raiment. They move in the wilderness. And so it is all the more praiseworthy when those wearing soft clothing have spirits strong and bold. Courtly martyrs are few, but when found are most noble.

SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON VERSE 15.

Instead of at once following out what his anger suggests, Ahasuerus submits his case to the law and custom. This in itself is great and beautiful; this is the victory of culture over crudeness and passion. But in the manner in which this is done here it amounts to nothing after all. We seem to feel in advance that nothing good will come of it. Lange.

Because she hath not performed the commandment, &c. This was a fault, no doubt, but not so heinous as was made of it. The faults of his wife a man must either tollere or tolerare, cover or cure, and go about to kill a fly upon her forehead with a bottle, as they say. But God hath a providential hand in it for the good of his Church.-Trapp.

It

The combined wisdom of all, it seems, was enlisted to consult with the king what course should be taken after so unprecedented an occurrence as Vashti's disobedience of the royal summons. is scarcely possible for us to imagine the astonishment produced by such a refusal in a country and court where the will of the sovereign was absolute. The assembled grandees were petrified with horror at the daring affront. Alarm for the consequences that might ensue to each of them in his own household next seized on their minds, and the sounds of bacchanalian revelry were hushed into deep and anxious consultation— what punishment to inflict on the refractory queen.-Port. Commentary.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH. VERSES 16-20.

COURTIERS FORSAKE A FAILING CAUSE.

It is not here asserted that this is a characteristic of courtiers, which may not be observed in other men; for it is a too general custom to push a man or woman down when tokens of falling are visible. But the courtly style is to flatter the powerful, and to speak no helpful words on behalf of the weak. In the multitude of counsellors there is safety, if there be no personal interests at stake; but these courtiers were time-serving counsellors. They knew the danger of opposing the arbitrary commands of a Persian monarch, and therefore they do not try to palliate Vashti's conduct, but condemned her completely.

I. The courtly orator. Memucan was evidently a true courtly orator, and he was put forth as the spokesman of the rest. He plainly knew that it would not be prudent to offer any opposition to the monarch's wild caprice. Meinucan by artful insinuation justifies the extravagant whim of this Eastern despot. The orator can do much either for good or for evil. How awful when his great power is directed by selfishness!

II. His cunning flattery. His flattery was insinuating and captivating. He artfully alludes to the extent of the monarch's dominions, to the resistless nature of his decree, and to the vastness of his influence. He flatters by declaring that a wrong done to the king is a wrong done to all his subjects. But he flatters most by assuming that the king's command was altogether legitimate, and in no wise to be disputed. "The king Ahasuerus commanded Vashti the queen to be brought in before him, but she came not." Thus it shall be reported, so says the courtly orator; but what says the uncourtly and intelligent observer? Even if he blames Vashti he will not condone the fault of Ahasuerus as was done by Memucan. Truly a flattering mouth worketh ruin.

III. His vicious reasoning. Memucan understood how to make the worse appear the better reason; how cunningly to mingle truth with falsehood; how artfully to fan the king's wrath into a consuming flame; and how, by plausible utterances, to show that the gratification of the king's unreasonable desire was for the welfare of every household in the vast empire. A vicious logical process may be carried out through ignorance, but too often it is indicative of the working of a vicious nature. The heart must be right as well as the head if logical rules are not to be violated. The simple heart will come straight to a correct conclusion where the twisted but cultivated nature, will falter.

IV. His time-serving policy. Memucan had regard to the welfare of himself and his compeers more than that justice should be done to Vashti. Thus all are prepared for the sharp verdict that Vashti must be unqueened; that she must have no further intercourse with the monarch; and that another, better than she, was to possess her royal estate. But he carefully refrains from adding, And thus she will have no future opportunity of bringing time-serving courtiers to judgment. These courtiers, in order to save themselves, and prevent Vashti from retaliating, strove, by placing her conduct in the worst light, by showing how injurious would be the influence of one in the highest position throughout the whole realm if she were left unpunished, and by the advocacy of stringent measures, to divest her of all power to do them harm in the future.

