News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1910-05-04

Inc TfSC element VI SuCCcoo ao iONOeFfSe'
in this store is that of self denial. To these
people the wall was everything, personal
gain or ambition was nothing. Nehemiah
gave himself to the work with devotion
that was remarkable. Once in the course
of those swiftly passing days spirit OF
murmuring and discomfort manifested
itself. Murmuring among the poorer
people because the money lenders were
charging too much interest. Nehemiah,
YOU remember, at once abandoned MS
claim to tithes. The amounts that were
his own personal right as the governor OF
that district appointed by the King OF
Persia, he gave to the work, and gave
also largely out of his own private purse,
so that the spirit of self-denfal was
caught, and again the wave of enthusi-
asm passed over these disconnected peo-
pie. and they bent themselves to the
work hand in hand. And so as we watch
this busy company of men building night
and day with the sword and trowel, the
first element noticeable is their JOrgeBuI-
ness of self, or selfdenidI And success
in any kind of work will always follow
along these lines. We have to lose all
sense of the Importance of self in an
overwhelming sense of the urgency and
importance of the work. And just in
proportion as we see the necessity for
constant building, shall we also see that
it is our duty to contribute our strength
and means towards that building. The
self assertive principle, which is always
dangerous, will be set on one side and in
its place there will come the principle of
self denial, because supremacy occupied
by the task in hand.
The next letter is U and that stands
for UNITY. They built as one man. And
the unity was manifested, not only in tue
holding of special meetings and the pass
ing of resolutions, but by each man doing
the work that lay nearest to him. They
built, the story says, every man the piece
of the wall that lay nearest his own
house. Each man built, with all his
might, glad that his neighbor was build
ing also, losing himself In sense OF the
Importance of the wall; and this unity of
purpose resulted in the finishing of the
wall within fifty-two days, every man
doing his work in comradeship with the
man that worked next to him. And our
work in this place will be successful just
so far as we learn this second lesson. If
it be my principle that my part of the
wall should be so much higher and look
so much better than my neighbor, and he
work upon the same principle, and the
next man upon the same principle, the
wall will never be finished; but if each
one seeks to know Gods will about the
wall and each does his own part, his own
appointed share, all working in harmony,
unity and peace, then soon will the cry be
heard "The wall is finished"
Again, as we watch those busy wall
builders, the next feature of their success
is that of conservation. How did these
men manifest their conservation to the
work in hand? Was it not by discipline
and obedience (? Conservation may not
be discipline, but discipline is the erpres-
sion of conservation, and If there be no
discipline, IL there be no obedience, then
there is no real conservation. These men
took the work assigned to them and stood
hand in hand to do it. l do not think
that any man had a more trying time in
the building of the wall in Nehemiah's
day than the trumpeter, for this reason
the hardest thing in the world is to stand
still and do nothing when the enthusiasm
of work has passed over a great crowd
And yet in the very conservation of that
man to discipline and order there was
manifest the fact of conservation to
great work. And we need to learn this