 their body, to observe these two days every year 
 as a festival in all time coming-. This agree- 
 ment, which was most probably embodied in a 
 formal deed, and subscribed by their elders or 
 heads of tribes, having been transmitted to Susa, 
 Mordecai and Esther wrote a second letter, con- 
 firming the determination by their authority, and 
 thus giving it all possible weight. This edict 
 "was written in the book," that is, the book 
 which bears the name of Esther, being added to 
 what Mordecai had formerly written. We are 
 told that they " wrote with all authority," but 
 at the same time "with words of peace and 
 truth;" in a humane, mild, affectionate and 
 earnest manner, — not like persons who assumed 
 dictatorial airs and threatening language ; — an 
 example to all rulers, and especially ecclesi- 
 astical, to forbear threatening, and to temper 
 authority with condescension and gentleness. 
 " The servant of the Lord must not strive, but 
 
284 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 be gentle to all men." The decree of the apos- 
 tles and elders at Jerusalem, though it begins 
 with these words, " It seemed good to the Holy 
 Ghost and to us to lay upon you no greater 
 burden than these necessary things," concludes 
 in this affectionate and familiar style : — " From 
 which if ye keep yourselves ye shall do well. 
 Fare ye well." Had all the decrees and 
 canons of councils and synods breathed this 
 spirit, they would have been in better odour with 
 the Christian community, and those to whom 
 they were addressed would, as in the case 
 referred to, have " rejoiced for the consolation." 
 How different was the conduct of Mordecai and 
 Esther from that of those secular princes and 
 ecclesiastics who have obtruded religious festi- 
 vals on the Christian Church ! The former 
 issued letters, giving advice to their country- 
 men ; without their mind they would do no- 
 thing ; and even after they had obtained their 
 consent, they exercised their authority with the 
 utmost mildness. The latter have at once in- 
 vaded the province of the Lawgiver of the 
 church and the liberties of the Christian people, 
 
THE FEAST OF P U R I M . 285 
 
 by the institution of holidays according to their 
 own arbitrary will, and have punished all who 
 refused, or scrupled to observe them, by impri- 
 sonment, confiscation of goods, and even death. 
 The feast referred to in our text is called the 
 feast of Purim, or Lots, from the Persic word 
 pur, which signifies the lot; and the name was 
 given it because Ha man had cast lots to deter- 
 mine the day on which he should destroy all the 
 Jews; but He who has the disposal of the lot, 
 "caused his wicked device to return on his 
 own head," and saved his people. 
 
 There are two questions respecting this feast. 
 What was its nature % And by what authority 
 was it enjoined? 
 
 What was its nature? Was it religious, or 
 merely civil ? Some interpreters are of opinion 
 that it was entirely civil or political, and intend- 
 ed to commemorate a temporal deliverance, by 
 such ex'pressions of outward joy as are common 
 among all people on such occasions. In cor- 
 roboration of this opinion, they observe that 
 nothing peculiarly sacred is mentioned as be- 
 longing to its celebration, but only eating and 
 
286 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 drinking-, rejoicing, and sending portions to one 
 another, and gifts to the poor ; that they were 
 not restricted from ordinary work, but merely 
 rested from the trouble and sorrow which they 
 had lately felt. But though it should be grant- 
 ed that the description contains nothing but ex- 
 pressions of secular joy, we would scarcely be 
 warranted to maintain that this feast had no 
 religious character. It is of the nature of this 
 Book not to bring forward religion expressly, 
 for reasons that we formerly assigned. Would 
 we say that the fast formerly observed by Est- 
 her and the Jews in Shushan consisted solely in 
 abstinence from food, because there is no men- 
 tion of prayer being combined with it ? Nay, 
 we find this exercise specified in the account of 
 the feast : " They had decreed for themselves 
 and for their seed the matters of their fastings 
 and their cry^ that is, their prayer (v. 31.) 
 Now, though this should be understood as look- 
 ing back on their exercise when the murderous 
 edict was first promulgated, yet its being named 
 here gives a religious character to the feast. 
 Can we suppose that they would fast and pray 
 
AUTHORITY OF THE FEAST. 287 
 
 during their distress, and not rejoice before the 
 Lord, and give thanks to him after he had 
 hearkened to them ? But it is more natural to 
 understand the Avords prospectively, and they 
 may be translated thus- — "adding fasting and 
 prayer." Accordingly, in after times, the Jews 
 kept the thirteenth of Adar as a fast, and the 
 two following da3's as a feast. 
 
