be on the morrow. Happy would it have been for him, had he learned from the Jewish Scriptures that maxim -a haughty spirit before a fall. "But all this," he adds, "availeth me nothing, so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting in the king's gate." Zeresh his wife, and his friends of kindren spirit, immediately propose a remedy:"Let a gallows be made, fifty cubits high, that it may be conspicuous to all, and strike dread on all Haman's enemies; and to-morrow speak thou unto the king, that Mordecai may be hanged thereon; then you will have nothing to interrupt your pleasure, but may go in merrily with the king unto the banquet. And the thing pleased Haman; and he caused the gallows to be made."

But why does Haman make the gallows to-day, and delay hanging Mordecai till to-morrow? God taketh the wise in their own craftiness. On that night could not the king sleepthat night, the night after the feast. But what disturbs his slumbers? It was no wonder if Haman's bloody purpose for the morrow kept him waking, or if Esther, and Mordecai, and the pious Jews wrestled with God till break of day; but none of all these things had reached the ear of Ahasuerus. It was God that held his eyes waking. He seeks for something to occupy his mind, and instead of diverting himself, as at other times, with music, or with any of the amusements with which art had surrounded

him, he calls for the book of the records of the chronicles, and they were read before the king. It was the more strange he should do this, as he seems lately to have been quite weary of the affairs of his empire, and ready to resign all charge to Haman. Towards morning the reader comes to that part of the records where it was written that Mordecai had told of Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king's chamberlains, the keepers of the door, who sought to lay hands on the king Ahasuerus. This was a wonderful escape indeed; and no wonder the review of it affects the mind of Ahasuerus. Two of those who had waited on his person had laid a plot to take away his life, which would probably

have proved successful, had it not been discovered by Mordecai, and through Esther communicated to the king. Gratitude to his preserver prompts him to ask at once, "What honor hath been done to Mordecai for this?" The king's servants said, "There is nothing done for him." And the king said, "Who is in the court?" (Now Haman was come into the outward court of the king's house, to speak unto the king to hang Mordecai on the gallows that he had prepared for him.) So early in the morning had he come to execute his malicious purpose. And the king's servants said unto him, "Behold, Haman standeth in the court." Who more suitable, the king would naturally think, to give coun

sel in such a matter? And he said, "Let him come in." So Haman came

in. And the king said unto him, "What shall be done unto the man whom the king delighteth to honor?" (Now Haman thought in his heart, "To whom would the king delight to do honor more than to myself?") And Haman answered the king, "For the man whom the king delighteth to honor, let the royal apparel be brought which the king useth to wear," (probably when he went abroad,) “and the horse which the king rideth upon, and the crown royal which is set upon his head:"-this is supposed to mean the crown usually put upon the head of the king's horse, as some say was customary among the Persians, and