The weekly intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1891-1901, 1896-07-11
DR.. SERMON.
The Noted Preacher DiscOurses
Upon woman's Opportunities.
Ahasuerus' Wrath because Queen Vashti
Refused to Come to Him Mt His
COmmand-WOman Strong
in the Faith.

Command-Woman Strong
in the Faith.
In his last sermon at Washington,
starting from a brilliant Bible scene,
DIR. Talmage discoursed upon woman's
opportunities and the wrongs she some
times suffers. His text was Esther
i:1I-l2: ITO bring Vashti, the queen,
before the king with the crown royal,
TO show the people and the princes her
beauty; for h was fair to look on.
But the queen Vashti refused to come
at the kings commandment by his
chamberlains: therefore was the king
very wroth, and his anger burned in
him." He said:
We stand amid the palaces of Shu-
shan. The p~innacles are afame with
the morning light. The columns rise
festooned and wreathed, the wealth of
empires flashing from the grooves: the
ceilings adorned with images of bird
n beast, and scenes of prowess and
conquest. The walls are hung with
shields and emblazoned until it seems
that the whole round of s%plendors is
exhausted. Each arch is a mighty
leap of architectural achievement.
Golden stars, shining down on glow
ing arabesque. Hangings of embroid-
ered work, in which mingle h blue
ness of the sky, the greenness of
the grass Inc the whiteness of h
sea foam. Tapestries hung on silver
rings, wedding together the pillars of
marble. Pavilions reaching out in
every direction. These for repose,
filled with lu~xuriant couches, into
which weary limbs sink until all IA
tigue is submerged. These for carousal,
where kings drink down a kingdom at
one swallow. Amazing spectaclel
Light of silver dripping down over
stairs of ivory on shields of gold.
Floors of stained marble. sunset red
and night black, and inlaid with
cleaning pearl
Why, 1t seems as If a heavenly
vision of amethyst and jacinth and
topaz and chrysoprasus had descended
and alighted upon Shushan. 1t seems
as If a billow Of celestial glory had
dashed clear over heavens battle
ments upon this metropolis of Persia.
In connection with this palace there is
a garden, where the mighty men of
foreign lands are seated at a banquet
Under the spread of oak and linden
and acacia, the tables are arranged.
The breath OF honeysuckle and frank
incense fills the air. Fountains
leap up into the light, the spray
struck through with %rainbows falling
in crystalline baptism upon Towering
s~hrubs-then rolling down through
channels of marble, and widening out
here and there into pools swirling with
the fnny tribes of foreign aquariums,
bordered with scarlet anemones, hy-
pericums and many colored ~ranunculus.
Meats of rarest bird and beast smoking
up amid wreaths of aromatics- The
vases filed with apricots and almonds.
The baskets piled up with april
cots, and dates, and figs, and
oranges, and pomegranates. Mel
ons tastefully twined with leaves
of acacia. The bright waters
of Eulaeus filling the urn and sweat
ing outside the rim in flashing beads
amid the traceries- Wine from the
royal watts of Ispahan and Shiraz, in
bottles of tinged shell, and lily-shaped
cups of silver, and flagons and tankards
of solid gold. The music rises higher
and the revelry breaks out into wilder
transport, and the wine has flushed
the cheek and touched the brain, and
louder than all other voices are the
hiccough of the inebriates, the gable
of fools and the song of the drunk
ards.
In another part of the palace, Queen
Vashti is entertaining the princesses
of Persia at a banquet Drunken
Ahasuerus says to his servants: "You
go out and fetch Vashti from hat ban
quet with the women, and bring her
Il this banquet with the men, and let
me display her beauty" The SER
wants Immediately start to obey the
kings command; but there was a rule
in Oriental society that no woman
might appear in public without hav-
ing her face yelled. Yet here was a
mandate that no one dare dispute,
demanding that Vashti come in I'M
yelled before the multitude. How
ever there was in Vashti's sou a
principle more regal than Ahasuerus,
more brilliant than the gold of Shu-
shan, of more wealth than the realm
of Persia, which commanded her to
disobey this order of the king; and SO
all the righteousness and holiness and
modesty of her nature rises up into
one sublime refusal. She says: 81
will not go into the banquet un-
yelled" OF course Ahasuerus was in
f~nriate; and Vashti, robbed of her po-
sition and her estate, is driven forth
in poverty and in ruin to suffer the
scorn of a nation, and yet to
receive the applause of after genera
tions who shall rise up to admire this
martyr TO kingly insolence. Well. the
last vestige of that feast is gone; the
last garland has faded; the last arch
has fallen; the last tankard has bee
destroyed; and Shushan is a ruin; but
as long as the world stands there will
be multitudes of men and women, ia
miliar with the Bible, who will come
into this picture gallery of God, and
admire the divine portrait of Vashti
the queen, Vashti the yelled, Vashti
the sacrifice, Vashti the silent.
In the first place, / want you to look
upon Vashti the queen. A blue ribbon,
rayed with white, drawn around her
forehead, indicated her queenly posi-
ton. It was no small honor to be
queen in such a realm as that Hark
to the rustic of her robes! See the
blaze of her jewelsl And yet, my
friends, it is not necessary to have
palace and regal robe in order to be
.oueenly. When 1 see n oma with
strong faith in God, putting her foot
upon all and selfishness and
goddess display, going right forward to
serve Christ and the race by a grand
and glorious service, 1 say: THAT
woman is a queen" and the ranks of
heaven look over h battlements upon
the coronation, and whether she come
up from the shanty on the commons or
the mansion of the fashionable square,
1 greet her with the shout: "All hall
Queen Vashti."
What glory was there on the brow
of Mary of Scotland, or Elizabeth of
England, or Margaret of France, or
Catherine of Russia, compared with
the worth of some of our Christian
mothers. many of them gone into
of that woman mentioned
in the scriptures, who put all her
money into the Lords treasury?-or of
daughter, who made a dem
onstration of unselfsh patriotism?-or
Of Abigail, who rescued the herds and