 By what authority was it enjoined ? or, in 
 other words, did the observance of it rest on 
 mere human authority? Did Mordecai in pro- 
 posing it, act from the private motion of his own 
 mind; and, in confirming it, did he proceed en- 
 tirely upon the consent of the people ? Or was 
 he guided in both by divine and extraordinary 
 counsel, imparted to him immediately, or by 
 some prophetic person living at that time? 
 That the vision and the prophecy were still en- 
 joyed by the Jews dweUing in Persia, cannot 
 be denied by those who believe the canonical 
 authority of this book, and what is contained in 
 that of Ezra. We have already seen reasons 
 for thinking that Mordecai acted under the in- 
 fluence of the faith of Moses' parents, from the 
 
288 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 time that he proposed his cousin Esther as a 
 candidate to succeed Vashti the queen. There 
 can be no doubt that he was raised up in an ex- 
 traordinary manner as a saviour to Israel ; and 
 in the course of this Lecture we have seen, 
 grounds for believing that, in addition to his 
 other honours, he was employed as the penman 
 of this portion of inspired scripture. From all 
 these considerations, it is reasonable to conclude 
 that the feast of Purim was not instituted with- 
 out divine counsel and approbation. Add to 
 this, that the decree of Esther confirming it, is 
 expressly said, in the close of this chapter, to 
 have been engrossed in this book, by whomso- 
 ever it was written. 
 
 From what has been said, we may infer that 
 this passage of Scripture gives no countenance 
 to religious festivals, or holidays of human ap- 
 pointment, especially under the New Testa- 
 ment. Feasts appear to have been connected 
 with sacrifices from the most ancient times; 
 but the observance of them w^as not brought 
 under any fixed rules until the establishment of 
 the Mosaic law. Religious festivals formed a 
 
 m 
 
RELIGIOUS FESTIVALS. 297 
 
 noted and splendid part of the ritual of that 
 law ; but they were only designed to be tempo- 
 rary ; and having served their end in com- 
 memorating certain great events connected with 
 the Jewish commonwealth, and in typifying 
 certain mysteries now clearly revealed by the 
 gospel, they ceased, and, along with other fig- 
 ures, vanished away. To retain these, or to 
 return to them after the promulgation of the 
 Christian law, or to imitate them by instituting 
 festivals of a similar kind, is to doat on shadows 
 — to choose weak and beggarly elements — to 
 bring ourselves under a yoke of bondage which 
 the Jews were unable to bear, and interpreta- 
 tively to fall from grace and the truth of the 
 gospel. " Ye observe days and months, and 
 times and years. I am afraid of you, lest I 
 have bestowed upon you labour in vain." " Let 
 no man therefore judge you in meat, or in 
 drink, or in respect of an holiday, or of the 
 new moon, or of the Sabbath days, which are a 
 shadow of things to come." Shall we suppose 
 that Christ and his apostles, in abrogating those 
 days which God himself had appointed to be 
 25 
 
298 LECTURES ON ESTHER, 
 
 observed, without instituting- others in their 
 room, intended that either churches or indi- 
 viduals should be allowed to substitute what- 
 ever they pleased in their room ? Yet the 
 Christian church soon degenerated so far as to 
 bring herself under a severer bondage than that 
 froni which Christ had redeemed her, and 
 instituted a greater number of festivals than 
 were observed under the Mosaic law, or even, 
 among pagans. ' 
 
 To seek a warrant for days of religious com- 
 memoration under the gospel from the Jewish 
 festivals, is not only to overlook the distinction 
 between the old and new dispensations, but to 
 forget that the Jews were never allowed to in- 
 stitute such memorials for themselves, but sim- 
 ply to keep those which infinite Wisdom had 
 expressly and by name set apart and sanctified. 
 The prohibitory sanction is equally strict under 
 both Testaments : " What thing soever I com- 
 mand you, observe to do it : thou shalt not add 
 thereto, nor diminish from it." 
 
