Connecticut western news., 1898-07-07
A QUEEN DETHRONED.
OR. TALMAGE TELLS THE STCRY OF
 THE BEAUTIFUL VASHTl.

Life For All Conditions and All Times. } A Queenly Martyr to Kingly Insolence.
 A Woman to Initiate.
 ICopyright, 1898. by American Press Asso-
 clation.l
 WASHINGTON, July 3.-Dr. Talmage in this discussion tells the story of a beautiful queen dethroned, and dSws practical lessons for all conditions and all times text Esther i, 11-12, Bring Vashti, the queen, before the king with the crown royal, to show the people and the princes her beauty; for she was fair to look upon. But the Queen Vashti re- fused to come. "
 We stand amid tho palaces of Shu- shan. The pinnacles are af1ame with the morning light. The columns rise festooned and wreathed, the wealth of empires flashing from the grooves; the ceilings adorned with 4Aagcs of bird and beast and scenes CT prowess and conquest. The walls are hung with shields and emblazoned until it seems that the whole round of splendors Is ex- bausted. Each arch is a mighty leaf of architectural achievement. Golden stars shining down on glowing arabesque. Hangings of embroidered work i'll which mingle the blueness of the sky, the greenness of the grass and the white ness of the sea foam. Tapestries hung on silver rings, wedding together the pillars of marble. Pavilions reaching out in every direction These for repose, filled with luxuriant couches, ill which weary limbs sink until all fatigue is submerged. Those for carousal where kings drink down kingdom at one swallow. Amazing spectacle! Light of silver dripping down over stairs of ivory on shields of gold. Floors of stain ed marble, sunset red and night black, and inlaid with gleaming pearl. In connection with this palace there is q garden where the mighty men of for eign lands are seated at banquet. Un- der 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 into crystalline bap- tism upon Towering shrubs-then roll ing down through channels of marble and widening out here and there into pools swirling with the finny tribes of foreign aquariums, bordered with scar let anemones. hyperioums and many colored ranunculi.
 Meats of rarest bird and beast smok ing up amid wreaths of aromatics The vases filled with apricots and almonds. The baskets piled up with apricots and figs and oranges and pomegranates. Melons tastefully twined with leaves of acacia. The bright waters of Eul@us filling the urns and dropping outside the rim in flashing beads amid the traceries. Wine from the royal vats of Ispahan and Shiraz in bottles of tinged shell aud 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.
 Ridden to the Banquet.
 In another part of the palace Queen Vashti is entertaining the Princess of Persia at banquet. Drunken Ahasuerus says to his servants, "You go and fetch Vashti from that banquet with the wom- en and bring her to this banquet with the men and let me display her beauty" The servants immediately 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 was mandate that no one dare dispute demanding that Vashti come in unveiled before the null titude. However, there was in Vashti's soul principle more regal than Ahasue- rus, more brilliant than the gold of Shushan, of more wealth than the realm of Persia, which commanded her to dis obey this order of the king, and so all the righteousness and holiness and mod esty of her nature rise up into one sub lime refusal. She says, "I will not go in to 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 ap- plause of after generations, who shall rise up to admire this martyr to kingly insolence. We'll, the last vestige of that the last arch has fallen, the last tanlzard has been destroyed, and Shushan is a ruin, but as long as tho 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.
 vashti the Queen.
 In the first place, I want you to look upon Vashti, the queen. A blue ribbon, rayed with white, drawn around her forehead, indicated her queenly posi- ion. It was no small honor to be queen in such realm as that. Hark to the hustle 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 woman with stout faith in God, putting her foot upon all meanness and selishness and goddess display, going right forward to serve Christ and the race by grand and a glorious service, I say, "That woman is queen, and the ranks of heaven look over the battlements upon the coronation, and whether she comes up from the shanty on the commons or the mansion of tEe fashionable square I greet her with the shout, "All hail, Queen Vashti!"
 What glory was there on the brow of Mary of Scotland, or Elizabeth of Eng land, or Margaret of France, or Gather ine of Russia compared with the worth of some of our Christian mothers, many of them gone into glory; or of that woman mentioned in the Scriptures, who put her all into the Lord s treas ury or of Jephthah's daughter, who made demonstration of unselfish pa- triotism; or of Arigail, who rescued the herds and fiocks of her husband; or of Ruth, who toiled under tropical sun for poor, old, helpless Naomi; or of Florence Nightingale, who went at