a petty and miserable ambition, yes, even in the bosom of the Church, to do something to make their own names known and thought of, and handed down to posterity; even those who have trampled on the flesh and overcome the world, at least to a great extent, will be attacked and too often vanquished by this wretched temptation to seek their own greatness in another shape. Let all such persons consider attentively the history of Daniel, who sought not his own, but the things of God. To him it mattered not whether he were in a palace or a prison, or in a den of lions; alike, wherever he was, it was God's honour he sought, it was God's glory he desired, it was God's worship he coveted, and from which neither men nor devils could move him. Nay, he sought not even to do great things for God; he sought but to do His will, whatever that was, as it was manifested to him: thus in his earthly course forshadowing Him who, when He came on earth, said, "I come not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me."

And besides all the incidents related in these stories about Daniel, he was favoured by God with most wonderful visions, which informed him of the time of the coming of Jesus Christ, and many things which should happen in the last ages of the world; and Daniel is heard of as late as the reign of Cyrus the Persian, the nephew and successor of King Darius.

THE HISTORY OF QUEEN ESTHER.

THE Jews had seventy years of captivity in the country of Babylon, which was the time God had appointed and foretold for them, in punishment of their sins. At the end of this period, King Cyrus,

who was now the great king and conqueror of the Babylonish empire, published a permission to all the Jewish nation to return into their own country, and rebuild their temple, which had been desecrated and destroyed by the earlier kings of Babylon; he also ordered that the sacred vessels, which had been robbed from the Temple of Jerusalem by King Nabuchodonosor, should be taken out of the royal treasury of Babylon, and given back to the Jews for the service of God. This was about 532 years before the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. A great part, therefore, of the Jewish people went back to Jerusalem, and began the work of rebuilding the temple; but, mean time, those who remained behind in Babylon were very near being totally destroyed by a terrible massacre, as you shall hear.

A great king, named Assuerus, who is known in history by the name of Darius Hystaspes, had succeeded Cyrus as king over Persia and Babylon, and this king had a very beautiful queen named Vasthi. And one day he made a great feast at the city of Susan, where he held his court at that time, and sent some of his servants to fetch Queen Vasthi in, with the crown set upon her head, to show her beauty to all the people and the princes; for she was exceedingly beautiful. But Vasthi was very proud and wilful, and refused to obey her husband, and would not make her appearance in the banqueting hall, as the king had commanded her. Upon which the king, in great wrath against his disobedient wife, asked his nobles and counsellors what punishment the queen deserved for her bad conduct; and they, arguing that such an example in so great a person as the queen would very likely be followed by their own wives, and would make them disobedient too, decided that the queen ought to be divorced, and that the king ought to have another queen. And

this counsel pleased the king, who thereupon divorced Vasthi, and sent his officers into the different provinces to bring all the beautiful maidens they could find, for the king to choose a new queen from amongst them. This was done; and among the fair maidens brought before the king was a young Jewess named Esther. Esther was very beautiful; but what was far better was, that she was very good and pious. She had lost her parents, and had been educated by her father's brother, a Jew named Mardochai.

Mardochai was a very good man, and had taken great pains with the education of his niece, who had thus grown up in habits of piety and love of God, and great obedience to her uncle and guardian.

King Assuerus, impressed by her great beauty, made Esther his queen, and soon found that the beauty of her mind was far greater than that of her face, and he became very fond of her. And Mardochai had charged Esther to make no mention of her country and people to the king, judging that perhaps God had raised Esther to this high dignity for the safety and protection of that part of His people who were still left in the Babylonish dominions. And one day there was a plot made by two bad men against the king's life, and Mardochai discovered it; and he told it to Queen Esther, who told the king about it, and how Mardochai had discovered it. And the two bad men were hanged.

And King Assuerus had a very favourite courtier, named Aman, whom he advanced to great honours, and to whom he made great presents. And Aman was a very proud man; and having received these great marks of royal favour, he thought the whole world ought to bow down to him.

And

all the officers and servants of the king's household bent the knee to him, according to the royal order; but Mardochai, who was about the gates and courts

vourite.

of the palace, bent not his knee to the haughty faAman was therefore frantic with rage that any one, and still more a captive Jew, should refuse to give him the worship he claimed. And by no means content to resolve upon Mardochai's destruction, he bent his mind upon the massacre of the whole nation of the Jews that remained in the kingdom of Assuerus.

So Aman, filled with this wicked design, went to the king, and said, "There is a people scattered through all the provinces of thy kingdom, and separated one from another, that use new laws and ceremonies, and, moreover, despise the king's ordinances; and thou knowest very well that it is not expedient for thy kingdom that they should grow insolent by impunity. If it please thee, decree that they may be destroyed, and I will pay ten thousand talents to thy treasury." And the king replied," As to the money which thou promisest, keep it for thyself; and as to the people, do with them as seemeth good to thee."

For this wicked Aman was so great a favourite with the king that he refused him nothing; and Assuerus took off his signet-ring and gave it to Aman, that he might have full power to carry out his wish against the Jews. So Aman, now invested with royal authority, caused letters to be written sealed with this signet-ring, to all the rulers of the provinces, the judges, and others in authority, containing orders to kill and destroy all the Jews, both young and old, little children and women, in one day, and to make a spoil of their goods. And the edict was hung up in the city of Susan, where the king and Aman were feasting together. But all the Jews that were in the city were weeping and mourning over the terrible fate of themselves and all they loved. And amongst the bewailing Jews Mardochai was a chief

mourner; he put on sackcloth garments and strewed ashes on his head, and stood without the palacegates weeping and lamenting.

his

And this his sad case was told to the queen, niece, who, not knowing the terrible threat awaiting her country-people, sent him other garments to wear, thinking to console him for some unknown affliction; but he refused to take off his sackcloth, and continued his lamentation. This caused Esther to send one of her chief attendants to ask of him the reason of his behaviour; to whom Mardochai related all the history of Aman's proud and cruel conduct, and how he had obtained an order from the king for the destruction of the Jews. Mardochai also produced a copy of the cruel edict which was hanging up in Susan, and urged the attendant to show it to the queen, and admonish her from him to enter the king's presence and implore mercy for her people. At first Queen Esther sent word to her uncle that she was very unwilling to do this; for, said she, "all who are under the king's dominion know that whosoever enters the king's presence without being sent for is immediately to be put to death without any delay, except the king shall hold out the golden sceptre to him in token of clemency, that so he may live. How then can I enter the king's presence, who for these thirty days now have not been called unto him?" But Mardochai sent word to his neice that she ran equal danger to her life by being a Jewess at all, since as soon as that was discovered, she would probably share the fate of her country-people; and he added, it was probable that God had called her to be queen that she might come forward on some such occasion as this as the preserver of her people.

Then the queen, with true heroism, resolved to brave all dangers for the preservation of God's holy people; and she sent word to her uncle to entreat all