  TROUBLES OF THE JEWS. FIRST READING.
THERE was a gentle Jewish girl, named Esther, who had been left an orphan very young, and was brought up by her kind relation, Mordecai, who was one of the Jews who had not gone back to Jerusalem, but still lived in Persia. One day there came a messenger from the king, to carry away poor Esther from home. The king wanted all the maidens in his land to be brought together, that he might choose the most beautiful of them all for his queen, and the others would be kept for slaves. All the other maidens dressed themselves up, and painted themselves to try to look beautiful; but Esther did not ask for any ornaments, she only put on what she was ordered to wear. Yet she looked so much the most lovely of all, in her modest quietness, that the king chose her and married her, and set the crown on her head, and made her his queen. But she had a sad life, though she was queen. She was always shut up, and could not see her kind friend Mordecai, and she could not even go to her husband without his leave, or she would have been put to death. Queen Esther The Golden Scepter At the banquet Her kinsman, Mordecai, used to sit in the palace gate every day, to hear news of her. Now, there was a very bad man named Haman, who used to pass by every day; and Mordecai never would bow to him, because he was one of the people whom God had forbidden the Jews to have any concern with. Haman grew so angry at last that he resolved not only to get Mordecai killed, but all the Jews besides. So he went to the king, and told him a false story about the Jews, and persuaded him to give orders that their enemies in all the lands round Jerusalem, and everywhere else, should fall on them on a set day, and put them to death. And the king was so foolish and so cruel as to consent to seal the letters, saying that all the Jews were to be killed on one day. But Mordecai heard about this cruel plot, and he sent secret word to Esther that she must try to save her people, by telling the king that he had been deceived by Haman. Poor Esther was much afraid. She knew that if she went to the king without But when he saw her, he touched her with his golden sceptre. Then she knew he would not put her to death; and when he asked why she had come, and what she wanted, she said she wished to ask him to a banquet of wine in her chamber. And when he came there, she was able to tell him of the cruel plan for killing all her people, and how falsely Haman had spoken. The king was very angry when he understood it all; and wicked Haman was hung upon the very gallows he had meant for Mordecai. And so the Jews were saved by the good queen, who was not afraid to risk her life for her people. QUEEN ESTHER CROWNED.—Esther 2:17. QUESTIONS.
TRIUMPH OF MORDECAI.—Esther 6:11. SECOND READING.
THERE was a good Jew named Nehemiah, whom the King of Persia had made his cup-bearer. One day one of the Jews came from Jerusalem, and told Nehemiah how sad all was at their home, the city that once had been so beautiful. There was a little bit of the Temple built up, but all the streets were heaps of ruins, and only a house or two here and there built up; and the robber tribes round were always breaking in and doing mischief. Nehemiah wept, and prayed to God for his people; and when NEHEMIAH ARMETH THE LABORERS—Neh. 4:16,17. So the king gave him leave, but set him a time to come back; and Nehemiah went all the long way to Jerusalem. It was quite as bad as he had heard. The houses were all down, only here and there one standing; and when he went out on his ass at night to view the ruins, there was a heap of stones where a gate should be, and a hole where a wall should be. So Nehemiah stirred up all the Jews, and they set to work to build the wall to keep out the robbers. Then the enemies laughed at them, and said a fox could break down all they built; and when they went on, people used to come and attack them, so that they had to work with swords ready to fight, and always QUESTIONS.
THIRD READING.
GOOD Nehemiah built up the wall of Jerusalem; and his friend Ezra did all he could to teach the Jews to keep the Law of God rightly. It was Ezra who gathered together the five books of Moses, and collected the writings of the prophets, and wrote out the history of the kings, and put nearly all the Old Testament in order as we have it now. And Ezra and Nehemiah took care to teach the people to keep the Sabbath again, as the Fourth Commandment had taught them. Nehemiah used to have the gates of the city shut up, that no stranger might bring any burthen in, and that no one might come in to sell or buy on God's holy day. And then they kept the Feast of the Tabernacles. It was a most beautiful feast. All the people went and cut down great boughs of myrtle, olive, pine, and citron, and willow trees, and built up arbors with them, where they lived for seven whole days, to put them in mind of how their fathers had lived when they came out of Egypt. And on the great day of the feast, every Jew went up to the A SOLEMN FAST AND REPENTANCE OF THE PEOPLE.—Neh. 9:1,2. At night all the court of the Temple was lighted up with great lamps, to put the people in mind that the Lord is our light. How beautiful it must have been, and how happy all the people were to have come back from worshipping idols, and being punished in a strange land, to praise their own true God once more, who blessed and made them happy. QUESTIONS.
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