Milford chronicle., 1905-10-06
The Honor Of WIZ

But as l follow the noble resolution
Of this brave woman l am struck with
another overwhelming fact Queen Es-
ther was willing TO defy all the social
conventiOnalities that govern oriental
IDEAS of woman. she was ready if nee
essary to lay down her life for some
ex-sIayes. But she was ready 10 do
more than this. She was ready to
wrench this concession If possible from
a very bad man. King Ahasuerus
lived in the depraved east in q de
praved age, but he must have been a
most notorious example even in that
vile generation. No man but the most
morally corrupt, even in the depraved
east, is willing to allow a Wife to incur
dishonor before other men. The more
depraved man is, as a rule. the more
he tries to guard and shield the honor
Of his wife from the depravities Of
other men.
Could any one but a criminal mon
strOsity, a man lost to all semblance Of
decency and honor wish his wife ss en-
ter baaqpet hall filed with drunk
ards ard social lepers, as King Rhas-
uerus demanded OF Queen Vashti2
Why, even in India where love is nev-
er reckoned. as an essential Of the mar
riage altar and where virtue in a man |
Is looked upon as an unknown quaint. |
ty, the women are protected. The
wives and the sisters and the daugn4
ters are shut up in harems. They ars'
not even allowed to look upon the faces
Of their fathers and brothers after
marriage. 4 woman is guarded from
the eyes of thg' world until her death.
If the wife of a Hindoo travels she is
carried to the station inclosed in a con
veyance which suggests a big coffin.
Then a big sheet OF. curtain is thrown1
from the car door over this box, and
the wife, heavily yelled, cr1wls into 4
her apartment where every curtain is
drawn and every doof tightly shut. It
Is considered q disgrace for her to be
seen by man. No sooner does a man
enter a street where the women are
than the cry is raised, The men. the
men! And every woman Iushes in
doors, fearing the. eyes Of man as she
would the fangs Of deadly cobra. If
man not husband or a son dare en-
er the wOmens apartments he is shot
lown or cut inb8 pieces. as though he
we're a mad dog And yet here in lieen-
ious Shushan we find King Ahasuerus
that his wife unveII herself
before drunken and debauched men. ,
Yet it was to this notoriousIy depraved q.
monarch that Queen Esther was to
)lead for the salvation Of a doomed ,
ace.
Is there no practical application Of /
his incident? Yes. If you and are
yer to accomplish much good in this
world we must work through many i
ifferent kinds Of fnstrum entalities. II ,
man is a notorious nbertfne or scoun- :
rel, that is no reason why You and 1 \
hOuld regard him as wholly out of ]
he reach Of effort and beyond recla- !
nation. Mr.. Moody started his great 4
unday school in Chicago by bravely +
Ding and asking dissolute saloon a
coper for his children that he might )
each them of Jesus. Young MoOdg !
ot them Because a miser hangs ca 4
D his gold with death grip is no rea- !,
on why you and I should not go and u
love his heart to use some Of that a
old for a mission of mercy.
Esther's Common Sense. Il
Dark and forbidding as were her sur e
there were two or three b
right lines in this oriental, historical h
tcture which show that though Queen s.
,sther's dangers might seem to be in G
yet in truth they were 9
OF. Queen Esther won her mighty (,
ictory for the salvation OF the He +
rev race by the use Of plain. prac- "
cal common sense, which IN this age 81
'ould be called brilliant Christian Il
-ratagem. The queen was not fool. o.
he was not one of those miserable p
lrews, always going around with
lussed hair and shoes run down at u
le heels. with her dresses III fitting b.
nd caught together with pins. She b.
as not one of those women who WELD