111_1d his pleasures multiplied or secured. It is a stri,/dn,g instance of Divine po• ,'lldei_zce. Ite who "holds the king's heart in his hand," who can touch with the finger of 111~ powe: the _secret springs of our thought and feeling, now sent troubled thoughts to thrn Persian kmg. That Lord of heaven, Keeper of Israel who slumbers not nor ~Jeeps (~s. cxxi.. 4), now gave a wakeful night to this earthly monarch. He was 1hterpo8mg on behalf of his cl1osen people. God willed that the sovereign should fiot slumber in order that he might thus be led to have "the book of records of the chronicles brought and read before the king," and Mordecai's services be thus brought to his royal notice. Little did Ahasuerus, as he tossed his restless head on the pillow, imagine that a Divine hand was laid on his troubled brain. As little do we _know when_ th~ finger of God is working on us, with us, for us, or mercifully a~amst us. Thxnkmg of the sleepless sons and daughters of men, we may have in view- I. THE SLEEPLESS WHOM WE PITY. We do well to pity with heartfelt compassion those who tell us that they" cannot sleep at night." Scarcely a sentence comes more plaintively from human lips. Well does one of our own poets write- " Pity ! oh, pity the wretches who weep, For they must be wretched who Cll.llnot sleep When God himself draws the curtain." '\\7bether it be pain, or trouble, or sorrow that causes the sleepless hours, we may pity sincerely and pray earnestly for these. II. THE SLEEPLESS WHOM WE ADMmE. Those who (1) tenderly nurse the sick through the livelong night, or (2) sympathetically attend the sorrowful in theix sleepless hours, or (3) are "about the Father's business," seeking the salvation of others. It is the women who "watch" the best. There were, humanly speaking, at least three women who could have watched that "one hour" (Matt. xxvi. 40), and would not have been found asleep by the agonising Master. Few of the children of men are more worthy of our admiring a.:ffection than those self-denying sisters who watch so patiently lest there should be need of the ministering hand or the comforting word. III. THE SLEEPLESS WHOM WE ARE OBLIGED TO BLAME. There are those in every city who cannot sleep beca'I.Ule they can,not forget. They shut their book at night, but have soon to sigh- " Oh God ! could I so close my mind And clasp it with a. clasp." They pay in restless honrl! the dark penalty of vice or crime ; they are pursued ond punished by dread of the wrath of G:>d or of the justice of man, or by the rebuk~gs of their own conscience. For such there is no remedy or escape but confession, reparation, forgiveness, human and Divine. "Return on thy way" at once. IV. THE SLEEPLESS WHOM WE MUCH WISH TO SERVE. Those who cannot sleep because of "great searchings of heart;" who are asking that old new questio;°, " How shall mortal man be just with God? " who will give themselves no rest till the way of peace is found, till they have "peace with God through Jesus Christ." There are none anywhere so deserving and demanding, so certain to receive, the tender sympathy and delicate help of those who minister in the gospel of the Saviour. V. THE SLEEPLESS WHOM WE HOPE TO JOIN. On the other side of the river of death is a land where that which has been will not be, where we shall change this "body of our humiliation," and shall be clothed upon with the" body of his glo~y." There will be no sleeplessness like that of which we have spoken; no weary tossmg, no heart-ache, no distress, no agitation. But t~ere wul be sl!leplessness o~ an~t~er kind for there will be no more need of long penods of unconsc1ousness and 1!1actlv1ty tber;. There will be "no more fatigue, no more distress," no more exhaustion; and tl.,erefore "there will be no night there," and no sleep, but ceaseless, tireless, unex- haustiug energy ; there they serve him " day without night." ~hes': we hope one day to join. Let us live "in Christ;'' then shall we "fall asleep m hun," and then cl1. vt. 1-14.) THE BOOK OF ESTHER. 121
shnll we nwnke in the morning of an everlnsting day where the shadows never fall, 11 lond full of light because full of the nenr presence and the glory of the Lord.-C.