The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1898-06-10
doom OF ARROGANCE.
DIR. TALMAGE TEACHES A LESSON
FROM THE HANGING OF HANNAH.
Vanity and Sin Ever iAnxious to Have
Piety How Before Them - Quickly
Turns the Wheel Of Fortuue-Happf-
ness for the Soul.
1898, by American Press
Associa.ion.)

up o.
Associa tion.)
Washington, June 5.-The doom Of
and the reward of fidelity
are lessons which DR.. Talmage here
draws from Mordecai on horseback
and Hannah afoot; text, Esther vii, 10,
S they hanged Haman on the gal
lows that he had prepared for Morde-
cal"
Here is an oriental courtier, about
the most offensive man IN Hebrew his
tory, Haman by name. He plotted for
the of the lsraelitish ma
ton, and / wonder not that in some Of
the Hebrew ~synagOgues to this day
when Haman's name is mentioned the
congregation clinch 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 IVA drop their heads
in honor of his office but a Hebrew
named Mordecai gaZes upon the pass
ing dignitary without bending his head
or taking off his hat. He was a good
man and would not nave been negli-
gent Of the ordinary cOurtesies of life,
but ne felt no respect either for Haman
or the nation from which he had come.
50 he could not be hypOcritical, and
while others made oriental salaam, get
ting clear down before this prime min
lister when he passed, MOrdecai, the
Hebrew, relaxed not a muscle Of his
neck and kept his chin clear up. Be-
cause of that affrOnt Haman gets a de-
cree from Ahasuerus, the distardly
king, for the massacre Of all the Is
r%aelites, and tina Of course will include
MOrdcCai. c.
To make q 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 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
MOrdeicai 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 call
ed in. The king told him he had just had
read to him the account Of some one
who had saved his (the king's) life,
and he asked what reward ought to be
given to such q one. Self cOncefted
lamar supposing that he himself was
to get the honor and not imagining for
a moment that the deliVerer of the
kings life was MOrdecai, says, why
your majesty ought to make a triumph
for him and put a crown on him and
set him on a splendid horse, high step
ping and full blOOded, and then have
one of your princes lead the horse
through the streets, crying, Bow the
knee; here come a aman who has v
the kings life" Then said Ahaus-
uerus in severe tones to Hannah: Il
know all about your scoundrelism.
Now you go out and make a triumph
for Mordecai, the Hebrew, 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!'
COMEDY AND TRAGEDY.
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, the chancellor,
afoot, holding the prancing, rearing,
champion stallion. Mordecai bends his
neck at last, but it is to look down at
the degraded prime minister walking
Denedtn nl1n.f1uZZd 1OI 4NIOlb C1ol' Thh'o
for Hannah! But what a pity to AVE
the gallows, recently built, entirely
wasted. 1t is 90 cubit high and built
with care. And Hannah had erected 1t
for Mordecai, by whose stirrups he now
walks as groom. Stranger and more
startling thar any there go
I'D the steps of the s~caffolding, side by
side. the hangman and Haman the ex-
chancellor. $50 they hanged Haman
- ~ CLIQUE +ho+ no had nrpn9rp6 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 warming and in
struction. And. first, we come to the
practical suggestion that, when the
heart is wrong, things very nsignltl
cant will destroy our comfort. VINO
would have thought that a great prime
minister. admired and applauded by
millions of Persians. would have been
so nettled and harassed by anything
trivial? What more could the greater
dignitary w wanted than his char
lots and attendants and palaces and
banuuets? If affluence of
ces can make a man contented and
happy, surely Hannah should have been
contented and happy. No. Nor
decais refusal of a bow takes the
glitter from the gold, and the h
from the purple, and the speed from
the chariots. With a heart pulled up
with every initiation of vanity and re-
venge it was impossible for him to be
happy. The silence of Bordecai at the
gate was louder than the braying of
rumpe in the palace. Thus shall it
always be if the heart is not right.
circumstances the most trivial will dis
turb the spirit.
ANNOYING TRIPLES.
It is not the great calamities of life
that create the most worriment L "
seen men. felled by repeated blows of
misfortune, arising from the dust, new
er Responding. But the most of the
disqufet which men suffer is from in
significant causes; as a lion attacked