he had before him, but he was not discouraged.
That is what makes character. Men who can go into a hard field and
succeed, they are the men we want. Any quantity of men are looking
for easy places, but the world will never hear of them. We want men
who are looking for hard places, who are willing to go into the
darkest corners of the earth, and make those dark places bloom like
gardens. They can do it if the Lord is with them.

Everything looked dark before Nehemiah. The walls were broken down.
There was not a man of influence among the people, not a man of
culture or a man of wealth. The nations all around were looking down
upon these weak, feeble Jews. So it is in many churches today, the
walls are down, and people say it is no use, and their hands drop
down by their side. Everything seemed against Nehemiah, but he was a
man who had the _fire of God_ in his soul; he had come to build the
walls of Jerusalem. If you could have bored a hole into his head,
you would have found "Jerusalem" stamped on his brain. If you could
have looked into his heart you would have found "Jerusalem" there.
He was a fanatic; he was terribly in earnest; he was an enthusiast.
I like to see a man take up some one thing and say, "I will do it; I
live for this thing; this one thing I am bound to do." We spread out
so much, and try to do so many things, that

WE SPREAD SO THIN

the world never hears of us.

After he had been in the city three days and nights, he called the
elders of Israel together, and told them for what he had come. God
had been preparing them, for the moment he told them they said:

"Let us rise up and build."

But there has not been a work undertaken for God since Adam fell
which has not met with opposition. If Satan allows us to work
unhindered, it is because our work is of no consequence. The first
thing we read, after the decision had been made to rebuild the
walls, is:

"When Sanballat the Horonite, and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite,
and Geshem the Arabian, heard it, they laughed us to scorn, and
despised us, and said, What is this thing that ye do? will ye rebel
against the king?"

These men were very indignant. They didn't care for the welfare of
Jerusalem. Who were they? A mixed multitude who had no portion nor
right nor memorial in Jerusalem. They didn't like to see the
restoration of the ruins, just as people nowadays do not like to see
the cause of Christ prospering. The offence of the cross has not