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"provinces of his kingdom that they might gather
"together all the fair young virgins," and bring
them to his palace, put them in the custody of
his chamberlain, and have them thoroughly washed.
Then the king was to look over the lot and take
each day the one that pleased him best until he found
the one to put in the place of Vashti. A fellow by
the name of Mordecai, living in that part of the
country, hearing of the opportunity to sell a girl,
brought Esther, his uncle's daughter,--she being an
orphan, and very beautiful--to see whether she
might not be the lucky one.
The remainder of the second chapter of this
book, I do not care to repeat. It is sufficient to say
that Esther at last was chosen.
The king at this time did not know that Esther
was a Jewess. Mordecai her kinsman, however,
discovered a plot to assassinate the king, and Esther
told the king, and the two plotting gentlemen were
hanged on a tree.
After a while, a man by the name of Haman was
made Secretary of State, and everybody coming in
his presence bowed except Mordecai. Mordecai was
probably depending on the influence of Esther.
Haman finally became so vexed, that he made up
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his mind to have all the Jews in the kingdom
destroyed. (The number of Jews at that time
in Persia must have been immense.) Haman there-
upon requested the king to have an order issued to
destroy all the Jews, and in consideration of the
order, proposed to pay ten thousand talents of silver.
And thereupon, letters were written to the governors
of the various provinces, sealed with the king's ring,
sent by post in all directions, with instructions to kill
all the Jews, both young and old--little children and
women,--in one day. (One would think that the
king copied this order from another part of the Old
Testament, or had found an original by Jehovah.) The
people immediately made preparations for the killing.
Mordecai clothed himself with sack-cloth, and Esther
called upon one of the king's chamberlains, and she
finally got the history of the affair, as well as a copy
of the writing, and thereupon made up her mind to
go in and ask the king to save her people.
At that time, Bismarck's idea of government being
in full force, any one entering the king's presence with-
out an invitation, was liable to be put to death. And
in case any one did go in to see the king, if the king
failed to hold out his golden sceptre, his life was not
spared. Notwithstanding this order, Esther put on
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her best clothes, and stood in the inner court of the
king's house, while the king sat on his royal throne.
When the king saw her standing in the court, he
held out his sceptre, and Esther drew near, and he
asked her what she wished; and thereupon she
asked that the king and Haman might take dinner
with her that day, and it was done. While they were
feasting, the king again asked Esther what she
wanted; and her second request was, that they
would come and dine with her once more. When
Haman left the palace that day, he saw Mordecai
again at the gate, standing as stiffly as usual, and it
filled Haman with indignation. So Haman, taking
the advice of his wife, made a gallows fifty cubits
high, for the special benefit of Mordecai. The next
day, when Haman went to see the king, the king,
having the night before refreshed his memory in
respect to the service done him by Mordecai, asked
Haman what ought to be done for the man whom
the king wished to honor. Haman, supposing of
course that the king referred to him, said that royal
purple ought to be brought forth, such as the king
wore, and the horse that the king rode on, and the
crown-royal should be set on the man's head;--that
one of the most noble princes should lead the horse,
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and as he went through the streets, proclaim: "Thus
"shall it be done to the man whom the king de-
"lighteth to honor."
Thereupon the king told Haman that Mordecai
was the man that the king wished to honor. And
Haman was forced to lead this horse, backed by
Mordecai, through the streets, shouting: "This shall
"be done to the man whom the king delighteth to
"honor." Immediately afterward, he went to the
banquet that Esther had prepared, and the king
again asked Esther her petition. She then asked
for the salvation of her people; stating at the same
time, that if her people had been sold into slavery,
she would have held her tongue; but since they
were about to be killed, she could not keep silent.
The king asked her who had done this thing; and
Esther replied that it was the wicked Haman.
Thereupon one of the chamberlains, remembering
the gallows that had been made for Mordecai, men-
tioned it, and the king immediately ordered that
Haman be hanged thereon; which was done. And
Mordecai immediately became Secretary of State.
