Esther 2

Esther 2:17

THE IDEAL SISTER AND (A Plain Talk to Girls)Esther 2:17THE central figure of the model home, the one. in whom most affection fixes itself, and around whom social joys circulate, is not the son so much as the sister and daughter.Our subject is the ideal rather than the real, and in consequence we may be pardoned for presenting Esther as a good illustration of the character to be copied by the young women of this hour.Esther was not a real daughter or sister. She seems to have been an only child, and was early orphaned; but in those special traits to which we are about to call attention, she was ideal, an excellent example for every daughter and sister.IN CHASTEOur text tells us that this girl was among the “fair young virgins” of the king’s dominion; and the whole record of her life, as reported in the Book that wears her name, is without suggestion of spot or stain.Chastity, of the most immaculate sort, is the all-essential element in the character of that girl who would be a fit subject for parental pride and fraternal affection. It matters little what other graces of body, or mind, or spirit, may remain; the young woman whose character becomes stained is forever degraded, and all her tears will not suffice to put her back to the lofty, yet lost station, of ideal daughterhood; only the grace of God can do that.It is a wonderful picture of a true woman that Solomon paints in the last chapter of his Proverbs; and the very first stroke on that picture is this question, “Who can find a virtuous woman?”, and the finishing touch is this sentence, “Her price is far above rubies”. Valuable above all personal charm or possible treasure of silver and gold, valuable above blood, above learning, above social station, above beauty, above brilliancy, above all these combined, is virtue. Its value is intrinsic! Virtue is loved for its own sake.

As Victor Hugo wisely said, “Virtue is its own reward. It is as august in rags as in the fleur-de-lis”.Public opinion puts no less a price on it.

The world is one in its appreciation of unsullied womanhood. The very men who seek to despoil the innocence of the feminine, who are patrons of prostitutes, spurn to marry one whose name is not as unstained as the latest layer of mountaintop snow. England and Europe have better reasons for sending their sons to this side of the sea for our sisters, in marriage, than the mere money gain. Up to recent times, at least, American maidens were modest as a rule, and came more nearly to that measure of womanhood which the beautiful Cornelia—Scipio’s daughter, established for her sex when she said, “My loveliest ornament is my modesty and my purity.”Joan of Arc came to the ascendency of the first woman in France primarily by the power of her virtue. John Lord tells us that when the king was indisposed to attend to the maid’s words the women of the court took up her cause and pled for her on the ground of her spotless purity.Perhaps the first woman of the seventeenth century and one whose name is destined to live forever was Madame de Maintenon. Louis XIV. was ruler in name, but for many years the French sovereign was Madame de Maintenon, and John Lord says of her, “No woman ever ruled with more absolute sway, from Queen Esther to Madame de Pompadour, than did the widow of the profane and crippled Scarron.

It cannot be doubted that she exerted this influence by mere moral and intellectual force—the power of physical beauty retreating before the Superior radiance of wisdom and virtue. La Valliere had wearied and Montespan had disgusted even a sensual king, with all their remarkable attractions; but Maintenon, by her prudence, her tact, her wisdom, and her friendship, retained the empire she had won—thus teaching the immortal lesson that nothing but respect constitutes a sure foundation for love, or can hold the heart of a selfish man amid the changes of life.

Whatever the promises made emphatic by passion, whatever the presents or favors given as tokens of everlasting ties, whatever the raptures consecrating the endearments of a plighted troth, whatever the admiration called out by the scintillations of genius, whatever the gratitude arising from benefits bestowed in sympathy, all will vanish in the heart of a man unless confirmed by qualities which extort esteem— the most impressive truth that can be presented to the mind of woman; her encouragement if good, her sentence to misery if bad, so far as her hopes center around an earthly idol.” In other words, she must be spotless in character.IN BEAUTYEsther had no need of artificial adornment. The context says, “The maid was fair and beautiful”; and also informs us that when she was presented to the king “she required nothing but what Hegai the king’s chamberlain, the keeper of the women, appointed”.We do not wish to convey the impression that she was sloven when we say that she needed no artificial adornment. She was not like some sisters we have seen whose chambers look as San Francisco did the day after the earthquake, whose clothes are brushed by a mother’s hand, if at all; whose abolutions are a lick and a promise, and whose adornments are dishabille. Every girl owes it to her brothers, to her father and to her mother, just as certainly as to her young gentleman friend, to be as sweet and pretty as possible on a work-a-day; and when Sunday comes it ought not to be necessary for the best beau to arrive to perfect her appearance. We have read somewhere of a girl who was criticised for lack of attention to her appearance and who answered in an injured tone, “I don’t think you should find fault with my looks, I am just as God made me”. The quick retort of her young woman chum was, “That is why I blame you, Mabel; you have never made any improvement on yourself.”But to criticise slovenliness is not to advise cosmetics and stimulants.

