Esther 4:15-17 Then Esther bade them return Mordecai this answer,… We have here illustrated — I. HUMAN OBLIGATION TO SUGGESTION. By far the majority of the imports into the soul and life of the world are marked "via suggestion." As the present holds in it the past, so suggestion is the essential of progress, the root of accomplishment, the spur of duty. Compute, if you can, the poet's debt to suggestion; Burns and the mouse, etc. The prime factor of invention is suggestion. Men see something, hear something, touch something, and in a flash an idea springs full-armed and captures the mind. The eye suggests the telescope, the heart the engine. Is naval architecture to be completely revolutionised? Is the new leviathan to be the future type of ocean steamers? Subtract the suggestion of a whale's back, and what then? Human experience is largely the outcome of suggestion. Mordecai could not command Queen Esther, but he could pace in sackcloth before the palace gate. He could send a message to the queen making an entreating, pitiful suggestion. II. THE STRUGGLE WHICH ENSUES IN CARRYING A SUGGESTION OVER INTO PRACTICE. Carlyle has said, "Transitions are ever full of pain." Thus the eagle when it moults is sickly, and to attain his new beak must harshly dash off the old one upon the rocks. There is no more critical experience for a human soul than when a suggestion lodges in it; especially When it means the readjustment of all our spiritual furniture, burying of cherished plans, crucifying selfish ambition, stripping off desire, defying danger, releasing power, and making us risk the sarcasm, the scorn which are ever the pall-bearers of failure. This gives scope for the true heroism of life, a heroism which finds its choicest exhibit, not in those who have the leverage of a great enthusiasm and who are consciously beneath the eyes of a great multitude, but in those duels between souls and suggestions fought out in the solitude of the human breast. Thus John Knox, when summoned in public assembly to the ministry, rushes from the congregation in tears to enter, in his solitary chamber, upon a struggle which should last for days, but the outcome of which should be a face set like a flint. Thus Moses, Isaiah, Ezekiel shrink and wrestle but obey. Thus Esther hesitates and excuses herself on the ground of personal danger, till at last the suggestion rides over her soul roughshod, and in the heroism of a great surrender she declares, "So will I go in unto the king... and if I perish, I perish." III. THE AVAILING OF ONE'S SELF OF ALLIES IN THE EXECUTION OF A DETERMINED PURPOSE. Esther made three allies. 1. With herself. She knew her royal spouse was impulsive; she knew he was susceptible. And so, bent on subduing him, she bedecks herself with jewels, and right royally attired stands in the court. Impulse leaps, susceptibility flames: "She obtained favour in his sight: and the king held out to Esther the golden sceptre." 2. With her husband. In the execution of a worthy purpose one may find and may avail himself of the ally which resides in that which is to be overcome. It makes a deal of difference how you take hold of a thing. The handle of a pail is the water-carrier's ally; he may despise it and fare worse! Said one of the keenest logicians in this country, "In entering upon a debate, find, to begin with, common ground with your antagonist, something you can both accept — a definition, a proposition, or if nothing else, the state of the weather." Here is a deep truth. There are natural allies in the enemy's country; it is strategy, it is generalship, to get into communication with them. Esther recognised her ally, and so she approached her husband, not with entreaty or rebuke, but with invitation. The suggestion of a feast prepared under her direction in honour of his majesty was the warder within the castle of the fickle king's soul, who would not fail to raise the portcullis of his will to admit the entrance of a queen's desire. 3. With time. There is a ministry in wise delay; haste is not of necessity success. Is procrastination the thief of time? Then precipitation is the assassin of it. To work and wait — to wait for the order, the chance, the moment to strike, was a lesson Esther had learned by heart, and so she refused to unbosom her petition till the hour struck. When Leyden was besieged by the Spaniards the inhabitants sent word to the enemy that they would eat their left arms and fight with their right before they would surrender. At last, in their extremity, they told the governor they must surrender. "Eat me, but don't surrender," was the heroic reply. Then some one thought of cutting the dykes and flooding the enemy's camp; they did it, rushed upon the enemy in the confusion, and out of apparent disaster snatched a glorious victory. (Nehemiah Boynton.) Parallel Verses KJV: Then Esther bade them return Mordecai this answer, |
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