willing to allow, that religion and patriotism are compatible. Nehemiah blended with the most ardent zeal for the divine glory, a fervent affection for mankind: and in his person we behold combined, the man of godliness with the courtier and the gentleman.

In sketching some few of the more prominent and striking outlines of Nehemiah's history, it is proposed to bring them forward to view, without much regard to order, but simply as they appear in holy scripture. In doing which, the writer of this memoir desires to look, not through the inverted medium of partiality or prepossession, but to behold the man as he truly was, without colouring, in the unvarnished and undisguised narrative there given. And he would fain persuade himself, that at a period too remote to excite envy; and too much obliterated by the ravages of time, to awaken displeasure; the faithful record of the character, will rather gratify than offend-rather attract regard than give disgust. Such a life as that of Nehemiah, is the best calculated to shew, that a conduct of inflexible integrity towards men, can only be founded in the love of God; for what begins in grace cannot fail to give a corresponding loveliness in all the departments of naHad Nehemiah lived in those days, his zeal for the honour of God would have raised the hue and cry against him, as an enthusiast or a madman: for his principles of spiritual life were the same then, as all the true spiritual followers of the Lord are now. The mighty change wrought by the Lord, in awakening him to a sense of his Adam-fall transgression by nature, is that which, in every age of the church, must precede any and every work of grace. And where this hath not passed on the mind, it matters not what else glistens in a gilded appearance, whether professor or profane; for both are alike "dead in trespasses and sins."

ture.

The history of Nehemiah opens with what forms the first and leading trait of his whole character; namely,

his seal for the honour of God. This is related in a beautiful style of simplicity; not in so many words as a panegyric, but as incidentally arising out of the events brought before him, in accounts received from Jerusalem, while in the court of Persia. "It came to pass (said he) in the month of Chisleu, (that is, the ninth month, in the twentieth year, (so many having ran out from the church's deliverance from the captivity in Babylon; see Neh. i. 1-4.) 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 which had escaped, that were left of the captivity there, and concerning Jerusalem. And they said unto me, the remnant that are left of the captivity there, in the province, are in great affliction and reproach. The wall of Jerusalem also is broken down, and the gates thereof are burned with fire. And it came to pass, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned certain days and fasted."

In what a lovely point of view doth this opening of the history represent Nehemiah! He had not only escaped the Babylonish captivity, from whence he had been brought, probably in the suite of the Persian monarch, (see Dan. v. 30, 31.) but had been advanced to an eminency of rank in the Persian court. He held a station which gave him continual access to his sovereign; and a charge of the greatest consequence, in being cup-bearer to his majesty; so that all that the king drank, was delivered into his hand by Nehemiah. What confidence the monarch had in him, for the safety of his royal person, can best be estimated by these things. Yet we see, it was not all the enjoyments of the palace; neither the ease, and splendour, and affluence which surrounded this man of God, that could erase the love of his soul towards his beloved Jerusalem. I detain the reader to remark, how very blessedly, as well as graciously, the Lord the Holy Ghost explains

this, in his scriptures of truth, by tracing such effects up to the original cause. Let sceptics say what their vain imagination prompts them to say, but the fact stands undeniably and everlastingly the same, where it always stood; namely, that there is an affinity of kindred souls which links together in one, the whole election of grace to each other, in their union from everlasting with their spiritual head. And however unconscious in a multitude of instances the several members of this mystical body are, of this their high relationship to their glorious head, and with each other, not unfrequently it breaks out, in a way of demonstration, like musical instruments of the same key, corresponding to one another, and manifesting itself in an unison of spirit. And what, under this view of the subject, I would wish the reader more particularly to remark with me is this, namely, that this finer feeling of the soul will sometimes appear towards the object to whom this partiality is directed, as well before, as after "the day-spring from on high hath visited us." Moses was under the influence of it, while in the court of Pharaoh, and before the visions of God began at the bush, when in his zeal to the Hebrews, he smote the Egyptian, Exod. ii. 11, 12. And the soul of Ruth clave to Naomi, when her sister Orpah returned to her people, and to her gods: and though ignorant in herself at that time of any divine operation on her mind, determined that Naomi's people should be her people, and Naomi's God her God, Ruth i. 14-18. And, let me ask, wherefore should it be thought incredible by the world? Do not natural men feel predelictions in nature, leading them to one object in nature rather than another? And shall not the almighty Author of spirits have access to, and operate upon the spirits he hath made, to induce similar feelings? and more especially, when this soul-refreshing subject is traced to its source, and in that grace union which every mem

ber of Christ's mystical body hath with their glorious Head, and consequently with each other; they are proved to be "the body of Christ, (as the scripture states it) and members in particular." 1 Cor. xii. 27. The origin, therefore, is from everlasting, before all worlds; runs through and pervades the whole timestate of the church, while upon earth; and will continue with unabating affection when there are no worlds.

run over.

But let us not stop here. In this view of the subject, we are taught by scripture what it was that wrought by such a stimulus on the spirit of Nehemiah. We may, and do allow all that shall be desired on the ground of natural feeling, towards the distressed state of the Jews at Jerusalem; but this man of God felt more on spiritual considerations for the desolated condition of the church, in the dishonour done to God by " the walls of Jerusalem being broken down, and the gates burned with fire." Here was the sore part. It was the relation of this which made Nehemiah's cup of affliction And like another Eli, who heard without apparently much emotion the sad tidings of the flight of Israel before the enemy, and also the death of his two sons; but when the messenger made mention that the ark of God was taken, all before to this was comparatively nothing; "Eli fell from off his seat, and his neck brake." 1 Sam. iv. 15-18. Holy men of old made Zion's sorrows the chief subject of all their elegies of lamentation. The greater part of Jeremiah's writings are directed to this one theme; so much so, that he is called the mournful prophet. And the captives of the Jews, while by the river Chebar, sung of nothing else but in their doleful accents as they sat down and wept, the running verse of their psalmody was of Zion ;—" If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning; if I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth! yea, if I prefer not

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Jerusalem above my chief joy." Ps. cxxxvii. 1-6. Here was the closing account also which made Nehemiah sit down in solitude, and from the sad conclusion of Jerusalem's state, "in her walls being broken down, and her gates burned with fire." The man of God at once testified his soul distress, by mourning and fasting, and weeping certain days..

Our next view of Nehemiah, is, as is here stated; he presented himself before the mercy-seat, when he arose from the earth, and "prayed before the God of heaven." Here also, as in all the examples of the faithful gone before him, his first resource for the relief of Israel was by hastening to the God of Israel. Where shall the Lord's people seek grace but from the God of all grace? Prayer gives vent to the oppressed heart. And prayer engages God on our behalf. By this we call God to our aid, and God gives strength to our day. And Nehemiah adopted the one invariable plan of all the praying seed of Jacob, by reminding God of his covenant. "Thou saidst," said Jacob, on a memorable occasion of deep exercise, when dreading the anger of Esau, his brother, "I will surely do thee good. Now then, O Lord, deliver me I pray thee from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau!" Gen. xxxii. 7-12. We have the whole of Nehemiah's prayer upon this occasion recorded; as if God the Holy Ghost intended it for the instruction and comfort of the church to all generations. It contains a short, but a complete epitome of all the leading principles of our holy faith, and is the sum and substance of the gospel, of that which hath been, and through the whole time-state of the church must ever be, the gospel; namely, salvation only in the covenant by Christ. The same which was preached to Abraham, Gal. iii. 8. and as was preached to the church in the wilderness, Heb. iv. 2. And if the reader be under the unction of the Holy One, "by which," as the apostle teacheth, "we know all