The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1893-02-07

| his ulEu cuUuclllOfS WHAT SDdll pS
done unto Queen Vashti?i
They deeply feel the gravity Of tht
momentous question, and, like othel
convivial lords of creation, take what
lthey evidently consider y very pro
found, broad and stateSmanlike view
OF its bearing upon the proper subjec.
ton Of all wives to their husbands.
For this deed of the Queen shall
come abroad unto all women, so that
they shall despise their husbands in
their eyes, when il shall be reported
| The King Ahasuerus commanded
| NaShti the Queen 10 be brought in
before him, but she came not Like
wise shall the ladies of Persia and
| Media say this day unto all the kings
princes, which have heard of this deed
! Of the Queen. Thus shall there arise
too much contempt and WRATH Con-
tempt on the part of the ladies to-
wards their lOrdships, and wrath on
the part of the lordlings toward their
ladies. They advise that she be
promptly depoSed, and her place filled
by the most beautiful woman TO be
found in the realm.
"Let there be fair, young virgins
sought for the king, and let the king
appoint officers in all the provinces of
his kingdom, that they may gather
together all the fair young virgins
unto Shushan the Palace, to the house
of the women ES. D., s.
This narrative affords vivid illus
tration OF the truth that the higher
men are raised in power and wealth,
the lower they often sink in Subjec-
ton 10 their own sensual appetites,
making the qualification of lust chief
pursuit.
1t shows how much the Gospel of
Christ was needed TO give woman her
rightful place i'll society and TO restore
marriage TO its original purity.
am sincerely sorry that historical
truth does not allow me to take the
poetic, operatic or cantata view of the
character of Ahasuerus. But truth is
always better than poetic fancieS, if
we would learn the real lessons of
history, and we are under special ob.
legations TO follow the exact facts in
dealing with all Bible narratives. We
can only dishOnor the Bible by white
washing any of the characters men,
toned in il.
What better evidence than that af-
forded by the conduct of Ahasuerus
could we have of the debasing tend
encies of absolute monarchy and of
monarchies of all kinds such as have
usually eXisted@ We see the debasing
effect both upon the ruler and the
people. Poor human nature is such
that when one individual is placed
above all others, and his or her will
made the source of law, it has Just the
effect that ii had on AhasueTus. This
is the man, who, by the unwise eNal-
tatiou in which he had been put above
his fellow men, imagineS himself 8
god, and when his bridge of boats
across the Hellespont is destroyed by
q storm, orders the heads of the en-
gineers to be cut of, and is so enraged
at the rebellious and disrespectful sea
that he commands 500 lashes to be sd
to it and q set of letters
cast into it.
After the fashion of arbitrary mon
archs, he exalts vain and worthless
favorite to high power and freely per-
mits him, for mere caprice Of vanity
to condemn to determination whole
nation of many thousands of unoffend- |
ing people.
He sends out his scouts through his
vast empire of 12T provinces, with
iespotic power to gather up the most /
beautiful girls Of all the nations over |
whom he rules, to fill his royal |
larem.
How strange it seems that many of |
The civilized nations have not yet dis
covered that the very poorest way |
possible to establish q government is /
20 exalt one individual so high above /
others and above the LAW that he or
me is almost inevitably ruined in
character, to proclaim this individual
an do no wrong, and then to make
hat spoiled human will the source of
aw, authority and honor for the
whole people.
1t would seem as though human
could hardly have invented
surer method to degrade, endanger
nd enslave the people, and to dis
eminate corrupting influences from
he highest places to the lowest.
The larger the nation, the worse the
ystem. The engireeTy of government
ecomes the faeile means of executing
be behests of the most corrupt human
riIls.
When one vain man can gather
100000 soldiers and 1900 ships to blot
ut the civilization of Greece; when
e can carelessly give to vile favor
e an irrevocable decree to slaughter
whole nation Of his subjects because
ne man has not grovelled in the dust
efore his insOlence; when he can
ivOrce a virtuOus queen because she
reserves her self-respecting modesty:
hen he can gather the pure girls
ON q whole realm to satisfy his !
,yal lust-such government has be-
1me pestilence and a curse worse Il
ian blight or famine, plague or 1
1t is perverted to the :
estruction of the very ends for which :
overnment should exist, the preser-
alton of the rights, the happiness,
lie purity and virtue of the whole
eople.
Yet this corruption is the natural,
lie inevitable tendency of placing any
lie individual above the laws that c
lould govern all, especially if this {
dividual is given the added power :
hich comes from wealth. :
Just in so far as this superiority TO
W has been allowed, it has been the
lin of EOyereipDs and of uaonIes froT1 | [