Aster

“ There has come later a dwarf sort, six or ten inches high, wonderfully rich and fine, which, with a low, white aster, seems to hold the field against everything else, though the taller golden-rod and the masses of the high, blue asters nod less thickly above it. ”

“ These sturdy plants told the news to their relations inside; and so the Asters were unusually wise and energetic flowers, from the little white stars in the grass to the tall sprays tossing their purple plumes above the mossy wall.
"Things are moving in the great world, and it is time we made a change in our little one," said one of the roadside Asters, after a long talk with a wandering wind. "Matters are not going well in the meadow; for the Golden-rods rule, and they care only for money and power, as their name shows. ”

“ IT is hardly likely that a goddess may die. Then Eastre, the old Saxon goddess of spring, must be laughing in her muslin sleeve at people who believe that Easter, her namesake, exists only along certain strips of Fifth Avenue pavement after church service. ”

“ Along a walk to an old outhouse they planted asters on one side and four o'clocks on the other. Asters, as all boys and girls know, are better if started inside early. Then they may be transplanted to the outside. In his way one gets a bit ahead of the season. ”

“ There are other asters which should not be mixed up with these,—we mean those growing by the wayside in the fall of the year. The astronomers, from their nocturnal habits, can scarcely be acquainted with them ”

“ The Greek version of the Book of Esther—a varient of Istar—contains the remarkable passage, “A little fountain became a river, and there was light, and the sun, and much water”: in the neighbourhood of the Kentish Stour is Eastry; in Essex there is a Good Easter and a High Easter, and in Wilts and Somerset are Eastertowns. In England the sun was popularly supposed to dance at Eastertide, and in Britain alone is the Easter festival known under this name: the ancient Germans worshipped a Virgin-mother named Ostara, whose image was common in their consecrated forests. ”

“ So she exposed herself to peril and went forth for love of her country and of her people which were beleaguered; and the Lord delivered Holophernes into the hand of a woman.
1Clem 55:6
To no less peril did Esther also, who was perfect in faith, expose herself, that she might deliver the twelve tribes of Israel, when they were on the point to perish. For through her fasting and her humiliation she entreated the all seeing Master, the God of the ages; and He, seeing the humility of her soul, delivered the people for whose sake she encountered the peril. ”

“ Up from Earth's Centre through the Seventh Gate
I rose, and on the Throne of Saturn sate;
And many Knots unravel'd by the Road;
But not the Master-Knot of Human Fate. ”

“ Ere Babylon was dust,
The Magus Zoroaster, my dead child,
Met his own image walking in the garden.
That apparition, sole of men, he saw. ”

“ And he sent letters to all the provinces of his kingdom, as every nation could hear and read, in divers languages and characters, that the husbands should be rulers and masters in their houses: and that this should be published to every people.
Esther Chapter 2
Esther is advanced to be queen. Mardochai detecteth a plot against the king.
2:1. After this, when the wrath of king Assuerus was appeased, he remembered Vasthi, and what she had done and what she had suffered:
2:2. And the king's servants and his officers said: Let young women be sought for the king, virgins and beautiful,
2:3. ”

“ I remarked constantly, just at sunset, in these latitudes, that the eastern horizon was brilliantly illuminated with a kind of mock sunset. This in a short time disappeared, to be soon succeeded by another similar in character, but more faint. ”

“ O'er yonder eastern bill the twilight pale
Walks forth from darkness; and the God of day,
With bright Astraea seated by his side,
Waits yet to leave the ocean. ”

“ The revenge of an elder sister may be long in coming, but, like a South-Eastern express, it arrives in its own good time. ”

“ That the relief of flowers and of colour is sought and intended is seen by the fact that hardly a garden in the country has not its Plum or Cherry tree, its Irises, thin-petalled as if made of tissue paper or of fine soft silk, its pots of Peonies, or Asters, or Morning Glories, or sweet-scented splendid Lilies, or its little Maples to warm it in the fall. ”

