to the sensual, gross, superstitious, and unholy rites of the heathen,
while from its deep spiritual meaning, and from the entire absence of
all merely formal observance, it was both a precedent and a model for
future ages, and for the holy spiritual worshipper of other days.

It was no heartless service, no formal act of worship rendered by the
Jews of Shushan, when Esther called upon them to pray and to fast with
her and for her. While the queen and her maidens fasted in the recesses
of the palace, in many a lowly home or quiet chamber were gathered the
race of Esther, to commit her and themselves to Jehovah, to beseech him
to forgive the sins of his people and save them, for his mercy's sake,
in this hour of their extremity. Mingled with their personal
apprehension and anxiety for their wives and their children would be
thoughts of "the daughter of their people"--their beautiful queen--so
young, so fair, so lately exalted to the pinnacle of honour and glory;
adorned with gems and wreathed with flowers, the pride of a monarch and
the ornament of a court; now, neglected, abject, forsaken--included in
the doom of her race, prostrate in some secluded apartment of the
palace--her royal apparel exchanged for sackcloth and ashes--still
cleaving to the God of her fathers, and still identifying herself with
her kindred and countrymen. Whether they regarded her royal state, her
tender years, her bitter desolation, or her heroic resolution, all the
sympathies of the heart, all the purest feelings of the nation, would be
called forth in her behalf.

Other feelings would find a place in the hearts of the Jews as they
contemplated their present state. The last deed of the Amalekite would
bring to recollection the injuries of ages. This Haman, who now, in a
time of profound peace and full security--while both races were exiles
from the land of their fathers--had plotted the ruin of their nation,