rilHE last lecture was chiefly occupied with a review
of Haman's character and conduct, and with the
practical lessons suggested by that subject We saw in
his case, what is so often illustrated in real life among
ourselves, how insufficient the highest worldly advantages
in themselves are to render men truly happy; and how,
when evil and violent passions have the mastery, they
make those who are under their influence incapable of
enjoying the best gifts of providence. Next to the king
himself, no man in Persia was possessed of such power
and wealth as had fallen to the lot of Haman, and none
had fewer real troubles to vex and annoy him; but his
vanity and pride created imaginary miseries sufficient to
embitter all his enjoyments. He had just received the
highest mark of royal confidence which could be con-
ferred upon a subject, in being invited by the queen to
a banquet, at which none but the king and himself were
permitted to be present. He estimated the honour duly,
and felt as if he had now reached the highest pinnacle
of earthly glory; but as he retired, Mordecai the Jew,
who sat in the king's, gate, refused to rise up to pay



214j INTEODUCnON.
homage to him; and that single circumstance drove
from his mind all sense of the privilege which he had
just enjoyed, and filled him with deadly wrath and fury.
