1 Ahasuerus maketh royal feasts. 10 Vashti, sent for, refuseth to come. 13 Ahasuerus, by the counsel of Memucan maketh the degree of men's sovereignty.

OW it came to pass in the days of Ahasuerus,1 (this is Ahasuerus which reigned, from India even unto Ethiopia, over an hundred and seven and twenty provinces:)

2 That in those days, when the king Ahasuerus sat on the throne of his kingdom, which was in Shushan the palace,

3 In the third year of his reign, he made a feast unto all his princes and his servants; the power of Persia and Media, the nobles and princes of the provinces, being before him: 4. When he shewed the riches of his glorious kingdom and the honour of his excellent majesty many days, even an hundred and fourscore days.

5 And when these days were expired, the king made a feast unto all the people that were present in Shushan the palace, both unto great and small, seven days, in the court of the garden of the king's palace;

6 Where were white, green, and blue, hangings, fastened with cords of fine linen and purple to silver rings and pillars of marble: the beds2 were of gold and silver, upon a pavement of red, and blue, and white, and black marble.

7 And they gave them drink in vessels of gold, (the vessels being diverse one from another,) and royal wine in abundance, according to the state of the king.

This Ahasuerus has been variously identified. He seems most probably to have been the Artaxerxes first mentioned in the Book of Ezra, the same Xerxes (reigned 485-465 B.C.) whom the Greeks defeated. That is, the couches on which they reclined.

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Jehoshaphat's Strange Victory

FROM THE SERIES BY GUSTAVE DORÉ.

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"They looked unto the multitude, and, behold, they were dead bodies fallen to the earth, and none escaped.”—II. Chron., 20, 24.

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EHOSHAPHAT, the good king of Judah, who had made alliance with Ahab, allied himself also with the latter's sons; but after Ahaziah's tragic death, Jehoshaphat realized the danger of comradeship with the evil rulers of Israel. He devoted himself more fully to the care of his own kingdom, and to the service of God.

In his reign, God gave to Judah a strange and signal deliverance from her foes. A powerful alliance had been formed against Judah by the Moabites, Ammonites and others. Feeling himself unable to meet the vast army which marched against him, Jehoshaphat put the matter wholly in the hands of the Lord, proclaimed a fast throughout Israel, and upraised to heaven a solemn and beautiful prayer. At the close of this a prophet assured the devout monarch of deliverance; and he and all his people marched out against the enemy in peaceful procession, chanting hymns of thanksgiving. Thus they came to a mound. overlooking the wilderness, where, to their amazement, they saw outspread before them the dead bodies of all their enemies. God had put dissension into the invaders' hearts, so that they had fought one against the other, until all were slain.