“ Chapter 11 1 So the king and Haman came to banquet with Esther the queen. 2 The king said again to Esther, on the second day at the banquet of wine, "What is your petition, Queen Esther? It shall be granted you. What is your request? Even to half of the kingdom it shall be performed." 3 Then Esther the queen answered, "If I have found favor in your sight, O king, and if it please the king, let my life be given me at my petition, and my people at my request. 4 For we are sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be slain, and to perish. ”

“ But the king being angry rose up, and went from the place of the banquet into the garden set with trees. Aman also rose up to entreat Esther the queen for his life, for he understood that evil was prepared for him by the king. ”

“ How can I endure to see the destruction of my relatives?"
7 Then King Ahasuerus said to Esther the queen and to Mordecai the Jew, "See, I have given Esther the house of Haman, and him they have hanged on the gallows, because he laid his hand on the Jews. 8 Write also to the Jews, as it pleases you, in the king's name, and seal it with the king's ring; for the writing which is written in the king's name and sealed with the king's ring may not be reversed by any man." ”

“ Falls to her feet, and the garland breaks and vanishes,
Breaks like a dream in the dawn when the dreamer
Wakes.
White-bosomed Astrid,—ah, but she was beautiful!—
Nightly tastes the sorrow of the world in the moon.
Will it be this little white miracle, she wonders.
How shall she know it, the star that will save her?
Still, ah still, in the moonlight she crouches
Bowing her head, for the garland has crumbled!
All the wild petals for the thousand and second time
Fall.
135
White-footed Astrid,—ah, but she is beautiful!—
Nightly seeks the secret of the world in the moon. ”

“ It is stated that, in Canaan, Astarte was represented under the form of a cow and it will be shown that, in the Egyptian zodiac Polaris and Ursa Major were represented under the form of a bull or cow or its thigh. The eye painted on the prow of the ship was also a symbol of the goddess, an interesting fact considering that the eye expresses a star among other primitive people.100.Book v, Chaps. viii-x.101.“That the Hebrew and Babylonian traditions [of the Creation] spring from a common source is so evident as to require no further proof. The agreements are too close to be accidental. ”

“ And the like you will find in the Book of Esther, spoken about her, when it is written, stripping off all her “cosmos.” [4] For the word “cosmos,” simply, is not the same as the “cosmos” of heaven, or the “cosmos” of Esther ”

“ And Esther was treated well by everyone who saw her. 16 So Esther was taken to King Ahasuerus to his royal house in the tenth month, which is the month of Tebet, in the seventh year of his reign. 17 The king loved Esther more than all the women, and she obtained kindness and favor in his sight more than all the virgins. He set the royal crown on her head, and made her queen in Vashti's place. 18 Then the king held a great banquet for all his nobles and his servants, Esther's banquet, and he declared a holiday [8] for the provinces, and gave gifts with royal generosity. ”

“ This is no time to cloud the royal brow!
Bring forth the vintage from the deepest vault.
Here are a hundred irised pearls. They cost
A million sesterces. Let each man crush
A lustrous shell and drink it to the health
Of Esther, beauteous queen of all the East.
Arise! She comes! A blaze of splendor. Now
Let every instrument be sounded.
The revels shall continue till the dawn!
[74] Zeresh
[Rushing in with uplifted dagger and thrusting it into the heart of Esther, crying as she flourishes it before the astonished court.]
The dawn, O king, is breaking in the east!
[Curtain.] ”

“ As we look at the book of Esther, through the long dark vista of intervening ages, we are presented with a beautiful picture of a past period. Nations have perished and left no memories; and while all the other portion of our world, at that day, is shrouded in darkness or buried in forgetfulness, the light of revela [291] tion falls upon the court of Ahasuerus, and we see it in all the gorgeous splendour of oriental magnificence. ”

“ The rites performed in her temples made Istar or Ashtoreth the darkest blot in Assyrian and Canaanitish religion, and excited the utmost horror and indignation of the prophets of God. When the moon came to be conceived as a female divinity, the pale reflection, as it were, of the sun, Istar, the evening star, became also the goddess of the moon. ”

