The Farmville herald. (Farmville, Va.) 1957-current, 1962-09-14

Devotional eading: Psalm 126. r
Leadership
Lesson for September 16, 1862
A man who succeeds in doing
what no man has ever done be-
fore is a great man, provided
what he does is worth doing. A
man who succeeds where others
have failed, is even greater
again supposing that what he
does is a good thing to do.
Nehemiah was such a man. He
would be a success anywhere,
and not only at the time and
place where he lived. The first
We hear of him. he is a mem
Der of the royal court in what
is now Iran, the ancient Persia.
He was evidently a man tn e
king trusted, one to whom the
king gave much power. Yet he
was one Of the down-trodden
Jews. as they were at that time
Nehemiah himself is a fine
example of what happened to
the Jews who were taken into
captivity. They were not put into
dungeons, only some of the more
prominent ones suffered that
fate. Most were left to sink or
swim, and being Jews the y
generally swan. Nehemiah
showed how far they could rise
if they had the chance.
The Time and the Man :.
A glance at the calendar helps
us to understand the genius OF
this man. It was now about 14O
years after Jerusalem had been
destroyed. or 80 years after the
Temple had been started. But in
all that time no one had ever
succeeded in getting a able
government iE Jerusalem or to
build prac tical protection
against their numerous enemies.
In those days every going city
had to have a wall around it;
but in l40 years the city wall
had been lying in ruins exactly
as acknowledgements primitive
bull-dozers had left it. This was
all news to Nehemiah when he
first heard Of it; it was a shock,
too. That this should be SO, goes
to show that prosperous Jews
Like Nehemiah had no notion of
the poverty-striken, danger-filled
lives the Jerausalem Jews had
been living.
When Nehemiah. with govern
ment backing. went to see what
he could do in Jerusalem, by
building the wall as his Number
One project he became the man
OF the hour. Five generations
had passed; Nehemiah had been
needed long before now: but at
last he arrived and took charge.
knowledge and Leadership :.
What are the qualities that
make a man a hero? What are
the characteristics of man of
the hour? Nehemiah is a very
good example. He was a sue
cessful leader partly because Of
what today we would call
know-how," a penetrating I'M
Outstanding of "a situation, an
accurate aim at the heart of
MS problem, and above all an
art in getting people to do what
they ought to do. Sometimes a
leader learns on the job, SO to
speak as Abraham Lincoln did.
Sometimes he comes to his
great task already knowing what
TO do and how to do it. But if
ne neither knows nor can learn.
ne is no leader. Nehemiah's
genius lay chiefly in this: he
was able to make handicaps
work with him, not against him
The people had always been a
quarrelsome lot, as the Old
testament shows us. There were
many cross-currents of jealousy
In the dusty rubble-filled in
significant village that wanted
to be a city again. These had
defeated other men, no doubt
But Nehemiah put these Jealous
les to work. He had the gold
smiths working at one section Of
mat wall, and the priests some
where else. He pitted the m
against one another, and so in
ouced them to do their best
work.
Leadership and Faith
READERS may be interested in
studying the story of Nehemiah
10 see what were the various
ways in which he showed his
power of leadership. But one of
his qualities was vital, and must
not no nvor1ooLod, r..t, ~,