The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1898-07-15
THE BEAUTIFUL QUEEN.
Yashti the Yelled, Vashti the Sacri-
feed, Yashti the Silent.
Eev. t. Dewitt Talmage COmmends Mod
esty in Woman and Draws a Useful Les
son From the Kfory of Drunken
Ahasuerus and his Lovely Queen

1 NaSntl. the queen, before the KING WIZ Il
the crown royal to show the people
and the princes her beauty, for she
was fair to look upon; but the Queen
Vashti refused to come.
| We stand amid the palaces of Shu-
shan. The pinnacles are aflame with
the morning light. The columns rise
| festooned and wreathed. the wealth Oh
empires flashing from the grooves, the
ceilings adorned with images of bird
and beast and scenes of prowess and
conquest The walls are hung with
shields and emblazoned until it seems
the whole round of splendors is ex-
hausted. Each arch is a mighty leaf OF
architectural achievement. Golden
stars shining on glowing arabesque.
Hangings of embroidered work in
which mingle the blueness of the sky,
the greenness of the grass and the
wilderness of the sea foam. The tapes
tries hung on silver rings, wedding to-
| gcther the pillars of marble. Pavil-
ions reaching out in every direction.
These for repose, filed with luxuriant
cOuches, in which weary limbs sink
until all fatigue is submerged. Those
for carousal where kings drink down
1
| ing spectacle! Light of silver drip
ping down over stairs of ivory on
shields of gold. Floors of stained mar
Bile, sunset red and night black and in
laid with cleaning pearl. In connec-
tion with this palace there is garden
where the mighty men of foreign lands
are seated at n banquet. Under the
spread of oak and linden and acacia
the tables are arranged. The breath
of honeysuckle and frankincense fills
the air. Fountains leap up into the
light, the spray struck through with
rain bows falling with cryptalline bap-
tisin upon Towering shrubs, then roll
ing down through channels of marble
and widening out here and there into
pools swirling with inny tribes of
foreign aquariums, .bordered with
scarlet anemones, hypericums and
many colored ranunculi
Meats of rarest bird and beast smOl1-
ing up amid wreaths of aromatics.
The vases filled with apricots and al
monds. The baskets piled up with
aricots and figs and oranges and POM
ecranates. Melons tastefully twined
with leaves of acacia. The bright wa
tiers OF Eul@us filing the urns and
dropping 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
shared cups of silver and fiagons and
tankards of solid gold. The music
rises higher and the revelry breaks out
into wilder trans port, 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.
In another part of the palace Queen
Nashti IS entertaining the princess of
Persia at banquet. Drunken Alias
uerUs says to his servants, You go
and fetch Vashti from that banquet
with the women and bring her to this
banquet with the men and let me dis
play her beauty" The servants i'm
meGiately start to obey the kings
command, but there was a rule in
Oriental society that no woman might
appear in public without having her
face yelled. Yet here is mandate
that no one dare dispute, demanding
that Vashti come in unveiled before
the multitude. However, there was in
NashtiS soul a principle more regal
than AhaSueruS, more brilliant than
tic gold of Shushan, of more wealth
than the realm of Persia, which com
mandcd her to disobey this order
OF the king, and so all the righteous
ness and holiness and modesty of her
nature rise up into one sublime re-
fusaL She says: Il will not go into ]
the banquet unveiled Ahasuerus was !
in:uriate, and Eashti, 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 APP /
lause of after generations, who shall /
rise up to admire this martyr to king /
.v insolance. Well, the last vestige of /
that feast is gone, the last garland
mas faded, the last arch has fallen, the
asst tlnkard has been destroyed, and
Saushan is a ruin, but as long as the
NO. Ii stands there viii be multitudes
f men and women familiar with the
lille who will come into this picture
allery of God and admire the divine
Ortrait of Vashti the queen, Vashti
he ve.led, Vashti the sacrifice, Vashti
he silent.
In the first place / want you to look
1pon Nashti the queen. A blue ribbon,
-ayed with white, drawn around
Ter forehead, indicated her queenly
position. 1t was no small honor to be
queen in such realm as that Hark
o the rustic of her robes! See the
,laze of her jewels, and yet it is not
necessary to have place and regal
ODE in order to be queenly. When /
zee a woman with stout faith in God
,uttiug her foot upon all meanness
md selfishness and Goddess display.
-oing right forward to serve Christ
nd the race by n grand and glorious
eryice. l say, that woman is a
queen" and the ranks of Heaven look
ver the battlements upon the corona
ION. and whether she comes up from
he shanty on the commons or the
mansion of the fashionable square l
ret her with the shout, ''all hail,
Queen Vashti!'
What glory was there on the brow of
Nary of Scotland, or Elizabeth of
or Margaret OF France, or
,atharinc of Russia compared with {
he worth of some of our Christian
Mothers, many of them gone into {
Tory; or of that woman mentioned in
he Scriptures who put her all in to the
.ord's treasury; er of Jephthah's
auThter. who made a demonstration {
f unselfish patriotism; or of Abigail.
mo rescued the herds and f1ocks of '
er husband; or Of Ruth, who toiled ;
nder a tropical sun for poor, old,
elpless Naomi; or of Florence Night {
lgale, who went at midnight to stanch {
&c battle wounds of the Crimea; or of t
Lrs. Adoniram hudson who kindled ] ,