Considering further the character of Ahasuerus, we shall see that he greatly abused his absolute power. For instance, see how readily his consent was given to an inhuman courtier allowing thousands of defenceless, inoffending people,-brought against their wills to dwell in the land,-to be slaughtered in cold blood. The decree was given, that all Jews should be massacred. Of this case we know. It was probably only one instance of many of the thoughtless, cruel acts of Ahasuerus that are unrecorded.

It is easy to condemn the misuse of power on the part of Ahasuerus. There is an absolute power which many wield in daily life, which is theirs by custom, as that of Ahasuerus was his by birth or conquest. There are powers which come to a man by custom, by accumulation, by acquisition, by marriage, and by law. He employs others, and can extract excessive work, withhold wages on slight excuses. He is married, and has children; he can make his wife miserable and children fearful by the abuse of power. Indeed, in many a home there is more absolutism and imperiousness than was ever manifested by an ancient Shah of Persia or modern Czar of Russia.

All abuse of power grows out of forgetfulness of the equality of obligations. Few are unselfish enough to wield absolute power and respect the rights of others. Ahasuerus was not fitted to hold the reins of government, and we can only be thankful that it was not our lot to have lived and experienced the severe mercies of his absolutism.

We learn from the manners and actions of Ahasuerus that neither possessions, position, pomp, nor pride can satisfy a human soul. God has not intended they should. He has reserved to Himself the power to make us really happy, in the gift of His love. Hence we are sure that Ahasuerus must have been, notwithstanding all his magnificence and glory, a dissatisfied man. The determination to prolong the feast was a hint of this under-misery. He had not found Him whose service is perfect freedom, and the knowledge of whose love is the most cherished possession. He knew nothing of that loftiness of character which is as a crown that never fades, and of

that hope in the future which is a treasure that never corrupts. He could not, alas! say, in prospect of meeting his God, “I shall be satisfied when I awake with Thy likeness."

Further, the very thought of death must have made him still more dissatisfied in soul. It meant to him the blotting out of all joy. Not only is all glory and power taken from the possessor, but the verdict of his fellows, as well as of eternity, is passed upon his acts. Could such as he know how posterity would judge of them, it were enough to make them lash themselves with fury, and curse themselves with bitterness for their folly in having pursued a bubble that burst in the grasping.

In order to avoid satiety and dissatisfaction, we must live judiciously, must use the powers entrusted to us wisely, must be thoughtful for others, must eschew wasteful luxury, must be self-denying, must be more desirous of heavenly character than worldly position-more anxious for the approval of God than the gratulation of men. The same mind must "be in us which was also in Christ Jesus," and we must be "found in Him, not having our own righteousness, which is of the law, but the righteousness which is of God, by faith." Only thus shall we be able to meet the searching eye of the Judgment Day, and to find an entrance into those courts where sin, selfishness, and satiety can never enter.

FREDK. HASTINGS.

DESIRE OF POWER.-The desire of power may exist in many, but its gratification is limited to a few; he who fails may become a discontented misanthrope, and he who succeeds may be a scourge to his species. The desire of superiority or of praise may be misdirected in the same manner, leading to insolent triumph on the one hand and envy on the other. Even the thirst for knowledge may be abused, and many are placed in circumstances in which it cannot be gratified. But the desire of moral improvement commends itself to every class of society, and its object is attainable by all. In proportion to its intensity and its steadiness, it tends to make the possessor both a happier and a better man, and to render him the instrument of diffusing happiness and usefulness to all who come within reach of his influence.-Abercrombie.

The Preacher's Finger-Post.

The Inexhaustibleness of

Divine Power.

"THE CREATOR OF THE ENDS OF THE EARTH FAINTETH NOT, NEITHER IS WEARY."-Isa. xl. 28.

POWER is a faculty for producing changes and performing works. It is that to which we ascribe all the operations of nature and all the achievements of man. Whilst all created existences, from the microscopic insect to the mightiest archangel, have power, the "Creator of the ends of the earth" is power. His power is underived, absolute, illimitable: it is the force of all forces, the primordial cause of all things and motion.

the

intellectual

power

power of planning and contriving so as to give utility, stability, and beauty to the whole. In the sacred music that floats around me and the eloquent sermon that is addressed to me, my nature is brought under the influence of moral power-power that rouses the conscience, that stirs the deepest sentiments of the soul.

Out in open nature these three kinds of manifestations of power appeal to man. There is physical force rolling the massive orbs of heaven, heaving the ocean, etc.; there is intellectual force in the exquisite adaptation. of means to ends and the contrivances displayed in all things; and there is moral force in the genius of all-the spirit of beauty, sublimity, and goodness that flow into my soul and subdue it into reverence and worship.

There are three kinds or manifestations of powerphysical, intellectual, and moral. I go into St. Paul's Cathedral when some grand religious service is performed, the choral part is of the highest order, the sermon is delivered by the grandest preacher of the day. Here I receive an impression of three manifestations of power. The bringing together and adjust-weary.' ing the stone, marble, iron, timber, that compose the enormous structure, impress me with physical power-power to act on material bodies. In the architectural symmetry of the whole I am impressed with

Now, the text teaches us that God's power is inexhaustible in all these phases. He "fainteth not, neither is

I. His PHYSICAL power is inexhaustible. This will ap

pear if we consider,—

First: The nature of His work in the material department. He is the Originator of all. "In the beginning

He created the heavens and the earth." "Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things." What a work is this!

to Divine incapacity. (2) That the urging of difficulty against the fulfilment of Divine promises is an absurdity. (3) That on the assumption of our immortal

of His power. I believe

Secondly: The extent of His work in the material depart-ity we are destined to witment. The universe remains ness infinite manifestations unmeasured by science, and perhaps it transcends the gauge of all created intellect. The whole is in motion, there is nothing quiescent. Our little earth, which, as pared with countless other orbs that wheel through immensity, is a mere atom, proceeds through its orbit with an incalculable velocity.

com

Thirdly: The constancy of His work in the material department. Who originated and perpetuates all this motion? "The Creator of the ends of the earth." Were He to withdraw His power, the whole would come to a standstill and sink into ruin. Through all space He works without the intermission" or pause of a moment. How long has He been conducting these vast works? Who shall count the ages since He commenced? And though He has not paused an instant from the beginning, there are no indications of weariness. He "fainteth not, neither is weary."

From the inexhaustibleness of God's energy we may conclude (1) That the delay of the sinner's punish ment must not be ascribed

that we shall live for ever: we shall be young and hale when the sun shall have grown dim with age and nature has sunk in years. What shall we see? Who can tell the capacities of God? We have seen power slumbering power slumbering in gunpowder, power slumbering in the acorn, power slumbering in the volcano, power slumbering in the child; but what power is there yet slumbering in God! Habakkuk saw His power like "horns," i.e., beams of light, going forth from Him; and he adds that these effulgences of energy rather veiled than revealed His infinite might. They were the "hiding of His power." What God has done in the infinite past has only been as the rays that have gone out from the sun. The sun is as full of light to-day as ever.

The text teaches that,

II. His INTELLECTUAL power is inexhaustible. Intellectual force is as visible in nature to a thoughtful eye as physical. Scienceshows that everything

-the minute and the vast, the proximate and the remote, is formed, sustained, and di

rected according to plan. | worlds, and systems in arche