V. His unfeeling nature. The true orator should be a man of feeling. His sympathies should go out towards the weak and the oppressed. But Memucan was not a true orator. Certainly he was not a son of consolation. He had power, but it was not power directed by goodness. His gift of speech was ready for the use of the highest bidder. His heart was made of stone. He had a position to maintain, and he would maintain it at whatever cost. The better feelings must be stifled; the voice of conscience must be hushed; a weak woman must be trampled out of existence. Ah, poor Vashti found by bitter experience that an arm of flesh is but a broken reed on which to lean in the day of adversity. Vain is the help of man in the time of trouble. Who shall rise up for her against the courtly speakers and evil plotters? It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in courtiers, in nobles, or in princes.

THE FOLLY OF TRUSTING IN MAN.

"Cursed is the man that trusteth in man; that maketh flesh his arm." To make flesh our arm is to confide in human wisdom, power, riches, &c. for protection from evil, or for the attainment of any personal advantage. This practice spreads through all grades of society. The king Ahasuerus was guilty of it. But let us remark that this practice

I. Is idolatrous in its principles. Whatever a man confides in for protection and happiness is unquestionably his god. Let all covetous, ambitious, and licentious persons consider this, they all "make flesh their arm," and their hearts depart from the Lord!

II. It is grovelling in its aim. It looks no higher than present good, and things altogether unworthy of an immortal spirit. God, the proper and adequate good of the soul-the noblest object to which it can aspire-is neglected and shunned; the sinner's heart departs from him, to pursue wind, and chaff, and vanity.

III. It is unreasonable in its foundation. It is built upon an extravagant supposition, viz., that the creature can supply the place of the Creator; indeed, it supposes that man can do what God cannot.

IV. It is destructive in its issue. "Cursed is the man that trusteth," &c. The man that trusteth in his fellows shall be like the heath in the desert-worthless, sapless, fruitless; "he shall not see good when good cometh," shall not enjoy

it—“ but he shall inhabit the parched places," &c. He shall prosper in nothing. His soul shall be disconsolate, like a man banished to some desolate spot, amidst burning sands and trackless wilds, where all is melancholy, dreary, and waste, and where he at length expires through famine. The cisterns he has hewn out are

broken.

Learn-1. There is no safety in man. Sketches of Sermons, 1838.

2. To put your trust in the Lord.—

SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON VERSES 16-20.

Ver. 16. What is the influence our conduct is likely to have upon others? Will many follow our example? Then if we go wrong, we must share the guilt of those who follow us. Offences must needs come, but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh. Vashti's offence, it was said, was likely to be hurtful to all the princes and people in all the dominions of Ahasuerus. The great are under strong obligations to act aright. The greater our position, the greater our influence for good or for evil. Those in the humblest walks of life have an influence. It is true all round that "no man liveth unto himself, no man dieth unto himself."

A bold man he was, surely, that durst deliver his mind so freely of such a business, and in such a presence. What if the king and queen should grow friends again-where had Memucan been? If his cause and his conscience had been as good as his courage was great, all had been as it ought to be. Here they condemn the queen unheard and unconvicted, which is against all law, Divine and human. Was the king's bare word a law or rule of right? and is not a wife, in case of sin commanded by her husband, rather to obey God than man? Here you may see when flattery and malice give information, shadows are made substance, and improbabilities necessities, so deceitful is malice, flattery so unreasonable.—Trapp.

Ver. 17. It has been said that the nation regulates itself by the example of the king. It is to be feared there is far too much truth in the saying. Even Christians conform to this world too readily, and think themselves excusable if they are but following the example of the great. It was argued that if Vashti refused obedience to her husband, the

ladies of Persia and Media might follow her example. If the queen and inferior ladies refused submission, might not all women in the kingdom do the same? Can any husband in the king's dominions expect greater submission from his wife than the king himself?

Public persons are by Plutarch compared to looking-glasses, according to which others dress themselves; to pictures in a glass window, wherein every blemish is soon seen; to common wells, which if they be poisoned, many are destroyed. The common people commonly are like a flock of cranes; as the first flies all follow.-Trapp.