“ NO one but a faithful Christian worker in Christ's vineyard can understand the encouragement such a revelation as that described in the last chapter is to those who have been for years sowing good seed and waiting for the harvest.
Esther, for years a member of the mission Sunday school,—light and frivolous, seemingly almost incapable of retaining any of the teachings repeated Sunday after Sunday in her hearing,—had been impressed by something in this simple prayer which the gracious spirit of God had fixed in her memory. ”

“ Astræa, a daughter of Astræus king of Arcadia, or, according to others, of Titan, Saturn’s brother, by Aurora. Some make her daughter of Jupiter and Themis, and others consider her to be the same as Rhea wife of Saturn. She was called Justice, of which virtue she was the goddess. She lived upon the earth, as the poets mention, during the golden age, which is often called the age of Astræa; but the wickedness and impiety of mankind drove her to heaven in the brazen and iron ages, and she was placed among the constellations of the zodiac, under the name of Virgo. ”

“ Chapter 14
1 Queen Esther also, being in fear of death, resorted unto the Lord:
2 And laid away her glorious apparel, and put on the garments of anguish and mourning: and instead of precious ointments, she covered her head with ashes and dung, and she humbled her body greatly, and all the places of her joy she filled with her torn hair.
3 And she prayed unto the Lord God of Israel, saying, O my Lord, thou only art our King: help me, desolate woman, which have no helper but thee:
4 For my danger is in mine hand. ”

“ Are there many birds that live on flesh?'
'A great many, Queen Esther. All creation, nearly, preys on some other part of creation—except that respectable number that are granivorous, and herbivorous, and graminivorous.'
Esther stood before the owl, musing; and Dallas, who was studying the child now, watched her.
'But what I want to know, is,' began Esther, as if she were carrying on an argument, 'why those that eat flesh look so much more wicked than the others that eat other things?'
'Do they?' said Dallas. 'That is the first question.'
'Why, yes,' said Esther, 'they do, Pitt. ”

“ Standing in the midst of it, how easy it seemed to transport one's self in thought to that similar scene mentioned in the book of Esther i, 4, 7, where, nearly five hundred years before Christ, Ahasuerus, the Persian, “who reigned from India even unto Ethiopia,” displayed his magnificence during the seven days' feast “in the court of the garden of the king's palace, where were white, green, and blue hangings fastened with cords of fine linen and purple to silver rings and pillars of marble ”

“ Book Introduction - Esther
Read first chapter of Esther
The significance of the Book of Esther is that it testifies to the secret watch care of Jehovah over dispersed Israel. The name of God does not once occur, but in no other book of the Bible is His providence more conspicuous. A mere remnant returned to Jerusalem. The mass of the nation preferred the easy and lucrative life under the Persian rule. But God did not forsake them. What He here does for Judah, He is surely doing for all the covenant people. ”

“ Istar, the evening star, the Chaldean Venus, the goddess of love and fertility, became the Atthar of southern Arabia, is identical with the goddess Hathor, of Egyptian mythology, and was worshipped by the Canaanites as Ashtaroth, and finally by the Greeks as Astarte.
Against this background of history and tradition, of civilization so remote, a notable figure appears about fifteen hundred and forty years later than the great Sharrukin, or 2260 B. C., in whom the most sacred traditions of later civilizations were to have their rise. ”

“ But hark! the cry is Astur: And lo! the ranks divide; And the great Lord of Luna Comes with his stately stride. Upon his ample shoulders Clangs loud the fourfold shield, And in his hand he shakes the brand Which none but he can wield.
He smiled on those bold Romans A smile serene and high; He eyed the flinching Tuscans, And scorn was in his eye. Quoth he, ‘The she-wolf's litter Stands savagely at bay: But will ye dare to follow, If Astur clears the way?’
Then, whirling up his broadsword With both hands to the height, He rushed against Horatius, And smote with all his might. ”

“ At first a merely local deity, she ultimately came to be regarded as the personification of fertility (both of the soil and of human and animal life) and of war. She corresponded in general to the Ashtoreth (Astarte) of the Syrio-Canaanites, save that she was conceived as ruling the planet Venus, rather than the moon, over which Ashtoreth held sway. Being the representative of the principle of fertility, Istar was regarded also as the goddess of sexual love. ”