St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1884-03-16
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HELPFULNEiSIS.


broken down and the gates burned with fire,
he wept and tasted and prayed to his God for
wisdom and strength. Help them he must
but how? He could not go unbidden before
the king; the penalty was death. His oppor-
tunity came. The king noticed his sad coun-
tenance and asked him if it was sorrow of
heart. Sore afraid Nehemiah told him all,
and his great desire to go up to Judea. The
king granted his request, and gave him
letters to Asaph, the keeper of the
forests to give him all the timber
he needed to rebuild the gates and
wall; he also gave him an escort of captains
of the army and horsemen.
From the first, when Nehemiah came to
Jerusalem and found it heap of ruins, to
the time when the walls rose again, strong
for shelter and defense, he was hindered in
every way. When his enemies were tired Of
laughing and hooking they tried by a show
of friendly interest to tempt him from his
work. ''Come," said they, ''let us meet to-
gether in some one of the villages in the
plains of Ono" But he answered, II am
doing a great work, so that 1 cannot come. {"
Then they told him that lit
was reported" that in rebuilding the wall he
and the Jews meant to rebel, and that he had
better leave the work and take refuge in the
temple, or he would be slain. He replied
'Should such man as 1 fee? I will not go
in" So the walls were finished, and the I'M
daunted Nehemiah triumphed over his enc
mics. ''The heather were much cast down
in their own eyes, for they perceived that
this work was wrought of our God"
In reading this simple story, a
story which in many ways finds
its counterpart in every human
life which extends beyond youth, the most
notable thing about the man, who inaugu-
rated and completed the work, was his help
fuluess. No opposition daunted him, no
labor was too hard, no vigil too long, so the
work went on.
When his enemies threatened to come upon
them, he ordered every man to work with one
hand, and with the other hold a weapon. The
builders, everyone, girded a sword by his
side, and trumpter stood by Nehemiah
ready to call them to fight, and SO the work
never stopped.
When the heather Knocked them and said,
eff fox go up, he will even break down
their stone walls" their only reply was to
build stronger, and to hasten the work, and
they never rested until it was done.
John Ruskin, in his work on Modern
Painters, defines help to be power in
any part to aid the rest. He illustrates by
the clouds, which, although lying close
together, are no help to each other, and
may be separated without injury. But when
you remove the bark or pith of tree, you es-
sentfally injure it, because you take away the
help that part gave in sustaining life. And
the more intense the life of any object the
greater the help the parts give each other.
As taking limb from man is so much
more terrible than cutting limb from tree
or plant, because the help is so much more
intense in human than in vegetable life
This is the lesson this story holds for us,
that helpfulness is religions holiness. AS
Nehemiah worshiped God when he took the
lower and most exposed wall for himself and
placed the families on the higher one, so
do we, when at every point in life we help
others by prayers, tears, sympathy, or by
sharing with them our worldly goods, praise
him in ''nobler sweeter strains'' than in all
the psalm singing in the world
Why did the widow give
more than the rich men? Be-
cause they gave only trife of their abil-
ity, but she helped all she could
Why did Christ commend the Samaritan
instead of the priest and Levite, who were
strict in the the matter of church worship:
Because he helped him who fell among
thieves. When the scribe answered that to
love God with all the heart and all the I'm
derstanding, and to love his neighbor
as himself was more than all burnt-offer-
ings and sacrifices, Jesus said ''Thou
art not far from the, kingdom of God'' He
knew his duty, had he done it, the kingdom
of God would have been in him.
In the old Saxon holiness means helpful
ness. The Psalmist said, Praise God in the
beauty of holiness" The beauty of holiness
is the beauty of helpfulness, and
to praise him thus is to be eyes to the blind,
ears to the deaf, to give bread to the hungry,
and to comfort those who mourn.
All the services of the church are grouped
around this central idea of help. Our most
holy sacrament commentaries the heir
Christ bro ught for us. Our songs of praise
are the incense of gratitude and love for helu
in the past and of hope for help in the fu-
ture. The gospel service is ministry The
services and sacraments of the church are
necessary and holy, but they are such only
as the outward manifestation of an inward
life. Has the solemn sacrament
of the Holy Communion any meaning for
those who partake with unhallowed lips? Is
there any merit in its observance? Is if
not tender and sacred to those only who
keep it in remembrance of Christ, who said
as ye help one of my little ones, ye help me?
Lowell writes:
"The Holy Supper is kept indeed
In whatso we share with another's need.
Not that which we give, but what we share,
For the gift without the giver is bare:
Who bestows himself with his aims feeds
three
Himself, his hungering neighbor, and me.''
Praying and church worship, natural out
come as they are of Christian life, are not
the life-they are not holiness Righteous
ness is garment whose warp is faith in God
and in his Son, Jesus Christ Good deeds are
the wool, and when this robe is s'washed and
made white in the blood of the Lamb'' it will
become wedding garment for the marriage
supper of Christ and his church.
We are Christians in the same degree that
we are helpers, just as we are necessary
to the well being of others IT, is a rnisno
mer to call man Christian who leads an
idle, useless life. He may believe every arti-
Gle of his church's creed, but if he can find
nothing to do for his Master or his fellow
men, he has not understood the spirit or ex-
ample of Christ s'who went about doing
uood ~