Myrrh, it is well known, was celebrated in the most ancient times as a perfume, and a fumigator, as well as for its uses in medicine. As several kinds were included under the name of myrrh, it is probable that some may have possessed more aromatic properties than others : but the tastes and the customs of nations vary so much in different ages of the world, that it is impossible for us to estimate correctly what was most agreeable to the nations of antiquity. Myrrh was burned in their temples, and employed in embalming the bodies of the dead. Herodotus, speaking of the practice of embalming among the Egyptians, says, ' They then fill the body with powder of pure myrrh, cassia, and other perfumes, except frankincense' (ii. S6). It was offered in presents, as natural products commonly were in those days, because such as were procured from distant countries were very rare. In the same way we often hear of a rare animal or bird being presented to royalty even in the present day. The ancients prepared a wine of myrrh, and also an oil of myrrh, and it formed an ingredient in many of the most cele brated compound medicines, as the Theliaca, the Alithridata, Manus DA, etc. Even in Europe it continued to recent times to enjoy the highest medicinal reputation, as it does in the East in the present day. It is no doubt useful as a moderately stimulant medicine ; but Von Helmont was extra vagant enough to state that it is calculated to render man immortal, if we had any means of per fectly dissolving it in the juices of the body. From the sensible properties of this drug, and from the virtues which were ascribed to it, we may satisfactorily account for the mention of it in the several passages of Scripture which have been quoted.—J. F. R.
MORDECAI 07•11n, supposed to come from the Persian ‘.5't " little man, mannikin ; or, according to others, from the idol 11`ln, Mero dock, thus signifying a votary of Merodach. The last supposition is not unlikely, seeing that Daniel had the Chaldxan name of Belteshazzar ; Sept. Mapaoxaios), son of Jair, of the tribe of Benjamin, descended from one of the captives transported to Babylon with Jehoiachin (Esther ii. 5). He was resident at Susa, then the metropolis of the Per sian empire, and had under his care his cousin Hadessa, otherwise Esther, at the time when the fairest damsels of the land were gathered together, that from among them a fitting successor to queen Vashti might be selected for king Ahasuerus. Among them was Esther, and on her the choice fell ; while, by what management we know not, her relationship to Mordecai, and her Jewish descent, remained unknown at the palace. Mor decai lost none of his influence over his cousin by her elevation, although the seclusion of the royal harem excluded him from direct intercourse with her. He seems to have held some office about the court ; for we find him in daily attendance there, and it appears to have been through this employment that he became privy to a plot of two of the chamberlains against the life of the king, which through Esther he made known to the monarch. This great service was, however, suf fered to pass without reward at the time. On the rise of Hantan to power at court, Mordecai alone, of all the nobles and officers who crowded the royal gates, refused to manifest the customary signs of homage to the royal favourite. It would be too much to attribute this to an independence of spirit, which, however usual in Europe, is unknown in Eastern courts. Haman was an Ama]ekite ; and Mordecai brooked not to bow himself down before one of a nation which from the earliest times had been the most devoted enemies of the Jewish people. The Orientals are tenacious of the outward marks of respect, which they hold to be due to the position they occupy ; and the erect mien of Mordecai among the bend courtiers escaped not the keen eye of Haman.
He noticed it, and brooded over it from day to day : he knew well the class of feelings in which it originated, and—remembering the eternal enmity vowed by the Israelites against his people, and how often their conquering sword had all but swept his nation from the face of the earth—he vowed by one great stroke to exterminate the He brew nation, the fate of which he believed to be in his hands. The temptation was great, and to his ill-regulated mind irresistible. He therefore procured the well-known and bloody decree from the king for the massacre of all the Israelites in the empire in one day. When this decree became known to Mordecai, he covered himself with sack cloth and ashes, and rent the air with his cries. This being made known to Esther through the servants of the harem, who now knew of their relationship, she sent Hatach, one of the royal eunuchs, to demand the cause of his grief : through that faithful servant he made the facts known to her, urged upon her the duty of delivering her people, and encouraged her to risk the conse quences of the attempt. She was found equal to the occasion. She risked her life by entering the royal presence uncalled, and having by discreet management procured a favourable opportunity, accused Haman to the king of plotting to destroy her and her people. His doom was sealed on this occasion by the means which in his agitation he took to avert it ; and when one of the eunuchs present intimated that this man had prepared a gal lows fifty cubits high on which to hang Mordecai, the king at once said, Hang him thereon.' This was, in fact, a great aggravation of his offence, for the previous night, the king, being unable to sleep, had commanded the records of his reign to be read to him ; and the reader had providentially turned to the part recording the conspiracy which had been frustrated through Mordecai. The king asked what had been the reward of this mighty service, and being answered nothing,' he com manded that any one who happened to be in attendance without, should be called. Haman was there, having come for the very purpose of asking the king's leave to hang Mordecai upon the gallows he had prepared, and was asked what should be done to the man whom the king delighted to honour ? Thinking that the king could delight to honour no one but himself, he named the highest and most public honours he could conceive, and received from the monarch the astounding answer, Make haste, and do even so to Mordecai that sitteth in the king's gate !' Then was Haman con strained, without a word, and with seeming cheer fulness, to repair to the man whom he hated beyond all the world, to invest him with the royal robes, and to conduct him in magnificent cavalcade through the city, proclaiming, Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delighteth to honour.' After this we may well believe that the sense of justice decided the perhaps till then doubtful course of the king, when he heard of the gallows which Haman had prepared for the man by whom his own life had been preserved.
Mordecai was invested with power greater than that which Haman had lost, and the first use he made of it was, as far as possible, to neutralize or counteract the decree obtained by Haman. It could not be recalled, as the kings of Persia had no power to rescind a decree once issued ; but as the altered wish of the court was known, and as the Jews were permitted to stand on their defence, they were preserved from the intended destruction, although much blood was, on the appointed day, shed even in the royal city. The Feast of Purim was instituted in memory of this deliverance, and is celebrated to this day (Esth. ix. I-32). [PURIM.] A Mordecai, who returned from the exile with Zerubbabel, is mentioned in Ezra ii. 2 and Neh. vii. 7 ; but this cannot well have been the Mor decai of Esther, as some have supposed.—J. K.