mny Rometimee have cuuee for protest against injustice. 5. Poverty is experienCf:rl by the people o.E God who are engaged in holy toils. II. •r,rn RICH. 1. The rich must not take undue advantage of calamitous circum- etimces. "Because of the dearth" (ver. 3). 2. The rich must not be inconsiderate. "Yet now our flesh is us the fleeh of our brethren" (ver. 5). 3. The rich must not he cruel. 11 Our daughters are brought unto bondage" (ver. 5). 4. The rich must not violate the law of God. "Ought ye not to walk in the fear of our God?" (ver. 9). Ill. THE REBUKE. 1. Angry. " And I wae very angry." 2. Reflective. " I consulted with myeelf" (ver. 7). 3. Impartial. 11 The nobles and the rulers." 4. Sustained. "And I set a great aeeembly againet them." 5. Argumentative (ver. 8). 6. Unanswerable. "They held their peace, and found nothing to answer. " 7. Succeesful. "We will restore."-E. Vera. 1-13.-Error and return. In the very midst of apparent succeee, when the Church is building its walle and eeems likely to be triumphant and secure, there may be an aggravated evil epringing up and spreading to its very heart. Such was the caee at Jerusalem when the walls of its defence were rising. When priests and people were repairing the defencee, there was circulating a deadly mischief within the whole body. We look at- I. THE WORST EVIL FROM WHICH THE CHURCH OF CHRIST CAN SUFFER (vers. 1-5). 1. An internal evil, alwaye more dangerous and deadly than an external one. Better a hundred carping or even conspiring Samaritans than ten Jews inside the walls carrying a curse within their breast. Better an army of Canaanites in battle array than one Achan in the camp. 2. The evil of discord. One Jew was complaining of another, one class of another class; seeds of dissension and strife were springing- up and bearing bitter fruit. Internal evil in a Chrietian society may take many fonns -error, sloth, pride, &c.-but the worst of all is discord. The Master is never so grieved as when his first commandment is broken, and when they who are specially bound to love one another are indulging in II bitternees, wrath, anger, clamour, malice." 3. Discord springing from oppression. The richer Jews had made use of a time of want, arising from dearth (ver. 3), to compel the necessitous to (a) mortgage their children (ver. 2) and (b) their ancestral property (ver. 3) in order to save themselves and their families from starvation (vers. 2, 3), as well as to pay the tribute to the king of Persia. (ver. 4). What naturally affiicted them the most was, that through the cupidity and hardness of the wealthy they had been obliged to eell into servitude their own sone and daughters ; said they, in their forcible lament, "Yet our fleeh ie as the flesh of our brethren, our children as their children" ('ver. 5). Nor were they able to redeem them (ver. 5). There is great bitterness of soul when one member of a Christian Church is heedlees of the natural human affections of any of hie brethren: guilt can hardly go further. II. ITS DEPLORABLE CONSEQUENCES (vere. 1, 9). 1. Misery (ver. 1). "There was n. great cry of the people and of their wives" (ver. 1). When one part of a society is sinning and the other part "sinned against," when the Church is divided into wrong-doers and wrong-sufferers, misery sinks to its depth. There is no gladness of heart so great as when harmony and love prevail; so, there is no wretchedness of eoul eo complete ae when hatred e.nd injury abonnd. 2. Reproach (ver. 9). "It is not good that ye do: ought ye not to walk in the fear of our God because of the reproach of the heathen our enemies?" It is our primary duty, and should be our moet earnest desire, eo to let our light shine that men me.y glorify Christ, to "adorn the doctrine" of our Saviour; when we eo act as to cause the enemy of God to blaspheme, we are "verily guilty before God." Ill. THE WAY OF ESCAPE AND RECOVERY (vers. 6-13). Happily, in this instance, it did not go too far, because it wns not allowed to do its work too long. There was-1. An appreciation of its enormity (ver. 6). Nehemiah wae "very angry when he heard their cry and these words." Angry, but certainly not sinful (Eph. iv. 26); angry with a holy wrath, roused by e. profound sense of the magnitude of the guilt and the danger. 2. Seif-control ( ver. 7). He " consulted with himself." Instead of acting with injurious haste, he waited till he had well considered the best course to take. 'When wrath is roused, it is woll indeed to "consult with ourselves" before we speak TlIE BOOK OF NEHEMIAH. (en. v 1-13.
to others or act on others. 3. Concerted action (ver. 7). "I set a great assembly against t~em." Neh_emiah directed against the evil the full force of public sentiment -the nat10nal conscience. 4. Boldness on the part of the leader. There is n time for decided speech and action. "I rebuked the nobles" (ver. 7). 11 We ... have redeemed our_bre~hren; . ·,; and will ye even sell your brethren,:" (ver. 8). 11 Restore their Jnnds, their nneyards, &c. (ver. 11). "I shook my lap, &c. (ver. 13). In times of great defection or oppression, when things are going ill with the cause of God, it is not honied words, but the language of reproach that is wanted. "Reprove rebuke exhort," though "with all long-suffering" (2 Tim. iv. 2). 5. Repentanc~ on t~ part of the erring. This includes-(a) Conviction of sinfulness-having II nothing to answer" (ver. 8), under a sense of guilt. (b) Acknowledgment and promise of reform (ver. 12). This may well be accompamed by the most solemn vows uttered before God (ver. 12). (c) Amendment (ver. 13). And the people did according to this promise. (1) Conviction, (2) confession, (3) the solemn vow, (4) the homeward step-this is to walk in the way of recovery.-C.