Years ago the “Record of Chicago” gave an extended editorial on the use of falsehoods in adorning the person of women, condemning, as it ought, painting, penciling and the rest; and especially calling attention to the growth of intemperance in the upper classes of society of the same sex, and said, “More and more our jaded society wives and daughters are using wines and other intoxicants to flush the cheeks, loosen the tongue and stimulate the brain, just as they employ belladonna to brighten and beautify the eyes. To say that such a practice is perilous is to put it mildly.”One of our papers a while ago reported that London society women, though scarce two-thirds the way through the present season, were exhausted every one, and were it not for strong stimulants upon which they relied, they could not make a decent appearance to the end.I would like to remind those of you who want to be model daughters and ideal sisters that for roses in the cheeks there is nothing that equals making your own bed, helping to sweep the house, turning the sewing machine a bit; and then, if in decent dress, you want to take a spin in the auto, or a pull at the oar, or 9 to 18 holes of golf, you’ll find these things will add a splendid finishing touch, and instead of appearing in society in artificial beauty, you can bloom at home in a beauty all your own.And as for intellectual stimulus, and the ability to talk intelligently, to work the brain a bit in reading and observation, surpasses all the intoxicants between the seas.But beauty at its best is more a spiritual trait than it is a physical quality.

The plain-faced sister of sweet temper, tidy habits, self-sacrificing spirit, and God-like graces is pretty in spite of all you can say to the contrary. I saw a while ago a statement from one of the most famed of American women in illustration of this thought. She said that in childhood her ugliness occasioned her much unhappiness. She seldom looked in a glass because that was to render herself sad. One day a good woman found her crying about this matter, and suspecting the cause, brought to her a rough, scaley, coarse, earth-covered bulb, and said, “Dora, plant this in a pot of dirt, keep it in the sun, give it water, and see what will come of it.” “I did as commanded and watched it carefully. The green leaves came first, and at last the golden Japanese lily—the first I had ever seen.

My friend came to share my delight.” “Ah,” she said significantly, “who would have believed that so much beauty and fragrance were shut up in that little rough, ugly thing?” “It was the first time it had ever occurred to me that, in spite of irregular features, I too could win to myself friends, and, by beauty of character, compel people to love me.”A little while ago a friend sent me some verses which I greatly prize. They run like this: “Beautiful faces are those that wear,It matters little, if dark or fair,Whole-souled honesty written there.“Beautiful eyes are those that show Like crystal panes where hearthfires glow Beautiful thoughts that shine below.“Beautiful lips are those whose words Leap from the heart like songs of birds Yet whose utterance prudence girds.“Beautiful shoulders are those that bear Daily burdens of homely care,With daily grace and constant prayer.“Beautiful hands are those that do,Moment by moment the long day through Deeds that are noble, good and true.“Beautiful feet are those that go Errands of mercy to and fro, and Weary never, till death shall slow.“Beautiful lives are lives that bless Silent rivers of happiness,Yet whose fountains few may guess.”IN SERVICE, SELF-For their sakes she risked life itself. In that day it quite often cost the head of the one who dared come into the presence of the king uncalled; but this queenly girl forgot self, dared the danger in love of her own people. Selfishness is perhaps the besetting sin of the fair sex. Esther illustrates how to rise above it, as she does also Christ’s adage, “He that loseth his life, shall find it”. To have sought her own safety, or pleasure, at this critical hour would have cost not only the loss of her Jewish loved ones but, likely, her own life also. Selfishness at any time is indulged at the cost of character, and endangers, if it does not destroy, the noblest that is within us.You remember that when Rome was besieged the daughter of the king, seeing the golden bracelets on the left arms of the enemy, desired them, and sent word that she would betray her city into their hands if they would only deliver those beautiful bracelets unto her.

They accepted the proffer and under the cover of darkness threw wide the city gates. The army entered, and keeping to their word, threw upon her both the bracelets and the shields until she was crushed down and killed by the weight.

