113

LECTURE VI.

NEHEMIAH'S DETERMINATION OF PURPOSE.

"I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down; why should the work cease, whilst I leave it, and come down to you?"-NEH. vi. 3.

THE work which Nehemiah had undertaken was one of no common magnitude, as well as surrounded with no ordinary difficulties. His resources for its accomplishment were scanty, and the enemies that combined to hinder it were numerous and subtle and strong. They at first assailed him with threats; but finding these in vain, they then had recourse to guile and stratagem. They sought to disquiet him by vain rumours, and to seduce him from his work by pretended kindness. Under fair pretexts they disguised dark designs. But he had entered on his purpose with a calm resolve; he was satisfied that the enterprise in which he had em

I

barked enjoyed the blessing and protection of God, and nothing could induce him to swerve from its pursuit. "The God of heaven, He will prosper us; therefore we His servants will arise and build," was the sentiment with which he girded himself to his task; and it was in this mighty confidence that he prosecuted the work, undismayed by threats, unembarrassed by plots, in nowise disheartened by difficulties or disappointments. His noble steadfastness of resolution was manifest throughout his career. He had counted the cost, he had made up his mind; his decision was unwavering, and he carried it out with unfaltering energy. There is a surpassing moral grandeur in the reply which he sent to Sanballat, and Tobiah, and Geshem the Arabian, and the rest of his enemies, when they said to him-" Come, let us meet together in some one of the villages in the plain of Ono." He transmitted to them this magnanimous message-“I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down; why should the work cease, whilst I leave it, and come down to you?" It needs only that you should study his history, to perceive how this sublime determination of spirit pervaded the whole of his course. Whatever his hand found to do, he did it with his might; whatever he resolved to win, he never ceased till he had won it; whatever he determined to encounter, he never failed to overcome.

He could do all things, bear all things, surmount all things, through the strength that was perfected in his weakness. This element imparted to his character a peculiar dignity; it set him on high, far above such as take their complexion from circumstances, conferring with flesh and blood-the creatures, not the controllers of events. It made him resemble the sun, which "cometh forth as a bridegroom out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run his race," which never pauses in the career his Maker has assigned him. Clouds and mists and storms cause him no obstruction; he still pursues his lofty pathway in the heavens, and, however shrouded from our view, shines on in unshorn splendour.

This grand essential of character, especially of Christian character, I am in course to bring under your contemplation on this occasion. Determination of purpose primarily, in relation to the concerns of eternity, and secondarily, in the ordinary concerns of the present life, is therefore my weighty theme. The Lord, the Spirit, give us "one heart and one way!"

Pitiful was the sketch which Jacob on his deathbed drew of his eldest son; he said of him, " Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel." Instability is fatal to excellence. No man can do anything great who is not firm in his resolves, and constant

in his undertakings. The ancient Greeks had an aphorism which is worthy of remembrance-" He is formidable who does one thing." The concentration of the energies of the soul, the faculties of the mind, and the efforts of the life, on some one master end, will give a tone, a coherence, and a grandeur to the character. A man must have a fixed design, or he will not have a steady course. As the instrument tuned to no key-note, so is the man whose spirit is strung to no commanding aim. In vain does the vessel launch forth from the harbour if she have no haven for which to steer, and no helm by which to shape her voyage; but let her obey her rudder well, and keep her point in view, and then, however she may be driven to and fro by adverse winds and opposing currents, she will still return to her track, and urge her way to the longed for port. The traveller will never reach his distant home unless he set that home before him-he may wander, but he cannot journey; he may seek, but he cannot find. Even so in the journey of life. A supreme end, even of an earthly kind, will give a certain force and coherence to character. The ambitious man, in the pursuit of the object which absorbs his soul (evil though that object be when tested by God's truth), imparts a sort of dark grandeur to his character, in consequence of the stern resolve with which he pursues his purpose.

Now, he does it to obtain a corruptible crown;-but what ought to be the master aim of every candidate of immortality? The catechism of the Church of Scotland furnishes the answer to this question excellently. "What," it is asked, "is the chief end of man?" and in reply it is said "Man's chief end is to know, to serve, to glorify, and to enjoy God for ever." Worthy, only worthy end of a being so created and endowed as man! If, then, such be our being's purpose, all who would live for immortality must live for the accomplishment of that design. Take a just view of your life, and all is but dung and dross in comparison with your final acceptance with God. This is the object, the one object which you must enterprise, prosecute, and secure, in order that life may be a blessing to you, and immortality an infinite enhancement of the blessing. What a work is before us!-a work for the achievement of which, and in order that it might be achieved, God from eternity planned salvation-a work for the achievement of which, God "spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all "—a work for the attainment of which, the eternal Word, who 66 was in the form of God, and thought it no robbery to be equal with God, made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men"-a work for the accomplishment of which, God incar