The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1898-07-06
THE BEAUTIFUL QUEEN.
Vashti the Yelled, vashti the Sacri-
feed, Vashti tho Silent.
Rev. I. Dewitt Talmage Commends Mod
esty in Woman and Draws Useful Les
son From the Story of Drunken
Ahasuerus and His Lovely Queen.

DR.. Talmage's text for last Sundays
sermon was Esther j., H. 10: Bring
Vashti, the queen, before the king with
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 of
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 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
whiteness of the sea foam. The tapes
tries hung on silver rings, wedding to-
gether 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
kingdom at one swallow. Amaz-
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 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
rainbows falling with cryptalline bap-
tisln upon Towering shrubs, then roll
ing down through channels of marble
and widening out here and there into
pools swirling with finny tribes of
foreign aquariums, 'bordered with
scarlet anemones, hypericums and
many colored ranunculi.
Meats of rarest bird and beast smok-
ing up amid wreaths of aromatics.
The vases filled with apricots and al
monds. The baskets piled up with
apricots and figs and oranges and POM
egranates. Melons tastefully twined
with leaves of acacia. The bright wa
ters of Eul@us filing the urns and
Il do hn ,.ir in Hao inn
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 fagons 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.
In another part of the palace Queen
Vashti is entertaining the princess of
Persia at banquet. Drunken Ahas-
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
mediately start to obey the kings
command, but there was q rule in
Oriental society that no woman might
appear in public without having her
face veiled. Yet here is a mandate
that no one dare dispute, demanding
that Vashti come in unveiled before
the multitude. However, there was in
Vashti's soul principle more regal
than Ahasuerus, more brilliant than
the gold of Shushan, of more wealth
than the realm of Persia, which COM
manded 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: "I will not go into
the banquet unveiled" Ahasuerus 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 APP
plause of after generations, who shall
rise up to admire this martyr to king
ly insolence. Well, 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 a 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 veiled, 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
position. 1t was no small honor to be
queen in such realm as that Hark
to the rustic of her robes! See the
blaze of her jewels, and yet it is not
necessary to have place and regal
robe in order to be queenly. When
see a woman with stout faith in God
putting her foot upon all meanness
and selfshness and Goddess display,
going right forward to serve Christ
and the race by grand and glorious
service. l say, "that woman is a
queen" and the ranks of Heaven look
over the battlements upon the corona
ton, and whether she comes up from
the shanty on the commons or the
; mansion of the fashionable square !
greet her with the shout, "all hail,
Queen VashEp
What glory was there on the brow Of
Mar,, ~ Scotland or E1izahat ~