HOMILETICS. Ver. 20.-Filidz obedunce. Esther was an adopted child. Her debt to Mordecai was "<'ery great, for nurture, care, training, and affection. And she was not forgetful of her obligation ; she gladly repaid the solicitude o:f her cousin by her gratitude, reverential regard, and filial obedience. The habit of obedience continued in after life. As far as was consistent with the higher relation of married life, she main- tained her grateful and affectionate subjection to her kinsman. If this was right and just, how evidently is it a duty for children carefully to display and exercise the virtue of filial obedience. I. THE HABIT OF FILIAL OBEDIENCE SHOULD BE FORMED EARLY. It is of very little use for a parent to begin to exercise authority, to require obedience, in after life. If the child has not from its infancy been accustomed to obey, it is highly improbable that the habit will be formed in youth. " 'Tis education forms the youthful mind ; Just as the twig is bent, the tree's inclined." There is reason to fear that in our days more children are ruined by indulgence than by harshness ; multitudes by the foolish alternation of the two opposite and equally pernicious modes of treatment. If early formed, the habit of obedience will "grow with the child's growth, and strengthen with his strength." II. THE DEMANDS UPON FILIAL DUTY SHOULD llE REASONA.l!LE. There was occasion for the admonition, " Fathers, provoke not your children to wrath." Capricious and arbitrary requirementE are destructive of all respect, and will only secure compliance whilst there is no power to withhold it. Little children cannot always understand the reason for parental injunctions and prohibitions. But it is wise, as children grow up, to show them the justice and expediency of household regulation11, &c. Tyranny on the part of the parent is likely to awaken resentment or to foster deceit on the part of the child. Ill. AFFECTION A.ND GRATITUDE WILL :MA.KE OBEDIENCE EASY AND DELIGHTFUL, There may be a stage in a child's education when compulsion is necessary and pror.er; but, generally speaking, the appeal must be that of love to love. A parent's will is a child's law where the parent is wise and the child is grateful and affectionate. IV. THE REVERENCE A.ND OBEDIENCE OF CHILDREN SHOULD, WITHIN LIMITS, BE CONTINUED IN MATURER LIFE. A wife's obligations are primarily towards her husband. Still there is force in the English proverb, "A daughter's a daughter all her life." Still she will not forget her father's house, her mother's love. God's blessing ever rests upon this beautiful virtue of filial love and obedience. This was expressed in the commandment with promise, " Honour thy father," &c.
Vere. 21-23.-.A plot in the palace. All arbitrary government~ are liable ~o con- spiracies; all arbitrary, absolute monarchs to assassination. Especially has ~his been the case in all ages with Oriental despotisms. We know from history that it was so in Persia·1 and in fact this very Ahasuarus, if he was the Xerxes of history, fell after- wards a victim to a foul conspiracy. It was not always a political m"Otive that (!tr, II. 19-28.] THE BOOK OF ESTilER. 67
prompted such plots ; the motive was oftentimes personal-it might be ambition, or covetousness, or envy, or malice, or revenge. I. We have here the record of A CONSPIRACY HATCHED. The conspirators w&e chamberlains, officers of the royal household, probably under an obligation to the king for favour shown. What passion influenced them, what aim they sought, we do not know. But their plot was hateful and iniquitous, and in any case inexcus- able and indefensible. Happy is the nation which is under constitutional government, and in which there is no temptll.tion to secret plots. II. We have here the record of A CONSPIRACY DETECTED. It was discovered by an alien, and a person in a lowly, even obecure, station. How Mordecai detected the plot we are not told; but he had the opportunity, through his adopted daughter, of communicating with the court, and thus frustrating the abominable designs of the conspirators. Thus Esther's influence would naturall:, be increased. III. We have the record of A CONSPIRACY PUNISHED. The avenging was swift and stem. The punishment was probably cruel-by crucifixion or impalement. A quaint writer has said, "Traitors, like bells, are never well tuned till well hanged ! " No state can tolerate secret plots against the life of those in authority. Yet such plots have often originated in the sense of wrong, in the crushing feeling of helplessness, in the frenzy of despair. "Oppression makes wise men mad.'' IV. We have here A CONSPIRACY RECORDED. The narrative was inserted in the chronicles of the kingdom for subsequent reference. Thus it served as a memento to the king, as a memorial of Mordecai and his services, as a warning to conspirators, as an encouragement to loyalty. Practical lessons :-1. Evil purposes are often defeated, and their abettors punished. " Be sure your sin will find you out I " 2. Mean agents may aid in great enterprises. How often has an obscure subject secured the safety of the sovereign or the state I 3. The providence of God may overrule men's crimes, and make them the occasions 9f great and signal blessings I