“I heard a man, yesterday, say that he had expended ten thousand dollars to be elected sheriff, and was disappointed after all. Haman is the fellow, sitting in the counsels of the Vigilance Committee, side by side with Esther the queen, that will give us trouble yet. He is a most wily politician. Mordecai will have to sit at the gate in California for several years to come, before we shall be able to dispose of this dangerous foe. He seems very kind and pliable now; but, as he acquires influence, he will the more despise Mordecai, and plot against the just, and gnash upon him with his teeth.' But let Mordecai maintain his fidelity to God, and do his duty in California; let Esther maintain her purity of heart, and her activity in Christian enterprise; and let all the people of Mordecai and Esther fast and pray, and God will make the counsel of Haman like that of Ahithophel. He will lift up the head of his servant Mordecai. Don't be discouraged, my good fellow; < commit thy way unto the Lord, trust also in him, and he will bring it to pass. He shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noon day.' And God shall bring it to pass' so unexpectedly, and so opportunely, that you will exclaim with David the king, 'When the wicked, even mine enemies, and my foes came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell.' Just as they were about to devour me 'they stumbled and fell,

and I escaped.' See the displays of God's wise providence in 'Shushan the palace.'

"Haman and his party exulted in his promotion, as the sole guest, with King Ahasuerus, at the queen's banquet, and regarded that as an unmistakable indication of the final success of all his ambitious schemes. But there's that stubborn Mordecai at the gate; he cannot longer be tolerated. Mrs. Haman, true to the class of Jezebels and Herodiases to which she belongs, the very antipodes of Esther, suggested the happy expedient. 'Let a gallows be built seventy-five feet high,' and go early to-morrow morning, and obtain from the king a death-warrant for Mordecai, and hang him, (or impale him, rather,) and then thou canst enjoy the banquet of the queen. Strange as it may seem, the king could not sleep that night, and said to his scribe, 'Bring hither the book of records of the chronicles, and read before me.' The chronicles of Eastern kings were written by the best poets, in measured verse, so that the reading of them was very entertaining; much more so, we should think, in view of their historic worth, than the novels of modern days. Providentially, the scribe read 'where it was written that Mordecai had told of Bigthan and Teresh,' and was thus the means of saving the king's life, and the king said, 'Stop, sir; what honor and dignity hath been done to Mordecai for this? Then said the king's servants that ministered

unto him, There is nothing done for him.' And the king said, 'Sentinel, who is in the court? Behold, Haman standeth in the court,' was the reply. 'Tell him to come in,' said the king. So Haman came in, and the king said unto him, 'What shall be done unto the man whom the king delighteth to honor? 'Now Haman thought in his heart, To whom would the king delight to do honor more than to myself? I alone was his guest yesterday.' 'And Haman answered the king, For the man whom the king delighteth to honor, let the royal apparel be brought which the king useth to wear, and the horse that the king rideth upon, and the crown royal which is set upon his head. And let this apparel and horse be delivered to the hand of one of the king's most noble princes, that they may array the man withal whom the king delighteth to honor, and bring him on horseback through the street of the city, and proclaim before him, Thus shall it be done unto the man whom the king delighteth to honor.' Then the king said to Haman, 'Make haste, and take the apparel and the horse, as thou hast said, and do so'-(Yes, thought Haman, put it on myself, of course I am the man. This head of mine shall bear the crown royal at last)— 'and do so to Mordecai the Jew, that sitteth at the king's gate.' 'My lord, O king! live forever, thy servant' 'Not a word, sir; go,' said the king, ' and let nothing fail of all thou hast spoken.'

"Did you ever in all your lives see a man so crestfallen? Judge T. did not feel worse yesterday when arrested by the Vigilance Committee. So here comes Haman, with the royal apparel and the crown, leading the king's horse to the gate. There sits Mordecai," pointing to Captain E., who has proved himself a worthy representative of Mordecai for six years in California, "stern in his integrity, but how greatly astonished, when his old enemy said, 'Mordecai, stand up, sir, and allow me to put upon you these royal robes and this crown. Mount the king's horse, sir.' And down the street they went, Haman leading the king's charger, and with choked and broken utterances, proclaiming, 'Thus shall it be done unto the man whom the king delighteth to honor.' The fate of the Haman family is sealed. The redemption of Mordecai and his people secured.

Only let Mordecai and Esther do their duty in California: let the infant Church of Jesus in this wicked land, 'stand in the ways, and see and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein,' 'obeying God rather than man,' though now sitting at the gate in rags, and the time will come when Mordecai's God will say to her, 'Arise, shine, thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is

risen upon thee.' She shall then come up out of the wilderness, 'fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners.' And from all these streets, and our beautiful valleys, and from hilltop to hill-top, nay, from the coast-range to the snowcapped summits of the Sierra Nevada mountains, one universal California shout shall arise, 'Halleluiah! The Lord God omnipotent reigneth.'