A life summed up.
"For Mordecai the Jew was next unto king Ahasuerus, and great." Gather from Mordecai's history something to stimulate our spirits in the baffle of life.
I. We might remark upon THE WAY IN WHICH HE EARNED HIS ELEVATION. Perhaps as a Jew, he was a little revengeful towards aliens; but he filled well a lowly position, and so was prepared better for a higher. Shall we desire rather to reap rewards than to sow the seed which will produce them?
II. Gather stimulus from THE WAY IN WHICH HE PERFORMED HIS DUTY AND KEPT HIS INTEGRITY. In this he felt that he was already rewarded. And shall we not learn to be patient? Our impatience is our great hindrance. We do not wait, trusting in God, as Mordecai. Yet "he knoweth the way that we take," and in his own time will bring us forth when sufficiently tested.
III. Gather lessons from the fact that HIS PROSPERITY WAS MATERIALLY AIDED BY HIS FAITH AND PRAYER. By his words to Esther we are sure he looked to God for deliverance. When the deliverance came it involved his prosperity as well as that of his people, just as a stranded vessel, when again floating, carries forward not only the captain, but any passengers on board. Mordecai firmly believed that, even though Esther held her peace, "enlargement and deliverance would arise to the Jews from some other place." We can pray to be made faithful, holy, earnest, and in due time the reward will come. It will then be in a sense the result of prayer.
IV. Gather encouragement in seeing HOW HIS ELEVATION CAME WHEN HIS HOPES WERE AT THE LOWEST EBB. See on what a trifle they turned. And thus it is constantly seen in life. Be prepared to seize the trifles, and remember that the darkest night oft ushers in the brightest morning.
V. Gather also instruction in seeing HOW HIS ELEVATION WAS APPROVED BY HIS FELLOW-MEN. We are told he was "accepted of the multitude of his brethren." There was little envy at his rise, because there was much humility in the man. So there are men in whose prosperity we may delight, because, instead of being puffed up, or becoming purse-proud, they maintain their former humility, and practise greater liberality.
VI. Gather guidance from THE WAY IN WHICH MORDECAI USED HIS ELEVATION FOR THE BEST PURPOSES. He sought the welfare of his people, and spoke "peace to all his seed." Not only so, but there is a tradition that many of the Persians, and even the king, believed in God through him. Let us then go through life seeking opportunities to do good, and using those we find. Let us make the motto of Cromwell ours, not only to strike while the iron is hot, "but to make it hot by striking." As Christians, let us seek the welfare and eternal peace of others. We rust, we freeze when we live only for ourselves. We should be like the stream spoken of in a fable, "too active to freeze." "The mill-stream went dashing along, so that the frost could not seize and bind it. The traveller over the Alps in winter was so earnest in striving to save his brother, overcome by cold, that he was himself kept alive by the attempt." Remember that, after all, Mordecai's elevation was but a type of the heavenly honour and glory which awaits all those faithful in spiritual things. The "declaration of his glory" was written side by side with that of the king. He died full of years and of honour. That God who had been his guide in life was his refuge in death. When ushered into heaven, he doubtless felt that he had been, at best, an unprofitable servant. Still, God gave him, doubtless, in that world a position far more elevated, far more lasting, far more satisfactory than that which he, the whilom neglected deliverer, occupied as the prime minister of the Persian king. ― H.
HOMILIES BY D. ROWLANDS