people a commoner feast than his princes and servants partake of. The wine of the kingdom in abundance is there, according to the state of the king (see 2 Sam. vii. 21). Man's gifts are according to the state of the receiver, God's are according to the state of the Giver. Man gives great things to great people, and small things to small people; God gives the wine of the kingdom to all the people, great and small-if only they are found waiting upon Him. And what is this royal wine? Is it not God's own joy? for wine in the Word is a type of joy-in its higher sense of heavenly, in its lower sense of earthly joy.

But though there is abundance of the best, it may not be forced upon unwilling hearts, nor beyond the capacity to receive. "None did compel." His word is, "Eat, O friends, drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved;" but it must be according to every man's pleasure. God does not say, I will open thy mouth and fill it, but, "Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it.” May God the Holy Ghost so minister to us the things of Jesus that we may earnestly desire the royal wine of His providing here; and, not desiring the dainty meats of him that hath an evil eye (Prov. xxiii. 6), may we rejoicingly anticipate that day when He shall drink of the fruit of the vine new with us in His Father's kingdom!

Verse 9. This introduces the monarch's queen. She is the honoured weaker vessel-honoured in being the distributor of that which she receives of him. It was in strictest keeping with what was decorous and comely that she should make a feast for the women in the royal house. But she forgot, as the sequel will show, that

"the woman is the glory of the man;" and that her blessing lay in giving glory to him. "Whether, therefore, ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God."

Even the house where Vashti made her feast belonged to King Ahasuerus. Not a vessel, not a viand, not a drop of wine, that did not belong to him. "What have ye that ye have not received ?"

The position of Vashti was a type of that of Israel. As she, in the royal house, which belonged to the king, was the dispenser of the feast, so Israel, in the earth, which is the Lord's, was His appointed channel of blessing to the nations. (Gen. xii. 3, &c.)

Verses 10-12. A comparison of verse 10 with Rev. i. 4, iii. 1, and iv. 5, leads to the thought that the Holy Spirit is represented by the seven chamberlains; and this is supported by the circumstance that the offices of the three chamberlains, Hegai, Shaashgaz, and Hatach, indicate various functions of the same Holy Spirit. This will appear as we proceed.

What grace and kindness are found in Ahasuerus. As the acme of his joy, when his heart was merry with wine, he would place the royal crown upon the head of Vashti, and show the princes and people her beauty. But she has no idea of this grace: the king has been but little in her thoughts, and she cannot enter into the riches of his love, nor comprehend the honour he designs to put upon her. She refused to come.

In this conduct we again see Vashti to be a type of Israel, whom the Holy Ghost describes as a people walking after their own thoughts.

Compare Jer. xiii. 11. "For as the girdle cleaveth

to the loins of a man, so have I caused to cleave unto me the whole house of Israel, and the whole house of Judah, saith the Lord; that they might be unto me for a people, and for a name, and for a praise, and for a glory: but they would not hear." See also Jerem. vii. 25, 26; Deut. xxii. 18, 19.

Compare the last clause of verse 12 with Deut. xxxii. 21, 22.

Perhaps this is the proper place to remark, that it is not as the wife, but as the chosen queen, that Vashti is represented. The same is true of Esther. In the Song of songs we have the bride, and we only need contrast that book with this to be assured that the Book of Esther does not reveal the bride. Indeed, not once is either Vashti or Esther called by any of the endearing names with which the Canticles abound. Hence it is always Vashti the queen, Esther the queen.

We lay stress on this, for on it largely depends the right understanding of the book. It is the chosen queen of the great king, and not the spouse of the bridegroom. In other words, the chosen people of God, not the bride of Christ.

Vashti knew not the day of her visitation; Israel knew not theirs. This was the crisis in the history of both. Had Vashti known it there had been no Esther the queen; had Israel known it there had been no Church in a position of higher blessing than ever Israel knew.

Verses 13-15. The seven chamberlains in verse 10 appear, as I have said, to represent the Spirit of God: so here the seven princes, of whom the king takes counsel, seem a type of the Son. In Isaiah ix. 6, Jesus

is called the Counsellor. Compare "What shall we do?" in verse 15, with "Let us," in Gen. i. 26.

The 15th verse is remarkable as typifying the distinctive character of the Jewish economy- it is not grace but law. Vashti has not performed the commandment of the king, and she must be treated according to law. There is a most marked contrast between the standing of Vashti and that of Esther. We shall see by-and-by that in the latter it is all of grace.

Verses 16-20. Memucan counsels the putting away of Vashti, and the giving of her royal estate unto another. Mark the construction of verse 19: "Let there go a royal commandment, that Vashti come no more before King Ahasuerus, and let the king give her royal estate unto her companion." Law and grace.

It was impossible that Vashti could have been retained as queen, for it would have subverted the order of the whole empire; it would have been the violation by the king of the commonest principles of justice. And so, to have retained Israel as the peculiar people of God, after their rejection of the one condition upon which their glory depended; viz., the acknowledgment of His Son, was impossible. The world could not have gone on, for to retain in a position of privilege and trust one who has grossly abused that trust, is manifestly opposed to every principle of right. There may indeed be restoration, but that can only be on confession and repentance.

Verses 21, 22. Thus order is preserved, for God's principle is that we give "honour to whom honour" is due.

DIVINE DELIGHT IN GRACE.

"In the mean while His disciples prayed Him, saying, Master, eat. But He said unto them, I have meat to eat that ye know not of."-JOHN iv.31,32. MANY witnesses we have to the delight which God takes in the exercise of grace, in the work of Christ for sinners, in the provision He Himself has made for the bringing home of His banished ones. The whole of Luke xv. declares this; and this delight of God in the saving of poor sinners gets another fine reflection in the experience of Christ in John iv. 31, 32.

A sinner had just been converted, and her spirit filled with liberty and joy.

The disciples, who had left their Master to buy some food, rejoin Him just at the moment, and spread the table for Him. But He tells them that He needs it not. He has been already at a feast; though wearied, hungry, and athirst, He has been rested and refreshed.

But how? Since they had left Him He had been toiling diligently, and had only seen water without tasting it. All this might well have made Him more weary and more athirst. But still He was refreshed, and needed not the table which they had spread for Him. A sinner had been saved and made happy: this had given Him a feast in a desert. The very style in which He answers the disciples, its fervour and energy, bespeak the joy of that moment to Him, and what His soul had known.

What an expression of the divine delight in the grace that saves a sinner is this! The sinner had known her joy-but it was not to be compared with the joy the Saviour had known. To speak in Levitical

G