 There are times when God calls, on the one 
 hand, to religious fasting, or, on the other, to 
 
RELIGIOUS FESTIVALS. 299 
 
 thanksgiving and religious joy: and it is our 
 duty to comply with these calls, and to set 
 apart time for the respective exercises. But 
 this is quite a different thing from recurrent or 
 anniversary holidays. In the former case the 
 day is chosen for the duty, in the latter the duty 
 is performed for the day : in the former case 
 there is no holiness on the day but what arises 
 from the service which is performed on it, and 
 when the same day afterwards recurs, it is as 
 common as any other day: in the latter case 
 the day is set apart on all following times, and 
 may not be employed for common or secular 
 purposes. Stated and recurring festivals coun- 
 tenance the false principle, that some 'lys have 
 a peculiar sanctity, either inherent or impressed 
 by the works which occurred on them; they 
 proceed on an undue assumption of human 
 authority ; interfere with the free use of that 
 time which the Creator hath granted to man ; 
 detract from the honour due to the day of sacred 
 rest which he hath appointed; lead to imposi- 
 tions over conscience ; have been the fruitful 
 source of superstition and idolatry; and have 
 
300 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 been productive of the worst effects upon morals, 
 in every age, and among every people, barbarous 
 and civilized, pagan and Christian, popish and 
 protestant, among whom they have been observ- 
 ed. On these grounds they were rejected from 
 the beginning, among other corruptions of anti- 
 christ, by the reformed church of Scotland, 
 w^hich allowed no stated religious days but the 
 Christian Sabbath. 
 
30] 
 
 LECTURE EIGHTEENTH. 
 
 Esther X. 
 
 And the King AJuisuerus laid a trihute upon the land, and 
 tipon the isles of the sea. And all tJic acts of his power 
 and of his might, and the declaration of the greatness of 
 Mordecai, icherennto the king adcanced him, are they not 
 written in the hook of the chronicles of the kings of Media 
 and Persia ? For Mordecai the Jew was next unto King 
 Ahasuerus, and great among the Jews, arid accepted of 
 the multitude of his brethren, seeking the wealth of his 
 people, and speaking peace to all his seed. 
 
 Our last Lecture embraced the account of the 
 institution of the feast of Piirin:i, in commemo- 
 ration of the wonderful deliverance wrought for 
 the Jews, by defeating the plot of Haman, and 
 giving them victory over all their enemies. 
 Having thus unravelled the plot, and estabh"sh- 
 ed the Jews in peace and honour, which was the 
 object he had in view, the sacred historian 
 25* 
 
302 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 draws to a speed)^ close, by a general notice of 
 the greatness of Ahasuerus's reign, and the 
 auspicious administration of Mordecai. 
 
 ^^ And the King Ahasuerus laid a tribute 
 upon the land and upon the isles of the seaJ^ — 
 The imposition of taxes is a mark of dominion, 
 and the payment of them a token of subjection; 
 and the fact is mentioned here to show that the 
 empire continued to flourish, and that its boun- 
 daries were not contracted during the ministry 
 of Mordecai. It still extended over the conti- 
 nent and the islands. The burdens imposed by 
 the Persians, especially in the conquered pro- 
 vinces, were heavy. Hence we find this arti- 
 cle in the solemn humiliation in the days of 
 Nehemiah, " Behold, we are servants this day ; 
 and for the land that thou gavest unto our 
 fathers, to eat the fruit thereof and the good 
 thereof, behold we are servants in it : and it 
 yieldeth much increase URto the kings whom 
 thou hast set over us, because of our sins ; they 
 also have dominion over our bodies, and over 
 our cattle at their pleasure ; and we are in 
 great distress." Yet the kingdom was in such 
 