Ver. 18. The king's nobles and princes trembled for their own authority and dignity. They were afraid to trust the good sense of their wives. No doubt their fears were just. What could be expected of women held in the bonds of ignorance and slavery, as the wives of the East generally were, but that they would attempt to snap their fetters? With the women of our land it is very different. They are greatly favoured, they ought therefore to prize their privileges. Wives, be obedient to your husbands. Contention and wrath in families is an evil of such magnitude, that the Persian princes thought it necessary to use the most vigorous and severe measures to prevent it.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH. VERSES 21, 22.

VASHTI IS STRIPPED OF QUEENLY EXTERNALS.

Popular oratory is very frequently only the art of articulating the wishes and desires of the multitude. Skill is required at once to comprehend, as if by intuition,

those desires; to put them in attractive form, and to speak them forth as if they were novel ideas; but the man is untrue to himself who is determined that his sayings shall please the kings and the princes who hold in their hands his reputation for oratory. And Memucan had caught the trick of popular oratory. His words were the expression of the king's then present feeling, and the interpretation of the desires and fears of the listening and applauding courtiers. And we are not surprised to read that the saying pleased the king and the princes, and the king did according to the word of Memucan. All was put in motion. The posthorses galloped from stage to stage. It is the proverbial and figurative statement that they flew swifter than the cranes. The postmasters took from the couriers the king's letters which proclaimed the queen's degradation; which, to those who looked beneath the surface, set forth the king's rage more than his desire that every man should bear rule in his own house. And soon throughout the whole realm the story of Vashti's fall was heard. It was widely known that her crown was taken away, and that she was lowered from her high estate. And doubtless none were found brave enough to speak in her defence. It would be then, as it is too often now, that all forsook in the dark day of her disaster. Those who flattered her beauty when she was queen would depreciate it when she was unqueened, Those who fawned in the day of prosperity would either “damn with faint praise" her daring spirit, or bluster about her disgusting arrogance, in the day of adversity. We do not hear of any consoling or defending voice being lifted up for her help when she had incurred the king's wrath. Let us hope that she was not quite friendless and forsaken. But so far as the narrative is concerned we do not hear of any such voice, or of any faithful adherents. Undefended she fell. Grasping tenaciously the banner of right she was slain. A lonely wanderer she went forth from the palace gates. Or if she still remained an inhabitant of the king's harem, the lowest menials might scout her presence. Her tears might be her meat day and night for a season; but though no human hand wiped away those tears, yet an approving conscience might bring untold consolation in the hours of distress, and she that sowed in tears might afterwards reap in joy. A victim she to a mistaken sense of what was right, as some would declare. But oh, it is noble thus to fall. Better and more glorious is it thus to suffer, through even a mistaken sense of duty, than to let moralities and scruples take care of themselves for fear they should stand in the way of advancement, or help on the spoliation of worldly wealth and honours.

Here learn-1. That virtue is not always successful in this world. It is only a supposition for the purpose of supporting a foregone conclusion that Vashti was reinstated. Our narrative does not state anything of the kind, and this is the only authentic history of Vashti's career. Now it has been said that God makes innocence of soul ever prosper. This is true spiritually, but is not always true as the world accounts prosperity. Novelists, in making virtue triumphant and vice finally a failure in this world, simply set forth that which is in harmony with our conceptions of what ought to be; but then it is plain enough that all things are not as they ought to be in this disordered universe. The Vashtis are not reinstated; the Josephs are not always taken out of prison and placed on thrones; the Jobs do not invariably find that the last earthly state is better than the first. Johns are sometimes beheaded in prison, and Peters are crucified. It would take great skill to show that Paul had made "the best of this world." He did not seem to think so himself, and he ought to have been a good judge. Certainly it was not "a best" that would be chosen by those who advocate the possibility of making the best of both worlds. Apostles and reformers have endured poverty, persecution, and martyrdom. Genius has pined away in garrets; greatness has been trampled upon by littleness; shrewd business men have ground down their superiors; virtue has been hidden in dens and caves of the earth; truth, with sad heart, has wandered about in sheep skins and goat skins. And the world's