salutary fears, the same exercise of faith, the same covenanted safety.

But before closing the present lecture, we proposed to notice the first step in readiness for the great deliverance. This is the divorce of the haughty Vashti, preparatory to the elevation of a Jewish maiden to the throne of Persia.

The evil against which God's providence prepares is not yet apparent to the eye of man; indeed the plot of mischief has not as yet been conceived in the mind of the Agagite, the chief mover in it. What a comfortable reflection to the people of God is this, that even before the sky is overcast by the dark clouds of a threatening storm, there is a mind acquainted with all the hidden future, that even now prepares a deliverance from the unforeseen evil! We know not why God makes such changes in our lot; but all the changes around us may be directly in preparation for some great event, involving our comfort or safety. Even the doings of folly and the crimes of injustice are under his control, to subserve his purposes of truth and righteousness. Men may form their plans, and form them in iniquity; they may trample upon every sacred right of others, and every duty in themselves; and they may seem to prosper. Yet God brings to pass his purposes of judgment to sinners and good to the righteous; the hour when the wicked seem nearest to triumph is often just before their irrecoverable fall; and the

very means relied upon for success often become the instruments of their failure.

"There is a power

Unseen, that rules the illimitable world;
That guides its motious from the brightest star
To the least dust of this sin-tainted world :
While man, who madly deems himself the lord

Of all, is nought but weakness and dependence."

Behold now the great Ahasuerus and the splendour of his festival in the palace at Shushan! "He reigned from India to Ethiopia, over one hundred and twentyseven provinces." What a lamentable thought that one man should have control, so complete and arbitrary, over so many myriads of his fellow men! How impossible was it for him, with all the diligence of the busiest life, and all the wisdom of the finest intellect, and all the indomitable energy of an earnest responsibility, to rule in so vast an empire, so as to secure the real good of his subjects! To a man who comprehends their weight, and is at all disposed to attempt the duties they bring, the cares of a great government are no object of envy. But what are the employments of this great king as we are here introduced to him? Such, alas! as king's palaces often show; neither augmenting the royal dignity, nor preparing for royal duties. Is this the glory of a kingdom? A feast of wine, a drunken monarch, an unjust divorce!

Shall we stay to notice this gorgeous feast, according to the state of the king? The splendid

hangings of the halls, the couches covered with cloth of gold and silver, the floor of tesselated marble, are even exceeded in magnificence by the drinking cups. It was reckoned disgraceful among the Persians to use vessels of earth. These were of gold, and diverse one from another: i. e., as some suppose, the same cup not used twice during six months' feasting. Perhaps rather, each cup of a different pattern. The engraving upon a golden cup might be far more valuable than the material.

We will not stay to mourn over a people whose rulers could afford to spend six months in such frivolous engagements, and neglect the duties of government. Indeed the gay luxury and idleness of Artaxerxes were a blessing to Persia, compared with his father's activity; and there is less folly in the drunken revel of Shushan than in the man, who became angry at the waves of the sea, and scourged and chained the Hellespont! Yet here are two matters of Persian propriety in their feasts. The queen and her women held their feast apart, and in the king's palace no man was compelled to drink beyond his own choice. Many a man in Christian lands would have been saved from a drunkard's grave, had not scoffing companions and a perverted public opinion forced upon him the fatal cup, which he would not have tasted if none did compel. The pagan king gives orders that every man may act his own pleasure, but inexorable and more arbitrary custom in Christian lands exceeds in cruel tyranny.

Happily the usages of society are better in this matter than they were; but we fear to say that men are safe even now, where the wine cup sparkles.

Six months of feasting have passed—another week has been added; and the last day of so protracted a festival is the most important of all. But for the king's concluding folly the world would never have heard of this gay feasting. A drunken man is ready for any folly; and a drunken king differs from a drunken beggar, only because he can command the execution of his maudlin schemes, and lift his shame into greater mischief and greater notoriety. The most sacred things are base in the eyes of such a man; and the sweet proprieties of life are in danger of the grossest violation. An intoxicated man often displays his ruling passions in an indecorous manner. King Ahasuerus was proud of his queen's beauty. And now, forgetful of those Persian customs, which forbade the public appearance of females, and of his own duty as a husband, he gave orders that the beautiful Vashti should leave her own apartments in the palace, and appear before the impudent gaze of his drunken princes. This order was equally dishonourable to the king who uttered it, and to the queen who heard it. A man never more disgraces himself than when he puts an affront upon his own wife.

But if the husband is drunk, the wife is sober. Queen Vashti refused to come. We may blame or approve her conduct, as we attribute it to pride, or

to virtue. If her public appearance at her husband's command was such a violation of Persian ideas as to subject her to the charge of immodest behaviour, she did right to refuse. No father has a right to demand of his daughter, no husband has a right to command in his wife, any departure from modesty or virtue. It is possible, however, that the queen refused through pride. The command was perhaps imprudent; but not reckoned immodest. In that case her reluctant and modest appearance, through respect to her husband, would have been right; every sensible mind would make allowance for her circumstances; and her modesty would have suffered nothing from the discharge of an unpleasant duty.

The astounding announcement is made in the royal presence-The queen will not come. Flushed with wine, the king was exceedingly angry, and the presence of his lords yet more irritated him. Upon consultation with the wise men, it was immediately resolved, not that the queen should be put to death, but that a public example should be made of her,— that she should be degraded from her place as queen, and divorced as a wife. No time is taken for proper deliberation; no space is left for a change of purpose; the counsellors yet feel the influence of the wine cup, when the unalterable decree is passed. It is some advantage that counsel was taken, and that the divorce of Vashti was pronounced according to law. For now no blood is shed, even in the