HOMILIES BY VARIOUS .AUTHORS. Vers. 7-15.-Superstiti()'fl, and cynic-ism. Haman now proceeds to carry out the terrible plan o! revenge on which he had resolved. Some important steps had to be taken before he could reach his end. These seem to us strange and incongruous. We may learn from them- I. THAT THE FREEDOM WHICH "NEITHER FEARS GOD NOR REGAilDS MAN" MAY BE .A SLAVE TO SUPERSTITION. Haman was a fatalist. He consulted Pur, or the lot, as to the day which would be favourable for hie intended slaughter. 'l'hough it was only on the twelfth month that a propitious day was announced, yet he submitted to the long delay thus imposed. ]'ear of the fates curbed his impatience, even though it was spurred by an intense wrath. The first Napoleon, while willing to sacrifice millions of human lives at the shrine of a reckless ambition, was a victim, like Haman, to fatalistic ideas. Those who throw aside the restraints of virtue and religion come into other and more oppressive captivities. ll. THAT SUPERSTITIOUS FEARS MISLEAD THOSE WHO .ARE GUIDED BY THEM. The ten or eleven months which Pur placed between the conceiving and executing of Haman's vengeance were the means of wrecking it. They gave time to Mordecai and Esther to counterplot, and to work the wicked favourite's downfall. But Haman was so confident in his power over the king, and in the pronounced favour of destiny, that he submitted to the delay. All false gods, all idols of man's fashioning, only get possession of the soul to deceive and destroy it. Ill. THAT J,. WICKED PURPOSE IS NOT SCRUPULOUS A.8 TO THE MEANS IT ADOPTS. In illustration of this observe-I. Haman's lying report to the king concerning the Jews (ver. 8). There was some plausibility in the report, yet it was essentially a lie. It was so framed as to make the weak king falsely believe that it was not to his profit that the Jews should e~iet in his ~mpire. It was true that the Israelites h~d their own law, and honoured it ; but their loyalty to Moses, and the God of Moses, did not prevent them from being good citizens in the countries in which their scattered tribes had found a home. It is easy to clothe falsehood in the garb of truth. 2. Haman's offer of a bribe to the king. It was an immense sum, over two millions sterling of our money. Whence was it to be drawn? Not from Ha.man's own treasures but from the devoted Jews. They were rich, and after being killed 11.ll their' wealth was granted to Haman to be his own. In connection with this Oil. Ill. 7-15.] THE BOOK OF ESTHER. 77
proposal there was evidently no consciousness of offering insult on the one side, or of roceiving insult on the other. Bribery was as common in the East then as it is now. W oultl that we could describe it as a sin confined to the East. It enters so largely into the commercial and political life even of such a country as our own, that many touch and are tainted by it without suspecting the wrong they have received and done. The sensitiveness created by a living fellowship with Christ iii required to deliver us wholly from its multiform and insidious temptations (see Isa. xxxiii. 15, 16). IV. THAT THE THOUGHTLESS AND SELF-INDULGENT DECOME AN EASY PREY TO THE TEMPTATIONS OD' THE WICKED. The king of Persia fell at once into the trap of Haman. He accepted his report without investigation, and delivered over to his will the Jews and their possessions. His proclamation, ordering the destruction of all the men, women, and children belonging to the Jewish race, was soon on its way to the authorities of every province in the empire. V. THAT THOUGHTLESSNESS, on A FOOLISH CONFIDENCE, DOES NOT RELIE\"E MEN OD' RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE CONSEQUENCES OF THEIR ACTIONS. There is, perhaps, more misery caused in the world by want of thought than by evil intention. We aro bound to consider the quality and issues of our conduct, and to examine carefully the counsel of others before committing ourselves to it. It will not diminish our respons- ibility to say that we acted without thought, or from an inconsiderate trust in designing men. The royal seal appropriated to the king the terrible iniquity of Haman. VI. THAT EVIL 0AN MAKE MERRY IN PRESENCE OF THE MISERY IT CREATES. Nero, after he had set fire to Rome, fiddled as he sat and looked at the blaze. So, while Shushan was agitated by fear, the king and his favourite "sat down to drink." The contrast here is most striking; it was evidently designed to impress the imagination and heart. We think of the fearfulness that entered into every household of the city ; and then we tum to the two revellers, who, having issued the terrible edict, betook themselves to the wine-cup, that they might drown tho11ght and care. Human nature may become so wanton in its allegiance to evil as to laugh at the suffering it works. VII. THAT COMMUNITIES OF PEOPLE ARE OFTEN BETTER THAN THEIR RULERS. The citizens of Shushan had sympathy with the innocent multitudes whose blood was to be so needlessly shed. They knew their peaceful virtues. They were united with them in many interests. They grew afraid of a licentious power which could with- out reason decree the massacre of an unoffending race. It is rather in the common heart of a people than in the will of selfish potentates that we look for a recognition of what is sound and good in feeling or action.-D. Ver. 8.-The true Church described by untruthful lips. Infant lips sometime3 utter greatest truths. Shallowest brain sometimes originates most politic scheming. Swine root out and tread underfoot pearls of unpriced value. Bad men often preach good doctrine. Now "the Jews' enemy" (ver. 10) volunteers the highest description, the most complimentary characterisation, of the Jew. And this passage proffers for notice a contrast not only full as remarkable in the depth of it as any of these, but far more remarkable when its subject matter is also taken into account. It might be stated thus: A PEOPLE'S RELIGION RIGHTLY DESCRIBED, WRONGLY CONSTRUED, by one who was "none of them," and who had none of it. The case is that of a man bearing witness against a people and their religion ; he is at the same time a willing and an unwilling witness ; his words are true ; the meaning ht wishes to be drawn out of them is untrue. His indictment is verbally correct; the charge he launches out by means of it has no foundation of fact. His descrip- tion is good for what it says, bad for what it means. And by chance it happens to be so good for what it says that it tempts the thoughtful reader to pause, to ask whether he cannot learn a lesson of value from it. Haman dares a description of the nominal people of God ; is he not in truth unconsciously throwing off a telling description of the real people of God, of God's real Church in the world? For this plain, brief description of the people to whom Mordecai belonged, which Haman now offers to the credulity of Ahasuerus, happens to seize three leading "18 THE BOOK OF ESTHER. [cB. Ill. 7-16,