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8 (1016)
The Sunday School
ESTHER PLEADING FOR HER
PEOPLE.
Esther 4:10; 5:3. Nov. 5th, 1011.
It is Interesting in studying the Book
r\t * - -> ?
vn uduici, io icuu in connection tne
secular history of this time. The Aha.
suerus of the book, is the Xerxes of
secular history, who with an army esti.
mated from one and a half millions to
five millions made war upon Greece.
Some idea of his character and unruly
disposition is seen when, having bridged
the Hellespont and a storm having swept
away the bridge, he ordered the execution
of the engineers, whipped the
Hellespont with rods and cast fetters
into it to bind it. He seems to have
loved the display of a great army and
was not successful in discipline or in
drilling it into an efficient fighting organization.
This great army with which he was
to conquer the world was repulsed by
T rfifin M Qc'o If-fflj* Vwo *-? ri - *
?WWU.UMW a i?iv?v uauu im a|iariilll8 ill
Thermopylae, defeated at Marathon and
Its fleet destroyed at Salamls.
TTpon his return to Persia, he gave
himself up to the pleasures of his harem
composed of the most beautiful of the
women of the land, chief amons whom
was Fsther. the Jewess whom he later
evalted to he oueen. He had divorced
Oueen Vashtal before his Grecian campaign
because would not submit to
the Indignity of showing her beauty to
an assemblage of drunken lords. As he
fooHshlv tried to hind the Hellespont hv
a decree, so he and his drunken counselors
,1ust as foolishly made a decree that
all wives should give their husbands
honor, both great and small. No decree
can ever make a good woman give honor
to a drunken fool. The elevation of
TCctfenf ?
uwu i en iuui years auer tins
l!me.
The Book of Esther is not intended as
a glorification of any individual, al.
though Mordecai and Esther have at. '
tained renown for their heroism wisdom
and devotion to their people; it is a
lesson in the providence of God and an
illustration of h's foreordination. Tt was
especially needed at a time when in cap.
tivity they were apt to forget their God
or to despair of his care of them.
The name of God is not mentioned in
the book, but the hand of God is every,
where visible. There is as much of God
in it as there is in Paul's Epistle to the
Romans. And there Is also a direct acknowledgment
of him when Esther commands
the people to fast before she goes
in unto tne King. Fasting and prayer
include confession to God and a belief In
him.
In the book, we have an example of
God's foreordaining everything that
comes to pass. We also are shown the
manner of his foreordaining, that it is
not the decreasing of an end to be accomplished,
but attention to the very
smallest details, events that had escaped
the attention of the king and of Haman
are shown to have been a part of God's
plan. It shows God working through
instruments and emphasizes the human
element in God's purposes. Esther and
Mordecai do not act upon the fatalistic
theory that somehow God decrees with,
out reference to their acts. Mordecai be.
lieves that God will accomplish his purnnup
in deliverine the .Tewn bnf h? ha
lleves also that God will work out his
plans through him and Esther and If
they prove unfaithful In the work that Is
plain to them, then they will he held accountable,
and will be destroyed.
Mordecaf could not solve God's mind,
but a study of the events that led up to
this crisis, convinced him that Esther
was come to the kingdom for such a
TtLE PKESBYTERI
time as this. This seemed to him the
will of God, and doing that will was all
that concerned him and not the reason
that lay behind in the mind of God.
Note God's preparation for the deliverance.
Esther, through a series of
providences, is exalted to the throne before
there is even a whisper of enmity
against the Jews. Being separated from
her people for five years, it is not gen.
erally known that she belongs to this
people, so that when the time comes for
her to act in their behalf, she can do so
without arousing the suspicion of Haman
and his adherents.
Not only did he foreordain the deliver,
ance, but decreed the smallest detail.
For illustration, he gave Mordecai the
opportunity to do the king a service
(Chap. 6) for which Mordecai had received
no thanks or reward. This may
have seemed strange and Mordecai no
doubt thought poorly of the gratitude
of the king and the thanklessness of
humanity. But the deferred reward is
Been to be God's planning and is stored
up for a time of greater need. Also
when the appointed time is come, for
some reason the king has a sleepless
night and asks for some dry reading to
put him to sleep. The book of Chronicles
was dry enough and the page that was
read was the one which recorded Mordecai's
service to the king. Was It all
chance?
