their custom, in the
temple courts at dead of night. They had passed through the Beautiful
Gate, crossed the Court of the Women, and had ascended the steps leading
into the inner court, which was close to the Temple itself. Suddenly
they stopped, for the earth shook beneath them, whilst overhead came a
noise as of the rushing of many wings, and a multitude of voices was
heard saying, again and again, the solemn words, 'Let us depart, let us
depart.'

The angels of God were leaving the doomed city to its fate.

For centuries Jerusalem had been known as the Holy City. Why was it so
called? Not because of its inhabitants, for, instead of being holy, many
of them were sunk in wickedness and impurity. Jerusalem was called the
Holy City simply because of one inhabitant; it was the dwelling-place
of God, and His presence there made it what no other city of the earth
was, the Holy City.

'In Salem also is His tabernacle, and His dwelling, place in Zion,'
Psalm lxxvi. 2.

'Blessed be the Lord out of Zion, which dwelleth at Jerusalem,' Psalm
cxxxv. 21.

So wrote the Psalmist, and he was right. God had chosen Jerusalem as His
home on earth, His abiding-place, His dwelling; and so long as _He_
remained there, Jerusalem and all its surroundings was holy. The
mountain on which it stood was the Holy Mountain; the city itself was
the Holy City; the courts of the temple were the Holy Place, the temple
itself was the Most Holy Place, whilst the inner sanctuary, in which
God's glory appeared, was the Holy of Holies.

But at the time of the siege of Jerusalem, God was leaving the city, it
was no longer to be His dwelling-place, and consequently it was no
longer to be called the Holy City. And therefore it was that the holy
angels cried aloud to one another, Let us depart, for it is a holy city
no longer, God has deserted it; it is His no more.

But in Nehemiah's day, Jerusalem, in spite of her sins, was still the
Holy City. We find her twice called so in his book, Neh. xi. 1, 18, and
inasmuch as it was the Holy City, God's home on earth, His special
property, His constant dwelling-place, Nehemiah felt it was only right
that, as soon as the city was finished, as soon as all within its walls
was set in order, the city and all it contained should be dedicated to
the service of that God to whom it belonged.

Accordingly, as we visit Jerusalem in thought, we find the people busily
preparing for a great and glorious day; they are goin