Esther 5:13 Yet all this avails me nothing, so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king's gate. It does not take much to spoil a man's life. One little thing may mar his usefulness and the veriest trifle may destroy his peace. The record of lost men will be a record of apparent trifles. "One thing lacking" will be the keynote of the wail of hell, as it is the cry of those who have slipped down when they have reached the topmost rung but one of the ladder of life's ambition. This man would have been the greatest of senators but for one infirmity. He has brilliance, power, eloquence, wisdom, but he has no stability. That man would have been the greatest soldier. He has courage, knowledge, skill, self-denial, but he has an unbridled temper. And so it is in every grade of life. In Haman we have a notable example of a worldly life, and a potent instance of the working of sin, sending its poisonous influence through a man's character until it works out its own deadly end. "Sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death." We have the history of sin in the world exemplified in this individual man. I. THE POISON LATENT. There is not a thing on earth but is poisoned. We attain learning, and while attaining it we swallow the poison with which it is infected. We derive honour, but at the same time we lay hold of the seeds of misery which accompany it. Heavy is the head that wears a crown. The baton of power is a symbol of weariness. The seat of honour is a seat of persecution. There is a great system of compensation in life which makes men much more nearly equal than they appear to be. II. Notice THE SORE FESTERING. This festering grievance was nothing but a sentimental fancy. And such are most of our festering sores. Mental, moral, or bodily maladies are soon got rid of, but visionary troubles — never. A man will recover after small-pox or fever; he will revive after bereavement or sorrow; he will be cheerful after the loss of a leg or the ruin of his pecuniary affairs. But once let him get a sentimental grievance, and he is never the same again. III. Notice THE SORE WORKING. Death. (J. J. S. Bird.) Parallel Verses KJV: Yet all this availeth me nothing, so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king's gate.WEB: Yet all this avails me nothing, so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king's gate." |
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