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T H E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
about the brave man we learned about last week. How did he conquer the enemies who made it so h ard for them to rebuild the broken-down walls to the oity? He conquered by prayer and tru st in God. Today we are to hear about a brave young woman, and we will find there is plenty of work for girls and women to do as well as for boys and men. While many thousands of the Jews had gone back to Je ru sa lem, th ere were many th a t remained in the cities and in the country of the land where they had been taken. Among the people who stayed n ear Babylon was a young girl named Es ther. E sther had no fath er or mother, bu t she had a cousin named Mordecai, who took care of her. He was much older th an E sther and was very kind and good to her; she seemed to him ju st like an own daughter. The king of th e country wanted a wife to be his queen, so from all p arts of his king dom, were brought the most beauti ful young women to the king’s palace. E sther was among those brought to the palace, where they all lived for a year. One by one they passed before the king. When E sther passed by, the king was so pleased w ith her sweet ness of manner and w ith her beauty, th a t he chose her a t once for his queen. E sther loved Mordecai and had always obeyed him as her own father. E sther loved her people, the Jews, and prayed to God for them . A fter several years a proud and cruel man made plans to kill all the Jews, because he was macf a t Mordecai, who was a Jew. E sther was the only one in the world who was in a place where she could stop him, but to do so she had to risk her life. She. told her people to pray for th ree days, while she also prayed, and they were so earnest they did no t even eat while they prayed. Now E sther knew it m ight mean death to go to th e king when he had no t asked her
to come, but she was the only one to plead for her people, and she had prayed and God made her brave. Now she goes before the king, and watch and see what happens. The king is holding out the golden scepter to her, which means he has done as she re quested, and her people will not be killed, bu t th e wicked man who planned to kill them must die instead. God can make us brave to do good even in danger. We find E sther using the same weapons as Nehemiah did, prayer and tru st in God, and th a t is what helped her to do as our memory verse teaches. “ I will fear no evil; for thou a rt w ith me.” Are we brave to stand tru e to Jesus when some one makes fun of us? Are we brave to stand fo r the rig h t when others are asking us to do something we know to be wrong? Now we know why God had the king to choose E sther to be his queen, for He knew what was going to happen to her people, and while E sth er was so beautiful, yet she was not proud or conceited, and God knew He could tru st her to be brave and save her people. She was beautiful in h eart, because she let Jesus have His way in all her life. Closing P ray er.— Dear Heavenly F a th er, help us to pray and tru st thee every day, so th a t we too will be brave. HOLINESS AND RIGHTEOUSNESS Many souls are being exercised about holiness, bu t not equally about rig h t eousness. Holiness is the hidden thing we cannot see; righteousness is the m anifestation of holiness in act and life. — Andrew A. Bonar. Our K. B. Missionary Fund en ables us to send the magazine free to Missionaries. You can help.
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