In the second place, I am commissioned to ofifer to all
here something better than the whole hundred and twenty-
seven provinces over which Artaxerxes reigned. His
revenues could not purchase real comfort, far less could
they procure life for him; but he that hath the Son of
God hath life eternal His animal pleasures could not
make him happy; but in Christ is the fountain of bless-
edness. When death came, this great prince had to
leave all good behind him; but if you are Christ's, when
the end comes, you enter upon an inheritance incorrup-
tible and undefiled, kept for you by Him who hath given
you His own Son, and thus made you joint-heirs with
Christ, who is the Lord of glory. Amen.
\



LECTUEE II.
CHAPTEB I. 13-22.
TN the last lecture we saw the unhappy consequences
"*■ of intemperance. Artaxerxes, excited by wine,
issued his command that the Queen Vashti should be
brought into the hall where he feasted with his lords,
and a vast assemblage besides, that his guests might see
her beautiful countenance, "for she was fair to look
upon^" This command the king in sober mood would
never have given forth. It was an outrage upon all the
customs of the age and country, and the queen, receiving
the order even from the mouth of the king*s chamber-
lains, might well doubt whether they spake with due
authority. We cannot, indeed, fully sympathise with
her feelings, so different are our manners ; but she only
acted in accordance with all standing law, and with all
the ceremonial of the time, when she refused to obey the
king, and would not appear unveiled in the presence of
the multitude which was then assembled around him.
