We have no record of the immediate effect of these calamitous tidings upon the queen; but we know that she was distressed for the afflictions of Jacob; and though labouring under some disadvantages, best understood by herself, she was ready to use all the means in her power to bring relief. In reply to Mordecai she reminded him that there was a law in the palace, forbidding any person to approach the king unless called so to do. This law shows us the great distance in eastern lands, between the monarch and his subjects. It was perhaps ostensibly enacted to prevent the attacks of assassins whom despotic princes ever need to fear, and to keep up the state of the king; but certainly it seemed to make the king the mere tool of artful officers through whom communications would be kept up with the empire, and who, save as their jealousies would lead them to keep each other in check, would give or withhold intelligence as they pleased. The single exception to the law lay in the will of the king; and he might at his pleasure hold out his golden sceptre, in token of favour, to even an unbidden visitor. But for some reason, unknown to herself, the beautiful queen had not seen the face of her royal consort for an entire month; and perhaps her mind was. ready for all manner of conjectures as to the cause. Four years in the palace may have shown her the king's weakness and fickleness; and perhaps have awakened the fear that he would be as ready to divorce her, as Vashti. When she heard of this de

cree against her people, and put that beside her long exclusion from seeing his face, the fear would certainly not be unnatural that the king designed to exclude her; and that his estrangement had already kept him from her apartments for a month. It is natural in times of distress and perplexity to allow our minds to dwell upon the dark side of every matter; and it was no doubt with many misgivings that Esther pondered the plan which her respected cousin urged upon her.

But his arguments and her resolution will engage our thoughts at another time. We now conclude with a single reflection.

We e are called upon earth to a life of faith. We need not expect to pass our time here without sorrow; nor think that God's providence will always smile. Let us not expect to engage in any duties of great importance without being perplexed by difficulties; nor should we even wish that our path should be different from the usual path in which God leads his people. We shall be happiest when we walk in the footsteps of the flock.

Let us make up our minds to acquaint ourselves in the teachings of his word, with what we have to do; and earnestly to do it, in spite of perplexing anxieties and opposing difficulties. Duties are ours; events are God's. The path of devotion and duty is the path of safety. We should not be envious of the peace of ungodly men, or of their apparently superior security. Whatever darkness may surround

the dealings of God with our souls, the principles he has given to guide us, are plain enough. His law is our rule of life,-his gospel, the only hope of the guilty.

Let every believer walk humbly before Him and trust the orderings of his wisdom.

Let those who are unreconciled to God, and who rank among his foes, fight no longer in madness against his throne. Let them repent of their evil ways; flee to the foot of Calvary and sue for mercy. We shall see, as we proceed in this history, that the sinner's prosperity but goes before his destruction; and that it is vain to fight against God. Let it be your wisdom, impenitent man, to submit ere it be too late to gain the advantage of it; and find your happiness and your eternal life through that grace, which is freely offered in the name of the dying Son of God!

LECTURE V.

DIVINE DESIGNS AND HUMAN DUTY.

TROUBLE has entered the marble halls of Ahasuerus, if even sackcloth, its outward symbol, is shut out by law. The decree, which Mordecai sent to the queen, threw her into great perplexity. On the one hand, she was deeply grieved for the calamity that had befallen her unhappy people; and on the other, she seemed suddenly deprived of the power to afford them the slightest relief. The apparent estrangement of her royal husband occurred just at a juncture to fill her with the deepest anxiety. Perhaps his absence from her apartments for thirty days, was the result of design; perhaps it was a proof that her kindred, hitherto concealed, was discovered, and that she was intentionally and by name included in the plot of the wicked Haman. We cannot wonder at Esther's perplexity. It is just such perplexity as we ourselves would feel in such a case; and as nothing more arouses the mind to active energy than circumstances of peril, we would have imagined and feared as she did. In studying the pages of sacred or profane

history, we must take an interest in them as the records of human life. Upon no historian can we place so entire reliance as upon these sacred writers; yet must we interpret what they record, with the remembrance that the actors in these scenes were not inspired, though the historians are. The influence of inspiration is, not to lift the actors here above the level of our humanity, but simply to give a truthful representation of what they were, of how they felt, of what they did. And it is just because we have here an exact transcript of human feelings in the trials of human life, that these records are valuable for our instruction; and it is only when we judge of them through the medium of our own feelings, that we form a just estimate of the different characters, and see the wonders of God's providence in governing the free actions of intelligent minds.

But the lessons of wisdom upon these inspired pages are expressed only in principle; and we think it our place to consider these attentively, and more at large than we find them here. Hence we do not hesitate to arrest our progress through the narrative, as occasion offers for profitable thoughts. If the traveller, hurrying forward in his journey, may not stop to pick up every stone that glitters in his path; yet he can well afford to stay long enough to pick up a valuable diamond.

Stopping the course of the narrative for the present, let us consider the argument preferred by