FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   >>  
, too, with instruction, in displaying the absorbing power of the selfish and malignant passions, and their fatal influence upon character and happiness. One unsatisfied desire will embitter all the most coveted possessions. There will ever be something to be achieved--some enemy to humble, some higher elevation to attain, some Mordecai in the gate, whose reverence withheld is more desirable than all the homage of the multitude bestowed. He who cherishes in his heart a hatred of a class or an individual, is nursing a scorpion which will poison every kind feeling. We must love, not only to make others happy, but that we may be happy ourselves. We may withhold all marks of approbation from the unworthy, and still regard them with the benevolence required by the law of love. Thus while Mordecai saw in Haman the same persecuting spirit that had marked all his race; while he saw him, unholy, unprincipled, securing by his acts an influence over his master, which he abused; prostituting the royal authority to the ruin of the kingdom, making it subserve the purpose of his own unhallowed ambition; alienating the monarch from the queen, and inducing the disregard of the duties of private life as of sovereign power--Mordecai, as an upright, honourable, high-minded man, refused to render one, whose course he deprecated, whose character he abhorred, the honour accorded even by royal favour. He neither bowed nor did him reverence. But he did not assail him. He did not form any dark and treacherous plots against him. He did not revile him. All that he sought was to lead the blinded monarch to a calm investigation into the proceedings of his treacherous counsellor. And Haman had every opportunity of repelling accusation and justifying himself, as he was ever allowed to be present when Esther made her charges against him. There is a world-wide difference between the firm, indignant disapprobation with which a virtuous mind regards an evil man, working ill to all, and that malignant hatred which arises from selfishness and envy, and which pursues with bitterness and cruelty all that does not minister to its indulgence. If it should seem strange to us that the national antipathy should so long be cherished, we may remember that it is quite as strange that national character should be thus faithfully transmitted through so many generations; and those who so confidently predict a change of character from the mere change of the circu
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   >>  



Top keywords:

character

 

Mordecai

 

hatred

 

strange

 

national

 

change

 

treacherous

 

monarch

 
reverence
 

malignant


influence

 

opportunity

 

deprecated

 

repelling

 

counsellor

 

proceedings

 

investigation

 
abhorred
 

accusation

 

justifying


charges
 

Esther

 

allowed

 

present

 

blinded

 

assail

 

accorded

 

sought

 

selfish

 

revile


passions

 

honour

 

favour

 
cherished
 

remember

 
instruction
 

absorbing

 

displaying

 

antipathy

 

faithfully


transmitted

 
predict
 
confidently
 
generations
 

working

 

virtuous

 
disapprobation
 

indignant

 

arises

 

minister