THE DESTRUCTION OF THE JEWS.

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the first month of the twelfth year of Artaxerxes; but the day selected for the destruction was not till the thirteenth of the twelfth month. This long space was providentially permitted, to give sufficient interval for disappointing the wicked design.

The city of Susa was troubled when the edict was sent forth. The Jews mourned and fasted, and put on sackcloth; but Haman engaged the king in a course of drunken revelry, to estrange him from Esther, and prevent his reflecting on what he had decreed.

The queen knew not of the decree, but was told of the unusual garb assumed by Mordecai, who could not enter the palace while thus arrayed. He stood in the space before the gate. Then, as now, a person may walk for a hundred days near the apartments of the royal females of a Persian monarch, yet have no means of seeing an inmate, or of communicating with any one within the walls. But Mordecai attracted the notice of the attendants. Esther was told of his mourning garb, she sent him other raiment; on his refusing to receive it, she sent a chamberlain to inquire the reason. Mordecai then caused her to be informed of all the particulars, and required her to go to the king and intercede with him for her people. Esther hesitated; to enter the royal presence unsent for, would expose her to be immediately put to death. Mordecai then warned her not to think that she would escape if her people suffered, and urged that most probably she had been raised to her exalted rank to meet the present emergency. Esther then resolved to comply, but prepared herself by fasting and prayer, requiring that all the Jews in Susa should do the

same.

On the third day she presented herself before Ahasuerus. It was not a light matter to appear unbidden before a Persian king; even in later days, those monarchs have studiously secluded themselves from the public eye. But God gave Esther favour in the

in mercy, a promise was given to grant any request she might make. The business was too solemn and important to be entered upon abruptly, nor is it customary to do so in the East, and Esther only requested that the king and Haman would come to a banquet she had prepared. They came, the promise was again made; her request was, that the king and Haman would attend her banquet on the morrow, when she would present her petition.

Haman returned home "joyful, and with a glad heart," at this new honour; but he was vexed at seeing Mordecai still refuse to pay him homage. He was full of indignation. Esth. v. 10-14:

Nevertheless Haman refrained himself: and when he came home, he sent and called for his friends, and Zeresh his wife. 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

AGAINST MORDECAI.

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man come in with the king unto the banquet that she had prepared but myself; and to-morrow am I 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 be made of fifty cubits high, and to-morrow speak thou unto the king that Mordecai may be hanged 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.

How striking is this simple narrative, and how remarkable the confession of this poor rich man! Many, like him, have no enjoyment of their wealth and power from some such trivial cause. Let the cottager and peasant know, that worldly possessions will not satisfy the heart, where Divine contentment does not prevail.

Observe the remarkable dealings of God's providence. While Haman's carpenters were hurrying forward their work against the morrow, the Lord caused sleep to depart from the king. He who com

manded a hundred and twenty provinces, could not command an hour's sleep! This was ordered, that the king's attention should be drawn to the services of Mordecai, in an hour of repose and reflection.

During his sleepless hours, the monarch commanded that the book of records of his kingdom should be read, to pass away the time. The reader was directed to that part where the service of Mordecai was recorded; on inquiry, the king found that no reward had been given him. It was now day: Haman had entered the court of the palace ready to attend the king's first coming forth, purposing to ask that an order for the execution of Mordecai might be issued; not doubting that so trivial a request would be granted; for the life of an inferior then, as now, would at once be placed at the disposal of the favourite of an Eastern despot. But before Haman could present his request, the king asked him, "What shall be done unto the man whom the king delighteth to honour?" This must be myself! thought the arrogant and cruel

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MORDECAI HONOUred.

favourite. He had already wealth and power; he, therefore, proposed that his vanity might be gratified by a vain outward show. He proposed that the man to be honoured should be clothed with royal apparel, seated upon the king's horse, and with the crown upon his head, escorted through the city by one of the most honourable of the princes. The presumption of Haman in this proposal is seen, when we consider that it was death to put on the king's turban or tiara, and that when a horse had once been mounted by the king, no subject ever presumed to ride him. The king adopted the suggestion; whether this proceeded from a sudden thought, what some may term the whim of the moment, or whether he was disgusted by the vanity of Haman, and designed to mortify him, he at once ordered the plan to be put into execution.

"Then the king said to Haman, Make haste, and take the apparel 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." Haman's consternation may be conceived; but the royal word was gone forth, nothing remained for him but to obey: ver. 11, "Then took Haman the apparel and the horse, and arrayed Mordecai, 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." The gravity of aspect generally to be remarked in the people of the East, might prevent much outward manifestation of surprize in the countenances of the poor Jew and the haughty vizier ; but their inward feelings must have been deeply moved, and would not be of a common description.

Haman could not brook this disappointment. Instead of returning to the king's presence, he hastened home to tell what had befallen. His friends and wife saw in this event a presage of the failure of his plot against the Jews, and thought that his own doom was at hand. Might not this have been inferred with equal

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certainty when he entered upon the undertaking? Shall he prosper, shall he escape that doeth such things?" "Then said his wise men and Zeresh his wife unto him, If Mordecai be of the seed of the Jews, before whom thou hast begun to fall, thou shalt not prevail against him, but shalt surely fall before him." How must this ominous warning, from lips accustomed to flatter, and only to utter phrases pleasing to their lord and master, have grated upon the ear of the proud Amalekite!

Before these painful anticipations had been fully considered, the chamberlain summoned Haman to the royal banquet. The gloomy state of his mind may easily be supposed. The king again asked Esther what was her petition. She then, at once, besought her life and the lives of her people, declaring that she would have been silent had they been doomed only to slavery. Another proof that they were not captives, their state in the land of their captivity had been improved. Being asked who could presume to act thus, Esther at once declared, "The adversary and enemy is this wicked Haman." These words, though proceeding from the lips of an anxious and distressed female, were powerful in their effect. The king, indignant at the treacherous plan thereby exposed, rose and departed; his so doing was, in effect, pronouncing a sentence of death. It was so with later Persian monarchs. Haman understood the awful state in which he stood, and interceded with Esther for his life. The king returned, when another expression of displeasure, then, as it now would do, signified a direct sentence of death. The attendants covered Haman's face, a fatal signal of death, and hurried him from the royal presence. Before the sun descended, Haman was hanged on the gallows he had prepared for Mordecai; the latter was installed in the place of the proud Amalekite, and gifted with his possessions. Little had Haman thought for whom he heaped up his riches!

Esther was not unmindful of her people, though her