The book of Esther is one of the most beautiful and variously instructive and interesting portions of the Old Testament.  While it illustrates the providential care of Jehovah over all his people, and his readiness to hear their prayers and interpose for their deliverance, it shows too that he ruleth over all the nations of the earth, and that all the arts of intriguing men in courts and cabinets, the various changes which occur, either affecting nations or individuals, are all allowed to promote his infinite designs—­all accomplishing his eternal plans.  While his people, like Esther and Mordecai, gladly co-operate in the designs of the Almighty, his enemies are made the unwitting and unwilling instruments of advancing the same designs, and are accomplishing his purposes for the re-generation of a corrupt world—­for the establishment of the kingdom of the redeemed, and the complete redemption of the children of God.

As we look at the book of Esther, through the long dark vista of intervening ages, we are presented with a beautiful picture of a past period.  Nations have perished and left no memories; and while all the other portion of our world, at that day, is shrouded in darkness or buried in forgetfulness, the light of revelation falls upon the court of Ahasuerus, and we see it in all the gorgeous splendour of oriental magnificence.

The prosperous monarch of a powerful empire—­munificent, prodigal, not deficient in capacity or heart, but indolent, and fond of luxury and feasting, he yields himself to the influence of the favourite; and when ready to rush into the seductions of pleasure, he still, at times, rouses himself and executes his own will, asserting his authority by some act of despotic power, of justice or cruelty, as the impulse prompts—­he is a type of a large class of those to whom the destinies of more modern nations have been committed.

In Haman we see the courtier—­crafty, proud, vain, ambitious, aspiring—­intent upon personal aggrandizement, and the acquisition of wealth; gaining his influence over the mind of the monarch by ministering to his pleasures, and maintaining it by banishing all pure influences and crushing all nobler feelings.  The history of Haman is replete, 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.