is it possible to suppose-as will hereafter appear-that "the book of records of the chronicles" was sent for under the expectation that it would serve simply to amuse or to dissipate thought and kill time. 2. However harassing it may have heen, it seems to have been endured till morning. The brief description which follows the statement, that" the king's sleep fled that night," argues that what ensued happened all in close connection, and so as to end with an hour that found men gatherer! in their usual way in the gate, and Haman arrived (doubtless not late) in the court. This would give time for thought's growth into determination. 3. Whether the sleepless- ness of the night was occasioned by any moral thoughtfulness or not, it was in this direction that the mind of Ahasuerus ran. Sleepless hours are often enough weary hours, yet perhaps more than we think they open opportunity and offer choice to us. They ripen the thought of iniquity, as they were at this very time doing for Haman; or they are precipitating thought of good quality and beneficent result, as they were now doing for Ahasuerus. Either, then, the sleeplessness of Ahasuerus was occasioned by a moral movement of things within, or it turned to that use. In either alternative there we.a a moral strangeness and significance about it. The dark and imperfect religiousness, which was all that can be claimed for it in and of itself, does in some senses add to its interest. 4. The thoughts of that sleepless night did not die away. Generally, how soon they do pa.as away, like the dreams of deep sleep. They are "like the morning cloud and the early dew; as the chaff that is driven of the whirlwind out of the floor, and as the smoke out of the chimney." Nature's dark- ness, human stillness, even the body's attitude of repose, all favour highly-stimulated forms of thought. The sleepless night is often memory's field-day. Regrets and new resolutions meet together; repentance and remorse alternate; the thoughts of happier days and the projects of more innocent ones crowd the mental rendezvous- but with dawn they have trooped away. But now not so with the thoughts of the sleepless night of the King Ahasuerus. They last, and they lead on to action. Pur- pose and determination do not die away. They live, e.nd to good purpose. In his own way, and for once true to his light, though a light that burned lurid and low, he will hearken to his "law and testimony," if haply they have anything to say to him. II. SOME OF THE SIGNIFICANT SUGGESTIONS ARISING OUT OF IT IN EVIDENCE OF AN EVER-WAKEFUL PROVIDENCE. 1. The evidence of the simple facts of this night is in favour of the interference of some external cause. It is not straining facts to take this view of them, it would be restraining their legitimate force not to do so. There is no known cause for the restlessness, but it is decided. The two things that might have been expected to constitute a cause evidently exert no influence. The proximate effect, for all that, nevertheless looks in that direction. 2. The kind of use to which the sleeplessness is turned argues not only external interference, but the external interference of One above. This man, a most extremely unpromising subject on whom to work, is wrought upon practically to religious purpose. Thought, and read- ing, e.nd listening, and question, and action follow one another in quick, orderly, Divine kind of succession. 3. The means employed are like those of Divine operation, very simple, awhile mistakable for most natural events. 4. The beneficent nature of the results of the.t night-opportune, to the exact moment of time-and the exceed- ing greatness of them evidence together e. merciful wakeful Providence. That Pro- vidence is ever wakeful when men are most deep asleep, but is not then least wakeful when sometimes it bids us wake and keeps us sleepless.-B.
Ver. 6.-Vanity. "Now He.man thought in," &c. It sometimes seems as though the satire of circumstance and human event could go no further. But the fact in such ce.se is, that nothing can surpass the exactness of the Divine aim for the mark which it is intended to reach, and for the moment at which it reaches it. The present point of the history shows e. conjunction of four events, which, so far e.s all human design went, might certainly have been the last to meet together. But they produce a brilliant effect. Four moments meet, e.nd their work is the work of years of prepara- tion, and of consequences never to be forgotten. A humble and good man, but one dishonoured, is in supreme danger. The very acme of the iniquitous purpose of a revengeful heart, surfeited with self and vanity, is touched. An arbitrary despot suddenly remembers an omission on his part, and resolves upon making a profuse 126 THE BOOK OF ESTHER. [en. v1. 1-14.