f the Scripture, so that while strenuously
building the Gospel Wall, they can fight too, if occasion require
it." We ought all be ready to use the Sword of the Spirit.

By and by the men wrote a friendly letter, and wanted Nehemiah to go
down on the plain of Ono and have a friendly discussion. It is

A MASTERPIECE OF THE DEVIL

to get men into friendly discussions. I don't know whether Nehemiah
had a typewriter in those days or not; I don't know whether he had a
printed form of letters, but he always sent back the same reply:

"I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down."

How many a church has turned aside for years to discuss "questions
of the day," and has neglected the salvation of the world because
they must go down to the "plain of Ono" and have a friendly
discussion! Nehemiah struck a good keynote--"I am doing a great
work, so that I cannot come down." If God has sent you to build the
walls of Jerusalem, _you go and do it_.

They sent him another letter, and again he sent word back, "I am
doing a great work, so that I cannot come down." He did not believe
in "coming down." They sent him another, and he sent back the same
word. They sent him a fourth letter, with the same result. They
could not get him down; they wanted to slay him on the way.

I have seen many Christian men on the plain of Ono, men who were
doing a splendid work but had been switched off. Think how much work
has been neglected by temperance advocates in this country because
they have gone into politics and into discussing woman's rights and
woman's suffrage. How many times the Young Men's Christian
Association has been switched off by discussing some other subject
instead of holding up Christ before a lost world! If the church
would only keep right on and build the walls of Jerusalem they would
soon be built. Oh, it is a wily devil that we have to contend with!
Do you know it? If he can only get the church to stop to discuss
these questions, he has accomplished his desire.

His enemies wrote him one more letter,

AN OPEN LETTER,

in which they said that they had heard he was going to set up a
kingdom in opposition to the Persians, and that they were going to
report him to the king. Treason has an ugly sound, but Nehemiah
committed himself to the Lord, and went on building.

Then his enemies hired a prophet, one of his friends. A hundred
enemies outside are not half so hard to deal with as one inside--a
false friend. Whe