The Greenville journal. [volume] (Greenville, Ohio) 1850-1918, 1911-12-07
NEHEMIAH AND
HIS ENEMIES
Sunday School Lesson fR Dec. 10. 1911
Specially Arranged for This Paper
Specially Arranged for This Paper


LESSON TExT-Nehemiah e
MEMORY VERsE-1l.
GOLDEN TExT-"The Lord is the
strength Of my life; of whom shall be
afraid."-Psa. H:l
TIME-B. c. IA.
The wall was finished In 81 days in Au'
gust and September.
PLACE-Jerusalem and vicinity.
There were enemies within the Jew
lsh church. Some of the mobiles and
richer men had been depressing their
poorer brethren who were working at
great sacrifice in rebuilding the walls
No wages were paid for this work, so
that many we're thus reduced to the
direst straits to support themselves
and their families, and pay the taxes
exacted by the Persian government
Their misfortunes were brought to a
climax by the condition of hostilities,
which put an end to trade, and threat
ened town and country with ruin. lt
was impossible to obtain regular en-
ployment, and prices had gone up.
Those who had little property mort
gagged their homes; and in this way q
considerable portion of the property
of the poorer classes, their grain
fields vineyards, and dwellings, passed
into the hands of wealthy money
lenders, who demanded high usury.
Some, having no means to pay their
creditors, sold their children as slaves.
The hungry ones were threatening. II
the grain was not given to keep them
fro mstarvation, they would take 1t by
violence, or surrender the city to its
enemies. The taxes for the Persian
government were very heavy and ex-
acting. The chief officers farmed out
the collection of the taxes, both in
money and in the fruits of the land.
These under officers were the same as
those called publicans in the New
Testament. They were required to
pay over to their superiors the exorbi.
tant sum fixed by law, and depended
for their profit on what they could
make by fraud and extortion. They
overcharged, brought false charges Of
smuggling to extort hush-money,
seized upon property In case Of dis
pute and held 1t until their levy was
paid, forbade the farmer to reap his
standing crops until they had wrung
from him all that his penury could
produce. They were universally fear.
ed, hated, and despised No money
known to have come from them was
received for religious uses.
Now these, who professed religion
and lived heathenism, were the great.
est injury to the Cause for which
Nehemiah had come. 1t was against
such as these that Jesus launched the
sharpest lightning Of his "Woeunto
you, hypocrites." They are traitors to
their country, their church and their
God. The church stands for the high
est expression of mans life. A church
represents the permanent spiritual
ideals. 1t embodies the loftiest human
aspirations; a nations best express
sion of its religious sentiment repre-
sents that nation at it's best. Now
whosoever in the name of the church
as member OF 1t, does actions con
trary to its whole spirit. is the great
est enemy of the kingdom of God.
Nehemiah overcame these enemies
He changed them from enemies II
friends. He rebuked them with burn
ing indignation. He told them to theil
face the wrong they were doing. Ht
persuaded them to repent and undo
the wrongs they had done: Il pray
you, let us leave off this usury. Re
store. l pray you, to them, even thl!
day, their lands, their vineyards, thei
oliveyards, and their houses, also tn,
hundredth part Of the money, and o
the corn, the wine, and the oil, tina
ye exact of them" Then said they
I'VE will restore them, and will re
quire nothing Of them; so will we d.
as thou sayest." He set them gooC
example. He refused to take the usua
salary of the governor. He bore al
the expenses of his retinue. His nobl'
conduct made the names of these op
pressors show black as the smoke o
the pit.
One of the greatest powers for re
forming abuses Is publicity. Let ever.
mans name be on his deed, on tht
work he does, on everything he says
on all that he owns. Let the salool
keepers name be on the drunkard h,
made On all the adulterated food
the dishonest work, the sweat-shol
ruins of health, the unhealthy tene
ments-let the name Of the doers o
Ehese evils be written in blazing lei
ters, like the fiery letters that fame,
from the barrels of rum on which tn
demons had written the evils 1t wouI
cost, and few would dare face thi
publicity cure. Nehemiah shame
these false hearted leaders into re
pentance and virtue.
There is a continual temptation tc
day for Christian workers to give Vi
their time and strength to discussing
the many theories and unsettled ques
tions which are continually confront
ing them. All sorts of men say al
sorts of things till 1t seems as If thes
clouds were obscuring the whole cor
tinent of Truth. This is true of man
other things besides religion Nol
: the way to escape from these snare
is to attend to our duties, to go t
work for the Cause of Christ with a
, our hearts, to give ourselves to hell
ing save our fellow men, both bod
. and soul For then we will use tn
essential things by which our work
accomplished. We thus test the worl
. ing theories by using them. Thos
, principles that bring results are tn
ones we want. We find out what the