in Egypt. He died as he had lived, a martyr for the truth, but left behind a great name and fame. None of the prophets was more venerated in after ages. And no one more than he resembled, in his sufferings and life, that greater Prophet and Sage who was led as a lamb to the slaughter, that the world through him might be saved. XI. MORDECAI AND ESTHER. JEWISH STATESMEN IN FOREIGN LANDS. HERE is no story in the Bible told with greater THER simplicity and beauty than that of which Mordecai is the hero and Esther the heroine. That of Joseph may exceed it in pathos, and that of David in religious interest, but no other Bible story has greater fascination, or is more suggestive. In every line the narrative sheds light on Oriental history. It is a rich. condensed, and brilliant fragment. It pertains to a period about 485 B. C., about one hundred years after the Jews were led captive to Babylon. The Assyrian and Babylonian empires had both fallen, and given place to the Persian empire, as consolidated by Cyrus, in his day the greatest of all the Eastern conquerors. It embraced at this time one hundred and twenty-seven provinces, which comprehended all the countries from the Indus to the Mediterranean, and from the Black and Caspian seas to the extreme south of Arabia. The capital of this great empire was Susa, or Shushan, situated on a branch of the Tigris, a city not so remarkable for its size as for the magnificence of the royal palace and the vast wealth gathered in it, about sixty million dollars. In this imperial palace, one thousand feet square, the monarch lived with everything to gratify the senses, alike absolute and unapproachable. The reigning prince at the time of our story was Ahasuerus, the Xerxes of the Greeks; beautiful, ambitious, ostentatious, vain, arbitrary, sensual, the most powerful monarch of his age, before whom the Eastern world bowed with abject submission. It was in the third year of his reign that he invaded Greece with the largest army known to ancient or modern times. But before setting out on the expedition in which he confidently expected to join Greece to his empire, and perhaps Europe, he gave a great feast to the various princes and generals of Persia and Media commanding in his army. For one hundred and eighty days previously there had been national revels and fêtes in the gardens of the palace for the people of his capital; but this last banquet, of seven consecutive days, closed the grand festivities. The sacred narrative begins with this great state banquet, when Ahasuerus inflamed with wine, and in all the pride of irresponsible power, ordered his chamberlains, or eunuchs, to bring to the royal banqueting table Vashti, his queen, that his courtiers and nobles |