But self-love cost her little in excess of what it costs any woman, or for that matter, any man, who indulges it. The Apostle gave us one of the purest of all ethical principles when he told us to “Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others”. “Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ”. Every young woman has opportunities in that direction which, if once lost, can never be regained.By this same unselfishness Esther defeated the ends of the enemies of Israel. Sisters and daughters here present, Israel was never in such danger from Haman and his accomplices in crime as your own brothers are from the sins of modern society. Less danger to Israel from Haman than to your brother from that hole of hell, and drinking place; less danger to Israel from Haman than to your brother from that place of green cloth, the gambling house; and infinitely less danger from Haman to Israel than to your brother in the smile of scarlet women who “sleep not except they have done mischief; and their sleep is taken away, unless they cause some to fall”.If the beautiful relations that ought to exist between brothers and sisters were realized many a youth, under a sister’s benign influence, would stand out against temptation and be saved. After all, love is the largest element in redemption and the boy who knows the perfect love of a pure sister will find in that affection a refuge, an inviting retreat when tempted.There is a story, whether true or not I cannot say, to the effect that the Jews, under a certain oppression, were wont to walk the streets of a city clothed in mean rags and looking poverty stricken indeed in order that their property might escape confiscation.

When the day’s work was done they went into an obscure alley and passed into miserable rooms apparently to a foul nest of poverty and squalor. But they went far beyond this uninviting place through door after door, and when they had escaped the sight of their enemies, and were beyond the intrusion of the police, they came to gorgeous apartments where wealth and beauty reigned; where fathers and mothers, brother, sisters and friends flamed forth in brightest array, and discovered their better selves; forgetting the enemy without, and all the hardships by which they were threatened, they were happy.

Home ought to be such a retreat, and the son and brother walking the streets of sin, tempted on every side, ought to feel that he could escape that vile deceiver and find one as fragrant as the rose, as pure as virtue itself, when he came into the house where his sister waits to greet and make him glad.To defeat enemies is to save life. Of course that was Esther’s noblest work. None the less yours, my sister! You are familiar with the heroines of fact and fiction. In our judgment, no woman holds much higher place in the memory of a grateful public than does Grace Darling. At the World’s Fair in Chicago, 1894, how many of us, in the Transportation Building, paused before Grace Darling’s boat and recalled the history of a certain night to be glad and to do honor to that woman.

You know it was on the Northumberland coast, in Longstone Rock lighthouse some seventy five years ago, on the seventh of September, that Grace sat looking out to sea. A steamer, trading from Hull to Dundee, disabled in her machinery, was driving toward that coast in the darkness in the fury of a frightful storm.

At three o’clock in the morning the hull struck and parted, and twenty four cabin passengers were plunged into the angry deep. The captain went overboard with his wife in his arms. It was then that this fragile girl, with daring intrepidity, urged her father to attempt to rescue the wrecked ones should any be surviving. It was only after the most eloquent argument that he yielded to her wishes and went to the work. It was a tiny cockle-shell of a boat that the brave mother unselfishly pushed off that morning into the darkness of the blinding storm, knowing full well that unless they rescued those who could assist them back to shore, they too would go down. They crept amid the rocks, and by wonderful strength and skill brought this bit of a boat to where the survivors were still keeping up.

Grace, with dauntless courage, managed the boat, and kept it from being dashed to pieces while Darling picked the survivors off the wreck, and with their assistance, landed safely at the lighthouse again. For three days that storm swept everything before it, and these survivors were consoled and comforted by the loved ones from the lighthouse.

Canon Farrar says, “It was this almost nameless girl from the humblest cottage in England, that by a deed of heroism awakened a transport of enthusiasm to the ends of the world.” And yet, what was her virtue?This, that she risked her life to assist in saving others. Nine bodies she aided in keeping from an ocean burial.Better work, and work equally brave, is yours, young woman, if you save the soul of a brother. I have no doubt that Grace Darling holds high place in Heaven; but I knew one years ago, still in the flush of youth, who will, I believe, hold higher place when to Heaven she comes. She was a daughter and sister, baptized by my hand, quitting the baptismal waters to go after the souls of her mother, her father, her brother and her two sisters. I saw her persist in that work, praying to God, pleading with them, presenting the Gospel by word of mouth and preaching it more loudly still by daily conduct until she had seen them saved every one. That is the climax of privilege for those of you who have brothers and sisters who know not God’s love. Compass that, and all the crowns that earth may give you will fade before the beauty of the immortal crown that God will grant.