Tf God could ordain such little things
as an Indigestion or the buzzing of an
Insect to keep the king awake in order
to effect a mighty deliverance, can we
not helleve that God foreordains everything
that comes to pass. If he could
thus carefully lay his plans years In ad_
vance, can we not believe that he can
foreordain and predestinate from all
eternity?
We are also taught the futility of attempting
to fight against God. Haman Invokes
the lot to determine the best day
for the execution of his revenge. But
the disnoslng of the lot Is of God. He
was after a lucky day. hut he had left
Hrn out or niR calculations and the lucky
dav was for the Jews.
He had carefully planned and successfully
concealed every detail of the wholesale
slaughter of the Jews. So he
thought; but he was matching his foresight
against God's fore-knowledge and
had overlooked the one obstruction that
God had thrust Into the cogs of his ma.
chlnery which would wreck the whole.
God has not overlooked anything. It is
said that every criminal overlooks something
In his plans, or disregards some
apparently slight circumstance which
will prove the means to his undoing.
Such was the case with Haman; with
all the Ingenuity of malice he had carefully
prepared for the Jews' destruction,
but he did not think of Esther. God
did. "For It is written, I will destroy
the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to
nothing the understanding of the prudent."
uoa Bays or all the devices of the
wicked, "I will overturn, overturn, overturn
It." He overturned Haman's day
of luck. He made his plans to work to
the contrary, what Haman designed to
be a day of gloom and death, became
such to Haman and a day of gladness to
the Jews unto this day. "Surely the
wrath of man shall praise thee; the re.
mainder of wrath shalt thou restrain."
In reading the book, we see the finish,
ed work, but to the Jews this was a time
of great affliction, of confusion, of darkness.
In such times as this, what a comfort
it is to believe in a God who knows
the end from the beginning and from
ancient times the things that are not yet
come to pass. A God, with whom there
is no chance, but who has promised to
make all things work together for good
to them that love God, to hem who
(Continued on Pace SI.)
AN O f X fi a SOUTH
Young People's Societies
GREAT LIVES: JOHN.
Topic for Sunday, November 5: Lcs.
sons from Great Lives, XI. John 21:
20.25.
DAILY READINGS.
Monday: Sympathy with Jesus. Mark
5:35.43.
Tuesday: The Mount of Vision.
Matthew 17:1-9.
Wednesday: Near the Master. John
13:23-26.
Thursday: Pillar of the Church.
Galatians, 2: 9-10.
Friday: The Counsellor. 1 John 2:1-7.
Saturday: The Martyr. Revelation 1:9.
John's was indeed a great life, great
in goodness, great in gentleness, great in
grace, great in giving of himself to the
Ix>rd and the Ix>rd's work.
He was one of the first two called to
be followers of Christ at the River
Jordan, and tradition makes him the
last of the twelve to die.
He was by reports the youngest of all
the disciples and lived to a great old
age, above ninety. He had the benefit
or both impressionable youth and great
maturity.
It Is a splendid thing to spend practically
all of one's life, and a very long
life, in the fellowship and work of Christ,
advancing, developing, ripening, bringing
forth fruit all the time. Such was
John's good fortune.
He was admitted to the closest intimacy
with Christ and was one of the
favored few who witnessed such events
as the raising of Jairus' daughter, the
transfiguration scene, and the Gethse.
mane agony.
One of the last utterances of Christ
when on the cross was to John, committing
to the trusted disciple the care
of his mother, an instance of confidence
and love unequalled among the disciples,
and evidently the crowning earthly token
of that love.
Next to Paul, John was permitted to
give the largest New Testament testimony
to ChriBt and the gospel. His
Gospel, his General Epistle, his two
minor epistles, to Electa and Gaius, and
the Revelation, show the place he was
made to fill by the inspiration of the
->irit of God.
