846
THE K I N G ’ S BUS I NESS
tion was created by a knowledge of the true condition of national affairs. Knowledge, feeling and action go to gether!. Knowledge precedes feeling and feeling precedes action. The prompt ness of the action depends upon the strength of the feeling. To induce missionary service we should think long and hard upon the state and fate of the unsaved. Our hearts will soon he on fire with compassion and we shall count no labor too arduous and no sacrifice too great in giving them the Gospel. Praying is not only working, it is the highest form and order of working. It is that work to which our risen Lord is devoting Himself in Heaven. “ He ever liveth to make intercession.” Prayer brings things to pass which all other efforts of man cannot accomplish. Eli jah's prayers controlled the weather for three and one-half years. Since a Christian’s greatest influence is exercised through prayer, he must be weakest when he prays the least and strongest when he prays the most. “ Ah! whither could we flee for aid, When tempted, desolate, dismayed; Or how the hosts of hell defeat, Had suffering saints no mercy seat?” v. 1. The words of Nehemiah. Four teen years after the return of Ezra to Jerusalem Nehemiah led up a company (B. C. 444) and restored the walls and the civil author- COMMENTS FROM ity. Of these MANY SOURCES events this book Keith h . Brooks is the record.— Scofield. Nehe miah was one of the purest hearted patriots the world has ever known. Though born and reared in a foreign land, a high favorite at the foreign court, and possessing everything in the way of wealth and position that heart could desire, still his whole thought was for his people in their misfortune and humiliation, in their attempt to rebuild the city of their fathers. The foundation of all true and lasting pa triotism is religious.—Torrey.
v. 2. Hanani, one of my brethren. What do we know of him? History is full of nobodies. He was a very ordinary man. Historically viewed, he is, in deed, nowhere., This is about the only occasion on which his name occurs and yet that man brought a torch and set fire to a nobler life, and that is what we all may do. We can drop the story into -the ears of others. We can tell them what we have seen and heard and experienced. No man can measure the full effect of his own words. v. 3, The wall Is broken down. It should be kept in mind that the previous commission to Zerubbabel and Ezra concerned only the repair of the temple at Jerusalem and certain internal ar rangements for the moral and material well-being of the people. The walls and gates of the city, however, were still in the ruined condition in which they were left by Nebuchadnezzar after the siege. The consequences of this were detrimental to the people’s peace for such protection was practically their only defense against assaulting enemies. — Gray. v. 4. When I heard these words. Once more it is in the East, far away from Jerusalem, that the impulse is found for furthering the cause of the Jews. Thus we are again reminded that wave after wave sweeps up from the Babylonian plains to give life and strength to the religious and civic restoration.— Exp. Bible. I sat down and wept. A man is not weak because he sits down to cry now and then. There are some tears that are dreadful. They will harden into bars arid bolts to be heard of again in sharp encounters. What are our tears?— People’s Bible. If Nehemiah was so affected by the temporary condition of Jerusalem and the affliction of the remnant, how much more should believers mourn and weep over the spiritual condition among God’s people. Yet how little of this sorrowing spirit over these conditions is known in our day.— Gaebelein. Fasted and prayed. He turned from tears to prayer, from man to God. Oh that we could cry and sigh for the rents and breaches in the church of God. We should deal much more successfully with men if, like Nehemiah, we dealt more largely with God.—Meyer. Nehe miah was a man of prayer (cf. 5:19; 6:9, 14; 13:14, 22, 29, 31).— Comp. Bible. v. 5. Nehemiah said. This prayer is worthy of careful study. It begins
Made with FlippingBook HTML5