SCRIPTURE HISTORY. dUo 
 
 a flourishing- state that it could bear a new as- 
 sessment. The revenues of princes will not 
 suffer by their affairs being under the direction 
 of just and godly ministers. Haman, as a 
 bribe to procure the destruction of the Jews, 
 offered Ahasuerus ten thousand talents of silver 
 to replenish his exhausted treasury ; but Mor- 
 decai, by his wise and benignant administra- 
 tion, brings the empire into such a state, that 
 it is able to bear a new impost, the produce 
 of which would far exceed the sum mentioned. 
 We have no account of the purposes to which 
 this tribute was applied, nor of the wars which 
 Ahasuerus waged against the Athenians and 
 Egyptians. Scripture history extends to the 
 affairs of heathen nations only in so far as they 
 are connected with those of the people of God, 
 Its object was not to unfold the secrets of cabi- 
 nets, or to describe their plans and transactions, 
 but to illustrate the moral government of God 
 over the nations, particularly in subordination 
 to his dealings with that people to whom he had 
 committed his statutes and his judgments. For 
 a particular account of the power and the great 
 
304 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 exploits of Ahasuerus, we are referred to " the 
 hook of the Chronicles of the Icings of Media 
 and Persia.''^ These records also contained a 
 declaration of "the greatness of Mordecai 
 whereunto the king advanced him." This was 
 to the honour of Mordecai ; but then it was a 
 temporary and corruptible honour, for the an- 
 cient memorials of that great monarchy are all 
 perished ; and the name of Ahasuerus himself 
 •would have perished along with them, had it 
 not been preserved in the writings of the Jews 
 and of the Greeks, whose valour and passion 
 for liberty opposed his projects of universal do- 
 minion. But Mordecai had the honour of hav- 
 ing his name enrolled in those records which 
 have escaped the ravages of time, and continue 
 to this day to be the most ancient, as well as the 
 most authentic of all writings. Few^ compara- 
 tively, have their names and deeds recorded in 
 the annals of this world ; but let them not 
 repine at this. All the fearers of God have 
 their names entered into the book of life, and 
 their good actions, and words, and thoughts 
 written in the book of God's remembrance ; and 
 
nous MEN. 305 
 
 all that is recorded there to their commendation 
 will be publicly read before assembled worlds, 
 when the records of human fame will be con- 
 sumed in the general conflagration. 
 
 This book, accordingly, closes with a pane- 
 gyric upon the man who had preferred the in- 
 terests of the people of God above his chief joy. 
 " Mordecai the Jew was next unto King Aha- 
 suerus.^^ Like Joseph, he was the second per- 
 son in the kingdom ; " only in the throne was" 
 Ahasuerus "greater than he." Pious men 
 may not only act as servants to irreligious mas- 
 ters, but as ministers to ungodly and arbitrary 
 rulers. Besides the present instance, we find a 
 Joseph in the court of Pharaoh, an Obadiah in 
 that of Ahab, a Daniel in that of Belshazzar, 
 and a Nehemiah in that of Artaxerxes. They 
 cannot alter the frame of the government, or 
 prevent much evil ; but they keep themselves 
 from sin, and may be the instruments of much 
 good. Nor was Mordecai higher in favour 
 with the king than he was with his own coun- 
 trymen : — he was " great among the Jews, and 
 accepted of the multitude of his brethren, seeking 
 
306 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 the wealth of his people, and speaking peace to 
 all his seed.'''' He did not neglect the interests 
 of his royal master, nor those of the empire ; 
 but without failing in due regard to these, he 
 had it in his power to show favour to his coun- 
 trymen. He did not forget his own suggestion 
 to Esther, " Who knoweth whether thou art 
 come to the kingdom for such a time as this?" 
 We are to " do good unto all men ; but especial- 
 ly to them who are of tl^e household of faith." 
 Nay, even among those who are of the same 
 faith, we are called particularly to show regard 
 to these who are connected with us by special 
 ties. "I came," sa3^s Paul, "to bring alms to 
 my nation." Patriotism is not inconsistent with 
 religion in its purest form. 
 
 In fine, Mordecai spent his time in "seeking 
 the wealth (that is, the welfare) of his people," 
 but it was the welfare of his people, not of a 
 particular class, or a few favourites ; and there- 
 fore, he was " accepted of the multitude of his 
 brethren." His love was without partiality; 
 and he who could not bow to a wicked minister, 
 was not the man to pervert judgment by respect 
 
APOCRYPHAL ACCOUNTS. 307 
 
 of persons. He who had himself occupied a 
 low place with humility, and been despised and 
 hated by the proud without resenting it, would 
 not say to the man of gay clothing, " Sit thou 
 here in a good place ; and to the poor, " Stand 
 thou there, or sit here under my footstool.'' He 
 '' spoke peace to all his seecT^ — spake kindly to 
 all, and diffused the blessings of peace around 
 him. 
 
