companionship of her formal attendants, while her lord pursued his
career of pleasure, apparently unmindful of her existence.

A bitter lot it is to the young, to be loved and then forgotten. And sad
the contrast to the royal Esther, between her late elevation and all the
incense of homage and affection then offered, and her present
desolation. Yet it was a season of needful humiliation. It awoke her
from the dream of splendour and gayety, and brought her back to the
sober realities of life and its stern duties; and it was also a season
of preparation for the trials that awaited her. It brought her to seek a
happiness higher than could be found in palaces or courts, a favour more
desirable than that of an earthly monarch, a love that is unfailing, a
faithfulness that should be enduring--and thus, when the day of trial
came, she was prepared. She could cast herself upon the arm that never
falters, she could seek the interposition of the God of her nation, and
of each individual who trusteth in him and relieth upon his mercy.

There was something beautiful in the blending of her conscious
helplessness, her sense of loss of the favour of her royal lord and of
the love and courtly honour she deserved, of her entire dependence upon
the protection and interposition of Heaven, and her resolution to
venture all for her people.

IF I PERISH--I PERISH! If we can recall the recollections of our
childhood, we shall remember the breathless interest with which we
attended her, in fancy, to the presence-chamber and awaited the extended
sceptre. All the excitement of romance is concentrated in the story of
Esther. And as we follow the narrative of her final triumph, her
restoration to the love of her husband, the salvation of her people, and
the exaltation of her family, we cannot but pursue the train of thought