The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1922-08-10
SUNDAY, AUGUST Is.
ESTHER SAVES HER PEOPLE


Read Entire Book.
The righteous cried, and Jehovah
heard, and delivered them out of all
their trOuble.-Psalm 34:17.
BEHIND THE CURTAIN.
What happened during those yelled
years Of captivity? A few names
star the pages and few events link
ed with Jerusalem are known but the
life of the deported is unreportad as
that of the French and Belgium maids
in the days of the war. Persia ruled
the world and Palestine was but a
patch upon the map yet its story is
far better understood. One glimpse
are we permitted in all the years of
Shushan's rule and for an hour the
chance to visit behind the curtain is
given where the tangled affairs of
court and harem appear in the story
of Esther. For it is story full of
dramatic thrill that is read upon the
feast day of the Jews in explanation
of the feast itself. Upon the throne
sits the XerXes of Inflated Grecian
history that records against him
Thermopylae and Salamis. 1t was in
his days of preparation for this ex-
petition that he held rare revel at the
place with his assembled leaders be-
fore whom in a fit of drunken fancy
he desired to unveil his beautiful and
queenly queen, Vashti who promptly
refused to do his royal will trans
crossing as it did the womanly GUS
tom of the day. His wounded pride
deposed her and in the choosing of a
new head for the harem Esther comes
into notice. His life threatened in
precisely the fashion in which it final
ly was taken Mordecai the Jew re-
veals the plot to Esther, the Kings
life is saved and Hannah probably
gets the vacancy made by the heads
man. Now Hannah was a descendant
of old King Agag slain by Samuel
with hereditary hatred of the Jew and
when in his new position Mordecai
failed to bow in pseudo-worship he
determined that he should die. But
it was not enough for him to simply
get one man out of the way, whole
race must be sacrificed to his hurt
vanity and he set the stage for their
destruction. It is upon the back
ground of shadows that the story
teller paints his picture of patriot
ism that strikes a responsive chord in
the heart of womanhood everywhere
for she has ever been a lover of home
and country and has been many a
time the inciter as we'll of the sharer
of heroic deeds.
THE FINEST CONQUEST.
That tribe of Benjamin that gave
Israel her first King was always pa
triotic and Esther ranks high among
them. More than that we know little
about the home other than that she
was an early orphan who was reared
by Mordecai who became in all things
save blood her father. How carefully
he must have instilled the moral glory
of that racial story and filled her
mind with loyalty to God and duty
before all else her life makes clear.
1t must have been an humble home,
but its roof covered Gods stars and
held high thoughts within. For the
maid was suddenly lifted to the high
est position in the land as queen of
the realm, as head of the harem with
servants galore to wait upon her and
with her word expressing the law of
life and death within her world. 1t
was an atmosphere of voluptuous-
ness, of intrigue, of petty vanity, of
schemes and plots for preference and
yet in it she lived like a lily in an
alley. With everything to stimulate
selfshness she retained her sacrifcial
spirit. And that is the finest con-
quest. To do that makes all other
things possible. For it is the begin
ming of all other victories, and with
out it all others are meaningless.
The pogrom was decreed. Europe
in the last years has seen many in
which whole cities of Jews have been
drowned in blood. The king returned
from his disastrous trip to Greece
with empty treasury lent willing ear
to a plan that would fill it again. Ha-
mans plea added the prejudice of a
ruling class against one daring to
deny its right to create custom and
he gave full power to his favorite of
the day to carry out any project
that seemed good to him. That they
were his subjects mattered not at all
to a despot-what rights had men
anyway except those granted by the
king? They should be delighted to
die for his pleasure if he willed it.
Democracy has grown by just such
assumptions on the part of unkindly
rule, no matter what the throne
There was not a man among them
who had ruled his own spirit or was
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