'The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise. 'Do good in Thy good pleasure unto Zion: build Thou the walls of Jerusalem.'-Ps. li. 17, 18. (9) CHAPTER I. THE LONG PRAYER. It was winter when Nehemiah received the tidings which determined his future life. 'And it came to pass in the month Chisleu,' which corresponded to our November, 'in the twentieth year, as I was in Shushan the palace, that Hanani, one of my brethren, came, he and certain men of Judah; and I asked them concerning the Jews that had escaped, who were left of the Captivity, and concerning Jerusalem.' This brother is mentioned again on occasion of being put in charge of Jerusalem (vii. 2). That fact, and what is said of the man then associated with him, that he was a faithful man, and feared God above many,' give us his character. Heroes are rare; one family seldom produces two. Hanani does not seem to have possessed those gifts which fitted his brother for distinguished achievements; he belongs rather to the majority; but his character as 'faithful and fearing God above many' is worth more than all distinction, even in the service of God. Had Nehemiah not possessed that character also, his story would not have been given as 'profitable for our instruction in righteousness.' Hanani appears to have headed a party who had visited the capital of their faith on a mission of inquiry and sympathy. Or he may have been one of those who had gone to Palestine with Ezra, now come back craving succour. Those who remained in the Dispersion, scattered among the hundred and twentyseven provinces of the Persian Empire, were by far the greater number of the Jewish. people; they took root in the land of strangers, according to the message which God sent them by Jeremiah (xxix. 4-7); and were neither less pious nor less patriotic than those who returned. Their position seems, on the contrary, to have purified their piety and made their patriotism more intelligent and intense. It is good to hear this high officer of the Persian court putting eager questions to his brother about the condition of the remnant and of the holy city; for there is no history of equal interest with that of the Jews. Many promises of God were then awaiting their fulfilment in Palestine and among the chosen people again inhabiting it, just as there are still great promises to be fulfilled in that land and among the seed of Abraham. Familiar with the Psalms and the Prophets, heartily concerned about the cause of God on earth, and having a mind enlarged beyond the politics of Persia, Nehemiah longed to hear what tidings his brother had brought. His parents had told him of the return ninety years ago, and of the joy when the Temple, after twenty years of opposition, had been rebuilt. The plot of Haman and the exalting of Mordecai were things of very recent history. If we suppose him now thirty years of age, Ezra's return to labour for a religious reformation was quite within his own time. How now? Does the good priest's work prosper? Is the city of David's strength, of Solomon's glory, being replenished with inhabitants who |