Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 October 1894 — BEAUTIFUL ESTHER. [ARTICLE]

BEAUTIFUL ESTHER.

Lessons Drawn From the Life of the Jewish Queen of Persia. In Prosperity Adversity Always True— Dr. Talmage’S Sermon for the Press. The Rev. Dr. Talmage, who is still absent on his round the world tour, selected as the subject of last Sunday’s sermon through the press “Hadassah,” the text chosen being Esther ii. 7. “And he brought up Hadassah.” A beautiful child was born in the capital of Persia. She was an orphan and a captive, her parents having been stolen from their Isrealitish home and carried to the Shushan and died, leaving their daughter .poor and in a strange land. But an Isrealite who had been carried into the same captivity was attracted by the case of the orphan. He educated her in his holy religion, and under thejroof of that good man this adopted child began to develop a sweetness and excellency of character, if ever equalled, certainly never surpassed. Beautiful Hadassah! Could that adopted father ever spare her from his household? Her artlessness, her girlish sports, her innocence, her orphanage, had wound themselves thoroughly around his heart; just as around each parent’s heart among us these tendrils climbing and fastening and blossoming and growing stronger. I expect he was like others who have loVed ones at home— wondering sometimes if sickness will come and death and bereavement. Alas, worse than anything the father expects happens to his adopted child! Ahasuerus, a princely scoundrel, demands that Hadassah, the fairest one in all the kingdom, become his wife. Worse than death this marriage to such a •monster of iniquity. How great the change when this young woman left the home where God was worshipped and honored to enter a palace devoted to pride, idolatry and sensualityi “Asa lamb to the slaughter!” Ahasuerus knew not that his wife was a Jewess. At the instigation of the infamous prime minister the king decreed that all the Jews in the land should be slain. Hadassah pleads the cause of her people, breaking through the rules of the court and presenting herself in the very face of death, crying, “If I perish, I perish!” Oh, it was a sad time among that enslaved people! They had all heard the decree concerning their death. Sorrow, gaunt and ghastly, sat in thousands of households, and mothers wildly pressed their infants to their breasts as the days of massacre hastened on, praying that the sword stroke which slew the mother might also slay the child, rosebud and bud perishing in the same bl ast. But Hadassah is busy at court. The hard heart of the king is touched by her story, and although he could not reverse the decree for the slaying of the Jews, he sent forth an order that they should arm themselves for defense. On horseback, on mules, on dromedaries messengers sped through the land, bearing the king’s dispatches, and a shout of joy went up from that enslaved people at the faint hope of success. I doubt not many a rusty blade was Aaken down and sharpened. Unbearded youths grew stout as giants at the thought of defending mothers and sisters. Desperation strung up cowards into heroes, and fragile women, grasping their weapons, swung them about the cradles, impatient for the time to strike the blow in behalf of household and country. The day of execution dawned. Government officials, armed and drilled, cowed befored the battle shout of the oppressed people. The cry of defeat rang back to the palaces, but above the mountains of dead, above 75,000 crushed and mangled corpses, sounded the triumph of the delivered Jews, and their enthusiasm was as when the highlanders came to the relief of Lucknow, and the English army, which stood in the very jaws of death, at the sudden hope of assistance and rescue, lifted the shout above belching cannon and the death groan of hosts, crying, "We are saved! We are saved!” My subject affor .j me opportunity of illustrating what Christian character may be under the greatest disadvantages. In the first place, our subject is an illustration of what Christian character may be under orphanage. This Bible line tells a long story about Hadassah. “She had neither father nor mother.” A nobleman had become her guardian, but there is no one who can take the place of a parent. Who so able at night to hear a child’s prayer, or at twilight to chide youthful wanderings or to soothe youthful sorrows? An individual will go through life bearing the marks of orphanage. It would require more strength, more persistence, more grace, to make such a one the right kind of a Christian. He-who at forty years loses a parent must reel under the blow. Even down to old ige men are accustomed to relv upon the counsel or be powerfully influenced by the advice of parents if they are still alive. But how much greater the bereavement when it comes in early life before the character is selfreliant and when naturally the heart is unsophisticated and easily led into temptation. And yet behold what a nobility of disposition Hadassah exhibited. Though father and mother were gone, grace had triumphed over all disadvantages. Her willingness to self-sacrifice, her control over the King, her humility, her faithful worl ship of God, show her to have been

