'Love as brethren.'-I PET. iii. 8.

'Be ye angry and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath neither give place to the devil.'-EPH. iv. 26, 27.

CHAPTER VI.

NEHEMIAH IS ANGRY AND SINS NOT.

ONE stronger and subtler than Sanballat was enraged at the rapid success of Nehemiah's undertaking. By secretly eating away the very first principle on which the existence of Jerusalem, as the City of God, depended, Satan had been undermining the new walls all the while that Nehemiah was busily erecting them. There was, it suddenly appeared, a fatal rift in every gate, a fatal flaw in every course. The inhabitants were supposed to be all brethren by virtue of something more than common. lineage; they were the people of God, whom He had set free from bondage and placed under a constitution which would secure their living as His children and showing forth His glory. As brethren in that highest sense, they were bound heartily to love and actively to succour one another: if that unity, the only

real unity, resting not on birth or self-interest merely but on the common relation of all to their holy and gracious God, was lost, then all was lost; it was to no purpose that a wall should be built which would only enclose so many selfish, greedy oppressors and so many oppressed murmurers, having no real principle of cohesion among them. After turning back Sanballat, Nehemiah found, to his grievous surprise, but scarcely to his dismay, that he had to resist Satan and make him also flee. And he did it. The interest of this part of the story for our Christian state is such as every devout reader will see; we are one, one in Christ, and the unity of the Spirit must be watchfully maintained by us with all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love.' These builders had begun as 'the servants of the God of heaven;' they must live as such, else their work was in vain.

The dictator became aware of the new danger only through a great cry of the people and of their wives against their brethren the Jews.'

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He had surveyed the ruins and taken full account of the worst, as he thought; but his simple generous heart had not suspected the existence of the greater evil which now came to light. 'Dearth' (ver. 3) and the king's tribute' (ver. 4) had led, slowly and surely, to certain grievous miseries. The ultimate necessity of eating, of fighting the wolf starvation, had led the common people, first, to hang about their necks the millstone of debt; secondly, to part with hereditary property, inch by inch, till the mouth had swallowed every field; and thirdly, to face the breakingup of families by slavery. Nay, this last and worst evil was actually on them; 'some of our daughters are brought unto bondage already.' No wonder that the great cry came from 'the wives' they had felt the daily, hourly grinding of hunger ever getting worse week after week; their breasts shrank; their infants pined. They could have found nerve to part from stalwart sons, or even from fair daughters had these been going forth from home to honest work, but it was the very birthright of mankind, his liberty, which

cunning Jacobs were buying for a mess of pottage; and some of those who most needed the shelter of a mother's wings were already taken from them. There was nothing for it but to cry. They had no strength to resist, and no money wherewith to buy back; still they could cry, and to good purpose, as the issue proved. Will the sleek usurers (some nobles of Tekoa among them, I fancy *), say, Hold your peace; it has all been done in a fair way of business; you gave us what you had, and we gave you what you asked? They may; yet the people and their wives will send up this great cry, 'Yet now our flesh is as the flesh of our brethren, our children as their children; and lo, we bring into bondage our sons and our daughters to be slaves, and some of our daughters are brought unto bondage already; neither is it in our power to redeem them, for other men have our lands and vineyards.' Clever men of business may smile and answer, Why call the lands and vineyards yours after you have sold them and eaten the proceeds? but the cry will not be stayed by

* See page 56.