Esther 1:11-12 To bring Vashti the queen before the king with the crown royal, to show the people and the princes her beauty… Sometimes we say, looking upon the abodes of poverty, "What can we expect here of decency, moral education, and progress? See how the poor are huddled and crowded together! What can be looked for here but a "hotbed bringing forth a most evil harvest?" All that is right. But if there is any argument in it at all it is an argument that covers a large space. Here is a man who has room enough, he has everything at his command; if he wants gold or silver or precious stones he can have them by a nod of his head, what can we expect here but piety, contentment, thankfulness, moral progress? Family life under such a canopy must be a daily doxology, a sweet, hallowed thing more of heaven than of earth. We must beware of the sophism in both sides of this popular argument. Character is not in circumstances. The poorest people have, in no solitary instances easily numbered, most vividly illustrated the purest and noblest character. There are kings who are paupers, there are paupers who are kings. We owe everything to moral education — we owe nothing to kingly splendour. (J. Parker, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: To bring Vashti the queen before the king with the crown royal, to shew the people and the princes her beauty: for she was fair to look on. |
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