 Here the inspired record ends; not so the 
 apocryphal accounts, in which we find ten verses 
 added to this chapter, followed by other six 
 chapters, containing a ridiculous dream of Mor- 
 decai, in which he is supposed to have had an. 
 allegorical premonition of the plot of Haman, 
 and ti 3 mode in w^hich it was to be defeated, — 
 the decree of Haman at length, — the prayer of 
 Mordecai and Esther, — another account of the 
 queen s appearance at court, — with a copy of 
 the letters by which Ahasuerus revoked those 
 procured by Haman, and authorized the feast of 
 Purim. The contrast between these additions 
 and the bicred text is very striking. We have 
 already shown that the former w^ant all the 
 
308 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 marks of authenticity ; and the unintelligible 
 contradictory, and even ludicious character of 
 the comment, give us no reason to regret the 
 simple brevity of the inspired narrative. 
 
 We have thus finished the exposition of this 
 portion of holy writ ; but, before leaving it, we 
 may mark a few general instructions which it 
 conveys, and which appear more strikingly from 
 a review of the whole, than from the considera- 
 tion of any particular passage of the narrative. 
 
 In general, we have here a golden leaf in the 
 book of providence, teaching us that " the Most 
 High ruleth in the kingdom of men," and that 
 his government extends over the whole earth. 
 This was the lesson which the king of Babylon 
 was taught emphatically, when he was driven 
 from men to dwell with the beasts of the field. 
 And it is also taught in the history of Mordecai. 
 The veil is withdrawn, and we seelfeeiiand of 
 God directing, controlling, overruling, and 
 managing the events of time, and the hearts of 
 men. We see that " promotion cometh neither 
 from the east, nor from the west, nor from the 
 south. But God is judge ; he putteth down 
 one, and setteth up another." The same lesson 
 
GODS CARE OF HIS CHURCH. 809 
 
 is taught us even in the histories of other na- 
 tions ; for nothing can befal a people, a family, 
 or an individual, without the divine appoint- 
 ment or permission. " God ruleth among the 
 nations." 
 
 In the second place, we learn from this por- 
 tion of Scripture the peculiar care with which 
 God watches over his Church and his people. 
 This is often celebrated in Scripture, and pre- 
 sented under various similitudes. At one time 
 it is compared to the attention which a husband- 
 man pays to a favourite spot on which he has 
 bestowed great labour and cost. " Sing ye unto 
 her, A vineyard of red wine. I the Lord do 
 keep it ; I will water it every moment : lest any 
 hurt it, I will keep it night and day." In 
 another place it is likened to the instinctive 
 affection with which the fowl guards its un- 
 fledged brood. " As birds flying, so will the 
 Lord of Hosts defend Jerusalem; defending 
 also he will deliver it; and passing over he 
 will preserve it." And again, we find it com- 
 pared to the tender solicitude wdth which an 
 affectionate mother watches over the infant on 
 26 
 
310 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 her breast. '• Can a woman forget her sucking- 
 child, that she should not have compassion on 
 the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, 
 yet will not I forget thee." The Church has 
 been like a lily among thorns — like a spark in 
 the ocean — like a besieged city. But no weapon 
 formed against her has prospered. We see 
 this exemplified in the divine conduct towards 
 the posterity of Abraham, throughout their 
 whole history. " When they were but a few 
 men in number, yea, very few, and strangers 
 in the land, he suffered no man to do them 
 w^rong ; yea, he reproved kings for their sakes ; 
 saying, Touch not mine anointed, and do my 
 prophets no harm." How did he watch over 
 them when oppressed in Egypt, when wander- 
 ing in the wilderness, and after they were settled 
 in Canaan ! Nor was his care of them confined 
 to the promised land; it continued after they 
 were scattered for their sins, and when " they 
 went from one nation to another, and from one 
 kingdom to another people." Though they 
 were sown among all nations, yet not one grain 
 of the seed was lost. The Books of Ezra and 
 Nehemiah testify the divine conservation of the 
 
INSTRUMENTS RAISED UP. 311 
 
 remnant which returned from the captivity ; and 
 the book of Esther bears witness that those who 
 were left behind were not forgotten. 
 
