Men of the Bible Part 7

The thought flashed across my mind, "Will there be no difference?

Where will you be a hundred years hence?"

Young man, just ask yourself the question, "Where shall I be?" Some of you who are getting on in years may be in eternity ten years hence. Where will you be, on the left or the right hand of G.o.d? I cannot tell your feelings, but I can my own. I ask you, "Where will you spend eternity? Where will you be a hundred years hence?"

I heard once of a man who went to England from the Continent, and brought letters with him to eminent physicians from the Emperor. The letters said:

"This man is a personal friend of mine, and we are afraid he is going to lose his reason. Do all you can for him."

The doctor asked him if he had lost any dear friend in his own country, or any position of importance, or what it was that was weighing on his mind.

The young man said, "No; but my father and grandfather and myself were brought up infidels, and for the last two or three years this thought has been haunting me, Where shall I spend eternity? And the thought of it follows me day and night."

The doctor said, "You have come to

THE WRONG PHYSICIAN,

but I will tell you of one who can cure you"; and he told him of Christ, and read to him the 53d chapter of Isaiah, "With His stripes we are healed."

The young man said, "Doctor, do you believe that?"

The doctor told him he did, and prayed and wrestled with him, and at last the clear light of Calvary shone on his soul. He had settled the question in his own mind at last, where he would spend eternity.

I ask you, sinner, to settle it now. It is for you to decide. Shall it be with the saints, and martyrs, and prophets, or in the dark caverns of h.e.l.l, amidst blackness and darkness forever? Make haste to be wise; for "how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?"

At our church in Chicago I was closing the meeting one day, when a young soldier got up and entreated the people to decide for Christ at once. He said he had just come from a dark scene. A comrade of his, who had enlisted with him, had a father who was always entreating him to become a Christian, and in reply he always said he would when the war was over. At last he was wounded, and was put into the hospital, but got worse and was gradually sinking. One day, a few hours before he died, a letter came from his sister, but he was too far gone to read it. Oh, it was such an earnest letter! The comrade read it to him, but he did not seem to understand it, he was so weak, till it came to the last sentence, which said:

"Oh, my dear brother, when you get this letter, will you not accept your sister's Savior?"

The dying man sprang up from his cot, and said, "What do you say?

what do you say?" and then, falling back on his pillow, feebly exclaimed, "_It is too late! It is too late!_"

My dear friends, thank G.o.d it is not _too late_ for you to-day. The Master is still calling you. Let every one of us, young and old, rich and poor, come to Christ at once, and He will put all our sins away. Don't wait any longer for feeling, but obey at once. You can believe, you can trust, you can lay hold on eternal life, if you will. Will you not do it now?

THE PROPHET NEHEMIAH

I should like to call your attention to the prophet Nehemiah. We may gain some help from that distinguished man who accomplished a great work. He was one of the last of the prophets, was supposed to be contemporary with Malachi, and perhaps his book was one of the last of the Old Testament books that was written. He might have known Daniel, for he was a young man in the declining years of that very eminent and G.o.dly statesman. We are sure of one thing at least--he was a man of sterling worth. Although he was brought up in the Persian court among idolaters, yet he had a character that has stood all these centuries.

Notice his prayer in which he made confession of Israel's apostasy from G.o.d. There may be some confessions we need to make to be brought into close fellows.h.i.+p with G.o.d. I have no doubt that numbers of Christians are hungering and thirsting for a personal blessing, and have a great desire to get closer to G.o.d. If that is the desire of _your_ heart, keep in mind that if there is some obstacle in the way which you can remove, you will not get a blessing until you remove it. We must cooperate with G.o.d. If there is any sin in my heart that I am not willing to give up then I need not pray. You may take a bottle and cork it up tight, and put it under Niagara, and not a drop of that mighty volume of water will get into the bottle.

If there is any sin in my heart that I am not willing to give up, I need not expect a blessing. The men who have had power with G.o.d in prayer have always begun by confessing their sins. Take the prayers of Jeremiah and Daniel. You find Daniel confessing his sin, when there isn't a single sin recorded against him; but he confesses his sin and the sins of the people. Notice how David confessed his sins and what power he had with G.o.d. So it is a good thing for us to begin as Nehemiah did.

It seems that some men had come down from his country to the Persian court, perhaps to see the king on business. This man, who was in high favor with the king, met them, and finding that they had come from Jerusalem he began to inquire about his country. He not only loved his G.o.d, but he

LOVED HIS COUNTRY.

I like to see a patriotic man. He began to inquire about his people and about the city that was very near to his heart, Jerusalem. He had never seen the city. He had no relations back there in Jerusalem that he knew of. Nehemiah was not a Jewish prince, although it is supposed he had royal blood in his veins. He was born in captivity.

It was about one hundred years after Jerusalem was taken that he appeared upon the horizon. He was in the court of Artaxerxes, a cupbearer to the king, and held a high position. Yet he longed to hear from his native land. When these men told him the condition of the city, that the people were in great want and distress and degradation, and that the walls of the city were still down, that the gates had been burned and never restored, his patriotic heart began to burn. We are told he fasted and prayed and wept, and not only did he pray for one week, or one month, but he kept on praying.

