wrath of the king. The design of Providence is quietly reached. The queenly throne of Persia is vacated; the first step is taken for the great end which this book commemorates; room is prepared for the ascent of an humble Jewish maiden to the highest earthly dignity; all things move forward to deliver the chosen people of God.

We may close this lecture with these brief reflections.

How perishing and unsatisfactory and unprofitable are the engagements and pleasures of worldly men! In the highest ranks of life, with all that can minister to pride or luxury, they are no objects of envy. We see here the pomp and splendour of one of earth's mightiest kings; and perhaps no earthly records make mention of a more sumptuous banquet than this of Ahasuerus. But six months of revelry soon passed; and though such pernicious extravagance may have oppressed his subjects, and the report have astonished them, we are even indebted for the knowledge that such a feast was ever held, to a history that Persians did not write, and in which the mighty king of one hundred and twenty-seven provinces plays quite a subordinate part. We may well hold in light esteem the revelries and luxuries of a perishable world. Little worthy of our envy or our imitation is the earthly course of men who say, "Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die." "Let us crown ourselves with rose-buds before they are withered." "The fashion

of this world," in its best estate, (C passes away." They only are happy whose names and deeds and characters are associated with the covenant people of God. Over them God exercises his special care; their names are written in imperishable annals, and their portion is a satisfactory and an abiding one. Kings, like Ahasuerus, may feast and die and be forgotten queens, like Vashti, may indulge their pride and fall from their thrones into oblivion; but the humblest of God's people, sometimes drawn forth from obscurity to places of honour, sometimes left unknown to the world, shall be noticed by his eye, preserved by his kind providence, and blessed with his favour. No wisdom is worthy of the name, but true piety; no ambition can reward our care, but that which aspires to be accepted of God; no pleasures are lasting, but the enjoyments we find in serving him. What is earth with the power and splendour of Ahasuerus-with all the queenly dignity and womanly beauty of Vashti? "What is a man profited if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?" This most momentous of earthly questions it well becomes us to ponder.

4

LECTURE II.

MORDECAI RAISED UP.

If

THE divorce of Vashti was pronounced after a consultation with legal counsellors, and ratified by the forms of legal authority. But what an evidence have we of legislative folly, not in a single man, but in an entire race of Persian kings, that so absurd a law should control the Empire! The laws of the Medes and Persians were unalterable. we were speaking of the laws of an infinite and unchanging God; if we consider that no unforeseen contingencies can arise in his government; that his laws, devised in infinite knowledge, wisdom, and justice, cannot be altered for the better; and that his own excellence forbids any decline from their perfection;—if we were speaking of such a ruler, and of his laws, we might wisely affirm that they change But in human lawgivers, or in human executives-whether of church or state-the claim of infallibility may excite our contempt. Ignorant, foolish, full of prejudice, and liable to error from a thousand causes, man should lay no claim to unswerving correctness in forming his judgments, or

not.

in framing his laws; and an unjust and oppressive law incapable of repeal becomes the instrument of more pernicious tyranny. Continual changing in human laws is an evil oppressive upon the people; but scarcely any abuse of the power to alter the laws can be worse than the inability, in shortsighted and erring men, to change at all.

It is possible that the king repented of his haste in divorcing his lovely queen. The act of a moment, when wine had clouded his reason and inflamed his anger, and when he himself had provoked her act of insubordination, was one which cooler moments, and the sweet memories of former affection, might wish to recall. But the monarch is himself bound by that foolish law; and the act of an intoxicated council is as permanent as the wisest and most deliberate legislation. The true law of marriage, as ordained by Jehovah, would have forbidden a divorce for any such occasion as the Persian queen had afforded, even taking her offence in its most aggravated form; but the foolish lusts of man had long since trampled under foot and forgotten the ordinances of that eternal King, whose laws need no improvement. It is not needful for us to say, that the entire plan adopted for securing a successor to Vashti, was a transgression of the divine laws respecting marriage. The Bible is remarkable for this; that very often its historians give us the simple narrative of transactions, and make few remarks to approve or condemn conduct the most

meritorious or the most iniquitous. So is it here. The plan adopted by the king is explained; we are thus told the cruel and arbitrary customs of other lands and ages; yet it is by our own comparisons of these facts with the principles taught in the Scriptures, that we learn how different all this is from the law of God. And as we gratefully see how different is the state of social manners among us, let us acknowledge that the difference is owing to the influence of the Bible and Christianity. Marriage with us is founded upon no caprice of a despot, but upon the mutual affection and consent of the parties; it is followed by no such desolation and cruel desertion, worse than widowhood, as falls upon the crowd of imprisoned and neglected females in an eastern seraglio; it secures the mutual happiness of two individuals; and demands, if the wife shall give up all others for her husband alone, so the husband shall give up all others solely for his wife. For thus was it from the beginning. God made one man and one woman. And this is the true exhibition of "women's rights;" the right to occupy a sphere, appropriate and divinely appointed: a sphere as to bustle and display and vain glory inferior to that of man; as to dignity not his equal; but a sphere as to virtue and happiness and usefulness often quite equal, often quite superior to that of man.

No solution is even given in the narrative of the fact that a Jewish maiden consents to share an ar