The order against the Jews was then rescinded; and
Ahasuerus, willing to do anything that Esther de-
sired, hanged all of Haman's folks. He not only did
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this, but he immediately issued an order to all the
Jews allowing them to kill the other folks. And the
Jews got together throughout one hundred and
twenty-seven provinces, "and such was their power,
"that no man could stand against them; and there-
"upon the Jews smote all their enemies with the
"stroke of the sword, and with slaughter and de-
"struction, and did whatever they pleased to those
"who hated them." And in the palace of the king,
the Jews slew and destroyed five hundred men, besides
ten sons of Haman; and in the rest of the provinces,
they slew seventy-five thousand people. And after
this work of slaughter, the Jews had a day of glad-
ness and feasting.
One can see from this, what a beautiful Bible
character Esther was--how filled with all that is
womanly, gentle, kind and tender!
This story is one of the most unreasonable, as well
as one of the most heartless and revengeful, in the
whole Bible. Ahasuerus was a monster, and Esther
equally infamous; and yet, this woman is held up for
the admiration of mankind by a Brooklyn pastor.
There is this peculiarity about the book of Esther:
the name of God is not mentioned in it, and the
deity is not referred to, directly or indirectly;--yet
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it is claimed to be an inspired book. If Jehovah
wrote it, he certainly cannot be charged with
egotism.
I most cheerfully admit that the book of Ruth is
quite a pleasant story, and the affection of Ruth for
her mother-in-law exceedingly touching, but I am of
opinion that Ruth did many things that would be re-
garded as somewhat indiscreet, even in the city of
Brooklyn.
All I can find about Hannah is, that she made a
little coat for her boy Samuel, and brought it to him
from year to year. Where he got his vest and
pantaloons we are not told. But this fact seems
hardly enough to make her name immortal.
So also Mr. Talmage refers us to the wonderful
woman Abigail. The story about Abigail, told in
plain English, is this: David sent some of his fol-
lowers to Nabal, Abigail's husband, and demanded
food. Nabal, who knew nothing about David, and
cared less, refused. Abigail heard about it, and took
food to David and his servants. She was very much
struck, apparently, with David and David with her.
A few days afterward Nabal died--supposed to have
been killed by the Lord--but probably poisoned;
and thereupon David took Abigail to wife. The
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whole matter should have been investigated by the
grand jury.
We are also referred to Dorcas, who no doubt was a
good woman--made clothes for the poor and gave
alms, as millions have done since then. It seems
that this woman died. Peter was sent for, and there-
upon raised her from the dead, and she is never men-
tioned any more. Is it not a little strange that a
woman who had been actually raised from the dead,
should have so completely passed out of the memory
of her time, that when she died the second time, she
was entirely unnoticed?
Is it not astonishing that so little is in the New
Testament concerning the mother of Christ? My
own opinion is, that she was an excellent woman, and
the wife of Joseph; and that Joseph was the actual
father of Christ. I think there can be no reasonable
doubt that such was the opinion of the authors of the
original gospels. Upon any other hypothesis, it is
impossible to account for their having given the
genealogy of Joseph to prove that Christ was of the
blood of David. The idea that he was the Son of
God, or in any way miraculously produced, was an
afterthought, and is hardly entitled now to serious
consideration. The gospels were written so long after
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the death of Christ, that very little was known of him,
and substantially nothing of his parents. How is it
that not one word is said about the death of Mary--
not one word about the death of Joseph? How did
it happen that Christ did not visit his mother after his
resurrection? The first time he speaks to his mother
is when he was twelve years old. His mother having
told him that she and his father had been seeking
him, he replied: "How is it that ye sought me: wist
"ye not that I must be about my Father s business?"
The second time was at the marriage feast in Cana,
when he said to her: "Woman, what have I to do
"with thee?" And the third time was at the cross,
when "Jesus, seeing his mother standing by the
"disciple whom he loved, said to her: Woman, be-
"hold thy son;" and to the disciple: "Behold thy
"mother." And this is all.
The best thing about the Catholic Church is
the deification of Mary,--and yet this is denounced
by Protestantism as idolatry. There is something
in the human heart that prompts man to tell his faults
more freely to the mother than to the father. The
cruelty of Jehovah is softened by the mercy of
Mary.