He prayed "day and night." Having many duties to perform, of course he was not always on his knees, but in heart he was ever before the throne of grace. It was not hard for him to understand and obey the precept, "Pray without ceasing." He began the work in prayer, continued in prayer, and the last recorded words of Nehemiah are a prayer.

It was in November or December when those men arrived at that court, and this man prayed on until March or April before he spoke to the king. If a blessing doesn't come to-night, pray harder to-morrow, and if it doesn't come to-morrow, pray harder, and then, if it doesn't come keep right on, and you will not be disappointed. G.o.d in heaven will hear your prayers, and will answer them. He has _never failed_, if a man has been honest in his pet.i.tions and honest in his confessions. Let your faith beget patience. G.o.d is never in a hurry, said St. Augustine, because He has all eternity to work.

In the first chapter of Nehemiah is

THE PRAYER

of this wonderful man, his cry which has been on record all these years, and a great help to many people:

"I beseech thee, O Lord G.o.d of heaven, the great and terrible G.o.d, that keepeth covenant and mercy for them that love him and observe his commandments: let thine ear now be attentive, and thine eyes open, that thou mayest hear the prayer of thy servant, which I pray before thee now, day and night, for the children of Israel thy servants, and confess the sins of the children of Israel, which we have sinned against thee: both I and my father's house have sinned.

We have dealt very corruptly against thee, and have not kept the commandments, nor the statutes, nor the judgments, which thou commandedst thy servant Moses. Remember, I beseech thee, the word that thou commandedst thy servant Moses, saying, If ye transgress, I will scatter you abroad among the nations: but if ye turn unto me, and keep my commandments, and do them; though there were of you cast out unto the uttermost part of the heaven, yet will I gather them from thence, and will bring them unto the place that I have chosen to set my name there. Now these are thy servants and thy people, whom thou hast redeemed by thy great power, and by thy strong hand.

O Lord, I beseech thee, let now thine ear be attentive to the prayer of thy servant, and to the prayer of thy servants, who desire to fear thy name: and prosper, I pray thee, thy servant this day, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man."

When he began to pray I have no idea that he thought he was to be the instrument in G.o.d's hand of building the walls of Jerusalem. But when a man gets into sympathy and harmony with G.o.d, then G.o.d prepares him for the work He has for him. No doubt he thought the Persian king might send one of his great warriors and accomplish the work with a great army of men, but after he had been praying for months, it may be the thought flashed into his mind:

"Why should not I go to Jerusalem myself and build those walls?"

Prayer for the work will soon arouse your own sympathy and effort.

Now mark, it meant a good deal for Nehemiah to give up the palace of Shushan and his high office, and identify himself with the despised and captive Jews. He was among the highest in the whole realm. Not only that, but he was a man of wealth, lived in ease and luxury, and had great influence at court. For him to go to Jerusalem and lose caste was like Moses turning his back on the palace of Pharaoh and identifying himself with the Hebrew slaves. Yet we might

NEVER HAVE HEARD OF

either of them if they had not done this. They stooped to conquer; and when you get ready to stoop G.o.d will bless you. Plato, Socrates, and other Greek philosophers lived in the same century as Nehemiah.

How few have heard of them and read their words compared with the hundreds of thousands who have heard and read of Nehemiah during the last two thousand years!

If you and I are to be blessed in this world, we must be willing to take any position into which G.o.d puts us. So, after Nehemiah had prayed a while, he began to pray G.o.d to send him, and that he might be the man to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.

After he had been praying some time, he was one day in the banqueting hall, and the king noticed that his countenance was sad.

We might not have called the face sad; but much prayer and fasting

CHANGE THE VERY COUNTENANCE

of a man. I know some G.o.dly men and women, and they seem to have the stamp of heaven on them. The king noticed a strange look about this cupbearer, and he began to question him. Then the thought came to Nehemiah that he would tell the king what caused his sorrow,--how his own nation was degraded, and how his heart was going out for his own country. After he had told the king, the king said:

"What is your request?"

Now, some men tell us they don't have time to pray, but I tell you if any man has G.o.d's work lying deep in his heart he _will_ have time to pray. Nehemiah

SHOT UP A PRAYER

to heaven right there in the king's dining hall that the Lord would help him to make his request in the right way. He first looked beyond Artaxerxes to the King of Kings. You need not make a long prayer. A man who prays much in private will make short prayers in public. The Lord told Nehemiah what to ask for, that he might be sent to his own country, that some men might go with him, and that the king would give him letters to the governors through whose provinces he would pa.s.s so that he might have a profitable journey and be able to rebuild the walls of his city. G.o.d had been preparing the king, for the king at once granted the request, and before long this young prince was on his way to Jerusalem.

When he reached the city he didn't have a lot of men go before him blowing trumpets and saying that the cupbearer of the great Persian king,