 The same care was extended to the church 
 under the new dispensation. O, remember 
 what a watchful providence was exerted over 
 the infant child Jesus, and over the infant Chris- 
 tian church ! Consult the records of this care 
 in the Acts of the Apostles, (chap. ix. and xii,) 
 and the prophetic descriptions of it in the Book 
 of Revelation (chap, xii.) And the same eye 
 which watches over the church, watches over 
 its individual members. " The eyes of the 
 Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are 
 open to their cry." 
 
 In the third place, we are called to observe 
 the wondeiful manner in which God raises up 
 instruments for the preservation and deliverance 
 of his people. The way in which Esther and 
 Mordecai were raised up for this purpose was 
 very remarkable, and recalls many other in- 
 stances of a similar kind recorded in Scripture. 
 How wonderful to think that Joseph, hated by 
 his brethren, sold for a slave, and cast into 
 prison, should, in consequence of these very dis 
 
4 
 312 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 asters, be raised up to preserve the chosen family 
 of God ! How wonderful that, in the days of 
 Pharaoh, when a decree is passed to destroy all 
 the male children of Israel, it was "at this time 
 that Moses was born ;" he is exposed on the 
 waters ; and this bloody edict is the means not 
 only of his preservation, but of bringing him 
 into the family of the oppressor, in which he was 
 qualified for the public charge which he after- 
 wards sustained as the deliverer of his people! 
 David is taken from the sheep-fold to feed God's 
 people ; and Esther, an orphan and an exile, is 
 exalted to be a mother in Israel. 
 
 " Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?" 
 How unlikely was it, and how many difficulties 
 were in the Avay ! To remove these, " a decree 
 went out that all the world should be taxed; and 
 Joseph went up from Galilee, out of the city of 
 Nazareth, into Judea, unto the city of David, 
 which is called Bethlehem." And there Mary 
 brought forth her first-born son, and laid him 
 in a manger. Again, another decree goes forth 
 for the destruction of little children, in conse- 
 quence of which the parents flee into Egypt, 
 •' that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of 
 
LUTHER AND HAMILTON. 313 
 
 the Lord by the prophet, Out of Egypt have I 
 called my son." Truly, this was " a root 
 springing out of a dry ground !" Could it have 
 been anticipated that this was " the Saviour of 
 the world?" 
 
 Who would have thought that a man, born 
 in an obscure village of Germany, and brought 
 up in a cloister, would be the intrument of 
 bursting the fetters of superstition and priest- 
 craft, and of kindling a fire which the united 
 powers of Europe, civil and ecclesiastical, could 
 not extinguish or suppress? To have seen a 
 young man of rank leaving Scotland, accompa- 
 nied by two- domestics, on a tour to the conti- 
 nent, who would have anticipated that his 
 return would be the signal for emancipating his 
 native country from antichristian bondage, and 
 the means of shedding down on it all the bless- 
 ings which it enjoys to this day ! " Oh, the 
 depth of the riches both of the wisdom anc 
 knowledge of God ! How unsearchable are 
 his judgments, and his ways past finding out!" 
 In the fourth place, we cannot fail to have 
 observed the surprising manner in which Pro- 
 26* 
 
314 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 vidence opens np the way in which these instru- 
 ments are destined to act, and provides before- 
 hand for the preservation of his people, and for 
 defeating the plots of her enemies. What could 
 Mordecai or Esther have done for their people, 
 if God had not placed them in situations of 
 influence, in which their voice might be heard, 
 and their patriotism find scope for its exercise ? 
 How much was it beyond the bounds of all 
 probability that an orphan captive should be- 
 come the favourite spouse of the sultan of Per- 
 sia ! Vashti was established, not only on the 
 throne, but in the affections of her husband, and 
 she had it in her power to preserve both. And 
 yet she is desposed and disgraced, to make way 
 for Esther, just in time to enable the latter to 
 crush a vile plot for the extermination of her 
 people. Then there was the discovery of the 
 conspiracy against the life of Ahasuerus by 
 Mordecai, and the singular manner in which 
 the king was brought to the recollection of that 
 favour at the very time that Haman came to 
 request permission to put Mordecai to death. 
 The history of the church abounds with similar 
 instances of divine interposition; and the life of 
 
