had left his accustomed seat among the king's officers, and was sitting "without, clothed in sackcloth with ashes." "Then was the queen exceedingly grieved, and she sent raiment to clothe Mordecai, and to take away his sackcloth from him, but he received them not." What! were the eyes that had so long looked upon the glare of royalty—upon the jewels of the diadem and the purple of the throneunable to endure the sight of sackcloth and ashes? It does not appear strange to us that the king, her husband, should ask the sorrowing Nehemiah, on a similar occasion, "Why is thy countenance sad, seeing thou art not sick?" for he knew not the heart of a stranger, and could not enter into the feelings which oppressed the mind of that servant of God in beholding the afflictions of "his brethren, his kinsmen according to the flesh;" but that Esther, who was reared amid sackcloth and ashes-whose youth had passed away among those who were accustomed to mourning, and lamentation, and woe," and whose heart must have whispered to her, 'is there not a cause?'-that she-a daughter of Jerusalemshould have sent the emissaries of luxury, with fine raiment, to take away Mordecai's sackcloth, as a thing unbecoming the dignity of his office and her own high station, discovers to us a fearful state of mind in one who should have known, that "when pride cometh then cometh a snare, but with the lowly is wisdom:" that "the heart knoweth its own bitterness, and a stranger doth not intermeddle with his joy." Oh! foolish thought of a heart hardened by prosperity, to suppose that the trappings of luxury could beguile the heavy-laden soul of the burden it was called to bear!-that the wounds of sorrow 66 could be healed by the mere touch of a royal hand! How could Mordecai 'go delicately,' with the bitterness of death in full prospect before him, with the sword hanging by a single hair over his own head and that of his devoted countrymen! Well might he have exclaimed to those who would have taken away his sackcloth from him, and clothed him with purple," Miserable comforters are ye all! ease me of the burden of my grief, remove the cause of my anguish, and bid me not rejoice while that remains." And thus it is with the soul which has made discovery of the sentence gone forth against itself, and registered among the irrevocable decrees of the King of kings, "the soul that sinneth it shall die." Then, whatever may have been its former relish of this world's joys, the dark uncertainty of terror, or the pallid misgivings of fear, forbid it any longer to take pleasure in them, and force from it that "loud and bitter cry." "Oh! wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me!" In this case, how often does the hand of misguided affection seek to charm away the grief of the soul, by the sounds of music and revelry, by the fascinations of pleasure, or the excitement of change: how many well-meant remonstrances are addressed in accents of kindness, "Put off thy sackcloth from thee-take thine ease eat, drink and be merry:" yet will not such an one “hear the voice of the charmer, charm he never so wisely:" but, tell him of a mediator who has gone into the royal presence, and touched the golden sceptre of justice, that mercy might go forth-tell him of one who has obtained a decree of life for the decree of condemnation, and then will he quickly put on the “oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness;" then will he gird himself resolutely to combat his spiritual foes, with the watchword in his mouth, "Greater is he that is for us, than he that is against us." Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth, who is he that condemneth: it is Christ that died, yea rather that is risen again, who ever liveth to make intercession for us." LYDIA. OUR YOUTHFUL QUEEN. OUR youthful Queen! her forehead bears Our youthful Queen! unwritten still As when some guard ship anchored far, Herself o'er many a quicksand been! Long may that signal light shine forth, Our youthful Queen! long may she live! Shall say,' How blest her reign has been !' And England shout, God save the Queen!' M. A. S. BARBER. SABBATH MUSINGS. No. XVII. THE Scriptures are full of stimulating precepts to do good, with encouraging promises annexed to their fulfilment. "Cast thy bread upon the waters, for thou shalt find it after many days." (Eccles. xi. 1.) "In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thine hand, for thou knowest not whether shall prosper either this or that, or whether they both shall be alike good." (Eccles. xi. 6.) "Let us not be weary in well doing; for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not." (Gal. vi. 9.) "Blessed are ye that sow beside all waters." (Isaiah xxxii. 20.) And above all that most powerful and heart-stirring appeal from the lips of our divine Master himself, "Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." (Matt. xxv. 40.) Those whose exertions are animated by these promises are not, however, always permitted to see their fulfilment they have to "walk by faith and not by sight" in many instances. The " many days" after which the bread cast upon the waters is to be found, are often long in coming; and the "due season when we shall reap if we faint not is in some cases deferred, doubtless until that day when those that have done good shall rise to the life everlasting. |