one of the best of the world’s Chri* tiansj , • Agai'n our subject is an Illustration of what religion may be undei the pressure of poverty. The captivity and crushed condition of thii orphan girl and of the kind man who adopted her suggest a condition of poverty. Yet from the very first acquaintance we had with Hadassah we fin<j her the same happy and contented Christian. It was only by compulsion she was afterward taken into a sphere of honor and affluence. In the humble home of Mordecai, her adopted father, she was a light that illumined every privation. In some period in almost every man’s life there comes a season of straitened circumstances, when the severest calculation and most scraping economy are necessary in order to subsistence and respectability. At the commencement of business, at the entrance upon a profession, when friends are few and the world is afraid of you because there is a possibility of failure, many of the noblest hearts that have struggled against poverty and are now struggling. To such I hear a message of good cheer. You have never told any one of what a hard time you have had, but God knows it as wellas you know it. Your easy times will come after a while. Do not let your spirits break down midlife. What if your coat is thin? Run fast enough to keep warm. What if you have no luxuries on your table? High expectations will make your blood tingle better than the best Maderia. If you can not afford to smoke you can afford to whistle. But merely animal spirits are not sufficient; the power of the gospel—that is what you want to wrench despair out of the soul and put you forward into the front of the hosts incased in impenetrable armor. Again, our subject illustrates what religion may be under the temptation of personal attractiveness. The inspired record says of the heroine of my text, “She was fair and beautiful.” Her very name signified “a myrtle. ’’ Yet the admiration and praise and flattery of the world did not blight her humility. The simplicity of her manner and behavior equalled her extraordinary attractions. It is the same divine goodness which puts the tinge on the rose’s cheek, and the whiteness into the lily, and the gleam on the wave, and that puts color ip. the cheek, and sparkle in majesty in the foreheadfiWnd symmetry into the form.J^a; gracefulness into the gait*’ But many through the very charm of their personal appearance /nave been destroyed. Again, our subject exhibits what religion may be under bad domestic influences, Hadassah was snatched from the godly home into which she had been adopted and introduced into the abominable associations of which wicked Ahasuerus was the center. What a Whirl of blasphemy and drunkenness and licentiousness! No altar, no prayer, no Sabbath, no God! If this captive girl can be a Christian there, then it is possible to be a Christian anywhere. There are many of the best, people of the world who are obliged to contend with the most adverse domestic influences, children who have grown up into the love of God under the -frown of parents and under the discouragement of bad example. Some sister of the family having possessed the faith of Jesus is the subject of unbounded satire inflicted by brothers and sisters- Yea, Hadassah was not the only Christian who had a queer husband.

Finally our subject illustrates what religion may be in high worldly position. The last we see in the Bible of Persia. -Prepare now to see the departure of her humility and self-facrifice and religious principle. As she goes up you may expect grace to go down. It is easier to be humble in the obscure house of her adopted father than on a throne of dominion. But you misjudge this noble woman. What she is now—the myrtle. Applauded for her beauty and her crown,she forgets not the cause of her suffering people and with all simplicty of heart still remains a worshipper of the. God of heaven. Noble example, followed only by a very few. I address some who, through the goodness of God, have risen to positions of influence in the community where you live. In law, in merchandise, in medicine, in mechanics and in other useful occupations and professions you hold an influence for good or for evil. Let us see whether, like Hadassah, you can stand elevation. While last autumn all through the forests there were luxuriant trees with moderate outbranch and moderate bight, pretending but little, there were .foliage plants that shot far up, looking down with contempt on the whole forest, clapping their hands in the breeze and shouting, “Aha, do you not wish you were as high up as we are?” But last week a blast let loose from the north came rushing along and grappling the boasting oaks hurled them to the ground, and as they went down an old tree that had been singing psalms with the thunder a hundred summers cried out, “Pride goeth before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall.” And humble hickory and pine and chestnut that had never said their prayers before bowed their heads as much as to say, “Amen.” My friends, “God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble.” Take from my subject encouragement Attempt the service of God whatever your disaffvMHagdk, and whatever our lot let us seek that grace which outehonerWi the splendors of the palaces of Shushau.