DUTY OF TRUST IN GOD. 315 
 
 every private Christian, when closely reviewed, 
 will present to him a multitude of coincidences 
 almost equally surprising, and which, though 
 apparently fortuitous, are, in reality, the doings 
 of Him who is " wonderful in counsel, and ex- 
 cellent in working." 
 
 Again, how emphatically are we taught by 
 this histor}^ the duty of placing our sole trust 
 and dependence on God ! " Put not your trust 
 in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom 
 there is no stay." How slippery is the path of 
 ambition ! how deceitful the gale of worldly 
 prosperity ! And how easy is it with God to 
 bring down the mighty from their seats, and 
 exalt them of low degree ! " Happy is he that 
 hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope 
 is in the Lord his God; which made heaven 
 and earth, the sea, and all that therein is; which 
 keepeth truth forever; which executeth judg- 
 ment for the oppressed ; which giveth food to 
 the hungry. The Lord preserveth the stran- 
 gers ; he relieveth the fatherless and widow ; 
 but the way of the wicked he turneth upside 
 down." 
 
 In fine, we learn from an examination of this 
 
316 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 book, the high utility of the Old Testament 
 Scriptures, and their standing authority as a 
 rule both to individuals and communities. "All 
 Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and 
 is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correc- 
 tion, for instruction in righteousness." This 
 book, in particular, contains lessons fitted alike 
 for the prince on the throne, and the lo\Yest 
 menial in his kingdom. It shows us how 
 Christians are expected to act when elevated, in 
 providence, to stations of rank, influence, and 
 authority. And these lessons are not the less 
 to be regarded because they are to be found in 
 the Old Testament. 
 
 Time was when interpreters were accustom- 
 ed to appeal to the Old Testament in support of 
 particular practices, without duly considering 
 the difference between the Jewish and the 
 Christian dispensation. The time is now come 
 when, on the ground of that difference, inter- 
 preters, for want of just principles, are in dan- 
 ger of evacuating the authority of the greater 
 part of the inspired volume, and rendering its 
 instructions uncertain, if not altogether nuga- 
 
THE OLD TESTAMENT. 317 
 
 tory. Its interpretation is thus, in a great mea- 
 sure, converted (if I may use the expression) 
 into a game of chance, or a leap in the dark. 
 So long as the contents of the Old Testament 
 agree with his opinions, the interpreter rests 
 his argument on its dictates; hut no sooner 
 does he meet with anything which contradicts 
 a favourite dogma, than he reckons it sufficient 
 to exclaim, " Oh this refers to the Jews and to 
 Jewish governors!" I know of nothing that 
 would contribute more to the establishment of 
 Christians, and, I may add, to the removal of 
 differences subsisting among the friends of evan- 
 gelical and practical religion, than the laying 
 down of solid principles for the application of 
 the Old Testament, founded on the analogy be- 
 tween it and the New, as proceeding from the 
 same divine author, and intended to promote 
 the same great ends. But, alas ! from these 
 principles we seem to be receding faster than 
 ever, and I see no prospect of our returning to 
 them, until the falsity of the fashionable notions 
 have been demonstrated by the palpable and 
 pernicious consequences to which they natu- 
 
318 LECTURES ON ESTHER. 
 
 rally lead. It is easy to start new views, or 
 new versions, of particular passages; but, to 
 give a consistent meaning to tbe inspired vol- 
 ume — to declare the whole counsel of God — 
 and, by comparing spiritual things with spirit- 
 ual, and one part of Scripture with another, to 
 exhibit the entire system of truth, assigning to 
 each part its proper place and its due weight, 
 — we must learn to interpret and apply the in- 
 structions of Old Testament Scripture. 
 
 THE END. 
 
Date Due 
 
 
 > 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ri-^^-^^^-^^-^ 
 
 
 
 
 «^V''- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 PRINTED 
 
 IN U. S. A,