and strength, and thy neighbor as thyself.' Thereupon the lawyer, feeling some qualms of conscience and desiring to justify himself, asked, "But who is my neighbor?" And Jesus said. "A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among thieves, who stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. And by chance there came down a certain priest that way, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side; and likewise a Levite came and looked on him and passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was; and when he saw him he had compassion on him, and he bound up his wounds, and took care of him. Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbor to him that fell among the thieves?" Observe, he does not directly answer the lawyer's question, "Who is my neighbor?" but tells him rather how he should be neighbor to every man for when the lawyer answered, “He that showed mercy on him," Jesus said unto him, "Go, and do thou likewise."

The true Christian is a cosmopolite. He believes in the fatherhood of God, and consequently in the brotherhood of man. In pursuance of this conviction he sends out his sympathy and helpfulness not only to his kinsmen or his countrymen, but to all men

everywhere, who have need of him. As it is written, "One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all."

The rabbis say, that once upon a time there were two affectionate brothers who tilled the same farm. On a certain night, after the gathering of the harvest, one of them said to his wife, "My brother is a lonely man, who has neither wife nor children; I will go out and carry some of my sheaves into his field." It happened that, on the same night, the other said, "My brother has wife and children, and needs the harvest more than I; I will carry some of my sheaves into his field." So the next morning their respective heaps were unchanged, and thus it happened night after night, until at length, one moonlight night, the brothers with their arms full of sheaves met midway face to face. On that spot the Temple was built, because it was esteemed to be the place where earth was nearest heaven. This is indeed the noblest attitude of man. And what a world ours would be if all men, realizing that they are children of the same God and therefore brethren of the same household, were to treat each other in this way.

And the Lord said, "On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets." Love is the sum and substance of law. Love God supremely and love thy neighbor as thyself. He that doeth this law shall live by it.

If we would learn the true philosophy of the law and catch the true spirit of obedience, we must visit the cross. It is here that we discover how God loved us. "He commendeth his love toward us in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." If once we apprehend the length, breadth, depth and

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height of the love manifested in this supreme selfsacrifice in our behalf, we shall never need to say to ourselves again, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God." And if once we shall perceive that Jesus here tasted death for every man-for the drunkard that reels along our streets, for the poor fetish worshipper in the far-away jungles of Africa-we shall need no more to say to ourselves, "Love thy neighbor as thyself." The God who gave Christ is the Father of all. The Christ who suffered and died is the Brother of all. To love as the Father and Son have loved is the consummation of duty. Love is the fulfilling of the

Law.

ESTHER IN SHUSHAN.

"I will go in unto the king."- Esther iv. 16.

A group of notable dignitaries passes before us in the glamour of the far-away past.

Here is Ahasuerus, king of Persia, familiar to us as Xerxes the Great. It was he who lashed the sea because it would not obey him. He called himself the "King of kings and Lord of lords." He was cruel, capricious, magnificent; his word was irreversible law.

Here is Esther, his beautiful queen. She was a Jewess, brought up under the protection of her kinsman, Mordecai. Her exaltation to the throne was by a strange providence. She had concealed her lineage thus far, as it would appear, to avoid the finger of scorn; for the Jews were hated then as now. But, standing up among the daughters of Persia, she shone pre-eminent in beauty. Radiant as the star that sparkled in her name, she was chosen from among all.

And here is Haman, the son of Hammedatha, court favorite, villain of the play. Puffed up with a little brief authority, he will have all the people doff their bonnets as he goes by. One only refuses, the

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aged Mordecai. He will not "bend the pregnant hinges of the knee that thrift may follow fawning." The proud heart of Haman is filled with wrath. He puts his spies upon the old man's track. "What dost thou say? A Jew? Then we shall make a splendid reprisal." It is not enough that Mordecai shall suffer. The king is persuaded to pronounce the decree of death upon all the children of Israel within the Persian realm.

The Jewish homes of Shushan are filled with lamentation. The mourners on the housetops kneel with uplifted eyes and hands pressed together. They have learned their doom, and are praying and listening. The blast of a trumpet! The clang of horses' hoofs ! A troop of heralds riding forth with parchment scrolls! They are the messengers of doom. By the Assyrian mountains, by the southern plain, by the Parthian Sea, all Israel must die.

In the open square beneath the queen's window, an old man leans on his ivory staff, uttering a low, wailing cry. At length he succeeds in attracting the queen's attention. She appears at her lattice. He tells the sorrowful story of which she in her retirement has been kept in ignorance; he entreats her to go in unto the king in behalf of her people. Useless are her protestations: "The king is at his revels; to approach him uninvited now, is death under the Persian law."—" No matter; the fate of all Israel depends upon it; and who knoweth but thou art come unto the kingdom for such a time as this?"-She pleads, resists, and yields. "I will go in unto the king; and if I perish, I perish."

The hour is come. For many days the king and his courtiers have been feasting in Shushan. The