Connecticut western news., 1896-07-09
VASHTI THE YELLED.
REV. OR. TAlMAGE ON WOMAN AND
 HER SACRIFICES.

Nisfortaass and Her Final Reward-A
 Sermon For the Rschels, and the Debo-
 rahs. and the AbiEails-
 WASHINGTON, July 5.-In his sermon today, starting from brilliant Bible scene, Dr. Talmage discourses upon woman's opportunities and the wrongs she sometimes suffers His text was Es- ther i, II, l2: ''To bring vashti the qusen before the king with the crown royal to show the people and the princes her beauty, for she 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.
 Scene In the Palace.
 We stand amid the palaces of Shu. shan The pinnacles are afiame with the morning light The columns rise fes- tooned and wreathed, the wealth of em- pires flashing from the grooves, the cell ings adorned with images of bird and beast and scenes of prowess and con- 4uCSA- 4AC W hAAS uIC AuIik w1kh SIl1tlus and emblaxoned until it seems that the whole round of splendors is exhausted Each arch is mighty leap of architec- tural achievement Golden stars shin- ing down on glowing arabesque. Hang ings of embroidered work in which mingle the blueness of the sky, the greenness of the grass and the whiteness of the sea foam. Tapestries hung on sill yer rings, wedding together the pillars of marble. Pavilions reaching out in every direction. These for repose, filled with luxuriant touches, into which weary limbs sink until all fatigue is submerged These for carousal, where kings drink down kingdom at one swallow. Amazing spectaclel Light of silver dripping down over stairs of ivory on shields of gold. Floors of stained sunset red and night black and inlaid with gleaming pearl Why, it seems as if Q heavenly vision of ame- thyst and jacinth and topaz and chryso- prasus had descended and alghted upon Shushan. It seems as if a pillow of ce- lestial glory had dashed clear over heav- en's battlements upon this metropolis of Persia
 In connection with this palace there is . garden where the mighty men of foreign lands are seated at 8 banquet Under the spread of oak and linden and acacia the tables are arranged The breath of honeysuckle and fran kincense fills the air. Fountains leap up into the light, the spray struck through with rainbows falling in crystalline baptism upon towering shrubs. then rolling down through channels of marble and widening out here and there into pools swirling with the fnny tribes of foreign bordered with scarlet anem- ones, hypericums and many colored Meats of rarest bird and bease smoking up amid wreaths of aromatics The vases filled with apri- cots and almonds. The baskets piled up with spricots and dates and figs and oranges and pomegranates. Melons tastetully twined with leaves of acacia The bright waters of Eul@us filling the prns and sweating outside the rim in flashing beads amid the traceries. Wine from the royal vats 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 gabble of fools and the song of the drunkards.
 vashtfs Rerusal.
 In another part of the palace Queen Persia at . banquet. Drunken Ahasue- rus says to his servants. You go out and fetch Vashti from that banquet with the women, and bring her to this ban quet with the men, and let me display her beauty" The servants immediately start to obey the kings command. but there was . rule in oriental society that no woman might appear in public with out having her face yelled Yet here was a mandate. that no enc dare dis pute, demanding that Vashti come in unveiled before the multitude. How ever, thcrc was in Vashti's soul prin- ciple more regal than Ahaseurus, more brilliant than the gold of Shushan. of moro wealth than the realm of Persia, which commanded her to disobey this order of the king. and so all the right eousness and holiness and modesty of her nature rises up into one sublime re- fusal She says, 1T will not go into the banquet unveiled Of course Ahasue- rus was infuriate. and Vashti, robbed of her position and her estate, is driven forth in poverty and ruin to suffer the scorn of a nation and yet to receive the applause of after generations who shall rise up to admire this martyr to kingly insolence. We'll, the last vestige of that feast is gone; the last garland has faded the last arch has fallen; the last tankard has been destroyed, and Shushan is ruin. But as long as the world stands there will be multitudes of men and women, familiar 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
 Noble Women.
 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- tion. It was no small honor to be queen in such 8 realm as that Hark to the rustic of her robesl See the blaze of her jeweIsl And yet. my friends, it is not necessary to have palace and regal robe in order to be queenly. When I see a woman with strong faith in God put ting her foot upon all meanness and selfishness and goddess display, going right forward to serve Christ and the race by grand and glorious service, say, That woman is queen" and the ranks of heaven look over the battle ments upon the coronation. and whether she come up from the shanty on the commons or the mansion of the fashion able square, greet her with the shout "Al haili Queen vashti-" What glory