nnd twenty-seven provinces. This verse is the irrepressible outcry of true patriotism. It is the oxpostulntion of vivid and tender sympathy. It is the argument of a forcible pri~ciple of our nature, which oversteps the boundaries of the personal and the domestw m order to travel much farther, and to embrace the national. It mounts by the stepping-stones of self-love and sacred family love to the love of vast numbers of those never seen nor personally known, yet in some special sensP, related. The passage suggests, by a leading illustration, the general subject of patriotism ; and we may notice- !. WHAT TRUE PATRIOTISM IB. 1. It is evidently an original and ultimate principle. As soon as ever it was possible it showed its existence The fact of its presence, and operative presence, has been visible in all ages, traceable in all kinds and degrees of civilisation - among the barbarous, and among the most advanced and elevated nationalities. 2. It is a principle of a high moral kind. A form of love above the sympathy which is between individual and individual1 above that which lies between those born of the same parents, and, on the other hand, falling short of that universal love of man, as such, which is one of the very highest teachings of Christianity. 3. It is a somewhat quickened regard for those united to us by community of race. A stronger interest in their welfare and advantage is marked by it, while divested as far as possible of any conscious reflex action or benefit to self. This affection was no doubt exceedingly strong in the Jewish race, was at Esther's time greatly intensi- fied by adversity and persecution and natural causes, but owed its most determined bold to distinctly Divine purpose. II. THE USE OF PATRIOTISM IN THE INDIVIDUAL CHARACTER. 1. It must be enlarging to the heart. It must expand the affections in their outlook, which then seek the various and the distant instead of ever keeping at home. It must give greater and freer exercise to the more important moral elements of our nature. 2. It must operate ever as a distinct corrective to some portion of the dangers of selfishness. There is much selfishness in our self-love ; there is often not a little even in the family and domestic circle ; sympathies may run round indeed, but in too narrow a. circle. But the circle is immensely widened by this community of interest, while yet kept within a manageable area. 3. It is able to give enough natural motive to the awakening of moral energies, which without it would have found no sufficient appeal. In point of fact, some of the grandest displays of human force, and among them that of the present history, have been due to it. III. ITS USEFULNESS TO PUBLIC SOCIETY. There will be a vast amount of this necessarily entailed indirectly and unconsciously, as arising from the previous con- siderations; but, in addition, manifest practical use on a large scale will also result. 1. It secures the prospect of bringing together to one point a great aggregate of force in emergency. It is like public opinion in action, seasoned by genuine affection. 2. It is equal also to the converse of this, spreading, as in Esther's example, the willing benefit, the critical advantage of opportunity, of one loving, praying heart, over a vast area. 3. Pervading the whole mass of mankind, it so divides it up and so allots it, that in place of unwieldiness a well-knit-together organisation is found. Thus it offers a strong and very traceable analogy to the body with its members. IV. THAT IN PATRIOTISM WE HAVE ANOTHER EVIDENCE OF DIVINE DESIGN IN THE STRUCTURE OF HUMAN SOCIETY. For-1. It cannot possibly be attributed to mere human arrangement or compact. 2. It does not at all really contravene either the descent of all from one head, or the fact that " God has made of one blood all nations o~ the earth." 3. Its operation is not malevolent, setting "nation against nation." It is beneficent, and is ever growing to show itself more and more so, leading up to mutual service, mutual dependence, and mutual Jove, to the attainment of which it were very hard to see any other way so compact, so sure.-B.
Vera. 15-17.-A type ofunive:rsaljoy. This passage tells the tale of great joy. The question of the prophet Isaiah, " Shall a nation be born at once ? " asked now nearly two centuries ago, is answered in an unexpected way, and in something superior to mere literal sense. New life is a great thing, and the sensations of young life have xµuch joy in them. But in the same kind of .sense in which the father rejoiced over tb,I) prodigal son on his return with livelier and more demonstrntive joy than over the L2 148 THE BOOK OF ESTHER. [cn. vm. 1-17,