The Brookhaven leader., 1890-06-05
1ALMAGE'S SERMON.
a Discourse on the Hanging of
Hannah, the Traitor.
Lesson on the Certainty of Pride
Meeting Its Pail and the Uncer-
tstaty of Position Founded
ON Wrong Doing.


Academy Of Music, taking for his text:
So they hanged Hannah IN tho gallows that
he had prepared for Murdccai.-Esther viii,
To-
Here is an Oriental courtier, about
the most offensive man in Hebrew his
tory, Hannah by name. lie plotted for
the destruction of tho Israeltish ma
ton, and ] wonder not that in some of
the Hebrew synagogues to this day,
when lIaman's name is mentioned, the
congregation clench their fists, and
stamp their feet and cry: Let his
name be blotted OUT" Hannah was
Prime Minister in the magnificent court
of Persia. Thoroughly appreciative of
the honor conferred, he expects every
body that he passes to be obsequious.
Coming in one day at the gate of the
palace the servants drop their heads in
honor of his office; but a Hebrew,
named Mordecai, gazes upon the passing
dignitary without bending his head or
taking Oft his hat. He was good man,
and would not have been negligent of
the ordinary courtesics OF life, but he
felt no respect either for Hannah or the
nation from which he had come. But
he could not be hypocritical; and while
others made Oriental salaam, getting
clear down before this Prime Minister
when he passed, Mordecai, the Hebrew,
relaxed not muscle of his neck, and
kept his chin clear up. Because of that
affront Hannah gets decree from Aha
suerus, the dastardly King, for the
massacre of all the Israelites, and that,
of course, will include Mordecai.
To make a long story short through
Queen Esther this whole plot was re-
vealed to her husband, Ahasuerus. One
night Ahasuerus, who was afflicted with
insomnia, in his sleepless hours calls
for his secretary to read to him a few
passages of Persian history, and so
while away the night. In the book
read that night to the King an account
was given of a conspiracy from which
Mordecai, the Hebrew, had saved the
Kings life, and for which kindness
Mordecai had never received any re-
ward. Hannah, who had been fixing up
a nice gallows to hang Mordecai on, was
walking outside the door of the Kings
sleeping apartment and was called in.
The King told him that he had just had
read to him the account of some one
who had saved his (the Kings life,
and he asked what reward ought to lie
given to such one. Self-conceited
Hannah, supposing that he himself was
to get the honor, and not imagining for
moment that the deliyerer of the
Kings life was Mordecai, says: "Why,
your Majesty ought to make a triumph
for him, and put crown on him, and
set him on a splendid horse, high-step-
ping and full-bloodcd, and then have
one of your Princes lead the horse
through the streets, crying: Bow the
knee; here comes man who has saved
the Kings life!"
Then said Ahasuerus in severe tones
to Hannah: Il know all about your
scoundrelism. Now you 60 out and
make triumph for Mordecai, the He
brew, whom you hate. Put the best
saddle on the finest horse, and you. the
Prince, hold the stirrup while Mordecai
gets on, and then lead his horse through
the street Make haste"
What a spectacle! A comedy and
tragedy, at one and the same time.
There they go! Mordecai, who had
been despised, now starred and robed,
in the stirrups. Hannah, tho Chancellor,
afoot, holding the prancing, rearing,
champing stallion. Mordecai bends his
neck at last, but it is to look down at
the degraded Prime Minister walking
beneath him. Huzza for Mordecai!
Alas for Hannah. But what a pity to
have the gallows, recently built, entire
ly wasted! 1t is fifty cubits high and
built with care. And Hannah had erect
ed it for Mordccai, by whose stirrups he
now walks as groom. Stranger and
more startling than any romance, there
go up the steps of the scaffolding, side
by side, the hangman and Hannah, the
eX-Chancelor. 80 they hanged Hannah
on the gallows that he had prepared for
Mordecai."
Although so many years have passed
since cowardly Ahasuerus reigned, and
the beautiful Esther answered to his
whims, and Persia persisted, yet from
the life and death of Hannah we may
draw living lessons of warning and in
struction. And, first, we come to the
practical suggestions that, when the
heart is wrong, things very insignificant
will DESTROY our comfort. Who would
have thought that a great Prime Min
lister, admired and applauded by mill
ions of Persians, would have been 10
nettled and harrassed by any thilg
trivial? What more could the great
dignitary have wanted than his char
lots and attendants and palaces and
banquets? If afiuence of circumstan.
ces can make a man contented and hap
Ply, surely Haman should have been
contented and happy. No; Mordecai's
refusal of a bow takes the glitter from
the gold, and the richness from the
purple, and the speed from the char
lots. With heart pulled up with every
initiation of vanity and revenge, it was
impossible for him to be happy. The
louder than the braying of trumpets in
the palace. Thus shall it always be if
the heart is not right. Circumstances
the most trivial will disturb the spirit.
1t is not the great calamities of life
that create the most worriment. have
seen men, felled by repeated blows of
misfortune, arising from the dust, never
Responding. But the most of the dis
quiet which men suffer is from insig-
nificant causes, as a lion attacked by
some beast of prey turns easily around
and Stays him, yet runs roaring through
the forest at the alighting on his brawny
neck of few insects. You meet some
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