HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Vera. 1-3.-.Distress. We have a very vivid picture, in these few touches, of a nation's exceeding sorrow. We are reminded of- I. THE HEARTLESSNESS AND IMPOTENCE OF TYRANNY IN REGARD TO IT. The king could cheerfully speak the word which caused the calamity, and then, when its sorrow surged up to his palace wall, shut his doors against the entrance of any sign of it ; "for none might enter into the king's gate clothed with sackcloth" (ver. 2). The tyrant first becomes responsible for grievous and widespread woe, and then takes measures to prevent its utterance from disturbing his royal pleasure or repose. Such is selfishness in unchecked power. But though heartless, it will discover the limits of its sway ; the hour will come when it will find itself impotent as a leaf in the flood ; when the loud and bitter cry of a people's wrongs and sufferings will pass the sovereign's guards and penetrate hie gates, will find entrance to his chamber and smite his soul. II. ITs CRAVING FOR EXPRESSION. "Mordecai rent his clothes and put on sack- cloth with ashes, ... and cried with n loud and bitter cry" (ver. 1). "And in every province ... there was great mourning among the Jews, and fasting, and weeping, and wailing, and many lay in sackcloth and ashes" (ver. 3). All strong feeling craves utterance; joy in song, grief in tears. In this case intensity of national dis- tress found expression in the most speaking and striking forms to which Eastern misery and despair were accustomed to resort-in" sackcloth and ashes ; '' a" loud and bitter cry;'' "fasting, and weeping, and wailing." To command ourselves when we suffer pain or stand in grave peril is manly and virtuous. Yet it is but shallow wisdom to say that crying will not make it better. There is real and valuable relief in the act of utterunce. In saddest griefs the worst sign of all is a dead silence, the undimmed eye. "Home they brought her warrior dead ; She nor swooned nor uttered cry. All her maidens, watching, si.icl, She must weep, or she will die." Even the" loud and bitter cry" is not without its worth to the heart that utters it (Esa.u--Gcn. xxvii. 34). Sorrow may utter itself in many ways; the best of all is in 90 TBE BOOK OF ESTHER. [cH. IV, 1-17,
praye1"-in hallowed, soothing, reassuring communion with our heavenly Father telling all our tale of grief in the ear of our Divine Friend. Next best ie hnma~ syrnpailiy-the unburdening of our souls to our most tried and sympathising friend. ·we may well be thankf-ul that he has so " fashioned our hearts alike " that we c11n reckon on true and intense sympathy in the time of our distress. A third channel is in sacred p~y.. How ~any of ~he bereaved have had to bless God _for the hymns and poems m which their own grief has found utterance, through which it has found most valuable relief. Ill. ITs PITEOUSNESS. 1. We are moved by it. Our hearts are stirred to their depth by the recital of the woes w~ch are endured by great numbers of men and women, :whei:i ~re, or flo?d, or famme, or the sword of man comes down upon them in 1rres1stible calamity. 2. Are not the angels of God moved by it, and do not these "ministering spirits " with unseen hands minister then to the children of need and sorrow? 3. God himself, we know, is moved by it. "I have surely seen the affliction of my people" CE;Kod. iii. 7). H~ '.' heard their groaning" (Exod. ii. 24). If the woe of the world 1s not doubled, it 1s largely swollen by the sorrowful sympathy it excites. But it is well it should be so, for such sympathy is gcod for those who feel it, and it is the spring of remedy and removal. IV. THE DISTRESS OF THE CHURCH OF CHRIST. Looking on the afflicted Israelites at this crisis of their history, we may regard them as a type of the Church of God in iu distress. Thus regarding the subject, we remark-1. That God allows hi,s Church to pass through very strange and trying scenes. It is wholly inexplicable to us, but it 1s a certain fact that he has done so, and it is probable that he will do so again. There have been, and will be, crises in its history. Persecution will assail it. Infidelity will seek to undermine it. Worldliness will endeavour to corrupt it. It may go hard with it, and its very life be threatened. 2. That in its distress and danger it must seek Divine deliverance. God only can, and he will rescue and restore. At the eleventh hour, perhaps, but then, if not earlier, he will interpose and save. But his aid must be (1) earnestly, (2) continuously, (3) believingly sought by his faithful children.-C. '
Vers. 1-3.-An unyiel,ding grief. I. THE SUFFERING CAUSED BY ONE EVIL ACT CAXI,0T BE ESTIMATED. It was easy for Haman to draw up the instrument of destruc- tion, and for the king to let him affix his signet to it, and then for both to sit down to drink ; but very soon through that easily-performed act thousands of families were plunged into an agony of terror and grief. One sin committed lightly may extend widely, and descend to many generations in its disastrous effects. There is no calcufating the issues of evil. The chief enemy to the happiness of men is man, through the evil that is in him. " Man's inhumanity to man makes countless thousands mourn." ll. A RELIGIOUS VIRTUE MAY BE BROUGHT TO SPECIAL BUFFERING BY GIVmG OCCA- SION TO 'l'HE MALEVOLENT WRATH OF AN EVIL MIND. we can understand how Mordecai, when he learned the diabolic scheme of revenge which Haman had set on foot should have been almost unmanned by his horror and grief. Was not the dec;eed slaughter of all his co1JDtrymen the result of his own conduct towards Haman? This thought would bite into his soul. Israel might have been in safety and peace but for him. Of all the griefs awakened by the king's proclamation, Mordecai's would be the greatest. See here-1. How grief varies in its outward manifestations. To us Mordecai' s behaviour may seem wild and unreasonable. But in the East such signs of mourning were the rule, and even amongst W estem peoples wailings in tinies of bereavement are not uncommon. Real sorrow is glad to embrace any outlet that may ease its inward burden. Differences of temperament also as well as of custom, have much to do with differing expressions of grief. 2. Ho~ deep grief kills every sense of danger. Mordecai raised his "loud and bitter cry in the midst of the city," and at length seemed about to ente~ the king's palace, when he was reminded that sackcloth was not allowed to show itself there. Such conduct was very bold; the king and his favourite were set at nought by it. But it must be attributed to the fearlessness of a profound grief which could not hut tell itself forth in spite of consequences. 3. How vain the attempt is to enclose o.ny Olt. tV, 1-17.J '1'1:lE BOOK OF ESTllER. 91