The Pulpit Commentary — Esther — Section 104

the path of the man who facee eelf-deniale and de.ngere at the ce.11 of God or con- science. Every eteP- will disclose new springs of help and hope. "Light is sown /or the righteoos" (Pa. xcvii. 10, 11).-D. Vere. 4-14.-Prudence versus Guile. I. EVERYTHING HAS ITS SEASON. Why did not Esther at once lay open her heart to the king? Was ehe confused by hie unex- pected kindness, or eeized with timidity at the moment of peril? Most likely she wae prompted by an intuitive feeling that the time was not fit. She might lose everything by precipitancy. It is wiee to study occasion or opportunity. Many failures have resulted solely from want of attention to time and place (Eccles. iii. 1 ). II. PRUDENCE WORKS PATIENTLY. The invitation to the banquet would provide a better opportunity. Yet Esther again deferred her request, though the king repeated his promise to grant her any boon, to "the half of his kingdom." She was acting now not in the dark, or under impulse, but under a new light and in watchful thought. Her regaining of influence over the king gave her confidence and made her patient. Her woman's instinct told her that by prolonging suspense she would increase her power. The king once here, she could defy Haman. So she worked and waited. The prudence of the righteous may be more than a match for the guile of the wicked. These sometimee eeem to resemble each other ; but the distinction between is, that while prudence is honourable in method and pure in motive, guile is impure and unscrupulous. God disciplines his people into patience, and then sends them deliver- ance through it. It is often harder to wait than to work or to suffer. Patience, therefore, is an excelling grace (Ps. xl. 1--4; James i. 3, 4). III. THE BITTER MINGLES WITH THE SWEET IN THE CUP OF THE WICKED. Haman was a proud man when he went forth from the banquet. To have been alone with the king and queen at their private feast, and to be invited to a similar feast on the next day, was almost too much honour for his vain soul to bear. But he had not gone far when his eye fell on the unbending Mordecai. Then indignation took. possession of his heart. What a humbling of pride I what a beclouding of joy I So is it always with the happiness of the wicked. It is ever meeting with signs of menace-a word, a look, an attitude, an enemy-which make it fade. .A Mordecai sits at the gate that leads from its feastings. Evil joys are attended by a mocking shade which has only to appear to tum them into wormwood. IV. HOUSEHOLD SYMPATHIES. It was natural that Haman, on reaching home from the palace, should call his friends around him, and tell them of the double honour he had received, Nothing is pleasanter to behold than a nmted family in which there is a free sharing of confidences and sympathies, all the members rejoicing in the happiness of each. But if the family be godless and wicked, and bound together by common interests of an evil kind, then all the pleasantness of the picture vanishes. Such was the family of Haman. His wife and friends knew the arts by which he had gained the royal favour, and the terrible revenge he was about to execute on the whole Jewish race for the offence of Mordecai. Yet they flattered him as he flattered the king, and stimulated him in his abounding crimes. Saddest of sights that of a family whose bond is wickedness I Learn, further-I. How character influences. A man who acquires power draws about him his own circle, and infuses his spirit into all the members of it. Children catch the spirit and habits of their parents. Men are known by the companions that attract them. 2. How pride puffs itself up. It was a glowing story which Haman told of his wealth, and grandeur, and promo- tions, and of the special honours which even Esther was conferring on him. His vanity plumed itself rarely before his admiring hearers. But to us the exhibition is repugnant. It was n self-feeding of nil that was worst in the man, and a kindling of hateful fires in the hearts that were listening. The boaster little suspected what the favour of Esther meant. 11 Pride goeth before destruction." 3. How pride resents affront. The recite.I of an ill-gotten glory was ended by II confession that all was dimmed by the remembrance of one man. The higher his advancement to honour, the more deeply did the iron of the Jew's contempt enter into Haman's soul. He described to his home circle his passing of Mordecai at the king's gate, and the difficulty wit'n which he had restrained an outflow of his passion. The self-restraint of evil men in presence of supposed insult is exercised not that they may overl.ouk 108 THE BOOK OF ESTHER. [OH. V.1-8.