UA IU1 Ji ?" *
w?s me uisuipie wnom jesus
loved." In his modesty he does not call
himself by name in telling of the testament
scenes in the Saviour's life, but
speaks of himself in the third person.
His very nearness to Christ made him
humble and lowly, as his Master was.
It is a mistake to think of John only
as a gentle, tender man. He was one
of the two who were so indignant at
the treatment that Christ once received
that they wished to call down Are from
heaven to destroy the offenders, and thus
earned the name of Boanerges.
He was an ambitious man, too. It
mnof V> ntf a ? 1 V- ii '
u.uok iiuro wen wilii me consent, and
connivance as well, of James and John
that their mother went to Jesus and
asked for them positions of special honor
when the I^ord should come in his King,
dom. They had an ambition that needed
to be curbed.
John seemed to be possessed of means,
but was not hurt by it. His father con.
ducted a large fishery, with many boats
and men. He was well known, and in
a day that meant that means were
possessed to the high-priest's household.
He had a home to which he could take
the mother of Jesus.
Yet I doubt not through the ages one
increasing purpose runs,
And the thoughts of men are widened
with the process of the suns.
?Tennyson.
[ October 25, ltfll
The Prayer Meeting
THE CHURCH'S COMMISSION.
Mark 16:15.18.
Week of October 29.
In a very important and solemn re.
spect the Church which is the body of
Christ is his permanent representative
in th? earth. His people are his wit
nesses, they are to testify to his truth,
they are to imitate his example and walk
in his ways. They are to make known
his gospel in all the world, emphasize
its principles, be zealous for its purity,
defend it from enemies and magnify itd*^
importance. They are to importune dy.
ig humanity to receive its message, accept
the salvation which it offers and
live in the service of the Hord who
bought them. To this end they are to
give of their time, thmio'tit t?u
possessions, their entire lives.
Tt is noteworthy that the stupendous
task of evangelizing the world has been
committed to so frail an agency as sin.
ful men and women. The apostle as.
signs a reason for th's when he says.
"We have this treasure in earthen vessels
that the excellency of the power
may he of God and not of us." The one
reouirement is that we place ourselves
in our Master's hands that each of us
may he made "a vessel unto honor,
sanctified and meet for the Maseh's use,
prepared unto everv good work." Such
through all t'me has been the means
used for extending his kingdom and such
is hi? nurnose even unto the end of the
world.
Tt has often been pointed out that the
company to whom Christ's great com.
m'ssion was given consisted of laymen
and not of doctors of tho law nrioofo
scribes, or ordained ministers. This Is
onlv part'ally true, for early In his ministry,
he had "called his twelve disciples
together and sent them to preach the
kingdom of God." This was the best kind
of ordination. But the commission wag
jrfven to the Church aR such and not to
Its offlcp bearers. Everv member of the
body of Christ Is Included and everv
human being wbo hears and understands
the erospel call Is resnnnsible for being
a. member of Christ's hodv. and thetefora
responsible for a share In the ereat
task of ovaneellzlne th" human race. A
nart of our T/ord's nnrnose In sav^ne us
Is to use Us and when we fall to be
used we place ourselves In conflict with
his will.
An encouraging feature of church life
and organization todav is the growing
realization that every believer in Christ
is to be a follower; and if a follower,
then a servant, so that greater numbers
may be enlisted and have their person,
ality count for more, have heir purposes
and sympathies intensified by blending
witb others and their zeal confirmed and
directed by concerted effort.
The opportunities were never so great.
The kingdoms of this world have to a
large extent discarded the weapons of
their opposition. The Christian religion
commends itself to every intelligent ob_
server hy the light that It diffuses and
the fruit that it bears. Men are brought
into closer contact than formerly and
therefore have more interests in common.
The merely rational and social influence
of Christianity is bringing the
ideals of life nearer to a common level.
There is a greater realization that we
must either save society or society will
destroy us. People of many nationalities
are mingling in given localities and
every nation is deriving Influence from
many others. It would seem that the
noHnd frv n '
.m me mini, supreme effort to
carry the light to the remotest part of
the earth Is at hand.