gave the Jews full time to
prepare themselves to resist their foes, and defend themselves after the
issuing of the second edict, by which they were empowered to act on
their own defence, and to repel openly by armed resistance.

The book of Esther is one of the most beautiful and variously
instructive and interesting portions of the Old Testament. While it
illustrates the providential care of Jehovah over all his people, and
his readiness to hear their prayers and interpose for their deliverance,
it shows too that he ruleth over all the nations of the earth, and that
all the arts of intriguing men in courts and cabinets, the various
changes which occur, either affecting nations or individuals, are all
allowed to promote his infinite designs--all accomplishing his eternal
plans. While his people, like Esther and Mordecai, gladly co-operate in
the designs of the Almighty, his enemies are made the unwitting and
unwilling instruments of advancing the same designs, and are
accomplishing his purposes for the re-generation of a corrupt world--for
the establishment of the kingdom of the redeemed, and the complete
redemption of the children of God.

As we look at the book of Esther, through the long dark vista of
intervening ages, we are presented with a beautiful picture of a past
period. Nations have perished and left no memories; and while all the
other portion of our world, at that day, is shrouded in darkness or
buried in forgetfulness, the light of revelation falls upon the court
of Ahasuerus, and we see it in all the gorgeous splendour of oriental
magnificence.

The prosperous monarch of a powerful empire--munificent, prodigal, not
deficient in capacity or heart, but indolent, and fond of luxury and
feasting, he yields himself to the influence of the favourite; and when
ready to rush into the seductions of pleasure, he still, at times,
rouses himself and executes his own will, asserting his authority by
some act of despotic power, of justice or cruelty, as the impulse
prompts--he is a type of a large class of those to whom the destinies of
more modern nations have been committed.

In Haman we see the courtier--crafty, proud, vain, ambitious,
aspiring--intent upon personal aggrandizement, and the acquisition of
wealth; gaining his influence over the mind of the monarch by
ministering to his pleasures, and maintaining it by banishing all pure
influences and crushing all nobler feelings. The history of Haman is
replete