There rays divine disperse the gloom :
Beyond the confines of the tomb

Appears the dawn of heaven!

CHAPTER LXXXII.

ESTHER.

ESTHER was a Jewess, daughter of a captive in Babylon, where she was born. She was one of those Jews who did not return from captivity. Having lost her parents when very young, her cousin Mordecai adopted her, and supplied, in an admirable manner, the place of both father and mother.

She afterwards became the wife of A-has-u-e-rus, the King of Persia. Her life and that of her cousin were

soon endangered. Mordecai offended Haman, the prime minister and favourite of the king, by not standing up when he passed, or paying him that respect which he desired. Haman, deeply offended, obtained from the king a decree granting him permission to put to death, on a certain day, the whole of the Jews residing in Persia. He also intended hanging Mordecai, and set up for him a lofty gallows in his garden.

Esther, the queen, hearing of these doings, pleaded to the king at the risk of her life for her countrypeople. At a banquet to which she had invited the king and Haman, she begged for her own life and that of her people, and then informed A-has-u-e-rus of Haman's wicked designs towards her cousin.

The king, yielding to the wishes of his wife, spared the Jews, and punished his minister, by causing him and his sons to be hanged on the very gallows that had been prepared for Mordecai; and ordered that Mordecai should be advanced to the post of prime minister.

"Then Esther the queen answered and said, If I have found favour in thy sight, O king, and if it please the king, let my life be given me at my petition, and my people at my request:

"For we are sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be slain, and to perish. But if we had been sold for bondmen and bondwomen, I had held my tongue, although the enemy could not countervail the king's damage.

"Then the king Ahasuerus answered and said unto Esther the queen, Who is he, and where is he, that durst presume in his heart to do so?

"And Esther said, The adversary and enemy is this wicked Haman. Then Haman was afraid before the king and the queen.

"And the king arising from the banquet of wine in his wrath went into the palace garden: and Haman stood up to make request for his life to Esther the queen; for he saw that there was evil determined against him by the king.

"And Harbonah, one of the chamberlains, said before the king, Behold also, the gallows fifty cubits high, which

Haman had made for Mordecai, who had spoken good for the king, standeth in the house of Haman. Then the king said, Hang him thereon.

"So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then was the king's wrath pacified.

"On that day did the king Ahasuerus give the house of Haman the Jews' enemy unto Esther the queen. And Mordecai came before the king; for Esther had told what he was unto her.

"And the king took off his ring, which he had taken from Haman, and gave it unto Mordecai. And Esther set Mordecai over the house of Haman.”

But as the decree which Ahasuerus gave to Haman could not be repealed, since it was part of "the law of the Medes and Persians which altereth not," another decree was issued granting the Jews permission for two days to take up arms to defend themselves: the result was that the Jews slew more than seventy thousand Persians. During the remainder of the king's reign the Jews were treated with especial favour.

In remembrance of the Jews' being delivered out of the hand of Haman, the Feast of Purim, i.e., of Lots, was held yearly. On this occasion all Jews of every age and sex, who were able, were required to attend at their synagogues, and join in the reading of the Book of Esther, from a roll containing this book alone.

NOTES.-Prime minister, the chief or first minister. Gallows, a scaffold upon which people who have committed a crime are put to death by being hanged. Banquet, a grand feast. The decree could not be repealed, means that it could not be called back or revoked. Feast of Purim-So called from Pur, a lot: because Haman by the casting of lots had decided upon the days on which the Jews were to be killed. To read from a roll-Before the art of making paper was found out, people used to write on the leaves or bark of trees, on tablets, or on parchment. Tablets were boards thinly spread with wax, on which the writer scratched words with an iron pencil. If people did not care for their writing lasting long, they wrote on tablets, and when it was done with it was easily scraped off. But if they wanted to preserve writing for a number of years, they wrote it on parchment, with a pen made of stout reeds. It was from a roll of parchment that the Book of Esther was read.

QUESTIONS.

What was Esther?

up?

Where was she born?

Who brought her

Whom did

How were his

Why did not her parents have charge of her? she marry? Who was the King of Persia's chief minister? Who offended him? How? How did Haman act? designs frustrated? How was he punished? remarkable about the decrees of the Medes and Persians? What resulted from the decree being made? How did the Jews keep this in remembrance? Give an account of the Feast of Purim.

What was there

GOD CARES FOR ALL.

Do you know how many stars
There are shining in the sky?
Do you know how many clouds
Every day go floating by?
God the Lord has counted all:
He would miss one should it fall.

Do you know how many flies

Play about in the warm sun?
How many fishes in the water?
God has counted every one.
Every one He called by name
When into the world it came.

Do you know how many children
Go to little beds at night,
Sleeping there so warm and cosy

Till they wake with morning light?
God in heaven each name can tell,
Knows them all and loves them well.
From the German.

CHAPTER LXXXIII.

AFTER THE CAPTIVITY.

EZRA had tried to make the people good. He set up judges for them that knew the law of God, and others to teach those that were ignorant.

It was for this purpose he opened syn-a-gogues in country towns, and drew up the form of worship there, as it was in our Lord's day, and as it is now among the Jews.

He also collected all the books of the Scriptures together, and fixed what were known to be God's Word, and what were not so known; and he appointed the reading of these books in the synagogues every Sabbath Day, and some one always to explain them to the people.

He set up schools for children in various parts of the country, that they might be taught the history of their -people, and the commands of God out of the Scriptures; so that these were the first Bible classes we know of.

It came to pass that the people of Israel were respected, and their temple was held in honour by other nations, who often sent rich gifts to it.

When Alexander was going to conquer Asia he took Samaria, and the people became subject to him, and offered to give him their temple for heathen worship. But the Jews would not follow their example; so he marched with all his army to Jerusalem to besiege it.

Then the priests and elders all came out to meet him in their robes, but without any weapons. And when he saw these old venerable men, with their white hair and long beards, he said they were the men he had seen in a dream, and that their chief had told him he should conquer Asia.

Then the high priest told him that his victories over the Persians were foretold in their Scriptures; so he spared them, and he ever after held their temple in honour, and sent rich presents to it.

QUESTIONS.

What did Ezra try to do to the people? Why were synagogues set up? What was the worship there? What did he do to the